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’s thinking about dropping out. Going through the motions a bit.
micah: I thought the same thing.
hjenten-heynawl: Yeah, Rand Paul just doesn’t have the position alignment with the GOP as a whole to win.
natesilver: And if he continues to piss off Republicans, he could be at some risk of inviting a primary challenge in Kentucky.
micah: I’d buy Paul on “most likely to follow my beloved Rick Perry out the door.” Finally, here’s the bargain bin: Graham, Jindal, Santorum and Pataki at 0 percent: Buy/sell/hold?
natesilver: FREE MONEY
micah: Graham was deemed the winner of the JV debate!
simone: I’d take Jindal for free.
natesilver: I’ll take infinity Jindal stock at $0.
hjenten-heynawl: I mean by statistics I should be buying … but! … In all seriousness, let me make an important point about Jindal. We keep talking about a Christian Conservative emerging from Iowa. Friends of Jindal have been spending there. His favorable ratings climbed in the latest Des Moines Register poll. Don’t be shocked by a Jindal surge. Graham and Pataki have no choice. Santorum is a bag of whatever.
micah: And we’ll end on this note: Jim Gilmore, the former governor of Virginia (a crucial swing state), isn’t even listed, not even at 0 percent.
hjenten-heynawl: I’d be selling at 0 percent.
micah: Readers, give us your buy/sell/hold orders in the comments below. Thanks, everyone!
Read more: What Went Down In The Second GOP DebatePrior to the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony had slotted in release dates for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in 2016 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 in 2018. However, in the wake of the disappointing reception and box office returns for Marc Webb’s sequel, the decision was made to push the third movie back to 2018, with The Sinister Six filling the gap with a November 2016 date.
However, as we saw during the Sony hack, the studio’s plans for the Spider-Man franchise seem to be completely up in the air at present, with various discussions taking place concerning the possibility of bringing Spidey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Captain America: Civil War, or taking the character in a new direction with yet another reboot.
Well, it seems that Sony may have decided how to take the series forward, as a casting call has emerged over at Bill Beckman Casting (via CBM), which suggest that Sony is pushing ahead with The Amazing Spider-Man 3, and that both Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker / Spider-Man) and Dane DeHaan (Harry Osborn / Green Goblin) will be returning for another adventure that will see Spidey “facing a new challenge to protect New York City.”
So, does this mean that the deal with Marvel Studios is completely dead? And where does it leave The Sinister Six? Or has Bill Beckman Casting just jumped the gun? I guess time will tell…
UPDATE: It seems Bill Beckman Casting is a fraudulent agency, so Spider-Man fans can either breathe a sigh of relief or disappointment, depending on which side of the fence you’re on…I have a laptop. And a desktop. My laptop has AE CC2014, CC2012, CS6 on it, and my desktop has all of the above, plus CS5.5. That’s a lot of AE! Now, one thing that comes up very, very quickly with having multiple machines (or even multiple AE installs) is that all of your scripts, presets, plugins and even your workspaces have to be set up from fresh every time!
As a word of warning, this is a fairly technical post, and if you’re not 100% familiar or comfortable with any of the following, you’re better off skipping this post. You can break things very easily if you’re not careful, and I’m not to be held liable. Because that would suck.
The more recent versions of AE help reduce the headache by syncing workspaces and prefs via the cloud, however I want it all in sync, all the time, immediately. Opening CC2014 on my laptop
gives me the exact same toolkit and workspace as opening CS6 on my desktop, or any mix therein. This is how I do it.
This has all been tested extensively by me from CS6=>CC2014 on Windows. The ideas and workflow should be identical to OSX, though the paths are changed. I’ve tried to accommodate this as much as possible.
Update 2015/04/26 – I do not recommend syncing workspaces this way. It breaks the built-in settings sync, and corrupts your workspaces. Use the built-in tool. Everything else is 100% good-to-go.
The idea is that we’re going to create some folder structures in Dropbox and make After Effects look there for our addons, instead of its default directory. This will work with all cloud-sync software, not just Dropbox, but this is how I do it.
So. There are two ways to do this; one, using Symbolic Links, and the other using standard shortcuts/aliases. I did some digging, and while shortcuts do work from After Effect’s POV, if you ever install plugins with an installer, they won’t install into Dropbox properly. So– Symlinks it is.
Symlinks
Symbolic links (Symlinks) are the exact same idea as a shortcut or alias, however you can think of it as being one level deeper– that is, instead of just being a link that YOU can use to get to jump to somewhere else in your system, your computer will treat the two folders as if they’re really in the same place. Doing this requires the Terminal/Command Prompt, and these commands:
Windows: mklink /j "Local Folder" "Target (Dropbox) Folder" OSX: ln -s "Target (Dropbox) Folder" "Local Folder"
For example, this is what your command would be to sync a User Plugins folder over, within the existing Plug-Ins folder.
Windows:
mklink /j "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects XX\Support Files\Plug-ins\User Plugins" "C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\Software Settings\After Effects\User Plugins"
OSX:
ln -s "/Users/[Username]/Dropbox/Software Settings/After Effects/User Plugins" "/Applications/Adobe After Effects XX/Plug-ins/User Plugins"
Note that on Windows vs OSX, the target & local folder are reversed. On either platform, the Local Folder needs to not exist (as it’s making a new one), so make sure to delete the preexisting directory before running the command! Last note– make sure there are no “/”s at the end of the command!
If this is too technical and/or code-heavy, there are some GUI options, such as the Link Shell extension on Windows, or Symbolic Linker for OSX.
Setup
In Dropbox, make a folder called Software Settings. In here, make another called After Effects. This way, if you sync settings from any other applications via Dropbox, you can have one contained folder for it.
Within the AE folder, create these folders:
Scripts (& ScriptUI Panels)
A bit more difficult, you’ll need to go into the Support Files folder for each installed version, into the Scripts folder.
Windows:..\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects XX\Support Files\Scripts OSX: /Applications/Adobe After Effects XX/Scripts
Again, move the entire contents of this folder over to the corresponding folder on Dropbox. The whole thing. Bam. Then, create a link back into the Support Files folder, and make sure the folder is named only ‘Scripts’ (nothing else, or AE won’t find it!).
Windows:
mklink /j "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects XX\Support Files\Scripts" "C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\Software Settings\After Effects\Scripts"
OSX:
ln -s "/Users/[Username]/Dropbox/Software Settings/After Effects/Scripts" "/Applications/Adobe After Effects XX/Scripts"
When installing scripts in the future, you can navigate to either the Dropbox folder or your Support Files folder and install the script normally; it’ll update on all machines, through all versions.
Plugins
This is a little more tricky. We can’t move the whole Plugins folder to Dropbox, because each version of AE has their own versions of certain plugins, and we don’t want to get ‘Duplicate plugin’ errors. First step: open the Plugins folder, and copy all non-native (user-installed) plugins over to Dropbox.
Windows:..\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects XX\Support Files\Plug-ins OSX: /Applications/Adobe After Effects XX/Plug-ins
Then, when the Plugins folder ONLY has the native plugins, create a link from Dropbox into the Plugins folder. Idea is that you should see something like this:
Windows:
mklink /j "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects XX\Support Files\Plug-ins\User Plugins" "C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\Software Settings\After Effects\User Plugins"
OSX:
ln -s "/Users/[Username]/Dropbox/Software Settings/After Effects/User Plugins" "/Applications/Adobe After Effects XX/Plug-ins/User Plugins"
AE has no trouble going into this subdirectory to pull the plugins, and keeping them isolated like this prevents headaches down the line.
Now, sometimes plugins don’t install to this standard file, instead opting for a ‘Common’ directory, here:
Windows:..\Program Files\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins OSX: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-Ins
Luckily, the process is the exact same. Move the entire Plug-ins folder contents over to ‘Common Plugins’ that we created before, then delete the original folder & replace it with a link to our Dropbox-based ‘Common Plugins’.
Windows:
mklink /j "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins" "C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\Software Settings\After Effects\Common Plugins"
OSX:
ln -s "/Users/[Username]/Dropbox/Software Settings/After Effects/Common Plugins" "/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-Ins"
When installing plugins in the future, you can navigate to either the Dropbox folder or your Support Files folder and install the plugin normally; it should work just fine, updating everywhere. However: if the plugin has a specific installer for different AE versions, install it directly in the Plug-Ins folder, not in the User Plugins folder, else you run the risk of the plugin not working.
Presets
Definitely the easiest of the lot. Presets are stored in your Documents folder, so they’re easy to get to.
Windows:..\Users\[Username]\Documents\Adobe\After Effects XX\User Presets OSX: /Users/[Username]/Documents/Adobe/After Effects XX/User Presets
If you have an existing Presets version, move all contents into the new Dropbox version at
..\Dropbox\Software Settings\After Effects\User Presets
Delete the existing Presets folder, and create a link to User Presets in the “After Effects XX” folder, in which XX is the installed version you have. Repeat for all installed versions to have them share a single preset library.
Windows:
mklink /j "C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Adobe\Adobe After Effects XX\Presets" "C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\Software Settings\After Effects\User Presets"
OSX:
ln -s "/Users/[Username]/Dropbox/Software Settings/After Effects/User Presets" "/Users/[Username]/Documents/Adobe/After Effects XX/Presets"
Note: Presets are not backwards compatible! Presets created in a newer version of AE will not work in older versions.
Workspaces (Experimental!)
This one I’m still working on. It seems that AE saves workspaces a) when they are newly created, and b) when you close AE. If you have AE open on multiple computers and close them, you can end up with conflicting versions of the workspace. Also, I can’t guarantee this will work across all versions of AE, but it’s worked fine for me over CC2014, CC2012 and CS6 over two machines. My workspace is a little crazy, and this helps keep things in check.
Note: You need to do this after you sync scripts. Otherwise, you may not have the proper scriptUI panels installed. This breaks things.
For this, you need to copy two folders over. One of them will be for the ‘clean,’ new workspaces, and the other for ‘modified’ workspaces (in which you’ve changed panel sizes or rearranged items, for example). Much harder to find, these are located here:
Windows:..\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\XX\ModifiedWorkspaces Windows:..\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\XX\OriginalUserWorkspaces OSX: /Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/XX/ModifiedWorkspaces OSX: /Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/XX/OriginalUserWorkspaces
Apart from there being two folders, the workflow is exactly the same. Copy the contents out to the relevant Dropbox folders, delete the originals and replace with links.
Windows:
mklink /j "C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\XX\ModifiedWorkspaces" "C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\Resources\Software Settings\After Effects\ModifiedWorkspaces" mklink /j "C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\XX\OriginalUserWorkspaces" "C:\Users\[Username]\Dropbox\Resources\Software Settings\After Effects\OriginalUserWorkspaces"
OSX:
ln -s "/Users/[Username]/Dropbox/Software Settings/After Effects/ModifiedWorkspaces" "/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/XX/ModifiedWorkspaces" ln -s "/Users/[Username]/Dropbox/Software Settings/After Effects/OriginaluserWorkspaces" "/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/XX/OriginaluserWorkspaces"
Update 2015/04/26 – I do not recommend syncing workspaces this way. It breaks the built-in settings sync, and corrupts your workspaces. Use the built-in tool. Everything else is 100% good-to-go.
Conclusion
And that’s about it! Using this method, you should now have all of your addons synced via Dropbox, ready to keep centalized for all your AE installs, through all your computers, anywhere in the world. Super easy once you get the hang of it, and absolutely reversible should you need to. Just recreate the original folder, move the files back and you’re good to go.
You can sync almost anything like this, for any software. One thing not detailed above, but I also sync my ft-Toolbar2 settings this way, along with the icons, so I have it everywhere.
Have you found any better way to go about doing this, any alternatives or extra little tips? Let me know! Would love to hear.In a rare break in form, Col. James Pritzker, the retired Army lieutenant colonel and heir to the Pritzker family's Hyatt Hotel fortune, made an uncharacteristically public announcement Friday.
In a memo to employees of Pritzker's various business ventures, the 63-year-old (who previously presented as a man) announced the decision to live as a woman named Jennifer Natalya Pritzker.
A statement released via email and first reported by Crain's Chicago Business read:
"As of Aug. 16, 2013, J.N. Pritzker will undergo an official legal name change, will now be known as Jennifer Natalya Pritzker. This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly. Pritzker now identifies herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings."
Crain's reported a spokesmen declined to answer questions about Pritzker's sexuality or possible hormone therapy but noted the announcement would not surprise those closest to her.
The highly-decorated colonel -- and cousin of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker -- has an extensive military career that includes 11 years of active duty in the U.S. Army. Pritzker then followed her Army service with 16 years in the U.S. National Guard.
Divorced with three children, Forbes ranked Pritzker among the world's richest people with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion earlier this year.
Pritzker is president and CEO of wealth management Tawani Foundation, founded the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago and has invested in various restoration projects around Chicago, including a historic theater, a rare books store and historic homes in the metro area.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Fonterra is one of the largest dairy producers in the world
New Zealand authorities say a national farming body and dairy giant Fonterra have been sent letters threatening to poison milk formula.
Federated Farmers and Fonterra received the anonymous letters in November, said officials, along with sachets of contaminated product.
The letters appeared to be a protest over the use of the pesticide 1080 in agriculture.
PM John Key said milk formula was still safe to be consumed.
Officials said the person or group who sent the letters had threatened to carry out and publicise their threat unless New Zealand stopped using 1080 by the end of March.
At a news briefing at parliament on Tuesday, Mr Key said the news was being announced now because of increasing media enquiries.
He said there was "a low likelihood of the threat being carried out, but because of the nature of it, both the police and ministers have taken the treat seriously".
"I want to reassure parents that every step possible has been taken to respond to the threat, to ensure the ongoing safety of our food products."
He called the threat "a form of ecoterrorism, without doubt", reported the New Zealand Herald.
Police Deputy Commissioner of National Operations Mike Clement said the threat was possibly a hoax but that police were treating it as blackmail. He said a team had been investigating it since November.
"The letter writer may not have really considered the implications of their actions when this communication was drafted," he said.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption New Zealand PM John Key (R) and Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy (L) spoke to the media on Tuesday
Officials said that security measures by players in the supply chain had been significantly tightened since the threats began, and that no traces of 1080 had been found in milk formula. About 40,000 tests have been conducted on products.
"The ability for anybody to deliberately contaminate infant and other formula during manufacturing is extremely low," said Scott Gallagher, the deputy director general for the ministry for primary industries.
Fonterra chief Theo Spierings called the threat "despicable".
In a statement the company said the entire dairy industry had been targeted, but that it could assure its customers that "all of our milk and products are safe and of high quality, and our supply chain continues to be secure and world-class".
What is 1080?
Controversial pesticide that has been used in New Zealand for decades.
Used in large quantities to control pests like possums, rats and stoats, which are predators introduced to New Zealand and are a threat to native plants and animals.
The government says it is biodegradable, does not build up in the food chain, can be safely applied by air, and is a cost-effective pest control. An independent parliamentary commissioner endorsed its use in 2011.
But activists say it is a cruel practice which also kills native wildlife and pets, and have questioned its safety.
Police are appealing to the public to report anyone who had strong views about 1080 and had made threats before.
Government officials are also asking the public to step up vigilance and check packaging for signs of tampering.
New Zealand is the world's largest dairy exporter, and Fonterra products are popular in Asia, in particular China.
Fonterra faced a food scare in 2013 when it said contaminated products that could cause botulism had been exported overseas.
It was later found to have been a false alarm, but the scare led to many countries blocking imports of those particular products. China lifted its ban last October.Yes, you've read that correctly, our inaugural episode of the Pixar Post Podcast has been released. We are very excited to take this next step in the evolution of our website and that we can bring our "take" on Pixar topics to you through another channel.
Our official description for the Pixar Post Podcast is - The Pixar Post Podcast is a natural extension of our website (www.pixarpost.com) and is run by the husband and wife team of T.J. & Julie. We will discuss all thing Pixar - from news, rumors, merchandise, reviews, interviews, Pixar history and much more. This family-friendly show is presented in an entertaining, positive and upbeat light.
Keep in mind that the podcast, much like our website, will continue to evolve over time - but we're looking for your feedback. Please let us know what you think - what were your thoughts on our kickoff episode? We can only grow with time and feedback so we look forward to hearing your thoughts.
UPDATE Please note that you are not able to subscribe to our Podcast through iTunes at this time. You can now subscribe to our Podcast on iTunes by using the follow direct link - Pixar Post or Pixar Post Podcast and our podcast will come up.
Click the play button below to listen to our first podcast episode -
. You can now subscribe to our Podcast on iTunes by using the follow direct link - pxrpst.co/PodSub. Alternatively, you can also open iTunes and search fororand our podcast will come up.Click the play button below to listen to our first podcast episode -
Each week we will also be posting our show notes so that you can review the topics that we are discussing in each week's episodes - Click on the photos below to enlarge.
Click to Enlarge
During the show we mentioned that we would post the photo that we took, highlighting our The Blue Umbrella creation that we're working on!
Thank you again to our great readers for joining us on this new journey - we'll be sure to let you know as soon as our content is on the iTunes store.SEATTLE, Wash.- The Seahawks and Sounders FC announced today thatDelta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) will serve as the official airline partner for both teams in addition to re-naming the club level at CenturyLink Field to the Delta Sky360 Club. Delta will receive various signage and branding positions throughout the stadium.
"The Seahawks and Sounders FC are committed to creating a first-class fan experience and we welcome Delta to help us strengthen CenturyLink Field's reputation as an industry leader," said Seahawks and Sounders FC president Peter McLoughlin.
The Delta Sky360 Club spans nearly 75,000 square feet and offers panoramic views of both CenturyLink Field and the city of Seattle. The club includes distinct features such as themed bar areas and specialty food and beverage stands offering freshly prepared seasonal food selections.
"We're thrilled that our Seattle expansion has grown to include two of the city's pre-eminent sports teams," said Mike Medeiros, Delta's vice president - Seattle. "Our new Delta Sky360 Club will offer fans a one-of-a-kind game day experience and give them a taste of the great customer experience that they can expect from Delta."
Delta Sky360 Club ticket holders have a private entrance and are allowed into the stadium three hours before kick-off. More flat-screen HD TVs have been added to show complete NFL action. The team recently expanded Wi-Fi coverage by adding access points in order to provide free open access connectivity exclusive to the club area. Delta Sky360 Club Level ticket holders also have access to an exclusive game day concierge service to help arrange local restaurant reservations, transportation and hotel accommodations in the surrounding area.
For the 2013 season, Delta has forged marketing relationships with 12 National Football League teams - including the Seahawks - and serves as the charter carrier for an additional three teams. Additionally, Delta serves as the official airline partner of the English Premiere League's Chelsea Football Club. The Delta Sky360 Club at CenturyLink Field is the first of its kind on the west coast. Delta Sky360 venues can also be found at iconic sporting venues including Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and Stamford Bridge.
Seattle is one of Delta's fastest-growing international gateways. In July, the airline announced new nonstop service to London-Heathrow Airport beginning in March 2014, and last month Delta announced new nonstop service to Hong Kong and Seoul beginning in June 2014. Since May, Delta service in Seattle has expanded from 33 peak-day departures to 13 destinations to its current schedule of 44 peak-day departures to 18 destinations, including six international markets. Delta has also invested $14 million in its facilities at Sea-Tac, including its recently completed lobby renovations, new Delta Sky Club, Sky Priority services, new gate area power recharging stations and expanded ticket counters.
About Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. Delta was named by Fortune magazine as the most admired airline worldwide in its 2013 World's Most Admired Companies airline industry list, topping the list for the second time in three years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 317destinations in 57 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and Tokyo-Narita. Delta is investing more than $3 billion in airport facilities and global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta and Facebook.com/delta.What is the dominant ethnic gang in Europe’s main drug- trafficking route?
The Russian Mafia? The Turkish Connection? Bloodthirsty Albanian crime lords who would cut your throat as soon as look at you?
No.
They are all main players, mind you – along with the Chinese triads, West Africans and Eastern Europeans – but they’re not the top players.
People in Ireland will be surprised to discover who the number one dominators are: the Irish cartels that have shipped far and wide over the last decade and more.
Today, organised crime is one of Ireland’s most effective exports.
To be fair – and precise – it is not a purely Irish set-up. Instead it is an Anglo-Irish agreement of sorts, a loose collection of gangsters, underworld families and crime groups that stretch out like a lattice over the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
More accurately, the Irish-British gangs control the key drug hubs such as Amsterdam and Spain. Control them and they supervise the flow of drugs, money and power into the rest of Europe.
The Dutch police say Irish gangs are a dominant force in Amsterdam’s underworld – the stock exchange of Europe’s drug business.
Over the last two decades, Irish gangs have helped repel competition from the Yugoslavs, South Americans and North Africans to take control of this prized Dutch distribution centre.
Amsterdam and Spain are the narcotics’ gateways to middle-income Europeans, the highest consumers of cocaine and cannabis in the world.
To counter the threat, the police in Amsterdam have formed a “disruption” unit dedicated to destroying Irish-British drug rings there.
Joint investigation team
The Netherlands Politie’s joint investigation team (JIT) is so secretive that its officers use numbers instead of names, fearing assassination at the hands of violent godfathers.
The armed wing consists of an Army Rangers-style “hit-and-run” quick response unit, with police using laser-sighted weapons and having the capability to blow the doors off drug facilities using plastic explosive.
For the most part, Irish criminals look like well-off western Europeans, avoiding the bristlingly violent image of the Albanians or the steroid-fuelled one held by Russians. The Irish blend in, like chameleons.
JIT information specialist officer 17154, told The Irish Times: “The British and Irish always want to play the biggest part in an organised-crime network, and in Amsterdam they have succeeded.
“They get involved in their operations more than other gangs, and they are involved in everything: money laundering, killings, drugs, weapons... They are higher up the ladder than other gangs, but they are difficult because you can’t see them.”
The Amsterdam police see Irish and British gangsters as one and the same.
They graft together, make money together and go to jail and die together.
Officer 120499, a tactical investigator, added: “We are dealing with the upper class of British and Irish criminals in Amsterdam.
“In some cases, detectives and higher ranking officers have been threatened. For that reason we only use numbers on reports.”
Why are they so successful? The real answers are often counterintuitive.
As the Amsterdam police pointed out, Irish villains blend in. They do not make a fuss. They’re largely rational economic criminals who know violence is bad for business.
Competitive advantages
Abroad at least, Irish villains tend to be better behaved. They keep violence to a bare, necessary minimum. Instead, the big competitive advantages they enjoy are much more mundane.
They depend on good documents, good transport arrangements and good property purchase, the cornerstones of a prosperous drug empire.
Irish villains have got good access to forgers and fraudsters who keep them in a ready supply of plentiful, high-quality “paperwork” – counterfeit identity cards and passports that help evade capture and facilitate freedom of movement.
Officer 17154 added: “Most of the Irish and Brits we go after are already wanted criminals. They are in Amsterdam with a purpose, and it’s all about drugs. The disputes between them revolve around territory, shipments and ripping each other off.
“I think the British/Irish criminals are ruthless. If they know that we know who they are, then they will be ruthless in coming after us.
“When one of our guys turned up to a domestic violence incident, they were attacked by the man – really abused – just because he checked the suspect’s ID and the man was backed into a corner. It turned out he was a convicted murderer.
“If you back them into a corner they will kill you. They trust in false documents, but once that stops working they turn to violence.”
Good transport
Irish drug smugglers have got good transport, both personal and commercial.
In Amsterdam, there are a number of underworld “rent-a- car” firms who hire out vans and cars to criminals.
Inconspicuous runabouts dubbed “blenders” get drug dealers through the day without attracting attention and are switched frequently.
Once the gangs have taken possession of heroin, cocaine and tablets in Amsterdam or Spain the drugs must to be moved to Ireland or the UK. That means lorries. Irish criminals have control of this vital asset.
Irish gangsters have ties, too, to underworld estate agents in Holland and Spain who supply places to live and safe houses in which to store contraband and house “workers”.
Officer 17154 said: “These companies are magnets for criminals. We looked into a corrupt housing agent and we found a property linked to a suspect in a killing.”
Housing agent
Irish drug dealer Peter “Fatso” Mitchell fled to Amsterdam to lie low after he was shot in Spain. The Amsterdam police flushed him out through a dodgy housing agent. He was caught with a false passport.
The officer said: “We found him visiting a property that we’d already linked to another big drug dealer.”
The police had wanted Mitchell for years – he was a close friend of Brian Meehan, who was serving a life sentence in connection with the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.
Irish criminals have been powerful in Amsterdam for more than 30 years because of its proximity to Ireland and the UK. They speak the international language of business, English, and are known as reliable “traders”.
The fact is not lost on the Amsterdam police that Irish criminals are in general easy-going and friendly. He did not go as far as name-checking the “old blarney”, but that’s what he was getting at.
Affability, reliability are good attributes for an international drug dealer.
One of the most important intangible assets of an underworld operation is criminal heritage.
Customs, traditions and reputations make cartels attractive to other criminals. Much of it is myth and blag – but powerful underworld propaganda all the same – that big egos trade off.
Of course, the big boast spun by Irish cartels is the shadowy connection to the IRA. For those in the know in this reporter’s hometown of Liverpool, the republicans were known as the Ra or just “the boys”, euphemisms casually name-dropped by gangsters and wannabes to conjure up a sense of power.
It is no coincidence that the fortunes of the Liverpool cartel and their Irish cousins have grown in tandem.
Their links strengthened in the late 1980s and 1990s, the boom time of Anglo-Irish drug dealing, when the foundations of their multibillion Euro empires were laid and crime dynasties were born – the same families that are being decimated in Dublin today.
Contraband smuggling
Like the Irish gangs, the Scousers were steeped in a heritage of contraband smuggling.
Many of them were dockers and sailors who knew how ports worked and knew how to use the knowledge to their advantage.
It was assumed that many of the Irish villains they grafted with had finely tuned their skills in more recent times smuggling arms for IRA, not to mention highly lucrative cross-Border fuel scams and rebel money-laundering operations.
Whether it was true or not, the assumption was allowed to flourish and it brought respect. The same phenomenon is visible in young Muslim gangs in London today, who give themselves an edge on the street by pretending or over-claiming their links to terrorists and extremists.
The British links with Irish criminals are true enough, however.
This reporter once bumped into a very powerful top-five UK godfather (now a legitimate multimillionaire) in a plush Liverpool hotel and asked him why his £1,000 Prada mac was dripping wet.
“I’ve just got off the Irish ferry,” he replied.
“I’ve been to a funeral with Gerry over there, you know, the Monk.”
Gerry Hutch had a lower public profile at that point.
The cleaners
The senior members of the Liverpool cartel used an assassination team known as the “cleaners”, alleged ex-IRA hit men.
They remained low-key, except once when an off-duty assassin got overexcited at a pub called the Inglenook in Liverpool’s Dingle dockside area and fired his gun into the air at a Bonfire Night party.
The party was being hosted by Colin “King Cocaine” Smith, a street dealer turned baron worth an estimated £300 million.
Smith had forged close links with an Irish criminal gang led by “Fat Freddie” Thompson, who was one of those who attended the funeral in February of David Byrne, who was killed in the Regency Hotel attack.
In October 2007 when Smith was assassinated on a Liverpool street, across Europe his Irish enforcers were also wiped out.
The conspirators shot the 40-year-old Everton fanatic – who was so rich that one of his share certificates alone was worth £70 million – so that they could steal 1,000 kilograms of cocaine that was being smuggled on to the continent.
Subsequently Smith’s Irish enforcer, Paddy “Wack” Doyle, was shot by hit men near Estepona in Spain. His BMW 4x4 was being driven by the late Gary Hutch, who survived the 13-bullet fusillade.
Whether you die on a dusty road in upmarket Spain, or the bleak car park of a Dublin housing estate, it’s a small world for Ireland’s global super-criminals.
Graham Johnson is the author of Cartel and Young Blood, both published by Mainstream PublishingIsraeli intelligence officials spying on Russian government hackers found they were
using Kaspersky Lab antivirus software that is also used by 400 million people globally, including U.S. government agencies, according to media reports on Tuesday.
The Israeli officials who had hacked into Kaspersky's network over two years ago then warned their U.S. counterparts of the Russian intrusion, said The New York Times, which first reported the story.
That led to a decision in Washington only last month to order Kaspersky software removed from government computers.
The Washington Post also reported on Tuesday that the Israeli spies had also found in Kaspersky's network hacking tools that could only have come from the U.S. National Security Agency.
After an investigation, the NSA found that those tools were in possession of the Russian government, the Post said.
And late last month, the U.S. National Intelligence Council completed a classified report that it shared with NATO allies concluding that Russia's FSB intelligence service had "probable access" to Kaspersky customer databases and source code, the Post reported.
That access, it concluded, could help enable cyber attacks against U.S. government, commercial and industrial control networks, the Post reported.
The New York Times said the Russian operation, according to multiple people briefed on the matter, is known to have stolen classified documents from a National Security Agency employee
who had improperly stored them on his home computer, which had Kaspersky antivirus software installed on it.Behind the scenes look
at Dodger Stadium A father takes hold of his son as they walk to their seats at Dodger Stadium. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
After 161 games in 180 days, the Dodgers are headed to the postseason. During the 2017 season, photographer Wally Skalij spent many days at Chavez Ravine finding the spaces in between — those areas that normally get overlooked — yet offer a different look at the stadium and those who frequent it.
The Boys in Blue finished with a 104-58 record, the most victories in a season since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. They will host Game 1 of the World Series against the Houston Astros, who finished the season with a 101-61 record. It will be the first World Series meeting of two 100-win teams since 1970, when the Baltimore Orioles (108–54) faced off against the Cincinnati Reds (102–60).
Giants catcher Nick Hundley stretches in the bullpen as a couple arrives early before a game against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto runs the stairs during a workout on his day off at Dodger Stadium. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) A Dodgers pitcher warms-up |
Health Presbyterian Hospital nurse who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, is being treated after testing positive for the disease.
Going forward, Frieden said the CDC will provide Ebola response teams within hours of a confirmed case to any hospital in the United States.
"I wish we put team like this [in place] when first the patient was diagnosed," said Frieden. "We will do it from this day forward anywhere in the U.S."
Health care workers have expressed concern for their safety in the wake of Pham's infection.
“Now, I’ve been hearing loud and clear from health care workers around the country that they are worried, don’t feel prepared," said Frieden, who laid out a plan to protect and train medical staff treating potential patients on proper protocol.
Pham became the first person infected by Ebola in the United States while caring for the Liberian for much of his 11 days in Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. He died on Wednesday.
Going forward, Frieden said the CDC will deploy a response team to any hospital in the country that confirms a case of Ebola, consisting of the world’s leading experts on the disease.
At Texas Presbyterian, the CDC has implemented a site manager to oversee aspects of infection control, including ensuring that personal protective equipment is put on and removed safely and correctly.
“In fact, in our work stopping Ebola in Africa, this is the single most important position to protect health workers: a single site manager who is expert and oversees every aspect of the process,” Frieden said.
The CDC is also limiting the number of health care staff who take care of an infected patient.
Both the CDC and Emory University Hospital confirmed Tuesday that two of the nurses from their Serious Communicable Disease Unit have traveled to Texas to provide consultative support in the use of personal protective equipment and infection control measures while caring for Ebola patients. A nurse clinician who has directly cared for Emory’s Ebola patients and a clinical nurse specialist who wrote Emory Healthcare’s personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection control protocols and is also an experienced safety observer in the isolation unit, will speak with Texas Health employees Tuesday.
“..We hope to provide on the ground standard operating procedures for PPE usage, based on CDC guidelines,” Nancye Feistritzer, RN, DNP, chief nursing officer at Emory University Hospital said in a statement. “We also want to be a resource to other organizations who are facing the need to train direct care providers and to ensure adherence to protocols designed to keep the care team safe.”
Both the CDC and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital have been widely criticized for their handling of Duncan's case. Frieden assured the public that the agency would implement guidelines for testing at hospitals throughout the U.S.
“[We] want to make sure whatever is done where care is provided, every hospital in country needs to be aware of how to diagnose Ebola,” said Frieden. “Every doctor, nurse, staff person needs to ask where have you been in past month, past 21 days, have you been to Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea.”
Frieden acknowledged the CDC's slow response to the first case in Texas and said that the agency could have done more from the beginning.
"...In retrospect, we could have sent a more robust team... more hands on with the hospital from day one. Getting it right is important [because] the stakes are high," said Frieden. "[The CDC] definitely should have put larger team on ground immediately, and we will do that from now on."
President Obama told defense chiefs from some 20 countries on Tuesday that "the world as a whole is not doing enough" to contain the Ebola threat.
He said the hemorrhagic fever, which has killed almost 4,500 in West Africa, must be stopped at its source.
Obama added that the U.S. health care system is strong enough that an Ebola epidemic in the United States is highly unlikely.
The CDC has not yet identified how Pham became exposed to the virus since she was wearing protective gear that included a gown, gloves, a mask and face shield while she treated Duncan.
But Frieden said that the 26-year-old was cooperating with investigators who are looking closely at protocols to prevent further spread of the virus.
Pham received a transfusion on Monday containing antibodies to fight the virus, according to a Catholic priest from Pham's church. Duncan, did not receive one because he did not match the donor's blood type.
Christian relief group Samaritan's Purse has said that Dr. Kent Brantly, who survived an Ebola infection, donated plasma to Pham.
“I’m doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers," Pham said Tuesday in a statement released by the hospital. "I am blessed by the support of family and friends."
In a statement Tuesday, Texas Health Presbyterian said the costs for Pham’s care will be covered and not be a financial burden for her or her family.
Pham’s friends have established a fundraising page on GoFundMe, an approved site which will help the family cover other expenses. For those wishing to send a message directly to Pham, the hospital suggested using the “E-mail a patient” function on TexasHealth.org.
Reuters contributed to this report.Cognition Factor Live HD Broadcast
The Terence Mckenna OmniBus 2012 series
Welcome to Cognitive cinema produced by Headspace Studios from original footage. As you can see above, beginning Sunday 7th at Midnight GMT+2, and most Sundays thereafter we're airing a live psychedelic stream in HD through YouTube but if you scroll down, you'll experience our efforts in unpacking the Mckenna mojo into 2016, plus other unreleased interviews from the Headspace archives. Find the Terence McKenna OmniBus 2012 series hereunder, but also unseen clips of Graham Hancock, Albert Hofmann, Dennis McKenna, Kilindi Iyi and soon Ralph Abraham, Rupert Sheldrake and others. Poke around below! Enjoy the shows!
Screen 1 "Who am I?" - 1/12 - Your trip into the mind of Mckenna begins.
Screen 2 "Who are they?" - 2/12 - Terence Mckenna connects the dots to illuminate 'them'.
Screen 3 "Who are we?" 3/12 - The 99% get represented.
Screen 4 "History lesson" - 4/12 - Trip through time with Terence.
Screen 5 "The Topography of Arousal" - 5/12 - Sex and psilocibin.
Screen 6 "Keep the Faith!" - 6/12 - Get the signal and find the others!
Screen 7 "The Vaudevillian Impulse" - 7/12 - It's showtime folks!
Screen 8 "Totality Symbol" - 8/12 - Make your own!
Screen 9 "The More Perfect Logos" - 9/12 - Telepathea in D.
Screen 10 "The Transhuman Agenda" - 10/12 - No one is in control!
Screen 11 "Conspiracy Theory" - 11/12 - People are not like cameras!
Screen 12 "We are the Eschaton!" - 12/12 - A Shaman is one who sees the end.
Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss [BOTSA]
Dennis Mckenna
Climbing the vine From Chapter 46 of BOTSA
La Chorrera Dennis reads from 'the' diary. Rare!
BOTSA Original movie trailer to the book
The Khanyisa Psychoactive Plant Conference
On this link you'll find Graham Hancock, Kilindi Iyi and Monica Kromhout, all filmed at the conference in Joburg in 2013.
THE KHANYISA PSYCHOACTIVE PLANT CONFERENCE
KHANYISA PSYCHOACTIVE CONFERENCEAbstract
It has been a common practice in social psychology to publish only significant results. As a result, success rates in the published literature do not provide empirical evidence for the existence of a phenomenon. A recent meta-analysis suggested that ego-depletion is a much weaker effect than the published literature suggests and a registered replication study failed to find any evidence for it. This article presents the results of a replicability analysis of the ego-depletion literature. Out of 165 articles with 429 studies (total N = 33,927), 128 (78%) showed evidence of bias and low replicability (Replicability-Index < 50%). Closer inspection of the top 10 articles with the strongest evidence against the null-hypothesis revealed some questionable statistical analyses, and only a few articles presented replicable results. The results of this meta-analysis show that most published findings are not replicable and that the existing literature provides no credible evidence for ego-depletion. The discussion focuses on the need for a change in research practices and suggests a new direction for research on ego-depletion that can produce conclusive results.
INTRODUCTION
In 1998, Roy F. Baumeister and colleagues published a groundbreaking article titled “Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource?” The article stimulated research on the newly minted construct of ego-depletion. At present, more than 150 articles and over 400 studies with more than 30,000 participants have contributed to the literature on ego-depletion. In 2010, a meta-analysis of nearly 100 articles, 200 studies, and 10,000 participants concluded that ego-depletion is a real phenomenon with a moderate to strong effect size of six tenth of a standard deviation (Hagger et al., 2010).
In 2011, Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney published a popular book on ego-depletion titled “Will-Power,” and Roy F. Baumeister became to be known as the leading expert on self-regulation, will-power (The Atlantic, 2012).
Everything looked as if ego-depletion research has a bright future, but five years later the future of ego-depletion research looks gloomy and even prominent ego-depletion researchers wonder whether ego-depletion even exists (Slate, “Everything is Crumbling”, 2016).
An influential psychological theory, borne out in hundreds of experiments, may have just been debunked. How can so many scientists have been so wrong?
What Happened?
It has been known for 60 years that scientific journals tend to publish only successful studies (Sterling, 1959). That is, when Roy F. Baumeister reported his first ego-depletion study and found that resisting the temptation to eat chocolate cookies led to a decrease in persistence on a difficult task by 17 minutes, the results were published as a groundbreaking discovery. However, when studies do not produce the predicted outcome, they are not published. This bias is known as publication bias. Every researcher knows about publication bias, but the practice is so widespread that it is not considered a serious problem. Surely, researches would not conduct more failed studies than successful studies and only report the successful ones. Yes, omitting a few studies with weaker effects leads to an inflation of the effect size, but the successful studies still show the general trend.
The publication of one controversial article in the same journal that published the first ego-depletion article challenged this indifferent attitude towards publication bias. In a shocking article, Bem (2011) presented 9 successful studies demonstrating that extraverted students at Cornell University were seemingly able to foresee random events in the future. In Study 1, they seemed to be able to predict where a computer would present an erotic picture even before the computer randomly determined the location of the picture. Although the article presented 9 successful studies and 1 marginally successful study, researchers were not convinced that extrasensory perception is a real phenomenon. Rather, they wondered how credible the evidence in other article is if it is possible to get 9 significant results for a phenomenon that few researchers believed to be real. As Sterling (1959) pointed out, a 100% success rate does not provide evidence for a phenomenon if only successful studies are reported. In this case, the success rate is by definition 100% no matter whether an effect is real or not.
In the same year, Simmons et al. (2011) showed how researchers can increase the chances to get significant results without a real effect by using a number of statistical practices that seem harmless, but in combination can increase the chance of a false discovery by more than 1000% (from 5% to 60%). The use of these questionable research practices has been compared to the use of doping in sports (John et al., 2012). Researchers who use QRPs are able to produce many successful studies, but the results of these studies cannot be replicated when other researchers replicate the reported studies without QRPs. Skeptics wondered whether many discoveries in psychology are as incredible as Bem’s discovery of extrasensory perception; groundbreaking, spectacular, and false. Is ego-depletion a real effect or is it an artificial product of publication bias and questionable research practices?
Does Ego-Depletion Depend on Blood Glucose?
The core assumption of ego-depletion theory is that working on an effortful task requires energy and that performance decreases as energy levels decrease. If this theory is correct, it should be possible to find a physiological correlate of this energy. Ten years after the inception of ego-depletion theory, Baumeister and colleagues claimed to have found the biological basis of ego-depletion in an article called “Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source.” (Gailliot et al., 2007). The article had a huge impact on ego-depletion researchers and it became a common practice to measure blood-glucose levels.
Unfortunately, Baumeister and colleagues had not consulted with physiological psychologists when they developed the idea that brain processes depend on blood-glucose levels. To maintain vital functions, the human body ensures that the brain is relatively independent of peripheral processes. A large literature in physiological psychology suggested that inhibiting the impulse to eat delicious chocolate cookies would not lead to a measurable drop in blood glucose levels (Kurzban, 2011).
Let’s look at the numbers. A well-known statistic is that the brain, while only 2% of body weight, consumes 20% of the body’s energy. That sounds like the brain consumes a lot of calories, but if we assume a 2,400 calorie/day diet – only to make the division really easy – that’s 100 calories per hour on average, 20 of which, then, are being used by the brain. Every three minutes, then, the brain – which includes memory systems, the visual system, working memory, then emotion systems, and so on – consumes one (1) calorie. One. Yes, the brain is a greedy organ, but it’s important to keep its greediness in perspective.
But, maybe experts on physiology were just wrong and Baumeister and colleagues made another groundbreaking discovery. After all, they presented 9 successful studies that appeared to support the glucose theory of will-power, but 9 successful studies alone provide no evidence because it is not clear how these successful studies were produced.
To answer this question, Schimmack (2012) developed a statistical test that provides information about the credibility of a set of successful studies. Experimental researchers try to hold many factors that can influence the results constant (all studies are done in the same laboratory, glucose is measured the same way, etc.). However, there are always factors that the experimenter cannot control. These random factors make it difficult to predict the exact outcome of a study even if everything goes well and the theory is right. To minimize the influence of these random factors, researchers need large samples, but social psychologists often use small samples where random factors can have a large influence on results. As a result, conducting a study is a gamble and some studies will fail even if the theory is correct. Moreover, the probability of failure increases with the number of attempts. You may get away with playing Russian roulette once, but you cannot play forever. Thus, eventually failed studies are expected and a 100% success rate is a sign that failed studies were simply not reported. Schimmack (2012) was able to use the reported statistics in Gailliot et al. (2007) to demonstrate that it was very likely that the 100% success rate was only achieved by hiding failed studies or with the help of questionable research practices.
Baumeister was a reviewer of Schimmack’s manuscript and confirmed the finding that a success rate of 9 out of 9 studies was not credible.
“My paper with Gailliot et al. (2007) is used as an illustration here. Of course, I am quite familiar with the process and history of that one. We initially submitted it with more studies, some of which had weaker results. The editor said to delete those. He wanted the paper shorter so as not to use up a lot of journal space with mediocre results. It worked: the resulting paper is shorter and stronger. Does that count as magic? The studies deleted at the editor’s request are not the only story. I am pretty sure there were other studies that did not work. Let us suppose that our hypotheses were correct and that our research was impeccable. Then several of our studies would have failed, simply given the realities of low power and random fluctuations. Is anyone surprised that those studies were not included in the draft we submitted for publication? If we had included them, certainly the editor and reviewers would have criticized them and formed a more negative impression of the paper. Let us suppose that they still thought the work deserved publication (after all, as I said, we are assuming here that the research was impeccable and the hypotheses correct). Do you think the editor would have wanted to include those studies in the published version?”
To summarize, Baumeister defends the practice of hiding failed studies with the argument that this practice is acceptable if the theory is correct. But we do not know whether the theory is correct without looking at unbiased evidence. Thus, his line of reasoning does not justify the practice of selectively reporting successful results, which provides biased evidence for the theory. If we could know whether a theory is correct without data, we would not need empirical tests of the theory. In conclusion, Baumeister’s response shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of empirical data in science. Empirical results are not mere illustrations of what could happen if a theory were correct. Empirical data are supposed to provide objective evidence that a theory needs to explain.
Since my article has been published, there have been several failures to replicate Gailliot et al.’s findings and recent theoretical articles on ego-depletion no longer assume that blood-glucose as the source of ego-depletion.
“Upon closer inspection notable limitations have emerged. Chief among these is the failure to replicate evidence that cognitive exertion actually lowers blood glucose levels.” (Inzlicht, Schmeichel, & Macrae, 2014, p 18).
Thus, the 9 successful studies that were selected by Baumeister et al. (1998) did not illustrate an empirical fact, they created false evidence for a physiological correlate of ego-depletion that could not be replicated. Precious research resources were wasted on a line of research that could have been avoided by consulting with experts on human physiology and by honestly examining the successful and failed studies that led to the Baumeister et al. (1998) article.
Even Baumeister agrees that the original evidence was false and that glucose is not the biological correlate of ego-depletion.
In retrospect, even the initial evidence might have gotten a boost in significance from a fortuitous control condition. Hence at present it seems unlikely that ego depletion’s effects are caused by a shortage of glucose in the bloodstream” (Baumeister, 2014, p 315).
Baumeister fails to mention that the initial evidence also got a boost from selection bias.
In sum, the glucose theory of ego-depletion was based on selective reporting of studies that provided misleading support for the theory and the theory lacks credible empirical support. The failure of the glucose theory raises questions about the basic ego-depletion effect. If researchers in this field used selective reporting and questionable research practices, the evidence for the basic effect is also likely to be biased and the effect may be difficult to replicate.
If 200 studies show ego-depletion effects, it must be real?
Psychologists have not ignored publication bias altogether. The main solution to the problem is to conduct meta-analyses. A meta-analysis combines information from several small studies to examine whether an effect is real. The problem for meta-analysis is that publication bias also influences the results of a meta-analysis. If only successful studies are published, a meta-analysis of published studies will show evidence for an effect no matter whether the effect actually exists or not. For example, the top journal for meta-analysis, Psychological Bulletin, has published meta-analyses that provide evidence for extransensory perception (Bem & Honorton, 1994).
To address this problem, meta-analysts have developed a number of statistical tools to detect publication bias. The most prominent method is Eggert’s regression of effect size estimates on sampling error. A positive correlation can reveal publication bias because studies with larger sampling errors (small samples) require larger effect sizes to achieve statistical significance. To produce these large effect sizes when the actual effect does not exist or is smaller, researchers need to hide more studies or use more questionable research practices. As a result, these results are particularly difficult to replicate.
Although the use of these statistical methods is state of the art, the original ego-depletion meta-analysis that showed moderate to large effects did not examine the presence of publication bias (Hagger et al., 2010). This omission was corrected in a meta-analysis by Carter and McCollough (2014).
Upon reading Hagger et al. (2010), we realized that their efforts to estimate and account for the possible influence of publication bias and other small-study effects had been less than ideal, given the methods available at the time of its publication (Carter & McCollough, 2014).
The authors then used Eggert regression to examine publication bias. Moreover, they used a new method that was not available at the time of Hagger et al.’s (2010) meta-analysis to estimate the effect size of ego-depletion after correcting for the inflation caused by publication bias.
Not surprisingly, the regression analysis showed clear evidence of publication bias. More stunning were the results of the effect size estimate after correcting for publication bias. The bias-corrected effect size estimate was d =.25 with a 95% confidence interval ranging from d =.18 to d =.32. Thus, even the upper limit of the confidence interval is about 50% less than the effect size estimate in the original meta-analysis without correction for publication bias. This suggests that publication bias inflated the effect size estimate by 100% or more. Interestingly, a similar result was obtained in the reproducibility project, where a team of psychologists replicated 100 original studies and found that published effect sizes were over 100% larger than effect sizes in the replication project (OSC, 2015).
An effect size of d =.2 is considered small. This does not mean that the effect has no practical importance, but it raises questions about the replicability of ego-depletion results. To obtain replicable results, researchers should plan studies so that they have an 80% chance to get significant results despite the unpredictable influence of random error. For small effects, this implies that studies require large samples. For the standard ego-depletion paradigm with an experimental group and a control group and an effect size of d =.2, a sample size of 788 participants is needed to achieve 80% power. However, the largest sample size in an ego-depletion study was only 501 participants. A sample size of 388 participants is needed to achieve significance without an inflated effect size (50% power) and most studies fall short of this requirement in sample size. Thus, most published ego-depletion results are unlikely to replicate and future ego-depletion studies are likely to produce non-significant results.
In conclusion, even 100 studies with 100% successful results do not provide convincing evidence that ego-depletion exists and which experimental procedures can be used to replicate the basic effect.
Replicability without Publication Bias
In response to concerns about replicability, the American Psychological Society created a new format for publications. A team of researchers can propose a replication project. The research proposal is peer-reviewed like a grant application. When the project is approved, researchers conduct the studies and publish the results independent of the outcome of the project. If it is successful, the results confirm that earlier findings that were reported with publication bias are replicable, although probably with a smaller effect size. If the studies fail, the results suggest that the effect may not exist or that the effect size is very small.
In the fall of 2014 Hagger and Chatzisarantis announced a replication project of an ego-depletion study.
The third RRR will do so using the paradigm developed and published by Sripada, Kessler, and Jonides (2014), which is similar to that used in the original depletion experiments (Baumeister et al., 1998; Muraven et al., 1998), using only computerized versions of tasks to minimize variability across laboratories. By using preregistered replications across multiple laboratories, this RRR will allow for a precise, objective estimate of the size of the ego depletion effect.
In the end, 23 laboratories participated and the combined sample size of all studies was N = 2141. This sample size affords an 80% probability to obtain a significant result (p <.05, two-tailed) with an effect size of d =.12, which is below the lower limit of the confidence interval of the bias-corrected meta-analysis. Nevertheless, the study failed to produce a statistically significant result, d =.04 with a 95%CI ranging from d = -.07 to d =.14. Thus, the results are inconsistent with a small effect size of d =.20 and suggest that ego-depletion may not even exist at all.
Ego-depletion researchers have responded to this result differently. Michael Inzlicht, winner of a theoretical innovation prize for his work on ego-depletion, wrote:
The results of a massive replication effort, involving 24 labs (or 23, depending on how you count) and over 2,000 participants, indicates that short bouts of effortful control had no discernable effects on low-level inhibitory control. This seems to contradict two decades of research on the concept of ego depletion and the resource model of self-control. Like I said: science is brutal.
In contrast, Roy F. Baumeister questioned the outcome of this research project that provided the most comprehensive and scientific test of ego-depletion. In a response with co-author Kathleen D. Vohs titled “A misguided effort with elusive implications,” Baumeister tries to explain why ego depletion is a real effect, despite the lack of unbiased evidence for it.
The first line of defense is to question the validity of the paradigm that was used for the replication project. The only problem is that this paradigm seemed reasonable to the editors who approved the project, researchers who participated in the project and who expected a positive result, and to Baumeister himself when he was consulted during the planning of the replication project. In his response, Baumeister reverses his opinion about the paradigm.
In retrospect, the decision to use new, mostly untested procedures for a large replication project was foolish.
He further claims that he proposed several well-tested procedures, but that these procedures were rejected by the replication team for technical reasons.
Baumeister nominated several procedures that have been used in successful studies of ego depletion for years. But none of Baumeister’s suggestions were allowable due to the RRR restrictions that it must be done with only computerized tasks that were culturally and linguistically neutral.
Baumeister and Vohs then claim that the manipulation did not lead to ego-depletion and that it is not surprising that an unsuccessful manipulation does not produce an effect.
Signs indicate the RRR was plagued by manipulation failure — and therefore did not test ego depletion.
They then assure readers that ego-depletion is real because they have demonstrated the effect repeatedly using various experimental tasks.
For two decades we have conducted studies of ego depletion carefully and honestly, following the field’s best practices, and we find the effect over and over (as have many others in fields as far-ranging as finance to health to sports, both in the lab and large-scale field studies). There is too much evidence to dismiss based on the RRR, which after all is ultimately a single study — especially if the manipulation failed to create ego depletion.
This last statement is, however, misleading if not outright deceptive. As noted earlier, Baumeister admitted to the practice of not publishing disconfirming evidence. He and I disagree whether the selective publication of successful studies is honest or dishonest. He wrote:
“We did run multiple studies, some of which did not work, and some of which worked better than others. You may think that not reporting the less successful studies is wrong, but that is how the field works.” (Roy Baumeister, personal email communication)
So, when Baumeister and Vohs assure readers that they conducted ego-depletion research carefully and honestly, they are not saying that they reported all studies that they conducted in their labs. The successful studies published in articles are not representative of the studies conducted in their labs.
In a response to Baumeister and Vohs, the lead authors of the replication project pointed out that ego-depletion does not exist unless proponents of ego-depletion theory can specify experimental procedures that reliably produce the predicted effect.
The onus is on researchers to develop a clear set of paradigms that reliably evoke depletion in large samples with high power (Hagger & Chatzisarantis, 2016)
In an open email letter, I asked Baumeister and Vohs to name paradigms that could replicate a published ego-depletion effect. They were not able or willing to name a single paradigm. Roy Bameister’s response was “In view of your reputation as untrustworthy, dishonest, and otherwise obnoxious, i prefer not to cooperate or collaborate with you.”
I did not request to collaborate with him. I merely asked which paradigm would be able to produce ego-depletion effects in an open and transparent replication study, given his criticism of the most rigorous replication study that he initially approved.
If an expert who invented a theory and published numerous successful studies cannot name a paradigm that will work, it suggests that he does not know which studies may work because for each published successful study there are unpublished, unsuccessful studies that used the same procedure, and it is not obvious which study would actually replicate in an honest and transparent replication project.
A New Meta-Analysis of Ego-Depletion Studies: Are there replicable effects?
Since I published the incredibility index (Schimmack, 2012) and demonstrated bias in research on glucose and ego-depletion, I have developed new and more powerful ways to reveal selection bias and questionable research practices. I applied these methods to the large literature on ego-depletion to examine whether there are some credible ego-depletion effects and a paradigm that produces replicable effects.
The first method uses powergraphs (Schimmack, 2015) to examine selection bias and the replicability of a set of studies. To create a powergrpah, original research results are converted into absolute z-score. A z-score shows how much evidence a study result provides against the null-hypothesis that there is no effect. Unlike effect size measures, z-scores also contain information about the sample size (sampling error). I therefore distinguish between meta-analysis of effect sizes and meta-analysis of evidence. Effect size meta-analysis aims to determine the typical, average size of an effect. Meta-analyses of evidence examine how strong the evidence for an effect (i.e., against the null-hypothesis of no effect) is.
The distribution of absolute z-scores provides important information about selection bias, questionable research practices, and replicability. Selection bias is revealed if the distribution of z-scores shows a steep drop on the left side of the criterion for statistical significance (this is analogous to the empty space below the line for significance in a funnel plot). Questionable research practices are revealed if z-scores cluster in the area just above the significance criterion. Replicabilty is estimated by fitting a weighted composite of several non-central distributions that simulate studies with different non-centrality parameters and sampling error.
A literature search retrieved 165 articles that reported 429 studies. For each study, the most important statistical test was converted first into a two-tailed p-value and then into a z-score. A single test statistic was used to ensure that all z-scores are statistically independent.
The results show clear evidence of selection bias (Figure 1). Although there are some results below the significance criterion (z = 1.96, p <.05, two-tailed), most of these results are above z = 1.65, which corresponds to p <.10 (two-tailed) or p <.05 (one-tailed). These results are typically reported as marginally significant and used as evidence for an effect. There are hardly any results that fail to confirm a prediction based on ego-depletion theory. Using z = 1.65 as criterion, the success rate is 96%, which is common for the reported success rate in psychological journals (Sterling, 1959; Sterling et al., 1995; OSC, 2015). The steep cliff in the powergraph shows that this success rate is due to selection bias because random error would have produced a more gradual decline with many more non-significant results.
The next observation is the tall bar just above the significance criterion with z-scores between 2 and 2.2. This result is most likely due to questionable research practices that lead to just significant results such as optional stopping or selective dropping of outliers.
Another steep drop is observed at z-scores of 2.6. This drop is likely due to the use of further questionable research practices such as dropping of experimental conditions, use of multiple dependent variables, or simply running multiple studies and selecting only significant results.
A rather large proportion of z-scores are in the questionable range from z = 1.96 to 2.60. These results are unlikely to replicate. Although some studies may have reported honest results, there are too many questionable results and it is impossible to say which results are trustworthy and which results are not. It is like getting information from a group of people where 60% are liars and 40% tell the truth. Even though 40% are telling the truth, the information is useless without knowing who is telling the truth and who is lying.
The best bet to find replicable ego-depletion results is to focus on the largest z-scores as replicability increases with the strength of evidence (OSC, 2015). The power estimation method uses the distribution of z-scores greater than 2.6 to estimate the average power of these studies. The estimated power is 47% with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 32% to 63%. This result suggests that some ego-depletion studies have produced replicable results. In the next section, I examine which studies this may be.
In sum, a state-of-the art meta-analysis of evidence for an effect in the ego-depletion literature shows clear evidence for selection bias and the use of questionable research practices. Many published results are essentially useless because the evidence is not credible. However, the results also show that some studies produced replicable effects, which is consistent with Carter and McCollough’s finding that the average effect size is likely to be above zero.
What Ego-Depletion Studies Are Most Likely to Replicate?
Powergraphs are useful for large sets of heterogeneous studies. However, they are not useful to examine the replicability of a single study or small sets of studies, such as a set of studies in a multiple-study article. For this purpose, I developed two additional tools that detect bias in published results..
The Test of Insufficient Variance (TIVA) requires a minimum of two independent studies. As z-scores follow a normal distribution (the normal distribution of random error), the variance of z-scores should be 1. However, if non-significant results are omitted from reported results, the variance shrinks. TIVA uses the standard comparison of variances to compute the probability that an observed variance of z-scores is an unbiased sample drawn from a normal distribution. TIVA has been shown to reveal selection bias in Bem’s (2011) article and it is a more powerful test than the incredibility index (Schimmack, 2012).
The R-Index is based on the Incredibilty Index in that it compares the success rate (percentage of significant results) with the observed statistical power of a test. However, the R-Index does not test the probability of the success rate. Rather, it uses the observed power to predict replicability of an exact replication study. The R-Index has two components. The first component is the median observed power of a set of studies. In the limit, median observed power approaches the average power of an unbiased set of exact replication studies. However, when selection bias is present, median observed power is biased and provides an inflated estimate of true power. The R-Index measures the extent of selection bias by means of the difference between success rate and median observed power. If median observed power is 75% and the success rate is 100%, the inflation rate is 25% (100 – 75 = 25). The inflation rate is subtracted from median observed power to correct for the inflation. The resulting replication index is not directly an estimate of power, except for the special case when power is 50% and the success rate is 100% When power is 50% and the success rate is 100%, median observed power increases to 75%. In this case, the inflation correction of 25% returns the actual power of 50%.
I emphasize this special case because 50% power is also a critical point at which point a rational bet would change from betting against replication (Replicability < 50%) to betting on a successful replication (Replicability > 50%). Thus, an R-Index of 50% suggests that a study or a set of studies produced a replicable result. With success rates close to 100%, this criterion implies that median observed power is 75%, which corresponds to a z-score of 2.63. Incidentally, a z-score of 2.6 also separated questionable results from more credible results in the powergraph analysis above.
It may seem problematic to use the R-Index even for a single study because observed power of a single study is strongly influenced by random factors and observed power is by definition above 50% for a significant result. However, The R-Index provides a correction for selection bias and a significant result implies a 100% success rate. Of course, it could also be an honestly reported result, but if the study was published in a field with evidence of selection bias, the R-Index provides a reasonable correction for publication bias. To achieve an R-Index above 50%, observed power has to be greater than 75%.
This criterion has been validated with social psychology studies in the reproducibilty project, where the R-Index predicted replication success with over 90% accuracy. This criterion also correctly predicted that the ego-depletion replication project would produce fewer than 50% successful replications, which it did, because the R-Index for the original study was way below 50% (F(1,90) = |
"evaluate" his campaign.If anyone had any doubts about the commitment of Valve to the Linux operating systems, they should be put to rest with the latest SteamOS sale. It just shows how serious the company really is and that it will carry out its promises, of breaking the Windows monopoly on gaming.
One of the last barriers preventing people from adopting Linux on a much more massive scale is the gaming industry and everything that comes with it. Windows has been the de facto gaming platform for years and it had the support of everyone involved, from small developers and up to the big hardware makers. Everyone wanted to make money and it's understandable why that happened.
It also created a sort of monopoly, but it's true that the Linux platform didn't really make it easy for developers to build games. Up until a couple of years ago proprietary video driver support was terrible and there was no one to pour money into the platform. The drivers are now a little better and there is a sort of consistency building up into the system. It's slow and it will take some time, but we're getting there.
The main investor in the future of Linux is actually Valve, who is investing a lot of time and money into SteamOS. This makes developers and publishers do the same thing and we already have 1000 games on Steam for Linux. For now, everyone is following Valve's lead and determination, but it looks like big changes are coming.
The SteamOS sale on Steam is a signal for the industry
The Linux community went nuts when the latest SteamOS arrived and for good reason. Out of the blue a number of triple A games have been announced for the Linux platform. No warning has been given and no rumors leaked. So, titles like Shadow of Mordor, Batman: Arkam City, Payday 2, and Saints Row 4 landed out of the blue.
It's also true that Warner Bros. has already shown what is interesting in Linux, but Volition for example, the makers of Saints Row, didn't say a peep.
The SteamOS is actually just Valve flexing its muscles. They plan to release Steam Machines, their own console powered by SteamOS, in the fall of 2015 so they need all the support they can get. The company also said that it planned to shake its dependency on Microsoft and Windows, and what better way to do that than by developing your own operating system based on Linux.
All the games that run on SteamOS will also run on other Linux distributions, so it's a win-win situation for Valve. In any case, you should really check the SteamOS sale and see if you like what the future holds.An Australian parliamentary committee released a report today encouraging Australian consumers to find lawful ways to bypass "geo-locks" on popular software from Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, and others. According to ABC Australia, the report is the result of testimony given to the committee by representatives from Microsoft, Adobe, and Apple, companies that do business globally and charge Australian consumers and businesses considerably more for the privilege of purchasing their products and services. On average, Aussies pay 42 percent more for the same stuff as Americans.
The three companies grilled by the Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications each gave differing answers on why their wares cost more in Australia. "Adobe said it offered a specialized 'bespoke' experience for Australian customers," wrote science and technology reporter Jake Sturmer. "Apple blamed local copyright holders for higher prices on its local iTunes store. Microsoft said its prices were set and customers could vote with their wallets. Except customers couldn't exactly do that because of geo-blocking."
The terms "geo-locking" or "geo-blocking" refer in aggregate to the broad set of techniques companies put in place to segregate the world into different regions or markets. Most companies that do business internationally have different pricing models for different regions of the world; Microsoft, for example, might charge customers in "emerging markets" less for products than it would charge customers in the US or UK. But software pricing in Australia tends to be skewed far to the expensive side of things—indeed, Penny Arcade Report Editor and Ars alum Ben Kuchera recently wrote about the cost of being a gamer in Australia, noting that new game releases will often cost more than A$100 (about US$92).
Beyond the reasons for higher Australian pricing mentioned by Sturmer, companies also cited things like the smaller market size, unfavorable exchange rates, different wage structures, the cost of freight, and sales taxes. The fact that software is increasingly digital and the marginal cost of delivering it to Australia is far lower doesn't appear to have made much of a difference in the price tags presented to consumers. "There's obviously a fair bit of consumer frustration out there, particularly in the area of downloads—where people cannot see any real justification for such great differentials in downloads," noted Committee Chairman Nick Champion. The full report can be downloaded here.
The response from companies like Adobe has been relatively consistent, even with the switch to digital delivery. Many appear to have demonstrated a desire to keep pricing consistent across digital and physical items and take in the extra margin. In February 2013, shortly after the announcement of Adobe's cloud-based pricing model, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was cornered by a reporter in Sydney and repeatedly avoided answering the reporter's questions on why Australian consumers would be forced to pay more for the all-digital service, responding instead with an impenetrable wall of buzzwords.
There are issues, though, with the committee's recommendation that Australians do what they can do circumvent or avoid geo-locks on software—mainly that avoiding geo-locks may not be possible within the bounds of Australian law, which has some anti-circumvention provisions similar to those in US law. The report states:
While many submissions strongly support the avoidance of geoblocking mechanisms put in place by IT companies and vendors, there is also uncertainty as to whether such actions are legal in all circumstances, including as a possible breach of the Copyright Act's anti-circumvention provisions in relation to access control TPMs.
Meanwhile, Australian consumer group Choice has published a set of guidelines on easy ways Australian geoblocks can be defeated, including using parcel forwarding services to order from US-based vendors, using VPN services to fool geolocation, and instructions on setting up a US iTunes account. None of the methods listed appear to involve actual programmatic circumvention, and most are relatively easy to implement.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has agreed with his British counterpart Theresa May that there is too much tolerance of extremist material on social media.
He flagged a stronger international push against IT companies, including Apple, Facebook and Twitter, whose platforms are used by terrorists for communications and radicalisation.
"They, of course, are American businesses. They are headquartered in the United States and it is one of the priorities that we have and our friends in the UK have as we work as part of the five eyes intelligence community, which, of course, includes the United States, Canada and New Zealand as well, to get a more responsible approach taken to this type of material," Mr Turnbull said.
"The other area where we need these global social media messaging companies to assist is in providing access to encrypted communications which are used by billions of people, of course, and applications like Whats App and Apple iMessage. But the security services need to get access to them.
"So we need to have a full court press against violent extremism."
'Islamophobia hasn't killed anyone'
Mr Turnbull spoke after former Prime Minister Tony Abbott defended people's right to target Muslims and Islam, saying Islamophobia, unlike terrorism, has never killed anyone.
Mr Abbott has also claimed Australia's leadership sufferers from a "surrender mindset" which somehow weakens its defence against terrorism.
His comments, including that Australian police should have the right to shoot-to-kill terrorists, sparked more tension with Mr Turnbull who, for example, said police already have shoot to kill powers in Australia.
Mr Abbott was speaking in the aftermath of the latest atrocity in the United Kingdom in which Islamic terrorists murdered seven people and wounded another 48.
Mr Turnbull announced four Australians were among the injured. Queenslander Candice Hedge is recovering in hospital from a neck wound while Darwin electrician Andrew Morrison, also slashed in the neck, is flying home.
Mr Turnbull said "there are two other Australians...about whom we have very real concerns.
"But at this stage, we're not able to say anything more. We have been in touch with their families, in close touch with their families as we seek to find confirmation of the circumstances of the two other Australians," he said.
Mr Abbott said the weekend attack was "obviously another atrocity in along line of Islamacist atrocities against the west".
"We've got to avoid any spirit of surrender any spirit of defeatism and all too often in officialdom's ranks there is this notion that Islamophobia is almost as big a problem as Islamic terrorism," he said.
"Well, Islamophobia hasn't killed anyone. Islamacist terrorism has now killed tens of thousands of people, that's why its absolutely critical that there be the strongest possible response at every level."
'Too much tolerance'
Mr Abbott's tacit endorsement of Islamophobia, which is defined as "a dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force", will alarm security agences who constantly urge politicians that good relations with Islamic communities are valuable in the fight against terrorism. The communities are good sources of intelligence and deradicalisation.
Mr Abbott suggested everybody was being too polite and that there was "too much tolerance".
"We shouldn't be societies who run and hide...we should be people who are very proud of what we have achieved and we should be people who are prepared to confront all of those who would do us harm and that why I say there should not be the slightest hint of a surrender mindset, there should not be the slightest hint of a run-and-hide mindset because we have so much the be proud of, so much to defend and uphold."
'Most important tool is intelligence'
Mr Turnbull indirectly rejected the claims of the predecessor and sided with the intelligence agencies.
He noted Australia's actions in the Middle-East as well as at home where 12 serious plots have been foiled.
"The most important tool that we have in this battle within Australia is intelligence. That is why it is very important for our intelligence services, ASIO, working with the Federal Police and the state and territory police to be able to be alerted so that to these plots as they develop so they can be uncovered, such as the major plot in Melbourne just before Christmas that would have seen explosive devices ignited around Federation Square," he said.
"It is important that we get that intelligence early so that we can intercept these plots and disrupt them and arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice. And the lengthy terms of imprisonment they deserve.
"So it is vitally important for all Australians if they have concerns or are aware of information that might suggest that somebody is radicalised or radicalising or could be contemplating violent or extremist acts of this kind, to let our police and security services know. They are working night and day to keep us safe and they are absolutely the best in the world, but it is a dangerous environment.
"We will see more of this terrorism before we see less. And so, we have to be vigilant and determined and defiant."
Use of military under consideration
Mr Abbott is advocating that the military be called out for future terrorist incidences after the NSW police bungled the Lindt cafe siege.
He said given police were on the street, they should always be first responders but "if there is a complex terrorist situation, I think it is fitting that the military become the lead agency."
The government already has a review underway into this issue. Mr Abbott suggested it be on the agenda at this Friday's meeting of the Prime Minister, the Premiers and Chief Ministers.
Mr Turnbull said using the military was "a matter under very active consideration" but at the same time "it is very important that the public has confidence in our police and our security services".
"We have to remember that they do a phenomenal job keeping us safe. 12 terrorist plots uncovered in the period since September 2014 - 63 arrests. They are constantly, 24-7, keeping us secure," he said.
This article was originally published on the Australian Financial Review. Read the original here, or follow the AFR on Facebook.
Read more posts on Business Insider Australia »IG Anti-Muslim demonstrations have broken out in France
A peaceful demonstration taking place in the centre of Lille, northern France, was interrupted by right-wingers appearing to belong to the Front National. The unrest came as Front National leader Marine Le Pen declared French people “are no longer safe” and called for France to take back control of its borders.
Many people have taken to the streets across France today to show their solidarity with Paris despite the French government banning demonstrations from taking place for security reasons.
IG Right-wing protestors had flares and banners reading: “Throw out Islamists”
The protesters, armed with flares and with banners reading: “Throw out Islamists” pushed their way through the peaceful crowd and started chanting “Out the Muslims”. Protesters hurled Islamophobic chants as police surrounded the tense scenes. Demonstrators, taking part in the act of solidarity organised by Human Rights League, lashed back at the group of right-wingers, shouting: “Get out Fascists”.
Paris Terror Attack 2015: One year on Sun, November 13, 2016 Terrorists slaughtered 130 people during a series of coordinated terror attacks in Paris on Friday 13th November 2015. The attacks took place at the Bataclan concert hall, Boulevard Voltaire, Belle Equipe bar, rue Fontaine au Roi, Petit Cambodge restaurant, and Le Carillon bar. Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 86 French President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo lay a wreath of flowers as they unveil a commemorative plaque next to the
TWITTER Thousands have taken to the streets to show solidarity with Paris
Banners of peaceful protesters read: “We are not afraid”, “Pray for Paris” and “Je suis Paris” in homage to the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo in January. Mourning Parisians have laid flowers and candles at the six locations where the gruesome attacks took place.
IG Peaceful demonstrations were hijacked by crowds of right-wing extremists2.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
“We’ve seen some record cold this winter in DC, but over at the White House there’s been no lack of hot air,” says John Boehner in his latest House update, which he ironically titles 5 Big Whoppers From President Obama.
What results, however, is yet another list of Boehner’s own lies, repeated ad nauseam. Even when accusing President Obama of lying, he cannot help lying.
Here, to throw his own words back in Boehner’s face, are five of this winter’s biggest whoppers from Speaker Boehner:
1. “We are always interested in promoting jobs here in the U.S. I’ll go anywhere and do anything in terms of creating good American jobs” (2/26/15). The Facts: This outrageous claim came just days after President Obama vetoed a bipartisan bill to approve the broadly popular Keystone XL pipeline. The president’s own State Department says Keystone XL will support at least 42,000 American jobs.
Actual Facts: This from guy who is so focused on fake problems that in six years has yet to create a single job. Here we go again with the lie that the Keystone XL pipeline is a jobs bill, and that it is “broadly popular.” It is neither. It is an enrich the Koch Brothers, John Boehner, and TransCanada Corp bill.
Not to mention the fact that Obama said “good” American jobs, and a few thousand part time jobs and 35 permanent jobs don’t make the cut. As for popular, 61 percent of Americans support Obama, not Boehner. Boehner is also ignoring environmental issues and treaty rights (see Number 5, below).
2. “ISIL is on the defensive…” (2/11/15). The Facts: This week ISIL “abducted at least 70 Christians, including women and children, after overrunning a string of villages in northeastern Syria,” USA TODAY reports. The terror group is expanding into Libya, attackers recently infiltrated an Iraqi base where U.S. troops are stationed, and even members of the President’s own Party are now talking about “mixed messages,” “a lack of confidence” and the need for the administration to put forward “an effective winning strategy” to defeat these barbaric Islamic extremists.
Actual Facts: You would think only Christians suffer at the hands of the Islamic State. ISIL has been waging unrestricted war against Muslims and Christian casualties are a definite minority. That is not to downplay these tragic events, but even Hitler, when on the overall strategic defensive, was able to put together the Ardennes Offensive, better known to Americans as the Battle of the Bulge, not to mention a counterattack or two against the advancing Soviet armies.
Beohner and his fellow “hawks” will not be satisfied unless America enters into another ruinous war where other people go and fight and die. And why? Lindsey Graham hiding under his bed in fear of ISIL aside, more Americans have been killed in lethal attacks in the United States by right wing terrorists than by jihadists. And it is hardly a coincidence that the Department of Homeland Security says right wing terrorists are an equal or greater threat to Americans than ISIL.
Finally, since Boehner is all about popular support, even when he has to lie about it, 54 percent of Americans have President Obama’s back where ISIL is concerned. How that must rankle with a guy who can’t even pass his own bills in the House of which he is Speaker.
3. “If we were just rewriting the immigration laws, then the other side would have a case. We can’t violate statutes… what we can do is make choices to implement those laws”(2/25/15). The Facts: President Obama desperately wants to justify his unilateral actions on immigration. Unfortunately for the president, he’s admitted at least 22 times that he didn’t have the authority to do exactly what he eventually did.
Actual Facts: In fact-checking this claim when made by Gregg Abbot, Politifact found that the statement is “mostly true” with some provisos, including the fact that there were only 15 instances, not 22, adding that the claim “needs clarification or additional information.” The fact remains that Obama found a way to address the issue effectively, and that Boehner himself lied when saying Obama lied.
For the record, attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch defended Obama’s immigration actions and called them “a reasonable way to marshal limited resources to deal with the problem” of illegal immigration. And Nancy Pelosi has pointed out that, “The President’s actions fall well within the clear constitutional and legal authority of his office, and the well-established precedent set by every president since Eisenhower.”
4. Healthcare.gov “is working flawlessly” (12/15/14). The Facts: The ObamaCare train wreck continues to pile up as families struggle with higher costs, fewer options, and a website plagued with problems. The administration now admits it sent 800,000 Americans erroneous tax forms through Healthcare.gov, POLITICO reports the website is “a mess” and “still isn’t properly wired,” and last month the Associated Press learned Healthcare.gov “is quietly sending consumers’ personal data to private companies that specialize in advertising.”
Actual Facts: First of all, as far back as March of 2014 Politifact ruled that the claim that healthcare.gov is working great now is “a fair assessment.” But then Boehner loves himself some fake healthcare.gov horror stories and he was like a kid being forced to eat his vegetables after signing up for his own excellent coverage. This is a man determined not to be happy.
And the information shared is not personal information and AP goes on to say that “outside firms are barred from using the data to further their own business interests.” For the record, there is nothing surprising about data being shared when you visit a website. Boehner is pretending this is a unique occurrence.
Meanwhile, Uninsured rates continue to plummet as people continue to sign up for Obamacare, and the president has reminded Republicans that Obamacare is surpassing all projections, a fact Boehner carefully ignores in his own list of pretend facts. The mainstream media (and Boehner) won’t talk about any of this so they focus on technical issues.
The fact is Gallup showed Obamacare left people happy with their healthcare costs, 64 percent of people want to keep Obamacare subsidies and even Red Staters are jumping at the chance to sign up.
And finally – and embarrassingly – neither Boehner nor McConnell have the slightest idea to give the American people in place of Obamacare, except “just die already.”
Actual Facts: Hilariously, Boehner can’t get over his lost oil profits, and no doubt, fear that the Kochs will be disappointed in their bought man’s efforts. In fact, Boehner is the one pretending to be pro-middle class. And blaming the Democrats for withholding funding for Homeland Security is just a shade less brazen than his lie that the Keystone bill is a jobs bill.
Boehner not only ignores the EPA’s ruling on the environmental hazards of the Keystone XL pipeline, essentially calling science “radical” and “left-wing,” but he ignores the impact on Native Americans, and they oppose the pipeline, which must cross their sacred lands. Aren’t we finally at the point where we can stop breaking treaties?
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe went so far as to call the House vote an “act of war.” Apparently treaty obligations mean no more to Boehner than his obligations as the Speaker of the House to do more than stuff his own pockets with corporate money.
John Boehner needs to be reminded he works for us, not the Koch Brothers, even if they pay better, and that actually focusing on the issues for once, rather than concocting lies, would be a more fruitful use of his time.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:If you just can't ever get your hair to look right, take heart: At least you're less likely to be a psychopath.
A study led by Nicholas Holtzman and Michael Strube at Washington University in St. Louis found that people with personality traits known as the "Dark Triad" -- narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy -- were better than others at using clothing, makeup and hairstyles to make themselves look attractive, Scientific American reported Tuesday.
Psychopathy is characterized by varying blends of certain personality traits, which may include egocentricity, manipulativeness, superficial charm, high stress tolerance, lack of fear, lack of empathy and lack of guilt or remorse.
The study involved 111 college students -- 64 percent women -- who were photographed in their everyday attire. Researchers then had each subject wash off any makeup and change out of his or her own clothes into a t-shirt and sweatpants. Subjects with long hair were asked to pull it back into a ponytail. All subjects were then photographed in this unadorned state.
The subjects also took personality tests that measured traits that included the Dark Triad. Additionally, each subject provided contact information for several friends, so that every person's personality could be assessed by his or her peers. Each subject's self-assessment and peer-assessment were combined to create a composite personality score.
A separate group rated both sets of pictures for physical attractiveness.
Researchers found that in the first group of photos -- in which subjects wore their own clothes and makeup --subjects who scored high marks for the Dark Triad were typically rated as more attractive than subjects who scored low marks for these traits. This was also true of subjects who scored highly for psychopathy alone.
However, in the second group of photos, in which subjects were forced to wear plain clothing and no makeup, there was no correlation between physical attractiveness and "dark" personal traits.Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore was hospitalized this week in New York City with pneumonia while he was promoting his upcoming film.
The “Fahrenheit 9/11” filmmaker said he was admitted to the intensive care unit last weekend ahead of the release of his latest film “Where to Invade Next,” which hits theaters Feb. 12, ABC News reported.
On Friday, Mr. Moore asked his fans to help continue to promote the film, described on its website as a comedy in which Mr. Moore “confronts the most pressing issues facing America today and finds solutions in the most unlikely places.”
“I have to be honest, with my absence this week (and probably into next), I’m now worried about my film’s release,” he wrote on Facebook. “I can’t fly, I have to recover, and in one week (February 12th) this great movie I’ve put so much of my life into is going to open in theaters — with little or no assistance from me.”
He urged his fans to “pitch in where you live (and on [social] media) to let people know about my movie.”
Mr. Moore said he expected to be discharged from this hospital on Friday but it is unclear whether he has left yet.
He blamed his illness on a grueling schedule promoting the film, supporting Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and drawing attention to the poisoned water scandal in his hometown of Flint, Mich.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Weta Workshop, the special FX house behind the costumes and props in the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia films, have given a double leg amputee the ability to swim. Auckland native Nadya Vessey lost both her legs as child due to a medical condition, but always loved swimming. When asked by a young boy why she had no legs, she replied that she was a mermaid -which gave her an idea.
Weta are idolized in New Zealand for their creations, so Vessey contacted them with the challenge to create a prosthetic mermaid tail for swimming. And to her surprise, Weta agreed.
The design team custom-made the tail using a blend of 3D modelling and milling technology, combined with Vi Vac vacforming, and a poly-carbonate spine and tail fin. The skin of the tail was made from a layer of neoprene and a lycra outer-layer digitally printed with a stunning ‘scale’ pattern that was designed by one of the concept artists.
The unique articulated construction of the tail allows Vessey to propel herself through the water just like mermaids are meant to do. Vessey has even said that she is thinking of using the tail to help her complete the swimming section of a triathlon.
Weta donated staff time and expertise into make the tail, and Vessey has been able to cover the costs of the materials from a grant that she received from the Kerr-Taylor Foundation Trust.
You can also check out a video here:The Capitalist Realism author was a defining voice of ‘00s music writing.
Mark Fisher, the music writer and political theorist known as K-Punk, has died. His publisher Repeater Books shared the news on Twitter earlier today.
Fisher, who contributed regularly to FACT in the magazine’s early years, used his influential K-Punk blog to examine mainstream and underground music through a cultural theorist’s lens. In the ‘00s heyday of music blogging, his takes on everything from the psychogeography of Burial’s London to the “cyberspatial freakshow” of Britney’s Blackout period galvanised a generation of music writers, including many of FACT’s former and current staffers.
Fisher’s definitive ideas on “hauntology” as way to understand a world where culture has lost momentum at the ‘end of history’ were compiled in his 2014 book Ghosts Of My Life, which also included writings about his mental health struggles.
In 2009 he published Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, a slim volume on Zer0 books that showed how, after 1989, capitalism was able to present itself as the only realistic political-economic system, pinpointing its effects on culture, education and mental health.
A founder member of Warwick University’s Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, a multi-disciplinary academic body which included among its members Steve Goodman, aka Kode9, Fisher was also a lecturer in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths in London.
His latest book, The Weird And The Eerie, was published two weeks ago. His last piece for FACT was a typically brilliant essay on the radical politics of Bristol outfit The Pop Group.
Musicians, writers and theorists including Kode9 and Holly Herndon have been paying tribute to Fisher on social media.
Before Hyperdub was a label its was a webmag inspired by my fav music writers RIP Mark Fisher – without him nothing instead of something — ø (@kodenine) January 14, 2017
Mark Fisher is an inspiration and I don't want to believe it. RIP. — Holly Herndon (@hollyherndon) January 14, 2017
One of favourite pieces of writing from Mark Fisher https://t.co/MIlobe232a Can't overstate how important he was. — Logos (@Logos262) January 14, 2017
shocked to hear about Mark Fisher passing away. a very important voice with an incredible influence. terrible news – — Bill Kouligas (@bill_kouligas) January 14, 2017
R.I.P Mark Fisher, someone who wrote with so much ambition and focus. Once called Brian Eno a culture criminal – can't buy balls like that. — Local Action (@localactionrec) January 14, 2017
RIP Mark Fisher, one of my fav writers. Here's a touching piece of his on MJ. https://t.co/4KTxOFvTLx — Tim Hecker (@tim_hecker) January 14, 2017
Mark Fisher gave me one of my first print interviews, in @thewiremagazine, and was a real gent. I loved immersing myself in his writing. RIP — Forest Swords (@ForestSwords) January 14, 2017
When I started blogging about music/tech/theory in grad school, I thought I was hot shit. Then I read Mark Fisher. An amazing body of work. — Eric Harvey (@ericdharvey) January 14, 2017
Absolutely devastated to hear that Mark Fisher has passed away. One of the most insightful critics we had and an incredibly kind person — Nick Srnicek (@n_srnck) January 14, 2017Trevor Bayliss has provided the clearest hint yet that Jake Ball has earned the final spot in England's XI for the Brisbane Test.
While Ball has bowled only 22 first-class deliveries on the tour - he sprained his ankle early in the Adelaide warm-up game and was subsequently deemed unfit to play in Townsville - Bayliss is content he has now proved his fitness and suggested he had done enough to win selection ahead of Craig Overton.
Ball bowled 15 overs at full pace on Saturday. And, while England's bowlers claimed only one wicket in the entire day on a slow Townsville pitch, Ball bowled Moeen Ali within a few minutes on the same surface in a practice session that followed the game.
"I thought Ball was our best bowler in Perth and he started off that way again in Adelaide too," Bayliss said. "He's fine now. He bowled on Friday and got through a few spells in the nets today [Saturday]. He should be fit and raring to go for Brisbane.
"Is it Ball v Overton for selection? I see it just like that, yes. Ball is fine now. He's fully fit and will be available for selection. I'm pretty close to knowing the XI in my mind, yes."
Bayliss insisted he was not overly concerned by England's lack of penetration on the final day in Townsville, instead crediting some fine batting from the two Cricket Australia XI centurions and a flat surface that offered bowlers little. He also suggested England's batsmen had failed to fully capitalise on it the previous day.
"We are always a bit disappointed when we don't take 10 for 90, but the wicket was very flat," he said. "And those two young guys batted very well. There were two young guys out there that batted very, very well. All credit to them. They looked good. It's good for Australian cricket.
"If you play cricket long enough those days will happen. They stuck at it and that's all you can ask.
"We lost a few wickets at the end of that first innings and probably should have scored a few more runs. From the bowling point of view, we tried a few different things, but I'm sure in the Test matches we'll be back bowling line and length.
"It's not really damaging to us before the first Test. It was good to spend some time in the field. We will probably have another one or two of them in the Test matches. It was probably good to experience it and the heat as well."
Although the surfaces and the opposition have left England short of experience against the sort of pace anticipated in the Test series, Bayliss considered himself satisfied with their progress.
"Over the three games we have got as much out of it as we possibly could," he said. "We started slow, then built it up over the last couple of games. A Test match - an Ashes Test - will see our intensity rise as high as it possibly can.
"A number of guys spent time in the middle with the bat and the bowlers got a lot of overs under their belts. Hopefully everyone now has got their rhythms right and they can come out next week and go from ball one.
"Mark Stoneman has been our most consistent batsman. He looks like he's made for this. He's tough and nuggety and likes to get on with it when he gets the opportunity."
Bayliss also admitted a couple of selections in the Australian squad had surprised him. But while he was respectful of the opposition - conceding he was close to several members of the Australian team - he made it clear friendships will be put to one side.
"There were one or two names in there we maybe weren't expecting," he said. "But they are all good players. No matter who Australia pick, they will be good players and we will have to play well to win.
"Australia, whether batting or bowling, like to hit the opposition hard early. And we have been talking about going hard ourselves. We are not here to make up the numbers. We are here to win.
"I do know some of the guys in the opposition team, but I'm sure they fully respect that I've got a job to do. I liken it to playing backyard cricket years ago against your brothers and your best mates. It was full on in the backyard, but you walked away mates. I'm sure the same will occur after the five Tests.
"We've played some good Test cricket over the last few years. There has been the odd game where we haven't performed, but we're very confident, and have played very well against Australia for the last few years."Dear WD Registered Customer,
As a valued WD customer we want to make you aware of new reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). WD is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications. Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer.
The WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager, and WD SmartWare software applications are not new and have been available from WD for many years, however solely as a precaution WD has removed these applications from our website as we investigate this issue.
Sincerely,
Western Digital
Western Digital has emailed customers warning them about possible data loss when connecting external hard drives to Macs with OS X Mavericks installed.The MacRumors Forums, Western Digital's forums, and Apple's Support Communities all have threads about lost data after connecting Western Digital external hard drives to computers after updating to Mavericks.In an email to customers, Western Digital warned about using its WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager, and WD SmartWare software products with Mavericks and suggests customers uninstall those applications before upgrading to Mavericks, or, if they already have upgraded, to uninstall those applications immediately.Most of the complaints seem to center around Western Digital drives, but the company does say other drives could have issues as well.Thanks Jackie!DALLAS -- Approximately 40 participants attending a Tony Robbins seminar downtown suffered minor burn injuries late Thursday after walking across hot coals in what is being described as a motivational event.
Trainers for Robbins' motivational seminars told News 8 walking on coals is a very emotional experience for people, and that participants were doing something they didn’t think was possible.
But we saw just how painful a reality that exercise was for a large group of people attending the “Unleash the Power Within” seminar in Dallas Thursday night.
Several ambulances were staged outside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Paramedics treated dozens of people from the sold-out program for burn injuries to their feet and legs.
Five people were taken to the hospital.
The smoldering coals in a dumpster after Tony Robbins' "Unleash the Power Within" seminar.
Conference volunteers said walking on hot coals has become a regular activity at Tony Robbins seminars across the world. News 8 spoke with witnesses who said some were distracted while walking across the coals.
"From my observation, there was someone in front of us and someone behind us on their cell phone, taking selfies and taking pictures,” said Jacqueline Luxemberg, who completed the fire walk. “[She asked others] to video record for her, so I think that that has a lot to do with it."
An estimated 7,000 people walked across the coals Thursday night.
Dallas Fire-Recue spokesman Jason Evans said Friday had all "necessary permitting in place to conduct the operation which led to the multiple burn injuries."
"They had a Fire Watch, which is made up of two Fire Prevention Officers who are on scene to monitor the event for compliance. They also had (in addition to a privately contracted EMS service) a DFR EMS contingent (two paramedics and one rescue unit) on location at the event," Evans said.
He said Dallas Fire-Rescue would have no further investigation into the event.
The “Unleashing the Power Within” conference is in Dallas for three-and-a-half days.
Evans issued the following statement about the incident overnight:
"On Thursday, just after 23:00 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas Fire-Rescue assigned multiple resources to an event which resulted in an unknown number of "burn victims".
Apparently, as part of a motivational event being held at the location, several people attempted to walk across hot coals. As a result, a large number of these people sustained burn injuries to their feet and lower extremities.
As many as 5 additional rescue units and two EMS Supervisors, among other resources, we're assigned to help manage the situation. In addition, a DART bus was requested to help at least hold some of the, approximate 30-40, patients who were being |
of official secrecy to obscure facts already in the public domain—indeed, facts placed there by high-ranking government officials — has pushed its secrecy claim far beyond its breaking point.
The CIA's position is not only bewildering; it is dangerous. It threatens to undermine the credibility of our national security officials, the integrity of the courts, and our democracy's twin commitments to truth and transparency. As the summer's NSA revelations have shown, policies based on secret powers granted by secret laws are illegitimate from the start. If the government claims the power to kill Americans on the say-so of executive officials, the debate over the legality and wisdom of this policy belongs in the open.Prepare for more snow for Wednesday night Several inches for southern Vermont
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WEBVTT TONIGHT. OUT THERE FULL WEATHER: ------------------------ HAVE ISSUED A WIND CHILL ADVISORY AND WARNING FOR PARTS OF THE NORTHERN ADIRONDACKS, AND AREAS EAST OF THE GREEN MOUNTAINS. SURFACE HIGH WILL REMAIN ANCHORED OVER THE NORTH COUNTRY ON WEDNESDAY AND THE DAY WILL START OUT WITH SUNSHINE. WILL HAVE INCREASE IN CLOUDS FROM THE SOUTHWEST DURING THE DAY WED, AND CHANCE FOR LIGHT SNOW BY THE AFTERNOON IN NORTHERN NEW YORK AND EARLY EVENING IN VERMONT. CLIPPER TYPE LOW WILL PASS TO OUR SOUTH LATE WEDNESDAY INTO NIGHT, LIGHT SNOW WILL SPREAD NORTH INTO OUR AREA AND THEN CONTINUE THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT. QPF WILL BE RATHER LIGHT, THOUGH SNOW RATIOS WILL BE HIGH. SO 1-4" OF LIGHT FLUFFY SNOW WILL ACCUMULATE, HIGHEST TOTALS ACROSS OUR SOUTHERN ZONES, ONLY A DUSTING OR SO ALONG THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER IN VERMONT. TEMPERATURES WILL CONTINUE TO BE BELOW SEASONAL NORMALS FOR WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT, MAX TEMPS IN THE TEENS WED AND THEN LOWS IN THE SINGLE DIGITS ONCE AGAIN WEDNESDAY NIGHT, SLIGHTLY WARMER WITH THE CLOUDS AND SNOW MOVING IN. &&.SHORT TERM /THURSDAY THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT/... AS OF 315 PM EST TUESDAY...LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS WILL LINGER ACROSS VERMONT DURING THE MORNING HOURS ON THURSDAY AS THE WEAK CLIPPER SYSTEM DEPARTS TO THE EAST. SNOWFALL AMOUNT WILL BE MINIMAL WITH A DUSTING TO IN ITS WAKE SURFACE HIGH PRESSURE MOVES QUICKLY IN, HOWEVER LINGERING MOISTURE AND WEAK UPPER- LEVEL TROUGHING WILL KEEP CLOUD COVER THROUGH MUCH OF THE DAY. TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE LOW TO MID 20S UNDER LIGHT NORTH WINDS. THURSDAY NIGHT WILL BE QUIET WITH CLEARING SKIES, CALMING WINDS AND LOWS IN THE LOW TO MID SINGLE DIGITS. &&.LONG TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY/... AS OF 315 PM EST TUESDAY...A COUPLE THINGS TO NOTE IN THE EXTENDED PERIOD: STORM ON SATURDAY AND LIKELY COLD TEMPERATURES FOR BEGINNING OF NEXT WEEK. AT THIS TIME THERE IS RELATIVELY GOOD AGREEMENT ON THE SYSTEM FOR SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY, BEST CHANCE FOR PRECIPITATION WILL BE LATE AFTERNOON SATURDAY INTO SUNDAY. CONSENSUS ON P-TYPE REMAINS TO BE SEEN WITH GFS LACKING MORE ROBUST SECONDARY COASTAL LOW THAT ECMWF SHOWS. AT THIS TIME HAVE JUST RAN WITH RAIN/SNOW AS SOUNDING PROFILES DO NOT SUGGEST A REAL THREAT FOR MIXED PRECIPITATION. BEHIND THIS FRONT, COLD AIR MOVES IN FOR MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESEthereum (ETH) is an open-source distributed blockchain that has smart contract functionality. It operates as a decentralized virtual machine which can execute scripts and be used to transfer ether between different nodes. Although ether is the name of the token which is sent on the Ethereum blockchain, many people also refer to it as Ethereum. As a consequence, ether and Ethereum are often used interchangeably.
Ethereum was developed by Vitalik Buterin and launched using a crowdsale in 2014. This is generally regarded as having been the first cryptocurrency ICO (Initial Coin Offering) even though this term wasn’t in use at the time. Since its launch, Ethereum has grown to become the second largest blockchain after Bitcoin in terms of market cap and has spawned an entire market of tokens which can be transacted on the Ethereum blockchain like ether. Although ether can be used as a currency, it is more commonly used to execute smart contracts.
Ethereum is currently the most popular platform for token sales, and there is an extensive list of Ethereum ICOs.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
RIVERTON - The family of a Riverton man says he's being held in a Venezualen jail and is accused of being a U.S. spy.
"An American spy? To do what?" asks Laurie Holt, the mother of Josh Holt.
Her son is allegedly being held in a jail in Venezuela. Holt said she heard the allegations from her son's mother-in-law, who lives in Venezuela.
"She sent me a facebook message, and in it there was a link to an article written in Venezuela," Holt added.
The article comes from a publication written in Spanish, claiming that 24-year-old Josh Holt had been arrested by local authorities after they discovered multiple assault rifles and a hand grenade inside the apartment he shares with his wife.
"Josh would never have anything like that," Holt added.
She said her son had recently finished a Spanish-speaking mission in Washington. Shortly after, he began an online relationship with a woman from Venezuela. She said her son flew down to the Dominican Republic last month to propose to her, despite having known each other through online communication for less than six months.
After that, he made plans to go to Venezuela and marry her, just weeks later.
"Everybody said he can't go there, it's dangerous," Holt said. "His wife even said that it's very dangerous for Americans to be there, but he said, 'I'll be OK.' He was in love. They don't listen when they are in love."
Holt said her son's wife had two kids from a previous relationship. She said the plan was for them to get married, and the four of them would then eventually move back to the United States, with Josh making the transition back up first, likely sometime next month.
"The last time I spoke with him was last Monday," Holt said. "I don't know if he's even alive right now. That's the heart-wrenching part."
Holt said she's reached out to local authorities in Venezuela, but she hasn't had any confirmation that her son and his wife have been detained, and, if so, what charges they face. However, a local LDS Bishop and her son's mother-in-law say the two are being treated fairly in jail.
They also say a judge plans to hear the evidence against her son on Monday, and may determine whether to dismiss the case, or whether to prosecute in the next 45 days.
"I hope and pray that I get a phone call from him tomorrow saying he's coming home," Holt adds.
Yet, she's remaining grounded. She says they've already reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela for help. They say officials there suggested they seek legal representation, which in Venezuela could be a costly prospect.
The family has posted a GoFundMe account to help with the legal costs.If you’re on the fence about building a GoPro Egg Timer panning device, here’s a few more videos I haven’t shown off here yet. The videos illustrate quite well how the device can be used mounted to a car.
Here’s a GoPro time lapse video of me driving in Destin, Florida at night. The egg timer is attached to the roof via the built in magnet. It worked very well up until about 45 miles per hour. Read on for four more videos.
A similar video driving in North Florida. The timer was mounted on the trunk of the car, which seemed to be able to handle a slightly higher speed. I wasn’t quite as happy with how the video turned out, but the drive to Apalachicola was really nice.
Here’s a shot of the GoPro time lapse using the egg timer device on Fort Walton Beach.
Panning car-mounted time lapse video made while Driving in the National Seashore near Destin.
Finally, a short time lapse video taken on Labor Day with me and a few friends grilling out. This was taken with 10 seconds between frames, so things are pretty choppy. If you liked these videos, I’d love for you to check out and possibly even subscribe to my Youtube page. I post a lot of stuff there before it makes it to DIYTripods, if I even post it at all.
If you’re convinced you need one, click the image below for full instructions on how to build this panning egg timer device:About This Game
Space Ark is a fun arcade/puzzle game with a hint of retro arcade flavour; inspired by classic arcade games of the late 80s, such as Rainbow Island, Bubble Bobble and Arkanoid.
With your crack team of animal ‘Arkonauts’, you have escaped your once peaceful solar system, which has been shattered by a wandering black hole, and are now looking for new places to live. With a trail of damaged planets left in the black hole’s wake, the space travelling animals board the Space Ark and fly across the galaxy on a mission to repair the damaged worlds. At each planet your Arkonauts must bounce in the air and bag DNA combos, power-ups and all the fruit they can catch so ultimately inhabitants can return!
A colourful, original arcade action game with the golden age of ‘one more go’ gaming running through its DNA, Space Ark is that classic title, which is easy to play yet difficult to master for both casual and hardcore gamers alike.
The Arkonauts need your help so – let’s Bounce!Former Toronto police chief Julian Fantino is facing charges over an incident that allegedly occurred over four decades ago, the incumbent MP’s lawyer confirms.
According to a report in The Toronto Sun, Fantino is accused of assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm after John Bonnici, now 62, says Fantino smeared ketchup on his buttocks during a Toronto raid in 1973.
Bonnici told the newspaper that Fantino spread the condiment on him using a police baton while he was handcuffed. Fantino was a detective at the time.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and the complaint was reportedly made in a closed-door hearing to a justice of the peace in July.
When asked about the reported charges, Fantino’s lawyer, Mark Sandler, told CityNews “I can confirm it.”
Sandler released a statement, insinuated that something fishy was up with the timing of the allegations.
“Mr. Fantino will vigorously defend himself against what the defence can only describe as completely spurious allegations. It is our position that a private complaint 42 years after the events and during an election campaign raises obvious questions about the motivation and lack of merit of these allegations.”
Fantino, 73, is the Conservative candidate for Vaughan-Woodbridge in the upcoming federal election.
He became an MP in 2010 after winning the Vaughan by-election.The following is a guest blog post from Jeanne Lenzer, an independent journalist and an associate editor for The BMJ. Just last week, she published an important piece in that journal about the CDC, the FDA and the antiviral drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir). This piece is related.
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The oseltamivir (Tamiflu, Roche/Genentech/Gilead) story is filled with intrigue. There’s Donald Rumsfeld, government stockpiling, Bad Science, more Bad Science and lucre – lots and lots of lucre as I reported for The BMJ in “Why aren’t the US Centers for Disease Control and Food and Drug Administration speaking with one voice on flu?”
I reported on the ambitious CDC campaign to get people to take a flu antiviral drug, in particular, Tamiflu. I quoted CDC Director, Tom Frieden, who said in a CDC telebriefing, “Update on Flu Season 2014-15,” that the bottom line about flu and antivirals is: “ if I or one of the members of my family got flu or a flu-like illness, I would get them or me treated with Tamiflu as quickly as possible.”
In emails to me, one flu expert said he was “shocked” when he heard the news – another said the whole matter was “disgusting.”
Here’s a glimpse of some of the news reports:
Frieden’s comments were initially reported uncritically on January 9 by Carey Goldberg of WBUR Boston, without any experts countering his over-the-top statement. But three days later she filed a more skeptical story, “Quick, Take Tamiflu? Maybe Not a Slam-dunk If You’re Young and Healthy,” in which she wrote:
As I listened to CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden issue a ringing endorsement of the prescription antiviral drug Tamiflu last week, I was also hearing a confused “But, but, but ” in my own head. The crux of my confusion: I had the decided impression that the data on Tamiflu as a flu-fighter were underwhelming. That it just isn’t all that effective. That doctors prescribe it because they have nothing better, but without a lot of hope that it will do a lot of good.
Unfortunately, it was far more common for journalists to report the CDC’s promotional campaign uncritically, including TampaBay.com, the New York Times, Reuters, and Consumer Reports, which stated that high-risk groups should “get to a doctor right away for prescription antiviral medication ” since the drugs “have been shown to reduce the risk of complications such as pneumonia and respiratory failure.”
One excellent exception to the amen chorus was Christie Aschwanden’s report in FiveThirtyEight, “Why the CDC and FDA are telling you two different things about flu.”
Following the money
Despite CDC’s enthusiastic promotion of oseltamivir/Tamiflu, the Food and Drug Administration continues to say they have never been provided data to support the claim that Tamiflu reduces serious flu complications or death, and the agency directed the company not to make such claims.
But that doesn’t stop the CDC, which cites far less reliable observational data to justify their claim that Tamiflu saves lives (the FDA uses far more reliable randomized controlled trials for its assessments). Indeed, the CDC is pushing an off-label use of Tamiflu when it encourages doctors to prescribe Tamiflu or other flu antiviral drugs as a way to avert hospitalizations and death. That benefit, as the FDA has stated, has never been proven. And while it’s legal for doctors to use drugs for off-label uses, it’s illegal for manufacturers to do so.
And here’s where the story takes a right turn: I followed the money – and it led me to an unexpected place: The CDC.
When I learned that the CDC had launched a “Take 3” campaign (Step 3 tells the public to “take antiviral medicine if your doctor prescribes it,”) I smelled the odor of a commercial campaign. It seemed so, well, PR 101 to me. So, I dug into the money behind the campaign.
I spent almost two weeks researching the funding trail before my story was ready to go. What I found was deeply disturbing. Roche had provided a “directed donation” to the CDC through the CDC Foundation for the Take 3 campaign. And there was more. Substantially more: I learned that the CDC Foundation provides an average of $6.3 million in industry funding annually to the CDC.
I then followed the money trail for the “independent” meta-analysis (a study of studies) that CDC Director, Tom Frieden cited as proof of Tamiflu’s benefit. Once again, I found multiple conflicts of interest. The meta-analysis, published on January 30th by The Lancet, far from being “independent” as the authors claimed and as was widely reported, was actually funded by the manufacturer of Tamiflu.
Of course the researchers claimed they were in no way influenced by Roche funding. The study wasn’t designed by Roche, they said, nor did they release the results of the study to Roche until the results were released to the public. Of course being directly influenced by the commercial sponsor of the study might be almost beside the point; as I reported for The BMJ, three of the four researchers had received funding from Roche or Genentech (manufacturers of Tamiflu) or Gilead (patent holder of Tamiflu).
But I was wrong on that point. I have since learned that all four researchers received industry funding either directly or through industry donations to organizations that directly funded the study (so-called “pass-through” money).
Unfortunately, there has been radio silence on this story. Most doctors think the CDC is above reproach, and that it is one of the few outposts of independent science untainted by commercial influence. As Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, told The BMJ: “the CDC has enormous credibility among physicians, in no small part because the agency is generally thought to be free of industry bias.”
It’s time to pull aside the curtain, and journalists could help do that.
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and on Facebook.Michael Flynn answers questions in the briefing room of the White House on Feb. 1. Win McNamee/Getty Images
National Security Adviser Mike Flynn resigned late on Monday after just 25 days on the job. The Trump administration was facing increasing pressure over Flynn’s contacts with Russia in the waning days of the Obama presidency before Trump took office. Flynn initially denied discussing Obama administration sanctions placed on Russia during his correspondence with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but over the past month new evidence trickled out contradicting Flynn’s claims and raising questions about whether he had lied to the vice president about the nature of his Russian interactions and what the president and his top advisers knew.
In his resignation letter, Flynn did not say whether he discussed sanctions with Kislyak but admitted to not being truthful with Pence about the conversations. “Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador,” Flynn wrote. “I have sincerely apologized to the President and Vice President, and they have accepted my apology.”*
Earlier on Monday, the Washington Post wrote a nice tick-tock of what we know about Flynn’s shifting story on his Russia call that lead to his resignation:
Word of the calls leaked out on Jan. 12 in an op-ed by Post columnist David Ignatius. “What did Flynn say, and did it undercut U.S. sanctions?” Ignatius wrote, citing the Logan Act. The next day, a Trump transition official told The Post, “I can tell you that during his call, sanctions were not discussed whatsoever …”
White House press secretary Sean Spicer, in a conference call with reporters on Jan. 13, said that the conversation between Flynn and Kislyak had “centered on the logistics” of a post-inauguration call between Trump and Putin. “That was it, plain and simple,” Spicer added.
On Jan. 15, Pence was asked about the phone call during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Citing a conversation he had with Flynn, Pence said the incoming national security adviser and Kislyak “did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia …”
In a Feb. 8 interview with The Washington Post, Flynn categorically denied discussing sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, repeating public assertions made in January by top Trump officials. One day after the interview, Flynn revised his account, telling The Post through a spokesman that he “couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”
The resignation of Flynn, a staunch and vocal advocate for Trump throughout the campaign, will likely shift the focus away from the embattled adviser and toward the president and what role he may have had in directing or approving of Flynn’s going behind the back of the sitting American president’s foreign policy.
Breaking: text of Flynn's resignation letter pic.twitter.com/KGue1cJFzL — Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 14, 2017
*Correction, Feb. 14, 2017: This post originally misquoted Flynn’s resignation letter as saying he initially gave Pence an incomplete briefing because of the “past pace of events.” He wrote it was because of the “fast pace of events.”CLOSE A high-speed chase ended in gunfire Wednesday morning in east Harris County. KHOU
A police chase through the streets of Houston on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, ended in gunfire. Here in an image from a helicopter, police have their guns drawn. (Photo: KHOU-TV, Houston)
HOUSTON — Police fatally shot a suspect after a high-speed chase through Houston on live television Wednesday morning in northeast Harris County, Texas.
The suspect has been identified as 41-year-old Trey Shepard.
According to the Houston Police Department, the chase started when a patrol unit tried to pull over Shepard after he made two unsafe lane changes.
The suspect refused to stop and a chase ensued that lasted 30 minutes.
"I can tell you that during the chase the suspect called 911 and was telling the dispatcher he had a child in the car," Harris County sheriff's Deputy Thomas Gilliland said.
Gilliland said the suspect threatened to hurt the child if police didn't back off the chase, but they knew the story was a ruse.
One suspect is dead following a high speed #Houston Police chase and car crash.#khou11http://t.co/bBm1pNFACipic.twitter.com/nQHn6nFxgC — The Bishop (@BillBishopKHOU) April 15, 2015
After attempts to slow down the suspect vehicle with spike strips failed, the suspect crashed his car into an SUV. He also slammed into a small white vehicle and sent it spinning.
The female driver of the small white car hit by the suspect was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. A man and woman in the SUV were treated for minor injuries at the scene.
After Shepard stopped and jumped from the vehicle, two officers commanded that he show his hands. When Shepard reached back into the vehicle, the two officers opened fire with 10 to 12 shots, Gilliland said.
The suspect was shot several times by officers and was taken to a local hospital.
"Fearing for their lives that this suspect was reaching for a weapon, two officers did discharge their weapons at the vehicle, striking the suspect and killing him," said Gilliland.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the suspect died from his wounds.
Two schools located near where the chase ended were on lockdown for about 30 minutes before the suspect was subdued.
A high-speed chase through Houston ended in gunfire Wednesday, April 15, 2015. The chase ended when the suspect crashed his car into an SUV. (Photo: KHOU-TV, Houston)
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1yvATK8Adding electric power to our Hase Pino. For a few years we’ve been saying we would do it one day and this year feels like the right time.
Here’s one that Hase did earlier, ours is pretty well identical with the hub motor at the front and battery+controller in a special luggage rack, click on the image for a blow-up
Why would you do that? Isn’t it cheating?
We are not as young as we were in the 1980s when we could cycle for miles in the Welsh hills. Isobel has just had a new knee to go with her new hip from a few years ago and I’d guess that our combined strength is around half what it was back then.
It really shows on group rides when we just can’t keep up on the uphills and when we struggle on the steep parts of long hills despite our ‘granny gear’ (although last year we got up the hill from Edale to Mam Tor with only three rests). So we need a bit of help but it doesn’t mean we don’t want to put in a good effort ourselves.
Is it reliable?
We’ve been waiting for a really good electric drive to come along. There’s a lot of rubbish out there as well as a few good products.
We knew that Heinzmann made some of the best bike drives but to make them strong enough and reliable enough their hub motors had gears that were very noisy. Hase also felt the same and had held back from using Heinzmann kit on their bikes until the new Direct Power system came along, with a silent (no gears) hub motor.
The Canadian company, Bionx make a similar product, also highly regarded but the Heinzmann is the only one that will fit front wheels as well as rear, having a Rohloff hub gear at the rear we only had our front wheel available.
Actually fitting the drive to the front wheel of the Pino is a great idea because the torque of the motor gives much more shove on a small wheel, effectively it’s in a lower gear.
How far can you go?
Range is always a question mark for cycle tourists, you don’t want to spend the last 15 miles hauling a lot of dead battery and motor up every hill. Members of the Tandem Club who had fitted electric kits said they were a real help as long as you only used the assistance when you really needed it, to save the battery for the end of the ride.
We talked to Joerg Heydt at Hase who felt that the Heinzmann kit could cover 60km (37miles) on a Pino and that felt as though it might be enough for us. We might ride further than that some days but I was planning to use it only on the uphills and only gently so we might be able to go further than somebody who kept the drive power turned on.
The Heinzmann kit has regenerative braking, one of the benefits of getting rid of the gears. Joerg, felt that we might get about 15% extra range from that but the main benefit was that it acts as a useful drag brake, limiting the heat build up in the disk brakes on long hills.
Heinzmann provides a very big 400 watt hour battery, one of the biggest on the market (they make an even bigger 500 WH frame-mounting battery but it’s too bulky for the Pino frame). One argument goes that you actually need a small light battery, one that’s easy to pull uphill and just there for when you really need some help. However the Heinzmann motor is a heavy item so a light battery would still leave you with a lot of extra weight and less to power it with.
Where do you get it from?
The obvious answer was to buy a kit from Hase so we asked JD Tandems to order one for us. Then we discovered that Hase were not supplying retro-fit kits yet, and will only do so when they are available with a pedal rotation sensor, rather than the more sensitive but more complicated torque sensor supplied at the moment.
We didn’t want to wait several more months and I rather liked the idea of a torque sensor. Joerg confirmed that it gives a more natural feel which experienced cyclists would appreciate. JD Tandems had some experience with fitting torque sensors and said they would help me to fit it (replacing the bottom bracket bearing unit with an electronically clever unit that measured the force you apply to the pedals).
So we tracked down Andreas Schroeer, the UK Heinzmann importer and he was able to answer some other questions we had. Once he had looked at a photo of a Pino with Direct Power fitted (that one above) he was able to explain how it would all fit together on our bike and how we would deal with the need to split the wiring when we transported the bike by car.
We also had to do some guesswork on the lengths of cable needed and I over-estimated some of it (better safe than sorry) so we have some cable coiled up at the front of the luggage rack. All stuff that would be much easier if Hase were supplying a dedicated kit. I suppose I could shorten the cables myself, I’m used to soldering and connecting basic electronic stuff, but as it need’s to be weatherproof it’s not wise to interfere with the factory setup.
On the other hand buying direct and doing much of the work myself saved quite a lot of money compared to having it supplied and fitted by the Hase Dealer.
Is it Easy to Fit?
Yes and no. I decided to do as much of the work myself as possible, mainly so I would know how it went together. The kit took around a month to arrive in the UK, then Andreas needed a few days to program it for our particular setup. As it was the first Direct Power kit in the UK he wanted to take time to ensure it was right.
He sent off the hub motor to JD Tandems, for John to build into a wheel, it’s basically a very big heavy hub for a spoked wheel, with the mountings for a brake disk. The spokes were extremely short and had to be made specially. Heinzmann will supply the hub already fitted to a 20″ wheel but I felt it was important to get John to build the wheel as he knows the bike very well.
The rest of the kit arrived at our house and I spent a few hours fitting it all together, apart from the torque sensor. It was pretty straightforward although routing the cables tidily required some thought and is still a work in progress.
Heinzmann supplied a new luggage rack designed to incorporate the controller and removable battery and I did some bodging to make it accommodate our Topeak MTX pannier trunk.
I also had to work out how to fit the Heinzmann display unit and the little three-button controller to the Pino’s unusual handlebars. I’ll go into more detail about all that stuff later.
Then I took the bike up to JD Tandems in Gargrave and it took about 2 hours for John to replace the bottom bracket with the torque sensor, including drilling a big hole in the BB shell for the sensor cable, plus fitting the wheel. There was a bit of a struggle because the brake disk didn’t seem to be correctly aligned and John had to do some shimming. The torque sensor took a while to fit, we had to remove the redundant original lighting cable which runs through the frame tubes and was jamming on the sensor unit and there’s some gentle persuasion needed before the sensor/bottom bracket unit will slight into the right position.
We plugged everything together, wrapped cable ties round everything in sight to make it temporarily secure and, after a small problem because the sensor cable wasn’t firmly connected (needed a stronger push than we wanted to give it), it was running.
I did a short test ride as far as the nearest hill and it seemed to be working fine, although the area immediately round Gargrave is quite flat, John had a go, having ridden other pedelecs and felt it was OK so off I went home although I was not confident that the regenerative braking was working.
Did it Do the Job?
We had a few days riding around our area of Sheffield which has a good mix of terrain. The regenerative braking was definitely not working and Andreas realised that there was a step in the programming that he had missed, I guess it’s not surprising in a brand new product and he promised to fix it and get the controller back to me very quickly if I could send it to him.
Otherwise we had a slightly worrying moment on our first two person ride when the drive didn’t start at the first time of asking although all the indicators on the display were OK, then it did kick in a bit later. The same thing happened once more after I reassembled the bike at the weekend for a bigger test ride, so we’ll need to keep an eye on that.
Anyway, the first three days allowed me to do a bit of a test on battery consumption. The distance covered before the battery indicator went down to 5/6 seemed to be about right for a 60km+ range and the drive did gave us a real help.
As others have said it’s more like a gentle push from a following wind than a big shove although turning the power up to the full three bars did give a much more perceptible help and made steep hills much easier. But the real test was to come that weekend, I’ll describe that in the next post.
So to Summarise It was a bit of a pain being pioneers with a completely new product, no reviews to help us understand what we were letting ourselves in for and everybody learning on the job, but it’s clearly a high quality piece of kit. Both Hase and Heinzmann have been very helpful and JD Tandems were great with the very flexible help I needed to get it installed. Buying it this way was cheaper than getting the kit from Hase but the Hase price probably includes a full installation service from the dealer so it’s swings and roundabouts.
I’ll follow this up with a test report from our (very successful) ride in the Black Mountains at the weekend and also give a lot more detail of the fine points of the installation.
Postscript 2nd May: The controller is back from Andreas and the regenerative braking is now working, in fact coming down the long hill near our house shoved the battery level indicator up a bar (it had only just dropped down).
Next Post in the Bionic Tandem story
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Tags: e-bike, Hase Pino, Heinzmann Direct Power, Pedelec, Review, TandemChicago Fire playmaker Shaun Maloney has been voted Major League Soccer's Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for the fifth week of the 2015 MLS season.
After missing the Fire’s 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Union because of international duty with Scotland, Maloney returned to record his first MLS goal and assist in Chicago’s 3-2 comeback win over Toronto FC at Toyota Park on Saturday.
Maloney showcased a bit of magic to help the Fire take the lead over Toronto in the 14th minute, laying a clever backheel into Joevin Jones' path as the winger beat TFC goalkeeper Joe Bendik with a left-footed strike.
After going down 2-1 in the 54th minute, the Scottish Designated Player responded immediately, leveling the match two minutes later. Chicago Homegrown midfielder Harry Shipp found Maloney on the left side of the penalty area, and the Scotsman produced a flurry of stepovers before cutting inside and sending a shot through traffic that snuck past Bendik.
The Men in Red would go on to grab all three points in the 68th minute when Jeff Larentowicz’s dipping free kick found the back of the net to make it 3-2.
After a bye week, the Fire will return to action on April 18 at Stade Saputo against the Montreal Impact (3 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media.A post shared by lauren (@laurenlauzon) on Jan 18, 2017 at 7:54pm PST
Finally! Four months after a fire shut down Park Slope’s Union Hall bar, the venue is reopening its upstairs half. In May, the quirky bar started hosting shows in its basement again, but it’s taken until now to get the gorgeous library-filled upstairs portion looking presentable.
On Friday, July 21, it will once again open its doors to the parlor-like bar outfitted with antique globes, fireplaces and stuffed-to-the-gills bookshelves (plus several new couches). Though the bar officially opens at 1pm, from 5 to 8pm there’s an extra-long happy hour where you can celebrate with $3 Sixpoints. There will also be other drink specials throughout the evening, and the festivities won't end until 4am.
Even if you can’t make it to the opening night extravaganza, the venue frequently hosts comedy shows from the likes of Judd Apatow and Mike Birbiglia. And there’s bocce. What more could you want?As of October 1, 2017, Chinese netizens who have not registered their user accounts with online platforms under a new real name system will not be able to post comments on online content, while bans await trouble-makers.
“The Regulation on the Management of Internet Comments” was announced by the Cyberspace Administration of China on August 25. The regulation specifies that platforms that provide services for netizens to comment on original content, including films, posts, online games or news, should force users to provide their authentic identity via an individual user account system before posting. Platform operators should not offer such services to those who have not verified their identity.
The regulation will dramatically reduce space for online comments as large number of unauthenticated users will not be able to write original posts and leave comments. Moreover, many platforms will be unable to bear the burden of the identity verification system.
Real name registration for online comment
According to Article 2 of the regulation, commenting services refer to websites, mobile applications, interactive platforms, news sites, and other social platforms that allow or facilitate users to create original content, reply to posts, leave comments on news threads or other items in the form of written text, symbols, emojis, images, voice messages or video.
The responsibilities of comment service operators, according to Article 5, include the verification of user identities, the setting up of a comment management system to pre-screen comments on news, preventing the spread of illegal information and reporting comments to the authorities.
Controversially, the regulation also specifies in Article 9 that comment service operators should manage their users by rating their ‘social credit’, an algorithm to measure a person's overall “goodness” as a citizen
Those with low credit should be blacklisted from posting and prevented from registering new accounts to use the service. At the same time, state, province and city-level cyberspace affairs offices will set up a management system to evaluate the overall social credit of comment service operators on a regular basis.
Goodies and baddies
The Orwellian social credit system for regulating internet users’ activities was revealed in 2014 and the Chinese government authorized a number |
with Gibbs and Smith was asked to order from stores like Anthropologie.
The event fueled Michelle's resentment that her husband's advisers were reviewing her decisions.
From the beginning of her term as first lady, Michelle made it clear that she had no interest in following in Hillary's footsteps and playing a role in the West Wing.
'The notion of sitting around the table with a set of policy advisers – no offense – makes me yawn'.
She does not want to be told about daily issues that the West Wing is dealing with and is not interested in making policy.
Michelle turned to focusing on being a fashion icon and her campaign to end childhood obesity for which she has also been criticized as being the food police and dictating what children should eat.
Michelle has ramped up her trips with the girls and her mother and clearly enjoys herself when she's out of the country.
One lavish trip she took in 2010 to Spain with her daughter, Sasha and family friends was criticized for costing taxpayers half a million dollars which included the cost of footing the bill for the Secret Service and the first lady's staff travel expenses.
The Obamas paid for hotel expenses and the price of first class airfare. Taxpayers picked up the rest of the tab.
Michelle is not part of the social scene in Washington that Hillary and Bill so warmly embraced.
The Obamas socialize with the same friends they had in Chicago, the Whitaker and Nesbitt families who lived near them in their Hyde Park neighborhood. They both have children close to the same age.
Appearing on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert in September 2015, Michelle confessed to host Colbert that she was anxious to escape the constant 'watchful eye of the Secret Service'.
She wanted to do even a little thing like opening the car window herself.
She's always stated she wanted to go to the big box store Target and was photographed at the store but that was suspected as being a setup photo op to appeal to lower income people.
Clinton acolytes suggest that 'Michelle has not done enough as first lady' and has failed to prioritize funding for some programs that subsequently lost their federal support
Michelle unwinds at night by watching the reality show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo.
That group of southern housewives live glitzy, fictitious up-and-down lives, and make it easy for viewers to escape the reality of their own lives – so they hope.
In the morning, Michelle watches MSNBC's Morning Joe, a weekday morning talk show that features host Joe Scarborough discussing news of the day.
She works out for 90 minutes five times a week and feels she keeps up with policy by talking to Valerie Jarrett, 59, currently senior advisor to Obama.
Valerie was introduced to Barack by Michelle and has become their closest friend and adviser in the White House. Jarrett has been instrumental in Barack's political career and she is often described as the'mystery woman of the White House' who is loyal only to the Obamas and her own image.
Pit bull is also attached to her name and it is speculated that she's the real reason Rahm Emanuel left Washington in 2010. He wasn't going to get past her to get to Barack.
Back in 1991, she was Mayor Rich Daley's deputy chief of staff and offered Michelle Robinson a job in City Hall.
Jarrett introduced Michelle's fiancé at the time, Barack Obama, to the right people in Chicago, the wealthy business people, the inner Daley circle and the people of importance in Hyde Park – and that is how he transitioned from community organizer to state senator in Springfield, Illinois to the Presidency in Washington.
Jarrett is one of the few people allowed to visit the family residences on the second and third floors of the White House.
Michelle's unhappiness on the hot seat as first lady could go back to her identity struggle when she attended Princeton University.
Arriving at the White House, Michelledidn't know what to expect and identified herself as a working mother, a J. Crew-wearing mom-in-chief. That has morphed into becoming a lover of high fashion designers who send her a selection of their original designs at no cost
She grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago and when she arrived at Princeton University in 1981, it was a predominately white school.
Neither one of her parents graduated from college so she had no input on what to expect.
She graduated cum laude in 1985 and went on to Harvard Law.
Arriving at the White House, again she didn't know what to expect and identified herself as a working mother, a J. Crew-wearing mom-in-chief.
That has morphed into becoming a lover of high fashion designers who send her a selection of their original designs at no cost knowing that payback for providing free wardrobe can result in huge sales with one public appearance by her wearing one of their outfits.
The first lady obviously loves that focus on her wardrobe but complains about the attention the press pays to trivial things like her decision to get bangs.
Her Chicago-based hairstylist, Michale 'Rahni' Flowers told the author that the obsession over every detail of Michelle's appearance vexes her.
She had highlights before the campaign and then was told by aides that that was simply 'too racy'.
Flowers owns the Van Cleef hair salon in downtown Chicago with his business partner Daryl Wells that caters to wealthy African American Clients.
He started doing the first lady's hair when she was a teenager and coming in with her mother.
They view her as a 'no-nonsense' woman who does not take herself too seriously – but that was in the early days and in the casual atmosphere of the salon where Michelle and Flowers often talked about their shared love of bacon.
'We're bacon people', Michelle gushed in an interview on ABC's The View in 2008.
And we called her 'Boo', Flowers said. But that was sixteen years ago.
Michelle and Barack have stated they won't be returning to their old stomping grounds in Chicago but intend to stay on in Washington while Sasha finishes her high school years at Sidwell Friends School.A New Beginning for CFun Project
CFunProject Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 19, 2017
After beginning its ICO on 18th Dec., we are happy to announce that the first ever Nijigen ICO in the world, CFun ICO, has successfully concluded on 19th Dec.. CFun project raised 15 million USD equivalent in crypto currencies.
CFun, originally a China-based company, has decided to expand its business abroad after two years of successful operation in China. Its integration with blockchain is only natural as CFun’s crowd-creation itself is decentralized. With the introduction of CFun token, we will be able to record, quantify and reward creators’ efforts on our platform. This successful ICO would further enable us to construct the CFun application, the platform as well as expanding its business model into other countries such as Japan and Korea.
To enable more effective two-way communication, we have decided to open this medium blog to update all investors and interested parties of the progress of CFun project.
Once again, we would like to thank all contributors and community members for your support and help towards CFun project.
CFun Project Team
Related Articles:
The CFun ICO Pre-Sale Goes Live — Global Launch of China’s Existing Largest Platform for Intellectual Property Creation and Monetization
World’s Largest Nijigen Content Platform CFun Seeks to Disrupt Creative Industry with BlockchainOpenGL 1.0 OpenGL Beta Vulkan Mad Max Stable vs Beta - Outer Graves Antergos Linux, 1080p, i7 5960x, 980ti Very High Vulkan 126 OpenGL 1.0 110 OpenGL Beta 49 126 110 49 0 26 52 78 104 130 Average FPS
OpenGL 1.0 OpenGL Beta Vulkan Mad Max Stable vs Beta - The Big Nothing Antergos Linux, 1080p, i7 5960x, 980ti Very High Vulkan 145 OpenGL 1.0 129 OpenGL Beta 68 145 129 68 0 29 58 87 116 145 Average FPS
In an effort to make things as clear as possible, I decided to do some additional testing with Mad Max [ Steam Feral Store ]. More specifically, in OpenGL for Mad Max at release vs the beta.This is important, since our previous benchmarks (and every other website and person who ran benchmarks) will be affected by this.Why was this not tested before? Well, we weren't made aware of any changes to the OpenGL renderer in Mad Max. There should have been no need to do tests like this since the whole idea behind the Beta was to test Vulkan specifically, but hopefully this will help clear things up a bit.I ran some of my own tests using GLXOSD's benchmarking tool coupled with my speedy SSD on the Very High preset (with no extra game adjustments) and here's what I found. The results, sadly, speak for themselves. Done in two completely different areas to be sure it wasn't a fluke.As always, benchmarks should always be taken with a grain of salt. It will depend heavily on your system setup. Not just hardware, but the exact distro and libs you have too all affect the numbers.This was tricky to do, since the Beta version does have other issues with OpenGL, which is in the form of crash bugs. I've had a few crashes I've reported to Feral in the beta version when using OpenGL, so hopefully those can also get fixed. It's also tricky since the original release didn't feature a benchmark mode, so it had to all be done manually.The good news is that Feral Interactive are aware of it, so they can look to fix it. The other good news, is that Vulkan is still performing better than both versions of the game when using OpenGL.This regression might also be affecting the Vulkan renderer, so it's possible when fixed both the OpenGL and Vulkan versions could see a boost, although the OpenGL boost would likely only be putting it back to normal levels.Finally, something to remember: This is exactly what a Beta test is for.The evidence against the deep-roots theory of war keeps mounting. The theory holds that war’s roots extend back hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, and that war is an adaptive trait, favored by natural selection.
The theory has been promulgated by many influential scholars, including psychologist Steven Pinker, biologist Edward Wilson and anthropologist Richard Wrangham.
For a recent example of the theory in action, see this Washington Post essay by Wrangham’s colleague Luke Glowacki. The violence of the Islamic State, he contends, is just the latest manifestation of a primal propensity that we share with chimpanzees, our closest relatives. “Although there are well-documented cases of hunter-gatherers living peacefully with their neighbors,” Glowacki states, “these are the exception rather than the rule.”
Actually, the reverse is true. As I keep reminding readers (see Further Reading), the evidence is overwhelming that war is a relatively recent cultural invention. War emerged toward the end of the Paleolithic era, and then only sporadically. A new study by Japanese researchers published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters corroborates this view.
Six Japanese scholars led by Hisashi Nakao examined the remains of 2,582 hunter-gatherers who lived 12,000 to 2,800 years ago, during Japan’s so-called Jomon Period. The researchers found bashed-in skulls and other marks consistent with violent death on 23 skeletons, for a mortality rate of 0.89 percent.
Even this estimate for warfare-mortality might be high, the researchers note, “because some injuries were likely due to homicide or accident rather than warfare.” Remarkably, the team found no signs of violence on skeletons from the so-called Initial Jomon Period, which lasted from 12,000 to 7,000 years ago.
The mortality rate estimated by the Japanese team is more than an order of magnitude lower than rates commonly cited by deep-rooters, and it corroborates a study of early human remains carried out by Jonathan Haas and Matthew Piscitelli.
“We argue that warfare was probably not common among hunter–gatherers of the Jomon period,” Nakao and his colleagues state. They add that their study contradicts the claim “that warfare is inherent in human nature and was an important selective pressure.”
The media, following the old dictum “If it bleeds, it leads,” love the deep-roots theory. See for example the recent coverage of a massacre that apparently took place near Africa’s Lake Turkana 10,000 years ago, which was widely--and wrongly—viewed as evidence for the deep-roots theory.
The new Japanese study, fortunately, has also attracted media attention. “The results suggest perhaps that violence is not so inherently part of human nature as has been previously proposed,” notes The Daily Mail, a British paper. (See also reports in The Washington Post, International Business Times and United Press International.)
The debate over the deep-roots theory matters, because many people think that if war is ancient and innate, it must also be inevitable. President Barack Obama implied as much when he stated in 2009 that war “appeared with the first man” and “we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes.”
This sort of fatalism could undermine efforts to achieve permanent peace. I hope the Japanese study portends the beginning of the end of the flimsy yet insidious deep-roots theory of war.
Addendum: Anthropologist Jonathan Haas, whose work I cite above, sent me the following comment: It is sad that we have to continue to confront the pernicious argument of the “deep roots” of warfare in humanity. There is absolutely no scientific evidence in either biology or archaeology (the only two disciplines that really count in this debate) for human warfare going back more than 10,000 years. Biological accounts of chimpanzee “warfare” demonstrate that chimpanzees engage in intergroup conflict--under conditions that are remarkably similar to those affecting certain relatively recent human societies. This is simply not evidence for the biological foundations of human warfare, any more than using a sponge (or crumpled leaves) to soak up water is part of the biological makeup of humanity. As to the archaeological record, for 190,000 years of human existence, there is simply no evidence of warfare in the human repertoire. The supposed “evidence” cited by scholars such as Pinker, Bowles and others consists of an unscientific mishmash of data drawn from the relatively recent prehistoric past by people who know nothing about the science of archaeology. The truly dangerous part of the “deep roots” theory is that provides a foundation for warmongers to ignore the actual root causes of war in the modern world, which are invariably to be found in the material bases of culture--environment, resource availability, demography and production. If we are going to understand why people go to war, we have to understand that warfare comes not from our biology but from causal variables that can be addressed and resolved by human actions.
Further Reading:
10,000-Year-Old Massacre Does Not Bolster Claim That War Is Innate.
I am Innately Aggressive, Not Innately Warlike.
Quitting the hominid fight club: The evidence is flimsy for innate chimpanzee–let alone human–warfare.
New Study of Foragers Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots.
New Study of Prehistoric Skeletons Undermines Claim that War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots.
Survey of Earliest Human Settlements Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots.
Chimp Violence Fails to Support Deep-Roots Theory of War.
Margaret Mead’s War Theory Kicks Butt of Neo-Darwinian and Malthusian Models.
RIP Military Historian John Keegan, Who Saw War As Product of Culture Rather than Biology.
War Is Our Most Urgent Problem; Let's Solve It.Julian Finney/Getty Images
Updates from Sunday, May 4
Chelsea announced Eden Hazard is not ready to start in today's match:
Updates from Wednesday, April 30
Sky Sports reports that Eden Hazard has returned for the Blues in today's Champions League clash:
Updates from Tuesday, April 29
Eden Hazard was seen training with the Chelsea first team ahead of Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second leg with Atletico Madrid.
Sky Sports and Chelsea tweeted:
Hazard is fit to play on Wednesday, according to Chelsea's official Twitter feed:
Updates from Friday, April 25
Eden Hazard is out of Chelsea's trip to Liverpool, but stands a chance of returning against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
Jose Mourinho confirmed via Chelsea's official Twitter:
Kristof Terreur of HLN has more on Hazard's potential status:
Updates from Monday, April 21
ESPN confirms Eden Hazard traveled with Chelsea for the team's Champions League match tomorrow:
Sky Sports' Staff previously reported Hazard was unfit to participate in training:
Eden Hazard missed Chelsea's open training session ahead of Tuesday's Champions League semi-final first-leg at Atletico Madrid. Chelsea hope the Belgian midfielder will recover in time for the trip to Madrid after suffering a calf injury in the quarter-final win over Paris St-Germain.
Updates from Friday, April 18
Eden Hazard will not be fit for Saturday's visit of Sunderland to Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea hope he will return for the Champions League semi-final first leg against Atletico Madrid.
Assistant first-team coach Steve Holland said, via Chelsea's official Twitter:
Original Text
Chelsea advanced to the Champions League semifinals, but not without suffering an injury to Eden Hazard.
The Belgian playmaker was subbed off in the 17th minute for Andre Schuerrle after picking up a knock:
Physioroom.com provides quotes from Jose Mourinho, who spoke about the injury after the match:
After the match Hazard downplayed the injury via Ed Maylon of the Mirror: "I had already felt some pain in my calf during the warming-up. I didn't want to take a risk."
Yet Mourinho paints a different picture according to the BBC:"It is a calf problem, but I have no idea the dimension of his injury. Even when they are not serious, you cannot play for a couple of weeks."
The report states that Mourinho believes he'll miss two weeks.
Hazard is one of the Blues' most dynamic players. Given the club's problems at striker, his skill in the attack has been invaluable. The 23-year-old has scored 16 goals across the Champions League and Premier League in addition to providing seven assists, both of which lead the club.
Chelsea came into Tuesday night needing to overcome a 3-1 deficit from the first leg. Without their best player, springing the comeback became that much harder.
Zonal Marking's Michael Cox, though, thinks this could be Schuerrle's opportunity to shine:
The Blues will also be worrying about their Premier League campaign. They're two points back of Liverpool and only two points ahead of Manchester City, who have two games in hand. Winning the league may be impossible if Hazard is forced to miss the next few weeks.GOP Gov. Pat McCrory in a remarkable tail spin.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is either living in an alternate universe or he's blatantly lying to dig his way out of the sinkhole he's created with his bill targeting LGBTQ people for discrimination. He may call this damage control, but we call it bullshit.
Lie # 1: It's not like Indiana
McCrory in an NBC interview:
"There's a branding effort by the advocates pushing this agenda, which are trying to compare the North Carolina with the Indiana situation—when there's absolutely no comparison."
In actuality, it's remarkably similar. Republican governor, living in a time-warp bubble, thinks he can score political points with his social conservative base by statutorily ensuring that people can legally discriminate against LGBT Americans. Indiana’s Gov. Pence destroyed his own political ambitions to run for higher office; McCrory is presently doing exactly the same. Good luck in your re-election this fall, governor, where Democratic AG Roy Cooper is getting ready to swamp you.
Lie #2: It's all meaningless "political theater"
From NBC:
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday dismissed criticism of a controversial new law curbing LGBT anti-discrimination protections as "political theater" that he says is concocted by left-wing activists, accusing them of a "calculated smear campaign" that included threatening local businesses to oppose the measure.
You call it "political theater," we call it our lives. When you can be fired from your job simply because you're gay, that's not "political theater," that's a livelihood. When you are forced to use a bathroom in which you clearly bear no resemblance to your peers, that's not "political theater," that's an invitation to be violently beaten. You may have no idea what it's like to live on the margins, governor, but your law ensures that people who do are now in far greater jeopardy.
But wait … he’s got more lies!Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is facing defeat in a constitutional reform referendum that could spark the European Union’s next crisis.
Mr Renzi has promised to resign if voters reject proposed reforms to the Italian Senate, thus increasing political uncertainty in the Eurozone’s third largest economy.
Final polls out this weekend show the “No” camp widening its lead after the election of Donald Trump in the United States, with voters increasingly keen to punish the political elite and Mr Renzi looking increasingly beleaguered.
The vote is still two weeks away, but a polling blackout will now apply, prohibiting the publication of any new opinion polls before the referendum.
The reforms include limiting the Senate’s powers to veto bills and taking more power from the regions and handing it to the central government.
The Italian government had hoped these measures would lead to greater stability in a country where administrations regularly come and go in the space of a few years, but disillusioned voters have seized on Mr Renzi’s threat to resign if the referendum fails and rapidly turned against him.
Alessandra Ghisleri, head of the Euromedia agency, told Reuters: “Trump’s victory was important because Renzi strongly backed Hillary Clinton and so people link him with the loser and the mainstream establishment that Clinton was seen as representing.”
Renato Mannheimer, head of Eumetra-Monterosa, which gives ‘No’ a seemingly unassailable 12-point lead, also told the news agency: “It’s all about disenchantment with Renzi because the economic crisis isn’t finished and the lives of most Italians aren’t improving.
“I don’t think it has much to do with the constitutional reform itself.”
Another survey by Ipsos-PA for Corriere della Sera gives ‘No’ a 10-point lead, while Euromedia puts the ‘No’ side eight points ahead.
Mr Renzi’s resignation could pave the way for fresh elections in Italy, which could see the insurgent populist Five Star Movement take power. The party now polling just behind the governing Democratic Party, potentially giving it enough support to lead a centre-right coalition.
The party is strongly Eurosceptic and anti-establishment, thus creating another headache for European leaders.The Canadian Press
EDMONTON -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in the Alberta capital on Monday to meet with police canine units and to announce the introduction of new legislation dubbed Quanto's Law.
The proposed Justice for Animals in Service Act calls for tougher penalties for anyone who harms a service animal, including those working for police and the military.
Quanto was an Edmonton police dog stabbed to death while trying to apprehend a fleeing suspect last October.
"These service animals are not pets. They are important investments that police services and others make in animals that perform very specialized duties," Harper said at a photo opportunity.
"Tens of thousands of dollars of training go into animals like this and when they are attacked, as of course the late Quanto was, not only is that the loss of a considerable asset for a police service, it also is a wider attack on the police services that protect us."
Harper did not take any questions from reporters.
The legislation, promised in the 2013 throne speech, proposes Criminal Code amendments to impose a minimum six-month jail sentence for anyone who kills a police dog. The maximum sentence would be five years.
Quanto's killer, Paul Joseph Vukmanich, pleaded guilty earlier this year to animal cruelty and other offences, including evading police. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison and banned from owning a pet for 25 years.
Court heard that Vukmanich, then 27, was high on drugs and fleeing from police when he repeatedly stabbed the dog named Quanto.
Officers had set the German shepherd loose after Vukmanich was caught driving a car with stolen plates and ran away on foot.
Edmonton police canine unit Staff Sgt. Trevor Hermanutz said officers are pleased with the law.
"We know that now we have a law that is going to put some teeth to the matter -- the fact that when people want to injure or kill law enforcement animals, there are some serious legal consequences to their actions," Hermanutz said.
"We're proud to see that happen."
- With files from CHED.Later tonight Major League Soccer's best players will welcome Real Madrid to Chicago for the 2017 MLS All-Star Game. Regardless of the game's final score, however, MLS will walk away as today's biggest winner thanks to a massive new extension with apparel sponsor Adidas.
The sportswear manufacturer has agreed to a new six-year deal to be the official apparel supplier for the league, its clubs and their affiliated youth programs. Though financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, the total value is $700 million according to a source with knowledge of the agreement.
Today's news marks the biggest investment Adidas has made in North American soccer, and it's far and away the biggest sponsorship deal in MLS history. At just under $117 million per year on average it's also more valuable than the league's current TV contracts: Fox, ESPN and Univision pay a combined $90 million per year on average.
"It is by far the biggest deal in the history of our league," says MLS commissioner Don Garber, "This deal, in my perspective, helps solidify our position as the leading soccer property in North America. This is a really strong statement about where MLS is today, and how we’re poised for a very positive and energized future."
Mark King, president of Adidas North America, says something similar when asked about why Adidas has made such a significant commitment to the league. "At the core of the Adidas brand around the world is soccer," says King, "And when you look at what's the opportunity to really drive soccer in the United States, there's only one option, and that's MLS."
Adidas first partnered with the league in 2004. The $117 million per year is a nearly five-fold increase over the $25 million per year that Adidas was reportedly paying under its previous agreement.
The six-year extension will commit more money to Generation Adidas, the player development program started in 2004 that offers homegrown players early entry to the league. The Generation Adidas program has produced the likes of Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley, along with MLS mainstays like Dax McCarty and Darlington Nagbe. Under the new agreement MLS and Adidas will also increase support for Generation Adidas Canada, a similar program for Canadian players that was announced late last year.
Youth development is a key component of the arrangement. As Garber notes, much of the league's success is the result of connecting with future fans in their formative years: "It’s about engaging with them in a way that, when they grow up to become consumers, we would be a part of their lives. From a business-building perspective that’s proving to be true."
King echoes that sentiment, arguing that MLS provides a unique chance to connect with young fans. "More than any other league, you don’t just get a branding opportunity, but you actually get to work grassroots through the partnership with MLS to be able to reach out to all these kids who are playing and build a lasting relationship with them."
MLS fans are, on average, the youngest among major American pro sports. And yet while MLS is a league that's still in growth mode, the new Adidas deal is the most significant indicator yet that the league has arrived as a major player in the American pro sports scene. Point in fact: The new Adidas deal is worth nearly 70% more per year than the reported $70 million that Adidas is paying annually for its NHL apparel partnership.
The six-year term runs through 2023, meaning MLS will be able to negotiate its next league apparel partnership ahead of the start of the 2026 World Cup, which many expect will be played in North America.
Follow @ChrisSmith813The easy part, at least, is done. The Knicks have fired head coach Mike Woodson, the first major transaction under the administration of new team president Phil Jackson, but all eyes now are on what Jackson does next—and what impact it has on the free-agent decision of the team’s star forward, Carmelo Anthony.
League sources told Sporting News that, though Anthony had been a supporter of Woodson, the coaching change will not have any impact on how he will go about making his decision on where to play next season. Anthony has a player option worth $23.5 million next year, but he will opt out of that contract and hit free agency.
MORE: Anthony misses postseason | Knicks fire Mike Woodson
Jackson is said to want his former player and current TNT broadcaster Steve Kerr to take the Knicks’ job. But, a source with knowledge of the situation said, the team’s decision on replacing Woodson—with Kerr or anyone else—will have little impact on how Anthony, who missed the postseason for the first time in his 11-year career, approaches his free agency.
“He wants to be in a situation where he can start winning, and he is going to look at teams based on that,” the source said. “Coaching is only a part of the equation. What they do now is not going to be as important as can they win?”
Free agency opens on July 1, and, the source said, Anthony would like, “the Dwight Howard treatment.” That means he wants to go through the same sort of process that Howard went through last summer, when Howard set up shop in Los Angeles and set up meetings with five teams—Houston, the Lakers, Dallas, Golden State and Atlanta—each of whom came in and made formal presentations.
Anthony has not finalized any list of teams, but the Knicks and Bulls are certain to be on it. Chicago would have to shed salary to accommodate Anthony, but the Bulls will make Anthony their offseason priority. Chicago has its amnesty provision available and could use it to dump the contract of forward Carlos Boozer.
The Bulls also have the 16th and 19th picks in the draft, and could use those to entice a team to trade for Boozer’s contract.
Either way, going to Chicago would require Anthony to take a pay cut to leave New York, but—as Howard did when he left the Lakers to sign with the Rockets—Anthony would be willing to do so. Also, while nothing has been set, the Lakers, Rockets and Clippers could be among the teams to pitch Anthony in July.
While Anthony is conscious of the poor PR that would come from jilting his hometown Knicks, it is—again—Howard’s situation that has most altered his view. Howard left Orlando and dumped the Lakers after just one season, and went through a gauntlet of bad PR in doing so. But Howard seems genuinely happy in Houston, even if getting there was difficult. And for Howard, the storm of bad publicity has long since passed.
All of this puts added pressure on Jackson and his decision for the next Knicks coach. Although it is not likely to have an impact on Anthony’s decision, hiring a new coach is the only major change Jackson can make to the Knicks, who are hampered by the fact that the roster comes with the second-highest payroll in the league.
Even if Anthony signs elsewhere, the Knicks will have about $68 million in contract commitments, meaning they’re likely to be over the salary cap before free agency even begins. New York also does not have a first-round draft pick, having included it in the package it sent to Denver to get Anthony in the first place.
If Anthony agrees to stay with the Knicks, he will have to endure another season with much the same roster as the team had last year, though New York will gain a huge amount of salary-cap space for the bumper crop of free agents in 2015.
Anthony, though, will be 31 then, and it will take a lot to convince to throw away another season with the Knicks while waiting for free agency in two summers, at which time the Knicks might not even wind up with the players they’ll be targeting. That’s a tough sell for Jackson—and whomever he chooses as his coach—to have to make to Anthony: Stick around, finish near.500 again for the ’14-’15 season and hope we can add a star in two summers.
Woodson has been fired. But for Jackson, with Anthony in mind, the difficult offseason is just beginning.One of the most spectacular and visually fascinating Tet Zoo-related books of recent-ish months is Chet Van Duzer’s Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps, published in 2013 by the British Library. I said a few words about this book back in June 2013, and here (at last) is the proper review I’ve been promising. Lavishly illustrated in colour throughout, it has extraordinarily high production values and is a real masterpiece of design; its editorial and print quality is also very high. If you have a serious interest in sea monsters (however you interpret that term), arcane zoology or cryptozoology, the history of seafaring, or in old maps, this book is an essential purchase. It’s also extremely reasonably priced.
Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps is not just an atlas of chronologically arranged images; it’s also an analytical study that discusses the trends seen in the maps over time and describes specific maps, their makers, and the creatures they depict. Almost 300 footnotes provide supplementary information. The book is also fully indexed.
Several themes emerge as you read (or browse) this amazing book. The splendour of the maps themselves is really something to behold. Consider the gigantic maps commissioned by Florentine merchant Baldassare degli Ubriachi in 1400: they were 3.7 m wide and 3.7 m tall and featured “165 figures and animals... 100 fishes large and small” and much else besides (the maps do not survive). Francesco Becaria (or Beccari), the map-maker concerned, was not paid and we only know about this case because he took legal action against Ubriachi (Van Duzer 2013). The Ebstorf mappamundi – destroyed during WWII – was of similar size at 3.6 m wide and 3.6 m tall.
Maps were designed for decoration but also served as documentations of knowledge or as objects of economic or military value; it is clear that many were deliberately designed or commissioned to be attractive or even entertaining, the number and position of the creatures shown upon them mostly being the result of financial and/or aesthetic decision. If you ever thought that the sea monsters shown on old maps were meant to be zoologically meaningful representations of genuine unknown animals, this decorative or entertainment aspect should be ringing proverbial alarm bells. Clearly, the monsters are there to make the maps more interesting. A dislike of empty spaces – Van Duzer (2013) refers to a horror vacui – in part explains why some sea monsters appear where they do, but there are others reasons too.
Olaus Magnus and an economic function for sea monsters
Where did map-makers derive their sea monsters from? While there are cases where artists really did illustrate creatures that they’d heard about or even seen themselves (read on), Van Duzer (2013) explains how the vast majority of monsters were either invented from scratch (this particularly goes for the zany, elaborate monsters that don’t resemble real animals at all), or were copied from other maps or from bestiaries and other books. As might be expected, several works (maps and books) were particularly influential as sources for the illustrations that followed and it is often very easy to demonstrate copying or derivation.
Olaus Magnus’s Carta Marina of 1539, printed on nine sheets and surviving as just two copies, is one of the most influential, featuring island-sized ‘whales’, a Nordic sea-serpent, a seal-eating, owl-faced ziphius*, a ‘sea pig’ and various other creatures copied extensively by later map-makers. Those familiar with Loxton & Prothero’s (2013) arguments on the origins of sea-serpent legends will recall the fact that the great marine serpent illustrated by Olaus was derived from earlier drawings and accounts of a land serpent that emerged from a sea cave; Olaus modified this creature for the Carta Marina by severing the link to the land shown in his other illustrations (in his 1555 A Description of the Northern Peoples, he clearly depicted the animal emerging from a cave on the coast).
* The Ziphius of sea-monster lore is a whale-sized creature with a sword-like structure on its back and an owl-like face surrounded by an extensive ruff. It is sometimes portrayed as a spiky quadruped somewhat like a gargantuan hedgehog. I’ve read claims that Ziphius the extant whale (Cuvier’s whale) was the real animal behind Ziphius the sea-monster. Given that the key features of the mythical Ziphius are an owl-like face and an ability to spear animals and ships with the sword on its back, the idea that Ziphius the sea monster has anything to do with Ziphius the whale is fanciful. In any case, Ziphius the whale was named (by Cuvier in 1823) on the basis of a fragmentary fossil skull, not because it was believed linked to Ziphius the sea monster. [Adjacent whale drawing by Bardrock.]
Olaus himself was extensively consulting the Hortus Sanitatis – a giant, richly illustrated encyclopedia published in 1491 – as well as other sources and must have been quite the expert on the sea monsters of the contemporary literature. Was he – as some cryptozoologists might have us believe (Heuvelmans 1968) – an accurate and trustworthy describer of zoological novelties? Well, “Luigi de Anna has suggested that the sea monsters on the map were intended not only to excite the curiosity of the viewer, but also to dissuade fishermen from other countries from entering Scandinavian waters. If this intriguing suggestion is correct, the sea monsters on the map have an innovative economic function” (Van Duzer 2013, p. 86).
Inventing sea monsters and a history of copying
Some creatures on especially old maps illustrate the traditional belief that the creatures of the sea mirrored those of the land. So we have ‘sea dogs’, ‘sea goats’, ‘sea dragons’, ‘sea stags’, ‘sea cows’ (which really are cows, not dugongs or manatees) and even ‘sea chickens’ (yes, really: there’s a marine chicken on the 10th century Ger |
ux3: 0.27s 0.34s 1.00s 6.86s (lower is better)
We expect sub-linear scaling with respect to tasks as opportunities to
combine commits increase, then linear scaling as total write traffic
begins to dominate. Tux3 still shows sub-linear scaling even at 10,000
tasks. XFS scales poorly, and also suffers from read starvation at the
high end, sometimes taking tens of seconds to cat a file or minutes to
list a directory. Ext4 and Tux3 exhibit no such issues, remaining
completely responsive under all tested loads. The bottom line for this
test is, Tux3 is twice as fast at fsync with a modest task count, and
the gap widens to nine times faster than its nearest competitor as task
count increases.
Is there any practical use for fast parallel fsync of tens of thousands
of tasks? This could be useful for a scalable transaction server that
sits directly on the filesystem instead of a database, as is the
fashion for big data these days. It certainly can't hurt to know that
if you need that kind of scaling, Tux3 will do it.
Of course, a pure fsync load could be viewed as somewhat unnatural. We also need to know what happens under a realistic load with buffered operations mixed with fsyncs. We turn to an old friend, dbench: Dbench -t10 Tasks: 8 16 32 Ext4: 35.32 MB/s 34.08 MB/s 39.71 MB/s XFS: 32.12 MB/s 25.08 MB/s 30.12 MB/s Btrfs: 54.40 MB/s 75.09 MB/s 102.81 MB/s Tux3: 85.82 MB/s 133.69 MB/s 159.78 MB/s (higher is better)
Tux3 and Btrfs scale well and are way ahead of Ext4 and XFS, while Ext4
and XFS scale poorly or even negatively. Tux3 is the leader by a wide
margin, beating XFS by more than a factor of 5 at the high end.
Dbench -t10 -s (all file operations synchronous)
Tasks: 8 16 32 Ext4: 4.51 MB/s 6.25 MB/s 7.72 MB/s XFS: 4.24 MB/s 4.77 MB/s 5.15 MB/s Btrfs: 7.98 MB/s 13.87 MB/s 22.87 MB/s Tux3: 15.41 MB/s 25.56 MB/s 39.15 MB/s (higher is better)
With a pure synchronous load (O_SYNC) the ranking is not changed but the
gaps widen, and Tux3 outperforms XFS by a factor of 7.5.
At the risk of overgeneralizing, a trend seems to be emerging: the new,
write-anywhere designs run synchronous operations faster, combine
synchronous and asynchronous operations more efficiently, and scale
better to high task counts than the traditional journaling designs. If
there is to be an Ext5, it might be worth considering the merit of
abandoning the journal in favor of something along the lines of Tux3's
redirect-on-write and logging combination.
Getting back to Ted's question, perhaps an asynchronous design really is
a better idea all round, even for synchronous operations, and perhaps
there really is such a thing as an improved design that is not just a
different set of tradeoffs.
In the full disclosure department, Tux3 is still not properly optimized
in some areas. One of them is fragmentation: it is not very hard to
make Tux3 slow down by running long tests. Our current allocation
algorithm is completely naive - it just allocates the next available
block and wraps at the top of volume. After a few wraps, it makes a big
mess. So today we are not claiming victory in the benchmark department,
we still have some work to do. Today is just about fsync, for which it
is fair to say that Tux3 sets a new performance standard.
Regards, Daniel
Footnote: While I was doing this work, Hirofumi set about improving our
full filesystem sync to support merging parallel full syncs into single
delta commits. That one change improved fsync performance so much that
I almost abandoned my separate fsync work. However, a true, separate
fsync with aggressive group commit eventually proved superior, so now we
have both: a high performance fsync and a full filesystem sync that is
nearly as fast under many loads.
/* * syncs.c
*
* D.R. Phillips, 2015
*
* To build: c99 -Wall syncs.c -o syncs
* To run:./syncs [<filename> [<syncs> [<tasks>]]] */ #include <unistd.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include <sys/wait.h> #include <errno.h> #include <sys/stat.h> char text[1024] = { "hello world!
" }; int main(int argc, const char *argv[]) { const char *basename = argc < 1? "foo" : argv[1]; char name[100]; int steps = argc < 3? 1 : atoi(argv[2]); int tasks = argc < 4? 1 : atoi(argv[3]); int err, fd; for (int t = 0; t < tasks; t++) { snprintf(name, sizeof name, "%s%i", basename, t); if (!fork()) goto child; } for (int t = 0; t < tasks; t++) wait(&err); return 0; child: fd = creat(name, S_IRWXU); for (int i = 0; i < steps; i++) { write(fd, text, sizeof text); fsync(fd); } return 0; } -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/The CFL Combine presented by adidas painted a large part of the 2017 CFL Draft picture last month. Not all of it, however.
Some of the top players didn’t participated in the combine, instead opting to hold their own pro days. And just like the combine, pro days are important tools for evaluating some of the draft’s top talent.
With that said, here’s a look at how some of the upcoming draft’s top prospects fared in front of the scouts and GMs on their pro days:
ELI ANKOU | DT, UCLA
There is a reason Eli Ankou is at UCLA. Mainly his hulking size at 6-foot-3, 331 pounds, but what makes Eli a special CFL Draft prospect is the lower body power he can generate at that size.
Ankou does not look like he weighs 331 pounds in pads and at his pro day, he laid down a broad jump number of 9-feet, 7-inches that would make you believe he was closer to 300 pounds while complementing that with 31 reps on the bench press.
His movement skills were’t high-end but he will primarily be asked to blow people off the ball in the CFL if and when he arrives here — something running around cones can’t measure.
FAITH EKAKITIE | DL, IOWA
Faith Ekakitie is viewed by some in the scouting community as being more likely to don a CFL uniform than Ankou due to Ekakitie’s smaller relative frame. With that said, Faith still possesses a prototypical defensive tackle body and a has a quickness to his game that will fit the CFL perfectly.
His movement tests were equally impressive considering his body make up and his strength was everything it needed to be — one of the many reasons he has raised his stock on every scouting bureau list since September.
CHRISTOPHE MULUMBA | LB, MAINE
Unfortunately for CFL scouts and perhaps Mulumba himself, the reason he attended the Maine pro day but not the CFL Combine in Regina is because both events overlapped.
At his pro day, Mulumba ran a 4.77 40-yard dash while carrying elite live strength. Perhaps the most impressive part of Mulumba’s pro day was his lower body explosion tests. Both the vertical and broad jump displayed the type of power you love to see in a linebacker worthy of immediate special teams work with an eye to the future as a possible ratio changer.
They’re all aspects that keep Mulumba as the top-ranked linebacker in this year’s draft class.
GEOFF GRAY | OL, MANITOBA
Whether setting broad jump records or riding unicycles, Geoff Gray’s pro day just felt impressive. The East-West Shrine Bowl invitee comes from a power lifting background leading to exceptional hip explosion in his jumps and the ability to open up stride during his 40-yard dash.
Everything about this guy screams that he’s worth the top pick, even though it would inherit risk of the NFL sweeping in to take him away for a while.
JUSTIN SENIOR | OL, MISSISSIPPI STATE
The CFL Scouting Bureau’s top-rated prospect throughout the entire CFL draft process measured in at his Mississippi State pro day at 6-foot-5, 331 pounds. A mountain of a man with what I would deem raw movement skills.
Personally, I feel as though teams have fallen in love with Senior’s natural size more than his natural movement and ability — a natural part of assessing a rare SEC offensive lineman who, with good coaching, could be special in the CFL.
Similar to Eli Ankou, one number that really stood out for Senior was his broad jump. A positive trait for any lineman offensive or defensive in foreshadowing their ability to get off the ball.
ANTONY AUCLAIR | REC, LAVAL
Auclair ran his 40-yard dash with a tweaked hamstring and did not hit the number he wanted at his Laval pro day. Regardless of the number, it is easy to see on film in the RSEQ this season that Auclair has a good understanding of time and space, comfortably sitting down in the hole against zone coverage while running away from much smaller linebackers and defensive backs in man coverage.
In a perfect world his movement skill tests would have been better but the guy is a football player, not a track or multi sport athlete. On the football field he has all the measurable needed to succeed and is firmly inside the top 20 picks of my forthcoming third mock draft despite his NFL interest.Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Corey Linsley congratulate each other after the Packers scored on a 80-yard touchdown reception against the New York Jets. (Photo: Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette Media/@PGevansiegle)
Center is a thankless position, one of the most undervalued and misunderstood in football. But not to Aaron Rodgers.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback appreciates what rookie center Corey Linsley has done this season. Remember, Linsley wasn't even supposed to be in this spot. Not as a fifth-round pick out of Ohio State.
This was effectively a redshirt season, right up until second-year center J.C. Tretter fractured his knee in the Packers third preseason game.
Two weeks before Green Bay's season opener at the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, Linsley went from backup to starter. He only had one preseason tuneup game – without Rodgers – against the Kansas City Chiefs to get ready. To say he hasn't missed a beat would be undervaluing how effective the rookie has played. At least to Rodgers.
"Corey has played as solid as anybody," Rodgers said Tuesday on his weekly ESPN Milwaukee radio show. "I think at some point there needs to be a little bit of campaigning about him for Pro Bowl. He's played that good. He doesn't have the name recognition yet. A lot of times, you get voted in the year after you deserve to and maybe a year longer than you deserve to, as they say."
Yes, Linsley has benefited from playing between veteran guards Josh Sitton and T.J. Lang. Sitton, especially, has made his own case for the Pro Bowl through the season's first nine games.
The Packers' left guard – a second-team All-Pro last season and Pro Bowler in 2012 – hasn't allowed a sack this season. He also leads the NFC with a 98.8 pass blocking efficiency, and Green Bay's offensive line with a season grade of plus-17.3, according to Pro Football Focus.
It's hard to evaluate centers. They play in the middle of the offensive line, often obscured by a mass of humanity in the trenches. Usually, they're only noticed after mistakes.
Linsley has made few mistakes this season. He's one of three NFC centers to allow no sacks while playing more than 300 passing snaps, joining Kory Lichtensteiger of the Washington Redskins and J.D. Walton of the New York Giants. His plus-9.3 overall grade and plus-8.7 run block grade from Pro Football Focus is second highest among NFC centers, behind Max Unger of the Seattle Seahawks. Linsley ranks third leaguewide in both.
Usually, veterans are reserved for the Pro Bowl. Perhaps offensive rookie of the year consideration is a more realistic area to campaign. Linsley would be a longshot. From New Orleans Saints receiver Brandin Cooks to Buffalo Bills receiver Sammy Watkins, the 2014 season isn't lacking deserving candidates at skill positions. Dallas Cowboys tackle Zach Martin has also earned attention.
Still, it's clear Linsley has played good football through the first nine games of his career. Most telling, Linsley played well enough to keep his job even after Tretter returned from injured reserve last week. There was never any hesitation with the coaching staff.
Earlier this season, Packers coach Mike McCarthy called Linsley one of the most impressive rookies in recent years. Rodgers clearly agrees.
"Corey has been so solid at center," he said. "I'm really proud of him. He's been a rock in there. Now, he's had two great guys to play next to, but I think they'd say the same thing – that he's been playing at a really high level. So I'm proud of him."
-- [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ByRyanWoodThe University of Iowa will add a new bachelor’s program in social justice, the Iowa Board of Regents voted Thursday.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the social justice program is the first of its kind in any Iowa college or university.
The program intends to help students “explore, discover, and create practical solutions to real issues related to economics, health care, human rights, civil rights, and the environment,” the proposal stated.
The new program will be offered by the Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, which has a history of “creating opportunities for real-world experience tied to classroom experience,” according to the proposal.
“Students will explore the intersections of race, class, gender, culture, economics, history, nationality, and human rights,” it stated. “They will approach social justice through the arts, history, literature, comparative religious studies, political science, philosophy, health education, and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies.”
Students enrolled in the program can choose an emphasis in international history, human rights, health, issues in gender and women’s studies, politics and social justice, ethnic and cultural studies, or environmental issues.
The Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees all three public universities in the state, voted in Iowa City on Thursday to approve the social justice degree program at the University of Iowa, a university spokesperson told Campus Reform.
The anticipated implementation date is Spring 2017. Enrollment is expected to be 25 students during year one of the new program, increasing to 110 students by year seven, according to the proposal.
UI Provost Barry Butler said student demand for the program should be high, judging from the success of the university’s recent social justice seminar and its “Justice For All” living learning community, the Press-Citizen reported.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.This blog originally began as a love letter to my favourite grappler and idol, Fernando Tereré. He was the reason I spent a year of my life living in Rio, where he invited me to live amongst his friends and family in the favela that he grew up in.
He is a philosopher, a clown, and a role-model rolled into one fallible human being. And here are some more of my observations and musings on the man from my last stay in the cradle of Jiu-Jitsu.
We’ll begin from the point that I consider Tereré to be literally the most charismatic human being I have ever encountered in my entire life. It is this charisma that ensured his beloved status within the Jiu-Jitsu community long after his competitive career ended, and after all of his well known struggles with mental illness and addiction. He is someone who seems to have an endless supply of energy that is infectious to anyone in his radius, he is a man who manages to uplift the mood of everyone else.
His fun loving side and childish silliness make it so much fun to spend time with him. There was the time he hijacked an American student’s skateboard (which was ‘donated’ to the academy) and used it to ride down the steep road adjacent to the academy. I wasn’t the only one who felt like this was going to end in some serious amount of pain; either from the passing cars or the hard concrete, but it didn’t faze the man at all, he even went back for an equally nail biting second run. Then the time we were sat together at the academy and he said, “Moz, look at this”. He was deep into a conversation with a seemingly interested girl and had asked her if she would like to ‘talk dirty‘. He proceeded to start talking the talk; when said female asked for some pictures of him, without a moment’s hesitation, he sent a picture of his childhood friend, fellow black belt and professor at the academy, Julio Nogueira. The kicker here, Professor Nogueira happens to be a hundred and twenty kilos of sheer humanity smiling away in his kimono, not quite what she was expecting, one would imagine!
Any evidence of this immature sense of humour all but disappears when it is time to train; it would be unfair to stop short of calling him a genius on the mats. All the years of training, competing and teaching Jiu-Jitsu has not diminished the passion that he has for the sport. Watching Tereré train with his long-time friend and renowned black-belt in his own right, Elan Santiago, he studiously examines new techniques before beginning to rep them slowly, considering each and every movement. This acquisition of potentially new information is serious business, which is evident from the concentration on his face as he analyses every facet of it, looking for any holes there might be. When he is satisfied with the efficiency of something he drills it until it flows naturally into his game and then uses it enthusiastically on everyone that night.
It has been interesting observing the visitors who arrive daily at the academy from all over the world. It is certainly a heart-warming thing, the looks of awe on their faces when Tereré asks them to roll. It is the look of a little dude on Christmas morning, if all Christmas mornings in history were combined together. I can empathise with every single one of them too, no matter how many times we spar together, I cannot help but smile as I’m hit with the inevitable hook sweep, have my back taken and am quickly choked into near unconsciousness.
Although on the opposite side, certain dudes come to the academy with legend assassination on their mind, and will try to really put it on him whilst rolling. Whether you consider this disrespectful is a matter of personal opinion, although it is ultimately irrelevant as, when their intentions become clear, the volume is cranked up to 11 and these opportunistic individuals end up strangled in brutal fashion.
While this enthusiasm and energy radiates from him, he is at his most passionate when spending time with the children of his social project. Since returning home after his issues with addiction, he established his academy, which has provided free training for all children, and indeed adults, of his impoverished community. His goal for the project was to improve the lives of children in the community by providing them with a safe environment, removed from the drugs and violence which is unfortunately endemic within the favela.
He is a teacher, a role model, a friend and a hero to the children of the favela. Whilst in the community, little boys and girls flock to him. These children did not see him in his competitive heyday, they didn’t see the world title wins, they have no idea what he has meant to the sport of Jiu-Jitsu. They are drawn to him because of the love and affection that he has for them. With his project, he is providing much more than Jiu-Jitsu, there are positive role-models which sadly are lacking in many of the children’s lives, as well as somewhere they can spend time with their friends which is safe, and a place they can depend on to be fed.
Whilst on the mats, there is a lot of time for fun and games but when it comes time to introduce technique, Terere treats his young students as seriously as he does the adults. Witnessing the kids train is very different from classes here in the UK. They are taught like the adults. Risk assessments do not exist in Brazil, thus no techniques are restricted. And they go hard in sparring, hanging off each other’s necks and trying to drive each other through the mats with big throws. They are actively encouraged by Tereré, who sits on the side, giving precise instructions to his pint-sized students. The proof is in the pudding with the academy producing a green belt champion at this year’s IBJJF Pan Kids.
After their class, as the adults get warmed up and ready for their session, he can be regularly found outside flying kites with them the until class starts, surrounded by smiling kimono clad children, but the biggest smile always remains on his face.
This care for the children stretches off the mats and away from the academy. I received a shock one Saturday afternoon as I was walking along the beach, my mind somewhere else. I heard a familiar voice. “Oi Moz!”. I turned around to find Tereré surrounded by an eclectic mix of people; an army of his young students, battle hardened Brazilian black belts, and a assortment of dudes of varying nationalities all chilling, surfing and eating together. This surprise encounter ensured an awesome afternoon which ended back at Tereré’s spot for a carnivorous feast of meat in typical Churrasco style.
At the end of my stay, I had a private lesson which abandoned the traditional structure of exploring new techniques; I was given a theoretical lesson in Jiu-Jitsu. He is a different man when he is explaining technique one to one; gone is the jovial, energetic character that lights up in the room, replacing him is the thoughtful, analytical and brutally honest master of the art of Jiu-Jitsu.
Using his personal philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu, he broke down my game and explained to me my shortcomings. He concluded that I don’t “Play Jiu-Jitsu”, I come to the academy everyday and try to beat people relying solely on what I am already good at (yep, deep half!). I don’t open myself up to new positions or explore other avenues and possibilities, which, he explained, are essential to progress. In my head I was expecting some new technique and maybe some praise for my recent success at the IBJJF Open in Manaus, instead I was given a scolding for being so closed-minded!
Whilst his brutally honest assessment seemed harsh, it was so obvious how much he cared about my Jiu-Jitsu and its evolution. He wanted me above all things to gain an understanding of the bigger picture, which, according to his brutal analysis, I didn’t currently have. It hurt a little as I thought I was getting somewhere, only to find out I hadn’t really been going anywhere and success in competition wasn’t evidence of advancement.
In this hour he gave me something so much more important than a few techniques. He hadn’t given me any answers, but rather a formula to work them out for myself.
It has been a real privilege to have befriended the man who has transformed my Jiu-Jitsu game but more importantly is transforming the lives of those around him.Warren Buffett is not worried about who becomes the next president of the United States.
"That won't be the main problem" for Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett said at the company's annual shareholders meeting, adding the company will "do fine" whether Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton or Republican candidate Donald Trump win the November elections.
Buffett has been an outspoken supporter of Clinton, and has spoken approvingly about the campaign messageof her Democratic challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In February, the Oracle dismissed the doom and gloom of the current election cycle, saying U.S. citizens have abright future ahead.
The billionaire businessman said Berkshire has operated under all kinds of government leadership, and that good businesses are able to adapt to circumstances. He noted that, even with low interest rates American businesses have kept on finding ways for being profitable.
"The system works very well with aggregate output," he said.A woman who told police she was attacked by drunk Donald Trump supporters while riding the New York City subway was arrested Wednesday for allegedly fabricating the entire incident, authorities said.
Yasmin Seweid, 18, told police and the New York Daily News that she was harassed by three drunk white men who shouted the president-elect's name while attempting to remove her hijab on Dec. 1.
“Look, it’s a fucking terrorist,” she alleged they said in a Facebook post. “Get the hell out of the country!” (Her entire Facebook account has since been deleted.)
The Brooklyn-born woman also alleged that no other commuters came to her aid.
“Trump America is real and I witnessed it first hand last night! What a traumatizing night,” she wrote.
Police had said they were investigating the incident, and on Wednesday an NYPD spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that Seweid had been arrested for obstructing government administration and reporting a false incident.
Sources told DNAinfo New York that officers had spent "significant NYPD resources" trying to verify Seweid's story but could not locate witnesses or video of the incident.
The woman reportedly recanted her story on Tuesday, DNAinfo reported, allegedly saying she made up the story because of family problems.
In a Facebook post that has since been taken down, Yasmin Seweid's sister, Sara, wrote that she is not "excusing" what her sister did and that she was "horrified" after learning about her sister's lie. But she also lashed out at the NYPD for "leaking private information." The NYPD doesn't care about us and our safety. Never did," she wrote.“I’m literally in tears right now. That’s all I have to say,” said a longtime special agent who’s known and worked with Jim Comey for years | AP Photo FBI agents in tears as news of Comey's firing spreads
The news of FBI Director James Comey’s firing struck like a thunderclap at field offices around the country, where agents heard first from TV or the internet that their boss had been dismissed by President Donald Trump.
“I’m literally in tears right now. That’s all I have to say,” said a longtime special agent who’s known and worked with Comey for years. The agent first heard the news on the car radio.
Story Continued Below
FBI heads are appointed to 10-year terms to guarantee the political independence and integrity of the federal government’s top law enforcement agency. While nothing prevents a president from cutting short an FBI director’s term, such a move is typically reserved for instances of wrongdoing, such as President Bill Clinton’s 1993 dismissal of William Sessions amid an internal ethics investigation.
By Tuesday evening, the shock that initially spread throughout the ranks of current and former FBI officials was mixed with a growing sense of anger among the many Comey loyalists in the bureau, and demands for answers as to why the director had been fired — and why now.
“We just have no idea why this happened. No idea,” said one recently retired top FBI official who worked closely with Comey on multiple high-profile investigations. “No one knew this was coming. Everyone is just shocked that this happened.”
The former official said current and former agents were lighting up his phone, texts and emails and asking about the timing of Trump’s decision, especially so long after taking office — and while Comey was out of town.
Rank-and-file agents were immediately suspicious of the timing of Tuesday’s decision, questioning whether the ongoing investigations into Trump associates’ contacts with Russian government officials was the precipitating factor, even as the White House and Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited Comey’s misstatements last week in congressional testimony about Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“Everyone is asking, ‘Why now? What is the reason for doing it now?’” the former official said. “If this had happened immediately after the election, that would be one thing. Everyone was thinking it may happen then. But now? People keep asking if it’s because of Russia.”
At FBI headquarters, one senior official said the bureau was essentially in lockdown, not answering calls flooding in and referring all questions to the Justice Department. “I got nothing for you. Sorry,” said the official. “We were caught totally off guard.”
The Justice Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in his memo recommending the director’s ouster, wrote: “The FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.”
Mike German, a former FBI special agent who’s now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and Security Program, said Comey’s firing puts the bureau in a tough spot as it continues its investigations into Russian meddling in the election on Trump’s behalf.
“The working agents don’t like the way the FBI has been portrayed over the last six or eight or 10 months,” said German, a 16-year veteran FBI agent who left in 2004 after reporting problems in FBI counterterrorism operations to Congress. “I think this will be very tough. It’s really going to require a non-politicized effort to ensure the current investigations are allowed to proceed without any interference.”
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“I think the way it was done was not real nice,” said former agent Lewis Schiliro, who spent 25 years at the FBI before retiring in 2000 as head of the New York field office. “He could have asked for his resignation and given him a little bit of time to bow out gracefully.”
Schiliro added that Comey had undermined his status by holding a news conference last fall to announce that he was closing the investigation into Clinton’s private server — while chastising her for “careless” handling of official email correspondence. “He brought the bureau into a political situation when it ought not to be. That’s not the place for the FBI,” said Schiliro. “I think Comey was trying to play investigator and prosecutor, and putting both hats on was a drastic mistake on his part.”
“His press conference ought to have been two sentences: ‘The FBI has concluded its investigation. The facts of the matter have been presented to the Department of Justice for a prosecution decision.’ Thank you very much and walk off,” Schiliro added. “That’s the way it’s done.”
While the FBI has been polarized since the election, Trump’s decision will likely cause a “significant amount of backlash” within the bureau’s rank and file, said David Gomez, a former FBI agent who led the Seattle field office until his 2011 retirement.
“They’re going to view this as a political decision that impugns not only the integrity of director Comey but of the entire FBI itself,” he said.
“It’s ill advised,” Gomez added of Trump’s firing. “It’s a political thing that is going to, to use the vernacular, come back and bite him in the butt.”
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.The last remaining Isis fighters in the group's self-styled "capital" Raqqa are expected to leave the city on Saturday night, taking civilians with them as human shields, according to reports.
In a withdrawal agreed with US-backed Syrian militias that have them surrounded, Syrian Isis fighters will leave the city on Saturday evening.
Officials gave conflicting accounts on whether foreign fighters would also be leaving the city, where the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been battling to defeat Isis since June.
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.
SDF spokesman Talal Silo said any fighters who were not signed up to the deal that allows them to leave Raqqa would be left behind "to surrender or die”.
Omar Alloush, a member of Raqqa's Civil Council, said the evacuation would include foreign fighters. He said it would take place overnight into Sunday. The jihadists would be taking some 400 civilians with them as human shields, he said.
The final defeat of Isis in Raqqa would be a milestone in efforts to roll back the theocratic "caliphate" the group declared in 2014 in Syria and Iraq, where earlier this year it was driven from the city of Mosul.
Isis used Raqqa as a base to plan attacks against the West.
The US-led coalition against Isis said a convoy was due to leave Raqqa on Saturday, in an arrangement agreed by local parties.
It described the arrangement as "a civilian evacuation" and said it would not condone any arrangement that allowed "terrorists to escape Raqqa without facing justice".
The coalition statement said the arrangement brokered by the Raqqa Civil Council and local Arab tribal elders on Oct. 12 was "designed to minimise civilian casualties and purportedly excludes foreign Daesh terrorists".
Reuters
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 nowIowa is too close to call and young voters could very well determine the Democratic Iowa caucus winner and thus, the nominee and future leader of the free world. On the biggest issues of the day, Hillary Clinton has been out of touch with young voters, while Bernie Sanders has been consistently on the right side of history.
Eight years ago, young Iowa voters helped shock the political establishment and create the momentum to elect an African-American with the middle name Hussein. Hopefully, young Iowans choose hope once again, and help create the momentum needed to elect a 74 year-old Jewish democratic socialist without ties to organized religion. Bernie Sanders and his amazing campaign have pushed Hillary Clinton to adopt more progressive positions on a whole host of issues – but she still doesn’t have the track record of Senator Sanders.
Let’s start with prisons, and the need to end our era of mass incarceration. While Clinton now claims to want to undo many of the harmful sentencing policies signed into law by her husband, she is not only flip-flopping, but she doesn’t go as far as young voters, and a vast majority of Democrats, want. A strong majority of Democrats support ending cannabis prohibition, and the younger the voter, the greater the support. Unfortunately, the frontrunner doesn’t support legalization and will only move forward with incremental reform, at best.
Bernie Sanders was first to oppose the obscene policy of allowing private prisons profit off of the incarceration of nonviolent offenders, disproportionately the poor and people of color. Senator Sanders has also been correct to criticize Clinton for not supporting marijuana legalization. Sanders has filed a bill to end cannabis prohibition and could make good on his promise using presidential executive authority. While it is great that Clinton followed in Sanders’ footsteps and stated that she would stop taking donations from the private prison lobby, it is clear that she doesn’t have the strong track record of Bernie Sanders.
Big Brother needs to be curtailed
Many Americans are growing more concerned about the lack of privacy protections and the expansion of government surveillance power. Younger voters, perhaps because they are used to living so much of their lives online, are the most alarmed about the pervasive nature of Big Brother. This does not seem to concern Hillary Clinton, who voted for the Patriot Act while Bernie Sanders opposed it.
Additionally, civil liberties are attacked more in times of war and Clinton voted for the Iraq War while Sanders opposed the most disastrous foreign policy folly of our time. Former Secretary Clinton is much more hawkish than Sanders and President Obama, even calling for a no-fly zone in Syria. The former First Lady is much more likely to entangle America in more Middle Eastern quagmires that can further inflame the region and lead to a loss of liberties at home.
Hillary Clinton is not progressive on fracking
Young voters are much more concerned about our environment, one of the reasons legalizing hemp is so important to millennials and many drug law reformers. On the environment, Senator Sanders is also the clear progressive on the Democratic side. Sanders has called climate change the most important threat of our time and has called for a ban on fracking. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, just left Iowa to attend a fundraiser by an investment firm with deep investments in the fracking industry, and has not called for an end to fracking.
In fact, as Secretary of State, Clinton helped promote fracking around the globe. Young voters obviously have to live on this planet longer than older voters, so it make sense that they care about the environment the most and a strong majority opposes fracking. On the environment, Senator Sanders is the clear choice.
Bernie Sanders isn’t just the choice of idealists
This election is being billed as a battle between hearts and minds – if Democratic voters choose their hearts, then Sanders wins, while Clinton wins if pragmatists prevail. However, those who use both their hearts and their minds can clearly see that the candidate most in-line with young voters is Bernie Sanders, and not Hillary Clinton. And if you want to be a true realist, choose the candidate that has been shown to poll well against Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and doesn’t have an FBI investigation that continues to linger.In under 365 days, Rob Crow went from quitting music to releasing his debut album as Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place. Now, he’s continuing his comeback by digging up his long gestating Goblin Cock project. The sludge metal outfit’s last album was 2008’s Come With Me If You Want To Live!, |
money an applicant has, the better an immigrant they will be, without ever quite explaining why. The Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, a points-based system introduced under Labour in 2002, awarded more points for those with higher earnings. Golden visas simply take this principle to its logical extreme: the only merit an immigrant need demonstrate is their wealth.
Critics worry that such schemes have commodified national identity, for questionable or no gain. “This is an area where successive governments have allowed rich people to jump the queue. It’s the sort of thing that tax havens do to encourage inward investment,” says Lord Wallace of Saltaire, a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. “We have in effect been selling off British citizenship to the rich from often non-democratic countries who otherwise one would not regard as desirable immigrants.”
More darkly, others allege the schemes are effectively conduits for stolen money. “The problem with these kind of schemes, and the one in the UK in particular, is that it’s letting people in without sufficient security checks,” says Naomi Hirst, a senior campaigner at the anti-corruption group Global Witness. “We’ve long had concerns that applicants who came through in the blind faith period were not subject to proper security checks.”
The phrase “blind faith period” is used by anti-corruption campaigners to refer to 2008 to 2015, when checks on applicants and their wealth were the responsibility of neither the British government nor applicants’ banks. “The Home Office assumed that the banks were doing the checks on the individuals, and the banks themselves were assuming that, because this individual was applying for a visa via the Home Office, the checks would be done further down the line,” says Hirst.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Madiyar Ablyazov … his Kazakh family took out a ‘golden visa’ that allowed him to remain in the UK. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images
“About 3,000 individuals came through in that period. We are completely in the dark about the extent to which the UK government actually knew who these people were and where their money was coming from.”
Attempts to prove this either way by journalists or campaigners always hit the same stumbling block: applicants’ names are secret. Until last year, that is, when one of the dozens of Ablyazov fraud cases reached the high court.
In January 2008 – right at the beginning of the blind faith period – the Ablyazovs began applying for Madiyar’s Tier 1 investor visa. Solicitors were hired, Swiss bank accounts were opened, and funds of just over £1m were put into Madiyar’s name (the investment threshold was raised to £2m in 2015). As part of the process, the family provided the UK Border Agency with a “memorandum of gift”. The document, which bore the signatures of both father and son, stated: “[Madiyar] has been gifted £1m sterling. [Madiyar] is the recipient of the gift,” and identified Mukhtar as his benefactor. The application was filed in March 2009, and two months later Madiyar was granted his Tier 1 visa.
Around the same time, however, Mukhtar fled Kazakhstan for London. BTA Bank, which he had chaired since 2005, was being probed by regulators, who had found that almost 20% of its loan portfolio was “non-performing” (meaning the debtors were missing their scheduled payments, and the loans were likely to default).
BTA announced it could not meet its liabilities. The Kazakh sovereign wealth fund took over the bank at a cost of $1.4bn, and Ablyazov was removed as chairman. To quote one of the subsequent high court judgments the case would generate: “BTA formed the view that its former management, and in particular Mr Ablyazov, had perpetrated a huge and systematic fraud against it, primarily by purporting to lend or otherwise transfer billions of dollars to offshore companies with no assets and which appeared to be in the control of Mr Ablyazov or his associates.”
Within months, BTA had brought proceedings against its former chairman in the UK, obtaining a court order requiring him to disclose his worldwide assets, as well as a freezing order that would potentially allow them to be recovered. Mukhtar fled to France after being sentenced to jail for contempt of court for “failing to disclose assets, lying in cross-examination and dealing with assets in breach of the Freezing Order”, but was later apprehended in Nice after detectives working for BTA tailed one of his lawyers to a villa where he was hiding. A court of appeal judge would later observe it was “difficult to imagine a party to commercial litigation who has acted with more cynicism, opportunism and deviousness than Mr Ablyazov.”
As of December last year, BTA had been awarded judgments in its favour to the tune of $4.9bn, which it is still trying to recover from Mukhtar. His son Madiyar, meanwhile, has mostly flown under the radar, going on to work in a financial services firm and a startup in Geneva. In 2013 he obtained indefinite leave to remain in the UK, and in 2014 his investment matured.
It is unclear what, if any, due diligence checks the Home Office carried out on the Ablyazovs. By the time Madiyar applied for indefinite leave to remain, the fraud allegations against his father were the subject of international media coverage. A cursory Google search would have been more than enough to uncover the fraud allegations around Ablyazov money. And crucially, the Home Office had the signed memorandum of gift, confirming the cash financing his investment originally belonged to his father.
“It beggars belief that when the Home Office granted Ablyazov his Tier 1 visa in 2009 and then indefinite leave to remain in 2013, they did not know about his father and the allegations made against him by the bank,” says Hirst. “The Home Office immediately needs to task law enforcement to review those 3,000 individuals that came into the UK through the Tier 1 investor visa scheme before November 2015.”
The Home Office has effectively admitted to never having reviewed the 3,000 blind faith golden visa applicants to identify how many of them are “politically exposed persons” – foreign officials considered high risk for corruption. With each having invested at least £1m, up to £3bn could have entered the scheme to finance the British government, with no checks on the source of the cash.
A cursory Google search would have been enough to uncover the fraud allegations around Ablyazov money
“The Home Office took these funds and potentially cleaned that money for the Ablyazovs. That’s ultimately what it looks like,” Hirst continues. “If this money was not legitimate, [if] it was dirty money that was coming in through the Tier 1 Investor scheme, and it was invested in UK government bonds, the UK government was potentially laundering money for these people unwittingly.”
The Home Office did not dispute that its former due diligence requirements during the blind faith period had been insufficient, but declined to comment specifically on the Ablyazov case. In a statement a spokesperson said: “We carry out a range of robust checks on all those applying for these visas – and banks are required to carry out their own due diligence on all applicants.”
Today, with the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU still to be decided, the Tier 1 scheme’s future looks perilous. Instead, the British are wondering if they might like to acquire golden visas elsewhere instead. “We never had inquiries from British people in our industry before, and for the first time we’re getting inquiries from British people saying, ‘What will it mean for me to have a British passport if I can’t go to Europe?’” says Hanafin.
“The biggest barrier going up at the moment is Brexit,” agrees Williams. “Our advice has been, ‘Sit tight, see what happens’, but we have people who are concerned about their future. They want their children to grow up European. ‘What’s happening, I travel a lot in Europe, I have homes in Europe, am I gonna be able to travel to them?’ Nobody knows the answer to those questions yet.”
BTA ultimately lost its claim to recover the money used to fund Madiyar’s golden visa, despite it having originated from an offshore company named on an asset freezing order, effectively on the grounds that Mukhtar wasn’t intending to put the money beyond the reach of the bank when he gave his son the cash. For their part, the Ablyazovs maintain their innocence.
Madiyar declined to comment, but his lawyer stressed that he had spent the majority of his life in Britain, and been found by the UK courts to have acted in full compliance with the law in applying for and receiving his investor visa.
Mukhtar, meanwhile, has successfully resisted efforts by Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to extradite him from France. His defence, supported by human rights groups as well as the UN special rapporteur on torture, rested on the risk he would face as a political opponent of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. The Ablyazovs have accused Nazarbayev of coordinating a campaign of persecution against them, with the lawsuit to recover the investor visa money just one aspect thereof.
In 2008 the Times reported that Nazarbayev had used a frontman to secretly buy the £50m Toprak mansion. It too has an indulgent Turkish bath. It too has seven bedrooms. And it too is located on The Bishops Avenue, just three doors down from the Ablyazovs, long since departed from understated Carlton House.AFRICANGLOBE – Israel’s health ministry is to investigate why long acting contraceptive injections were secretly forced on Ethiopian immigrant women.
A new committee will look into allegations that this was done in a deliberate attempt to reduce births in the Ethiopian Israeli community.
In December, an Israeli TV documentary produced evidence about the use of a drug called Depo-Provera.
It suggested immigrants were given shots without their full consent.
At the time, health officials flatly denied this was a policy.
However, the Haaretz newspaper now quotes a Health Ministry spokesperson as saying there will be “an in-depth investigation into this issue, even though it has been looked into in the past, to confirm that there is no such instruction by any agency”.
Ministry officials, an independent physician and a representative of the Ethiopian community are expected to sit on the panel.
A new Ethiopian-Israeli member of parliament, Penina Tamanu-Shata, from the second biggest party, Yesh Atid, has been pressing for an inquiry.
The issue is extremely sensitive in Israel where the population of about 120,000 thousand Ethiopian Jews sometimes complains of discrimination. There have been several scandals in the past. In 1996, for example, the Israeli authorities admitted they had secretly disposed of blood donations given by Ethiopian Israelis because of fears about HIV/Aids.
Questions are being asked whether the use of contraceptive shots could have contributed to the 50% drop in the birth rate among Ethiopian immigrant women in the past decade.
Depo-Provera shots, which are given every three months, are not a standard method of birth control in Israel.
Allegations have been made that some Ethiopian women coming to the country were given them against their will and without having the full side effects explained.
In recent weeks, the Health Ministry has issued new advice to gynaecologists “not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern they might not understand the full ramifications of the treatment”.
By; Yolande Knell[/caption]
ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has sent back images revealing terrain that seems to have been sculpted by flowing water, lending further support to the hypothesis that Mars had liquid water on its surface at some point.
The region seen above in a HRSC image is along the border of the Acidalia Planitia region, a vast, dark swath of Mars’ northern hemisphere so large that it’s visible from Earth.
In 1877 the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli named the region after a mythical fountain, where the three Graces of Greek mythology were said to have bathed.
Although there may not be any fountains or ancient Immortals within Acidalia Planitia, there may have been water — enough to carve serpentine channels and steep scallops along the edges of wide valleys, much in the same way that the Grand Canyon was carved by the Colorado River.
In the HRSC image some of the etched valleys extend outwards from craters, implying that they were created by water emptying out from within the craters. In addition, sediments present within older craters indicate that they were once filled with water, likely for an extended time.
With images like these, so reminiscent of similar features found here on Earth, it’s hard to discount that Mars once had liquid water upon its surface; perhaps some of it still remains today in pockets beneath the ground!
Read more on the ESA site here.NDRF ships at Suisun Bay, California
The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.
The NDRF is managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD). It is a different entity from the United States Navy reserve fleets, which consist largely of warships.
NDRF vessels are at the fleet sites at James River, Virginia–the 'James River Reserve Fleet'; Beaumont, Texas–the 'Beaumont Reserve Fleet'; and Suisun Bay, California- the 'Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet'; and at designated outported berths. Former anchorage sites included Stony Point, New York - the Hudson River Reserve Fleet; Wilmington, North Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; Astoria, Oregon; and Olympia, Washington.
Through the 2010s, the oldest, most decrepit hulls at Suisun Bay will be stripped of toxic materials, then broken up in Texas, California or Asia. Twenty of the most polluting mothball ships were slated for recycling by 2012, and another 32 by 2017.
At its peak in 1950, the NDRF had 2,277 ships in lay-up. In 2003, it had 274. In July 2007, it held 230 ships, primarily dry cargo ships with some tankers, military auxiliaries and other types. As of January 2018, the number of ships was down to 98.[1][2]
History [ edit ]
The NDRF was established under Section 11 of the Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946 to serve as a reserve of ships for national defense and national emergencies.
NDRF vessels were used in seven wars and crises. During the Korean War, 540 vessels were broken out to move military forces. During a worldwide tonnage shortfall in 1951–53, more than 600 ships were reactivated to carry coal to Northern Europe and grain to India. From 1955 through 1964, another 600 ships were used to store grain for the Department of Agriculture. Another 223 cargo ships and 29 tankers were activated during a tonnage shortfall after the Suez Canal was closed in 1956. During the Berlin Crisis of 1961, 18 vessels were activated and remained in service until 1970. Another 172 vessels were activated for the Vietnam War.
Ready Reserve Force [ edit ]
In 1976, a Ready Reserve Force component was established as a subset of the NDRF to provide rapid deployment of military equipment and later became known as the Ready Reserve Force, which numbers 72 vessels. These are crewed with a reduced crew but kept available for activation within four, five, ten or twenty days.[3]
An additional 28 ships are held under United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) custody for other Government agencies on a cost-reimbursable basis.
Operations [ edit ]
USS Iowa (BB-61) was in the custody of MARAD in the NDRF at Suisun Bay from 2001 to 2011.
Vessels with military utility or logistic value are held in retention status and are in a preservation program that is designed to keep them in the same condition as when they enter the fleet. The internal spaces are dehumidified to slow the corrosion of metal and the growth of mold and mildew. DC power is distributed through anodes to the exterior underwater portions of the hull, creating an electric field that suppresses corrosion and preserves the surface of the hull. External painting and other cosmetic work is generally deferred since it does not affect the ability to activate and operate the vessel.
MARAD is authorized as the government’s disposal agent through the NDRF program for merchant type vessels equal to or greater than 1,500 gross tons. A state agency can file an application to request title to a vessel "as-is where-is" from the NDRF for the purpose of creating an artificial reef. A total of 51 vessels have been transferred to 10 states under the program including: Texas (12), Florida (10), North Carolina (7), Virginia (6), Alabama (5), Mississippi (5), Georgia (2), South Carolina (2), California (1) and New Jersey (1). Of the 132 non-retention vessels in the NDRF, there are 117 that are being prepared for disposal.
The NDRF program can give and lend historic artifacts to maritime-heritage organizations and transfer entire ships to memorial associations through special legislation.
Inactive U.S. Navy auxiliary ships of the James River Reserve Fleet (1996)
Inactive naval ships of merchant design, including amphibious ships but not ships maintained in a mobilization status by MARAD for Military Sealift Command (MSC), may be laid up in the NDRF when overcrowded berthing conditions exist at a Navy Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility. Battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers which have been stricken or those awaiting final disposition may be transferred to MARAD locations for berthing.
Initially, these ships will be transferred to MARAD for caretaking in accordance with the Economy Act of 1932.
Ships transferred to the NDRF may be retained in Navy Mobilization Plans and maintained by MARAD under priorities set by the Department of the Navy. If the navy decides it no longer needs the ship, the secretary of the navy strikes the ship from the Naval Vessel Register and transfers the title to MARAD. When possible, MARAD gets first disposition rights, which allows it to convert merchant ships to the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) or to sell the ship for scrapping in connection with the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, Sec. 508 and use the proceeds to buy more supply ships.[4]
Fleet reduction [ edit ]
Iowa can be seen at the far end of the first row Mothballed ships in Suisun Bay, California in 2010. The battleshipcan be seen at the far end of the first row
The Suisun Bay location contained 324 ships in 1959.[5] Forty years later, the number was down by about 250, but pollutants had begun to accumulate in the area. Paint containing toxins such as lead, copper, zinc and barium had been flaking off many of the ships' hulls and superstructures. By June 2007, some 21 tons of toxic paint debris was estimated to have been shed from the ships, to settle in the bay sediment.[6] A further 65 tons of paint was estimated to be in danger of flaking off.[6]
David Matsuda, acting administrator of MARAD, said in March 2010 "We are moving expeditiously to remove the worst-polluting ships first and diligently moving to clean the rest."[7] Some 52 ships were identified as problematic, and were scheduled for removal and recycling by September 2017.[6] The process began in October 2009; as of October 2012, 36 ships had been removed and the disposal effort was ahead of schedule.[8] One such vessel, the SS Winthrop, the last Victory ship of the California mothball fleet, was towed in March 2010 to BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair dock to be cleaned of barnacles and plant matter before its final journey to ship breakers in Brownsville, Texas.[9] The hull cleaning was prescribed by the U.S. Coast Guard to prevent the spread of California species to other locations.[6] Some of the recycling work may be completed in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically at the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard—an application for such work is under permit review. Some $38 million in federal funds will be used to complete the dismantling project.[citation needed]
List of NDRF ships [ edit ]
Current as of January 2018[1][2]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates:The use of renewable electricity in Ireland increased significantly in 2015, according to a report published today by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
It contributed a quarter of all electricity used and avoided three million tonnes of fossil-fuel related CO2 emissions.
The report, Renewable Electricity in Ireland 2015, shows that renewables contributed the second largest source of electricity last year behind gas and ahead of coal.
More than 80% of renewable electricity generated in Ireland came from wind power accounting for three quarters of the avoided CO2 emissions.
The remaining renewable electricity came from a range of technologies, including hydropower, biomass, waste and landfill gas.
Dr Eimear Cotter, SEAI Head of Low Carbon Technologies, said: "Ireland is making significant progress in decarbonising our electricity system.
"In addition, the economy benefits from the use of local and indigenous renewable energy which brings with it local jobs and enterprise opportunities.
"We know that renewables in electricity generation helps to lower CO2 emissions, but we still have an electricity system that is heavily reliant on carbon emitting fossil fuels. With 2020 renewable electricity targets approaching, we need to intensify action to increase the contribution of all renewables in our electricity mix."Showing that compared to other sports, the NFL is a universe unto its own, at the half-way point in the 2013 season, the National Football League is smashing the competition in the television ratings and overall viewership department.
Currently, NFL games account for the 18 most-watched programs on television since the NFL season kicked off on Sept. 5, as well as 19 of the top 20 (see the chart below). Through Week 9, NBC’s Sunday Night Football accounts for the seven most-watched primetime shows this fall.
In addition, the average NFL game telecast (including broadcast and cable) has drawn 16.8 million viewers (vs. 16.0 million at this point in 2012) – more than double the average primetime viewership (7.5 million) for the big four broadcast networks in the new television season, according to information provided by The Nielsen Company.
The question is, is football becoming so popular on television that fans would rather watch from the comfort of their home rather than pay to see games in-person at stadiums across the country? The NFL has seen attendance drop in five consecutive seasons, and has recently loosened up on the blackout policy in an effort to try and draw more fans to the stadium. Still, the problem the NFL faces is one that the other Big-4 sports would like to have. The NBA, NHL, and MLB would love to have these ratings numbers.
Other notables around NFL ratings:
An NFL game telecast has been television’s most-watched program in each of the season’s first nine weeks (tied with 2012 and up from seven of the first nine weeks in 2011).
NFL games on CBS, ESPN, FOX and NBC collectively have averaged 12.9 million viewers making the 2013 season the most-viewed among these four networks through Week 9 since at least 2006.
,, FOX and NBC collectively have averaged 12.9 million viewers making the 2013 season the most-viewed among these four networks through Week 9 since at least 2006. NBC’s Sunday Night Football is averaging 21.6 million viewers through Week 9 and ranks as the No. 1 show in primetime this television season (Live-Plus-Same-Day viewing) with the seven most-watched primetime shows this fall.
ESPN Monday Night Football is averaging 13.4 million viewers. The Monday Night Football opener (Eagles-Redskins) was the most-watched Week 1 game ever on ESPN with 16.54 million viewers and posted the highest rating ever for a season opener on ESPN (11.8).
Through eight games of its 13-game schedule, NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football is averaging 7.8 million viewers (including over the air stations) – pacing +12% in viewers ahead of its 2012 13-game season average. Jets-Patriots on Thursday Night Football kicked off Week 2 and registered NFLN’s best-ever season-opening telecast with 8.8 million viewers followed by the Week 3 Kansas City Chiefs-Philadelphia Eagles game that was the highest-rated Thursday Night Football telecast in NFLN history (6.0 US HH rating and 9.4 million viewers, not including over-the-air stations).
For the season, NFL games rank as the 18 most-watched TV shows since Labor Day, up from 14 at this point last season, as well as 19 of the top 20. Following are the most-watched programs this fall:
Source: NFL & The Nielsen Company
Following is the list of the 23 NFL markets where football was the top-rated program for the week of Oct. 28 - Nov.3:
Follow Maury Brown on Twitter @BizballMaurySteve Blank's biggest failure as a startup CEO was at Rocket Science Games. The team lost $35 million because the business model and the founding team didn't match. When he looked around at the executive staff, there wasn’t a single founder who was a gamer. Worse, there wasn’t a single person who had come from a game company. Nor was there anyone with this experience on the board. In the end, it made beautiful looking products that weren’t much fun to play.
That said, if it’s possible to decode the ineffable magic of Silicon Valley success, Steve Blank has done it. His book The Four Steps to the Epiphany is considered one of the founding tomes of the lean startup movement. He’s taught a generation of founders at UC Berkeley, Columbia University, NYU, and UCSF. And even the U.S. government uses Blank’s entrepreneurial models to commercialize the work of scientists at the National Science Foundation, The National Institutes of Health and The Department of Energy.
For the students and founders who regularly seek his counsel, though, Blank’s greatest credential is simply that he’s been in the trenches himself for decades, working at 8 startups, 4 of them as a co-founder. By his own admission, there have been both craters and home runs — and along the way, he's worked alongside 16 co-founders. When it comes to understanding the tricky amalgam of science, business, and psychology that shapes the most successful founding teams, he’s the closest thing there is to a guru.
In this exclusive interview, Blank, now an associate consulting professor at Stanford's Engineering School, explains how to search for the best co-founder using a tool called the Business Model Canvas, and other tactics he's picked up along the way. He reveals that, when it comes to fit, finding the right skill set and personality may not be enough — just one of the lessons he's learned during 21 years working with teams to get great ideas off the ground.
Use the Business Model Canvas to Identify Who You Need
One of the earliest and most critical decisions a founding CEO makes is who to bring on board to help realize their vision. It’s daunting to conceive of building a team from the ground up, but here’s some good news: If you're familiar with the Business Model Canvas, Blank says, you probably already know who your cofounder should be.
But let’s back up. Created by entrepreneur Alexander Osterwalder and Swiss academic Yves Pigneur, the Business Model Canvas is the go-to tool for lean startups (and an ever-increasing number of Fortune 500s looking to stimulate fresh ideas). By distilling the elements of a business model into nine building blocks — arranged to represent how they influence each other — this surprisingly simple grid challenges leaders to identify everything they need to make their business operate successfully. If there are resource gaps or flaws in logic, they are quickly revealed all on one sheet of paper.
Here's what it looks like:
For a more in-depth description for how to use it, check out this video.
When founders are getting started with the Canvas, they tend to focus on the right side. And rightly so, Blank notes — that’s where product/market fit will unfold. But it’s the oft-neglected left side of the canvas that will tell you what your founding team should look like. On a successful Canvas, the two sides should mirror each other; the right is all about customers, and the left tells you what you need to reach them.
Filling in the Canvas is level one. But understanding the interplay of the boxes takes you to level two. That’s when your Canvas goes from a checklist to a strategy.
Finding the right co-founder is one of the most instrumental pieces of that strategy. Start by looking carefully at your Key Activities box. Of the nine modules on the Canvas, it most defines what you need to do to build your product and deliver it successfully to consumers. Then jump down to the next box labeled Key Resources, where you’ll list what’s required to execute those activities. Is there a gap between what you’re going to need and what you bring to the table yourself? That delta reveals the expertise you need to find in your co-founder.
Consider, for example, any mobile app startup. At this point, it’s understood that a founding team in this space should include three people: a hacker, a hustler, and a designer. It’s a catchy aphorism — and one that’s quickly explained by the Business Model Canvas.
First, imagine the Key Activities box for that company. Getting a mobile product off the ground almost certainly requires three things — software development, user interface design, and demand generation. Clearly, then, the most crucial resources for this startup will be people: a developer, a.k.a. the hacker; a designer; and a natural hustler who can lead the team, drive interest and sales, and, in most cases, generate capital.
“Anyone can derive their own needs — arrive at their own version of hacker, hustler, designer — by going through this exercise,” says Blank. “When you’re considering bringing on a co-founder, look closely at your Activities. Who do you need to accomplish them, and are they missing from your existing team?”
In hindsight, at Rocket Science, it was glaringly obvious that they needed a hardcore game developer as a co-founder, not just as an employee. They needed someone who could go toe-to-toe with the existing team and tell them what they didn’t understand.
That’s not to say that everything you list in your Key Resources box needs to be owned by a founder. You might, for example, find that it’s more efficient or cost effective to execute some activities with help from third-party partners like freelancers or contractors. (You can capture that in the Canvas’s Key Partners box.) But when it comes to activities that are integral to your company's DNA or success, never outsource them.
Take the commonly cited advice that a non-technical founder needs to find a technical co-founder. While Blank acknowledges that, as always, there are edge cases that prove the adage wrong, he concurs.
To found a tech startup with an entirely non-technical team would be like opening a restaurant without a chef.
“Could you succeed with a group of restaurateurs that doesn’t know how to cook or appreciate food? Maybe. You might get lucky and hire a great chef later. But it would sure help if you’d been a cook at one point, or had experience running a restaurant.”
Focus on the Right Milestones
For an early-stage startup, committing to Key Activities and Resources may feel overwhelming. It’s hard to know what you’ll need to keep your company thriving for the long haul. But Blank has reassuring news: You don’t need to. When your founding team is still coming together, focus on what it will take to get the business started, not all the milestones in a three- or five-year plan — or even a year down the line.
Instead, choose an early objective — that could mean making a revenue goal, hitting a target number of users, or achieving regulatory approval. What do you need to get there? “Some founders will say, for example, ‘I need a world-class VP of sales and marketing.’ No, you don’t. Some day you will, absolutely. But that’s probably not one of the resources you need to make it through your first six months,” Blank says.
So, your first thought when vetting a co-founder should be: Does this person have skills and knowledge that are essential to the success of my business from day one? Do I need them to get this thing off the ground?
Essentially, your first question is, do I have a company without this person?
That said, you don’t want to be giving equal stock to a one-trick pony. So how do you know if you’ve identified a candidate who can grow with you as a co-founder — or if you’ve simply landed on your first employee? “Your next question is: Can this person keep giving?” Blank says. Again, that doesn’t mean you need to foresee every step you will take as your company grows. But you need to believe that a potential co-founder will scale with the organization, that they either have the knowledge and skills to last long-term or can learn them.
Here, too, the Business Model Canvas is a uniquely valuable tool, not just for the questions it asks but for the spirit in which it asks them. One of the tenets of the Canvas is impermanence. At its core, it's a tool for establishing and testing hypotheses — a way for a startup to iterate quickly, learn what the customer wants, and adjust accordingly. In fact, the Canvas’ own creator advocates completing it with ever-movable Post-It Notes. There’s no better way to quickly and easily change answers and watch them ripple through the grid. So play around with your Canvas. Imagine that one of your customer segments goes away, or that you add a new distribution channel. Adjust your Key Activities and Resources boxes as you go, and see if your prospective co-founder still rounds out the team in those scenarios.
Date First to Optimize for Good Team Dynamics
For all the efficiency and flexibility of the Canvas, though, when it comes to assessing the next key factor in choosing a co-founder — personality — you’re going to need to leave it behind.
I’d say a third to a half of startups melt down over team dynamics before they ever get funded.
In the face of that sobering statistic from Blank, how can a founder steer clear of calamitous personality conflicts?
He doesn’t have a diagram for this one, but he does have decades’ worth of startup experience. And he’s learned that many of the questions you’ll want to ask sound a lot like how you might talk about a personal relationship:
How does this person fight, and how do they resolve conflicts?
How do they work? Do they work as hard as you do?
Are they insightful? Dogmatic?
To get to the bottom of these core traits, he advises that any prospective co-founders “date first.” Start with a hack weekend, or some other period of intense activity that requires plenty of decision-making. Follow that up with, at a minimum, a provisional 30-day working period.
“Agree on whatever terms make sense — you both get to keep the code, for example — but give yourselves some time before you fully commit. You’re about to get married and have kids, and the consequences of divorce here can sink the entire venture,” Blank says.
All of these relationship analogies, though, are just that — analogies. Blank is quick to caution that your co-founders need not be your friends as well. In fact, they probably shouldn’t be. “You might have a great time out at a bar with your friends, but that’s not the same as making a five-year commitment,” he says. There is a huge distinction to be made between “We have a good time together,” and the amount of teamwork and skill required to get a startup working and growing. “I’ve seen a lot of founding teams felled by naiveté about the work required to get their idea from one good weekend of coding to a viable product,” Blank says.
As difficult as this sounds, remember there is strength in numbers.
But what about founders who dread the thought of professional “dating” and feel confident they have Key Activities covered all on their own? What does Blank say to someone who asks: Can I be a solo founder?
“A single founder is like one hand clapping,” he says. He has seen startup founding teams sized one to 10, and acknowledges that the graph of successful enterprises would no doubt form a bell curve. “The sweet spot is somewhere between two and four,” Blank says. Because at the end of the day, effective team dynamics come down to human nature — and most people get better and smarter when they have foils with whom to spar and hone ideas.
Unless you’re 100% certain you’re that outlier who can go it alone (and willing to risk the chance you're not), the co-founder search is worth it. Keep at it. Remember that a startup is really a work in progress, an incubator for testing hypotheses until you converge on a scalable idea. Over time, your product is likely to evolve, and your business model will inevitably shift. A solid founding team is what gives you the agility to iterate, and to make a good idea great — and it ensures that you have a well-rounded skill set in your arsenal.
Select for the Startup Mindset (i.e. Love of Chaos)
So once you’ve found, say, the ace coder you need — and the thought partner you want — is the search over? Not necessarily, Blank warns. Startup culture is a different beast than any other business environment. When it comes to fit, if you stop at personal synergy, you're stopping short. You also need to consider whether your prospective co-founder is, simply put, a match for startup life.
To assess a candidate's true feelings, you can create your own 'founder test.'
For all the apocryphal stories about what makes a successful entrepreneur, the startup world has yet to produce any real tests or self-assessments for potential founders to determine whether they're cut out for the job, Blank says.
The best-trained founder would be someone from a dysfunctional family who has served as an army platoon leader.
In a dysfunctional family, he explains, a person has to shut out everything else and focus on |
your options for your squad mates is very limited. Your apothecary can only chose between a powerfist and his Narthecium. Or he can have lighting claws or thunderhammer, but using any of the variations means you have no healer. Your heavy weapons marine is equally limited in that he has an assault cannon, the plasma cannon, stormbolter, or the thunderhammer and lightning claws. So your not going to have much variety with your squad mates. The librarian on the other hand has all of the options except the narthecium, plus force sword, and ax. So get the heavy flamer and go to town.
The single player campaign is pretty tough even on normal difficulty I finished seven missions in nine hours. You will die a lot, though the checkpoints are relatively good. I wish I could save whenever I wanted so I don’t lose progress getting killed at the same spot over and over, but all in all the single player is an interesting story idea. However it can be quite challenging in some of the larger encounters.
One mechanic I do not like, is the way turrets are implemented. You can hack and take them over and if you get it the sights of one it will do a lot of damage. What really bugs me, and honestly just makes me hack and then shut them off, is that they are controlled by you manually. While when controlled by the enemy they seem to be just auto turrets. So even if your controlling one as soon as you take a hit you are knocked out of the control screen limiting a turrets usefulness in the larger attack waves that will come at you. Auto turrets would have been a huge help as they are now they are of very limited utility.
Now the multiplayer you and three of your friends can choose a class and try and work your way through the horde. If you thought single player was intense the multiplayer cranks it up to eleven. More enemy’s more dangerous varieties straight out of the gate. So you will need all your skill and wits to survive. You can pick between the librarian, assault, tactical, and heavy support classes. You level up as you kill enemy’s, unlocking either an ability or weapon. In multiplayer you play through the single player missions, just now instead of AI squad mates you have your friends, who you can yell at for being bad.
AI
A quick talk about the AI in general. Overall I am fairly impressed with it. Enemies will get spotted turn and run back around corners, if they can they try and flank from different directions. Also attacking where they can swarm you in tight corridors and such. Far from perfect enemy AI, but pretty good overall. Your squad mates are not half bad either. They will generally stay close to you and move through doors as you do so you can lock them down. As an aside, there is no collision with them so you can’t get stuck behind them, so no worries with that. Again overall the AI is fairly solid and definitely will give you a solid challenge.
Summary
Space Hulk Deathwing is a fun solid horde based first person shooter. It definitely captures the feel of 40K, is fun, and challenging. This is definitely a game I recommend to fans of Warhammer. Or if you like challenging gameplay. If you are not a huge huge Warhammer fan I would say that you should wait for a sale, but despite its flaws with some of the smaller mechanics, it is another solid Warhammer game published by Focus Home Interactive. Four out of Five starsAbout 25 homeless people have lived for the past month beneath the Pierce Street overpass next to Faith City Ministries, but after an incident last week, the future of the “tent city” is unclear.
Amarillo Police Department Cpl. Jerry Neufeld said officers were called about 9:30 a.m. Thursday to clear out squatters on Burlington Northern Santa Fe property near the tent site. Neufeld said the patrolling officer assured the people living in the tents they could stay if they kept the area clean and obeyed the law.
He said police arrested one person for possession of narcotic paraphernalia at the scene. The arrest was unrelated to the trespassing call, he said.
But the campers said they do not think they are allowed to set up their tents. On Wednesday, the campsite included 23 tents. On Thursday afternoon, only 10 tents remained and by 4:30 p.m. Friday there were only five tents.
A group of campers remained under the bridge without tents Friday evening. Faith City Director of Outreach Services Raymond Gonzales said homeless people can stay inside the Faith City building every night from November through March, and during any night of the year when the wind chill factor in Amarillo falls below 38 degrees.
Neufeld said police never ordered the campers to take their tents down.
“There’s no ordinance, no law that they cannot be there just sitting in the tents,” Neufeld said. “Later on, if it turns into a sanitation issue, we’ll deal with that at that point.”
Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Paul Braun said the Pierce Street overpass, including the tent site, is state property. He said he was not sure whether TxDOT officials could clear out the campers.
“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do,” Braun said. “Our building engineer has no problem with it as long as they don’t cause damage to the structure.”
The campers include men and women from across the country.
Faith City Director Jena Taylor said she and other organization officials will meet Monday to decide what to about the tent site going forward. Faith City provided tents for many of the campers.
“We like order, and we won’t have chaos, and we won’t have any misbehaving,” Taylor said. “For the most part, with 99 percent of them, that’s how they are.”
Jerry Billington, director of men’s programs at Faith City, said the group began gathering in the area in late September.
“They were sleeping along the bridge, then of course we had a couple of cold spells and they started moving underneath,” Billington said.
Taylor said she was concerned about what would become of the campers.
“The guests under the bridge tried very hard to maintain what we requested of them,” Taylor said.
“The next problem is... where will they go? What will they do? There’s no provisions made.”What is liberator?
Liberator is a Clojure library that helps you expose your data as resources while automatically complying with all the relevant requirements of the HTTP specification (RFC-2616). Your resources will automatically gain useful HTTP features, such as caching and content negotiation. Liberator was inspired by Erlang’s Webmachine. By following the constraints and requirements in RFC-2616, liberator will enable you to create application according to a REST architecture.
Liberator’s place in the Clojure ecosystem
Liberator resources are ring handlers and fit nicely into Ring, the defacto Clojure web development environment. Typically you will use liberator together with a routing library like compojure or bidi and a library to generate the resources’ representations. The representations may be in HTML, generated with a library like hiccup, or they could be represented in something like JSON or XML by using the appropriate libraries.
For more Information about adding the web server component required for liberator, see the Ring documentation.
Quickstart
Setup dependencies
Add the liberator dependency to your project.clj:
[ liberator "0.15.2" ]
Compatibility with prior releases is a goal but it cannot always be guaranteed. Compatibility notes are marked as follows: since 0.9.0
Define your first resource using defresource.
( ns example ( :use [ liberator.core :only [ defresource ]])) ( defresource hello-world :available-media-types [ "text/plain" ] :handle-ok "Hello, world!" )
Liberating data?
Forget “big data”, there is a lot of useful data locked up in “big applications”. Many of these applications, especially in large organizations, are written in Java.
Clojure can run side-by-side with Java in the JVM, seamlessly accessing the same internal Java APIs that your Java application does. That makes Clojure a great choice for developing new facades onto your application stack and liberating your data in an HTTP compliant manner.According to Variety, Rob Zombie and "American Psycho" writer Bret Easton Ellis have teamed up with Alcon Television to develop a project for Fox that will revisit the people and events connected to the Manson murder spree in August 1969. The limited series will see Ellis writing the script and Zombie directing.
"I have been obsessed with this insane story since I was a kid, so obviously I jumped at the chance to be involved in this incredible project. After speaking with Bret, I immediately realized that we shared the same vision for this epic madness," Zombie said.
The Manson slayings saw crazed cult leader Charles Manson brainwashing members of a commune known as The Family into butchering eight people, including film director Roman Polanski's pregnant wife Sharon Tate. Manson was eventually convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges even though he was never found to have committed a homicide himself.
In association with Alcon Television and Madhouse Entertainment, the project is in very early development for a possible event series, a Fox representative told TheWrap. The series will dive into the people and events, before and after the slayings, with connected storylines and characters, told from different points of view.
Zombie's last film, "The Lords Of Salem", came out last year in limited theatrical release before heading to home video.
Zombie will kick off a 12-date run of shows on April 26 in Fort Myers, Florida at the Fort Rock festival, mixing other major rock festival stops with headlining shows before wrapping up on May 10 in Camden, New Jersey.RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. – A middle school history teacher is retiring following a district investigation for hanging a Confederate flag with a Union flag in his classroom during a discussion on the Civil War.
Sutter Middle School history teacher Woody Hart was suspended with pay last Wednesday after district officials found a Confederate flag hanging in his classroom the night prior, KCRA reports.
The Folsom Cordova Unified School District posted a statement to its Facebook page Wednesday acknowledging the flag “was found across the room from a Civil War Union flag, potentially in preparation of a history activity” but removed the flag because “regardless of context, to many of our students, families and staff, the Confederate flag is a racist symbol of hate.”
“Any employee who is found to engage in behavior that creates an unsafe environment for students will face full consequences, including the possibility of initiating termination proceedings,” the statement read.
The next evening, a swarm of teachers and current and former students sounded off on the school board over Hart’s suspension, which marked the second district investigation into alleged “racial insensitivity” by the teacher. In November, a parent also complained about Hart referencing black lynchings during a different history lesson, ABC 10 reports.
“He always told us these weren’t his personal views, he was teaching what was in the history books,” former student Michelle Akin told the news site.
“The union flag was there right next to the Confederate flag, he would show both,” said Aikin’s sister, Rachel Akin, who was also a former student of Hart’s.
“He’s personally my favorite teacher in the whole school,” student Ana Kneisely told CBS Sacramento.
“He’s always making sure everyone is participating,” she said. “He’s always making jokes and kind of making everyone feel welcome.”
Kneisely and others pointed out that the Confederate flag also appears in students’ textbooks, and said her teacher strived to present a balance view on history.
“I actually very much appreciated the way he taught history,” she said, “because I felt we were getting more involved than what our other classes did.”
FCUSD officials announced Hart’s retirement at last Thursday’s board meeting, where several people accused the school board of forcing the teacher out.
“(Thursday) in closed session, the Board of Education accepted this Sutter Middle School teacher’s retirement … and he will not be returning to school this year,” superintendent Deborah Bettencourt wrote in a statement.
Hart had taught in the district since 1999.
Bettencourt also issued a statement to staff that alleges officials “do not want to limit the free speech of our teachers,” KCRA reports.
“Our expectations, however, are that teachers and staff will do this work using culturally appropriate strategies,” Bettencourt wrote.Details are scarce, but awesome: a Pitch Perfect sequel has been announced by Universal, which revealed at its CinemaCon presentation today that a follow-up to last year's musical hit will be released in 2015.
Go ahead and play some cups in celebration, movie fans!
Pitch Perfect garnered $112 million around the world last year, a shocking figure considering its $17 million budget.
It has since gone on to enjoy even more acclaim and popularity, according to the studio, which says the flick has earned over $90 million across all home market platforms.
The soundtrack, meanwhile, has sold over 636,000 copies.
Kay Cannon is on board to write the sequel and while not cast announcements have been made, a majority of the ladies performed Sunday at the MTV Movie Awards and it's safe to assume they will all be on board.(CNN) -- Jupiter is sporting a new scar after an unseen object hit the gaseous planet this week, NASA scientists say.
This NASA image shows a large impact near Jupiter's southern pole.
An amateur astronomer in Australia noticed the new mark -- seen through telescopes as a dark spot -- on the planet early Monday and tipped off scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who then confirmed it was the result of a new impact, NASA said.
It's not clear what the object was that crashed into Jupiter's poisonous atmosphere.
Glenn Orton, a JPL scientist, told the magazine New Scientist that it could have been a block of ice from somewhere in Jupiter's neighborhood, or a wandering comet that was too faint for astronomers to have detected before impact.
The object created a mark on Jupiter that has the about same diameter as Earth, though the object itself was probably only 50 to 100 miles across, said Anthony Wesley, the amateur astronomer who first noticed the scar.
The mystery object was likely moving at speeds of about 50 to 100 kilometers (31 to 62 miles) per second when it struck near Jupiter's south pole, Wesley told CNN.
"That generates an unbelievable amount of energy when it collides with pretty much anything, but especially with something the size of Jupiter," he said.
It is only the second time scientists have been able to observe the results of such an impact on Jupiter. The first happened 15 years ago, when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke into 21 pieces and hit the planet's atmosphere.
"Given the rarity of these events, it's extremely exciting to be involved in these observations," JPL astronomer Leigh Fletcher said in a NASA interview.
Thermal images taken by NASA show the scar as a bright spot, which means the crash warmed the lower atmosphere in that area, New Scientist said.
Researchers also found hints of higher-than-normal amounts of ammonia in the upper atmosphere. The Shoemaker-Levy comet also churned up extra ammonia, the magazine said.
Jupiter's new spot isn't likely to last long -- probably just one to two weeks, Wesley said. He pointed out the impact scars from the Shoemaker-Levy debris lasted only two to three weeks before disappearing.
Seeing an Earth-sized spot appear so tiny on Jupiter's surface led to some to wonder Tuesday whether our planet might be in danger of a similar collision.
But Wesley said that shouldn't be a concern because Jupiter functions almost like a celestial vacuum cleaner, sucking up any objects that would be of danger to Earth and its neighbors.
"Jupiter is doing a very good job in scooping up a lot of this material that's still floating around in the solar system," he said.
"It's just got so much gravity as it swings around the outer part of the solar system, it can really pull in and swallow up many of the cometary objects and debris left over from the formation of the solar system.
"So it's doing a good job in keeping us safe by cleaning out a lot of these bits and pieces."
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest in our solar system.
Its colorful atmosphere is 86 percent hydrogen and 14 percent helium, with tiny amounts of methane, ammonia, phosphine, water, acetylene, ethane, germanium, and carbon monoxide. The chemicals are responsible for producing the different colors of Jupiter's clouds.
The temperature at the top of those clouds is about 230 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (145 degrees below zero Celsius), but it is far hotter near the planet's center. The core temperature may be about 43,000 degrees Fahrenheit (24,000 degrees Celsius), hotter than the surface of the sun.
The most outstanding feature on Jupiter's surface is the Great Red Spot, a storm of gas that swirls at a speed of about 225 miles (360 kilometers) per hour at its edge. The spot -- which has been shrinking -- has a diameter equal to about three times that of Earth.My Silicon Valley Job History
When I first started this blog, I thought I would use it as a chance to talk about what it was like to live and work in a place like Silicon Valley. So to commemorate my first year blog anniversary (this week), I thought I’d do a post like this for the fun of it.
I’d like to start by saying that this is why I like being anonymous: so that I may be able to safely share some things about the places I’ve worked for in the past, as well as comment on whom I’ve worked for without having to fear undesirable “repercussions”.
One of the perks of living and working in the Bay Area is to have the opportunity to be a part of the booming trades of Silicon Valley. It’s true that our cost of living is one of the many challenges of living in this area. It is also true, from my observation that the middle class in this part of the nation is getting squeezed harder and harder. It’s almost as if our middle class is eroding since it’s beginning to look like this place is split between the haves and have nots and those in the middle are pulled in one direction or the other depending on how the cards have fallen for them in the last couple of decades.
At any rate, most of the professionals who work for the technical industry are the middle class, and they are the lifeblood of this place. Many can be found toiling for long hours at their decent, well-paying jobs that are required to keep themselves financially afloat in this grossly overvalued part of the world.
Some of the most memorable highs and lows I’ve experienced at work have been as an ordinary — and by all accounts — average employee in the following companies which shall remain nameless outside of the clues below. [It’s easy enough to figure out actually.]
What’s My Job History Like?
The Bosses.
Here are the some photos of previous people I’ve worked for. I’m happy to report that none of these people chewed up and spit out my soul…. I actually enjoyed working at these companies which these big bosses have helped create.
You can read more about these men and the companies they’ve built, in these books:
The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn’t Think He’s Larry Ellison
You’re Fifty–Now What? Investing for the Second Half of Your Life
Guide to Financial Independence: Simple Solutions for Busy People
John Chambers and the Cisco Way: Navigating Through Volatility
Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company
Well, okay, I’ve given away some of the names here, but let’s just play along, shall we?
The Stock Price Meltdowns.
All these companies had their stock gravely affected by the dot com bust and subsequent bear market.
(a) Company A: Hit a high of over $45 per share in late 2000, currently the price is at a little over $21 per share.
(b) Company B: Hit a high of over $70 a share in late 1999, with current price at under $50 a share.
(c) Company C: Hit a high of $80 a share in late 1999, with current price at around $33 a share.
(d) Company D: Hit a high of over $50 per share in early 1999 and the current stock price is now at around $22 a share.
What’s amazing is how some of these stocks have hit the same exact high price point at exactly the same point in time while none have fully recovered their once lofty stock price levels. If you bought any of these stocks 7 or 8 years ago and held on, you’ve unfortunately been carrying dead wood.
The Fun Experiences.
It wasn’t always this way with the stock prices though. There was once a time when these companies had unbelievable high P.E. ratios and soaring stock price valuations. Today, with their stocks in the dust, you can at least count on these places for the great perks and benefits they still offer [free gym membership, telecommuting privileges, on site daycare!] along with a wealth of valuable learning experiences.
Some memorable experiences I’ve had in each company:
(a) Company A was the incubator that churned out a lot of former engineers who eventually became active participants in the internet age as founders for successful startups at a later time. Even several people I knew who stayed put in this company became very well rewarded and eventually climbed up the executive ladder to hold places of seniority (no, I did not share the same fate). Notable as well was that I started my job here before Netscape existed, which meant that this was a time when there were no internet GUIs, when all consoles were character based and we could only entertain ourselves with Usenet.
(b) Company B was a great place to work, with a lot of young managers foisting a very friendly workplace culture upon us workers. I recall one guy who didn’t do squat and somehow B.S’d his way into making people do his work while simultaneously taking credit for it. He was also just a regular engineer, but after a dozen years, I was more than surprised to find that he now heads the San Francisco chapter of a prominent angel funding firm. Well, with his excellent persuasive and negotiating skills, maybe I shouldn’t have been too surprised.
(c) Company C outsourced a lot of their work to foreign contractors, and turned out to be extremely successful. I remember the hard hours and many great friendships that I made. Despite the work load and pressure, hard-driving management, 24 hour support calls on top of the development time we put in during the day, I have a keen pride and fondness for this place. This place turned out to be a giant in its industry, as one responsible for the foundation of the internet as we know it today. It had clout as if it were the Google of its time, going on acquisition sprees and turning everything it touched into gold.
(d) Company D was a highly politically charged place that had a lot of “strange” people in it. I ended up in a team whose team lead became entangled in a complex sexual harrassment case with one of our team members. I didn’t realize how disruptive such a situation can turn out for everyone else in a work group when this kind of thing happens. I was just glad I left the place right after that. Still, I have to credit this place for helping me learn Java in its earliest release.
The Commutes.
Two of my commutes ran between 20 to 30 minutes, one way, and they were relatively short. The others were a bear: over an hour for each one, door-to-door, and in the late 1990’s it was even more horrendous when traffic packed the interstate highways courtesy of the technical job boom. Today, my dream is to find a job that takes me under 15 minutes to get to, but that’s pretty much close to impossible just given where I’m located. Unless you live smack in a city that has these jobs, commuting will be a fixture in life.
The Salaries.
I received standard base salaries for engineers in the West Coast. There was this premium paid during the dot com era which is probably around 50% more of what we get today.
-ooOoo-
Now that I’ve spilled some beans, you may get a feel for the companies we have around here, which you’ll realize isn’t much different from many other large companies elsewhere :). I hope that these were remotely interesting anecdotes from our corner of the world. Many more titillating skeletons in the closet abound around here but I’ll leave it to Valleywag and TechCrunch to do this job. 🙂
Blog Anniversary Giveaway!
Which brings me to one other reason why I wrote this post: this week, I am celebrating my first year blog anniversary and this post figures in that celebration! I am holding a contest (e.g. “a giveaway” in blogosphere parlance) to mark this occasion, and if you’d like a headstart in joining, please comment on this post and share with us your own funny, interesting, sad, wacky work, job or business related experience that you’d like. In fact, you can tell us anything about your occupation, past or present. I’ll be covering the details of this giveaway tomorrow!
You can also read more about my salacious Silicon Valley job experiences right here.
Note: Contest is over. Thank you!
Image Credit: Wikipedia, Post Gazette, IT Jungle, PeopleSoft-Planet
Copyright © 2007 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a proposed $48 billion merger of Anthem and Cigna, derailing another effort by top health insurers to reshape the industry by combining.
The ruling, by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, came two weeks after another federal judge blocked a proposed $37 billion merger between Aetna and Humana on antitrust grounds.
Judge Jackson wrote in her order that she found the Justice Department’s arguments against the deal persuasive, and that putting Anthem and Cigna together would harm customers.
“The evidence has also shown that the merger is likely to result in higher prices, and that it will have other anticompetitive effects,” the judge wrote. “It will eliminate the two firms’ vigorous competition against each other for national accounts, reduce the number of national carriers available to respond to solicitations in the future, and diminish the prospects for innovation in the market.”FILE - In this June 5, 2014, file photo, people walk in front of a Yahoo sign at the company's headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Yahoo says the personal information of 500 million accounts have been stolen in a massive security breakdown that represents the latest setback for the beleaguered internet company. The breach disclosed on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016, dates back to late 2014. Yahoo is blaming the hack on a “state-sponsored actor.” (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) http://syndication.ap.org/AP.Distro.ContentBroker2/ContentBroker.aspx?contentid=8f3edf0f6bab493aa40a69d0804a50f7&iid=00bf330bab824b298599144cf37e6808&rsn=0&recordid=00bf330bab824b298599144cf37e6808&filingId=7fafdec12c7b4c13933c0f44d34459fb&role=Preview&reldt=2016-09-22T19:17:24&media=Photo&sz=47255&dest=ak&trF=NYBZ413&ofn=Yahoo%2bBreach.JPEG&fmt=jpg&relativeUrl=jpg/2016/201609/22/8f3edf0f6bab493aa40a69d0804a50f7.jpg&s3Key=versions/preview-v00.jpg&authToken=eNotizkOwyAQAF8EWq4NFEj5ChiQtoixwCgu9vGhSDPNzHB9IhpUYNEE7wEA0Xo%2bKPpmamnQBOaUhQ0miWQhCQwFPNjkoL24U9k7OMNrxqOf96C87j7mO69JZ50bk0od8ugfXrRjBWj4%2bsa%2fUA6Yrui0RKmVlt79ANkBLg0%3d SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo has been struggling for years to keep people coming back to its digital services such as email. That challenge just got more daunting after hackers stole sensitive information from at least 500 million accounts.
The startling breach disclosed Thursday is believed to be the largest to hit a single email provider. The security breakdown risks magnifying Yahoo's preexisting problems — specifically, that it is losing users, traffic and the advertising revenue that follows both, to rivals such as Google and Facebook.
Some snarky online commentators quipped that the hack would have been far more devastating if people actually still used the company's services. While there's some truth to that observation, millions around the world still rely on Yahoo mail and other services, and are now potentially at risk of identity theft or worse.
LOSING USERS
And if these people give up on Yahoo as a result, the consequences for the company itself — now scheduled to become part of Verizon as soon as its $4.8 billion deal closes — could also be dire. "Yahoo may very well be facing an existential crisis," said Corey Williams, senior director of products and marketing at the computer security firm Centrify.
Yahoo was already facing a steep decline in email traffic, despite CEO Marissa Mayer's efforts to upgrade the service in order to foster more user loyalty. In July, 161 million people worldwide used Yahoo email on personal computers, a 30 percent decline from the same time in 2014, when the breach first occurred. That's according to the latest data from the research firm comScore. By contrast, Google's rival Gmail service saw desktop users rise 9 percent to nearly 429 million over the same period.
The email breach raises questions about Yahoo's ability to maintain secure and effective services, particularly since it's been laying off staff and trimming expenses to counter a steep drop in revenue over the past eight years.
At the time of the break-in, Yahoo's security team was led by Alex Stamos, a respected industry executive who left last year to take a similar job at Facebook.
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH
Yahoo didn't explain what took so long to uncover a heist that it blamed on a "state-sponsored actor" — parlance for a hacker working on behalf of a foreign government.
The Sunnyvale, California, company declined to explain how it reached its conclusions about the attack for security reasons, but said it is working with the FBI and other law enforcement. Yahoo began investigating a possible breach in July, around the time the tech site Motherboard reported that a hacker who uses the name "Peace" was trying to sell account information belonging to 200 million Yahoo users.
Yahoo didn't find evidence of that reported hack, but additional digging later uncovered a far larger, allegedly state-sponsored attack.
"We take these types of breaches very seriously and will determine how this occurred and who is responsible," the FBI said in a Thursday statement.
MOST ACCOUNTS EVER STOLEN
The Yahoo theft represents the most accounts ever stolen from a single email provider, according to computer security analyst Avivah Litan with the technology research firm Gartner Inc.
"It's a shocking number," Litan said. "This is a pretty big deal that is probably going to cost them tens of millions of dollars. Regulators and lawyers are going to have a field day with this one."
Yahoo says it has more than 1 billion monthly users, although it hasn't disclosed how many of those people have email accounts.
The data stolen from Yahoo includes users' names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, scrambled passwords, and the security questions — and answers — used to verify an accountholder's identity. The company said the attacker didn't get any information about its users' bank accounts or credit and debit cards.
Security experts say the Yahoo theft could hurt the affected users if their personal information is mined to break into other online services or used for identity theft. All affected users will be notified about the theft and advised how to protect themselves, according to the company.
Yahoo also is recommending that all users change their passwords if they haven't done so since 2014. If the same password is used to access other sites, it should be changed too, as should any security questions similar to those used on Yahoo.
THE VERIZON IMPACT
News of the security lapse could cause some people to have second thoughts about relying on Yahoo's services, raising a prickly issue for the company as it tries to sell its digital operations to Verizon.
That deal, announced two months ago, isn't supposed to close until early next year. That leaves Verizon with wiggle room to renegotiate the purchase price or even back out if it believes the security breach will harm Yahoo's business. That could happen if users shun Yahoo or file lawsuits because they're incensed by the theft of their personal information.
Verizon said it still doesn't know enough about the Yahoo break-in to assess the potential consequences. "We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests, including consumers, customers, shareholders and related communities," the company said in a statement.
DELAY OF SALE?
At the very least, Verizon is going to need more time to assess what it will be getting into if it proceeds with its plans to take over Yahoo, said Scott Vernick, an attorney specializing in data security for the law firm Fox Rothschild.
"This is going to slow things down. There is going to be a lot of blood, sweat and tears shed on this" Vernick said. "A buyer needs to understand the cybersecurity strengths and weaknesses of its target these days."LWN.net Weekly Edition for August 7, 2014
Gaming on Linux is a popular topic lately; Steam and GOG.com, two very popular digital distribution platforms, are now available on Linux. In addition, several popular "AAA" games have received Linux ports—such as Civilization 5 and X-Com: Enemy Unknown—and more high-profile games have been announced (for example, "old-school" RPG games Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity). And that is not to mention the multitude of indie games. With over 600 games available on Steam and more than 50 on GOG.com, gamers who run Linux have reasons on celebrate. In light of the ready availability of so many proprietary games, though, it can be easy to forget that open-source games have existed for a long time already.
Recreations and originals
Many open-source game projects can accurately be described as game engine recreations. Their goal is usually to bring the original game to Linux, while also providing support for more modern hardware (particularly enabling higher screen resolutions). Interface improvements are sometimes included, too, although some projects prefer to remain as close to the original as possible. There is a comprehensive list of open source game clones hosted on GitHub. As the list shows, though, many of these projects are not in active development any more and some have not even produced a playable version.
Aside from these projects, which are directly inspired by existing proprietary games, there are few original open-source games. Battle for Wesnoth is a well-known turn-based tactical strategy game still in active development. Due to the releases of Quake II and Quake III game engines under the GPL (in 2001 and 2005, respectively), several open-source first-person shooters have been developed, such as Warsow, Xonotic, and Tremulous. Of those, only Warsow has had a release this year.
For a serious free-software gamer on Linux, the choices seem quite slim: either play an unfinished clone of an older game or one of the few original games that is still in development or which can be considered finished. Perhaps this is why the coming of Steam was greeted as a sort of renaissance of Linux gaming, long after the first wave of Linux game ports by Loki Software in 1999-2001. It is, however, more interesting to consider why open-source games are not more successful.
In some ways, game development offers a fundamentally different challenge than the development of other open-source software. Application software can be released with missing features and still be useful to users; games need to be feature-complete to draw players. Applications do not require much in the way of graphic design; for games this is important (and, in addition, programmers tend not to be good artists). Applications can be used by one user or by a million; games need to reach a certain critical mass of players to become interesting.
Finally, in applications it is easy for everyone to "scratch their own itch" and implement features they need; in games, a clear game design and project direction are required in order to produce a meaningful result. This, no doubt, is why game clones are so popular: it is easy for everyone to see the goal. However, beyond these technical considerations, open-source games face other limitations as well.
While developing in the open has many advantages, it obviously makes it impossible to design a compelling single-player experience: everyone involved would know the story in advance and the continual testing during development would wear down most interested people. As such, open-source games must be either multiplayer games, or "sandbox" games with procedurally generated content (such as OpenTTD or Freeciv). These sandbox game clones have long been successful and have their niche.
Multiplayer games, though, suffer a lot from the above-mentioned problem of critical mass: releasing too soon means not enough players will be interested in playing, while releasing too slowly means the current players will lose interest. Since the number of players constitutes a positive feedback loop, with more players improving the experience for everyone, once the game starts "dying" it is practically impossible to reverse the trend (consider this graph showing the number of unique players of Tremulous per day).
All of these challenges, combined with the natural drifting away of developers in any open-source project, make designing and programming an original open-source game exceedingly hard. However, I think that there is still room for open-source game engine recreations, both of the sandbox or multiplayer-game variety. I will look at two currently active projects and see how they deal with the issues listed above: OpenRA and OpenMW.
OpenRA
OpenRA is a recreation of classic Westwood real-time strategy games, currently supporting the original Command & Conquer (also known as Tiberian Dawn), Red Alert, and Dune 2000; work on Tiberian Sun is currently in progress. It is developed in Mono, with Lua used for scripting. The engine is released under the GPL. The original game assets (such as media content) are required for playing; however, the original games have been released for free (as in |
4) The Sheffield United / Tevez incident.
5) BFS is a tool.
2, 3 and 4 will fade into the past but 1 and 5 will be ever thus. However, I can't deny they're playing well and deserve to be up there.
As someone says on their forum there are tools on every forum - certainly on theirs as there are some that are praising Turkish's level headed insight!! WTF!Anushay Hossain is a writer and media personality based in Washington. For more, visit AnushaysPoint.com. The views expressed are her own.
(CNN) Donald Trump's first major trip overseas may be fraught with diplomatic land mines for the President, but the Trump administration can at least comfort itself with the clear hit that Melania Trump has been with the Saudi press.
The fact that Melania is communicating with the media and the public in Saudi Arabia -- mainly through what Saudi news reports have deemed her " classy and conservative " fashion choices -- works well in the notoriously anti-woman kingdom. Her intense appeal makes sense, considering the first lady represents so much that Saudi citizens find familiar and can relate to, especially visually. Melania walks behind her husband, is quiet and reserved, does not make obvious demands (at least not ones we can hear), and most importantly, she looks beautiful and polished.
All of that should come as no surprise, given whom Melania is married to. After all, how the Saudi government likes women to behave is similar to how Donald Trump has said he likes women to behave. And they both prefer women to look pretty in pictures, rather than hold actual positions of power.
Melania's husband and the Saudi government also both know and understand the power and value of a good photo opportunity. In fact, fantastic photo opportunities are something the kingdom values and is hypersensitive about, especially ones that are going to be seen around the world.
For them, Melania Trump was perfectly poised in her black Stella McCartney jumpsuit and gilded gold belt. Melania projected a glamorous image for a country where women live under male guardianship, cannot drive, still do not have the full vote, and cannot travel or seek medical attention without male permission.
The Saudi press also appreciated Melania and first daughter Ivanka Trump's championing of the kingdom's feminism light, also known by some as "fake feminism" -- the same brand of women's rights Donald Trump likes to promote -- which the two did by visiting companies run by women entrepreneurs. Those visits, which Ivanka and Melania made separately, project a false narrative of a government committed to advancing women's rights.
Although much has been made about the first lady and first daughter not donning the headscarf, that choice really is not as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. Angela Merkel, Theresa May and Michelle Obama all skipped out on the headscarf while visiting Saudi Arabia, and Donald Trump even famously attacked Michelle Obama for insulting "Saudi culture" by showing her hair, something his wife and daughter both just did.
Even though a much stricter version of the Islamic covering is required by law for Saudi women, wives and female family members of foreign dignitaries do not have to abide by it. That was true when Donald Trump criticized Michelle Obama for not wearing one, and it is still true now that Melania and Ivanka have followed suit.
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The headscarf should be the least of the Trump family's worries, because the Saudi press have embraced Melania (and to a related but lesser extent, Ivanka) for basically doing for the kingdom what they do for Donald Trump: Provide the perfect cover for misogyny and tyranny by being beautiful, poised and often silent.
In Melania, the Saudi press and the Saudi government found the perfect spokeswoman, who projects a glamorous image that glosses over one of world's most autocratic and oppressive regimes.
What is not to love?When it comes to alcohol on a cruise ship, people spend plenty of money — with 41.0% reporting they spend at least $100 on drinks during their cruise. Even with that amount of money being spent, a large number of people — 19.1% — report sneaking alcohol aboard their cruise.
And that’s not all. Progreso was named the least favorite Caribbean port, with 23.7% of cruisers naming it as their least favorite (Nassau, Bahamas came in a close second).
These results come courtesy of a recent survey Cruzely.com conducted among active cruisers. In addition to these findings, we also discovered some other interesting findings about cruising that may surprise you…
The Survey
Our survey was conducted over a four-day period from September 17-20, 2016. The 10-question survey was conducted online in the United States, with a total of 287 respondents. Our goal was to uncover the preferences and behavior of cruise passengers when it comes to things like how much they spend, why they sail for a certain port, and much more.
The survey consisted of 10 multiple-choice questions:
Which factor has the biggest impact on where you cruise from? How much do you spend in total on your average cruise? How much on average do you spend on drinks during your cruise? Have you ever snuck alcohol on a ship? Have you ever done an illegal drug while on the ship? Why do you prefer to cruise versus other vacations? What do you find to be the biggest frustration about cruising? Which is your favorite port to visit? Which is your least favorite port to visit? Have you ever had sex outside of your cabin on a trip? (Balcony is considered outside your cabin)
Key Findings
Throughout the results, we were consistently surprised by a number of answers to our survey. The following sum up the results of each question.
Cruise passengers overwhelmingly select where they sail from due to its proximity to their home. Nearly a majority — 45.6% of passengers — rated a port’s proximity to home as the main reason for sailing from there.
We believe this data is a major reason that cruise lines (especially Carnival) continue to put ships in relatively small markets such as Mobile, Jacksonville, and Charleston. Having cruise ships within driving distance obviously is a major reason why people decide to cruise from a port.
Most cruisers spend between $2,001 and $5,000 on their cruise, despite cruise lines advertising extremely low rates.
While cruising is known to be a relatively cheap way to travel, that doesn’t mean you can’t spend a significant amount of money. Roughly 39% percent of cruise passengers spend between $2,001-$5,000. More interestingly, 83.7% of passengers spend more than $1,000 on their trip. Considering how many cruises are advertised at stunningly low rates (at times as little as $250), it goes to show how quickly items like drinks, taxes and fees, excursions, and gratuities add up to make a cruise cost a significant chunk of money.
The vast majority of cruise passengers buy drinks on their trip, with 89.2% of passengers saying they spend at least some money on alcohol. Forty-one percent of passengers report spending more than $100 on drinks during their trip.
If you’ve ever wondered how big of a money-maker alcohol is for the cruise lines, consider that if the average person spent $100 on drinks during their cruise, a ship with 4,000 passengers would bring in $400,000 in revenue during each cruise. These results help to explain exactly why cruise ships continue to do everything they can to discourage people sneaking alcohol on the ship. We’ve already seen some cruise lines put bans on bringing any beverages on board — even water.
A huge number — 19.1% of respondents — admit to sneaking alcohol on a cruise.
That’s right, nearly one in five cruise passengers have snuck alcohol onto the ship. On the world’s largest cruise ships, which carry up to 6,000 passengers, that equates to roughly 1,200 people sneaking on booze. Of course, just because someone said they had snuck alcohol on the ship doesn’t mean they do every time. Still, this represents a staggering number of passengers who choose to flaunt the rules and bring their own alcohol in their luggage.
Illegal drugs are not common on cruise ships. Only 2.4% of passengers admit to doing illegal drugs on the ship.
While nearly half of adult Americans have admitted to trying marijuana, they are definitely leaving it onshore. In our survey, only 2.4% admitted to illegal drugs on board — covering marijuana or anything else. That’s good. Illegal drugs on the ship are a major no-no and being caught would result in serious trouble, especially in foreign countries.
Passengers are frustrated with too little time in ports, followed by excessive gratuities and hidden fees.
There’s likely no subject that will raise as much argument among cruisers than onboard gratuities. We expected this to register as the largest single frustration with cruising. As it turns out, passengers are much more concerned that there is too little time spent in ports, with more than one-third (36.3%) saying this was their biggest frustration. In second place was the complaint of gratuities, with nearly a quarter of responses. Other complaints included drink prices and the time it takes to get off the ship.
Cozumel ranks as the favorite Caribbean port, and Grand Cayman a close second.
In our survey, we provided nine Caribbean ports, along with an “other” category if a cruise passenger’s favorite port wasn’t listed. Cozumel ranked highest, with 24.3% of the vote. Grand Cayman rated second with 13.4%. Among “other” entries, St. Thomas was mentioned the most times.
Progreso ranks at the least favorite Caribbean port, and Nassau is in second place.
In addition to favorite ports, we also asked about the least favorite ports among cruisers. Progreso was the clear loser, with 23.7% of people claiming it was their least favorite. Nassau was the next in line, with 17.3% of the vote. Not surprisingly, both of these ports finished lower in our “favorite” ports question. Within the “other” category, most people mentioned that they had no least favorite port.
Finally, some people enjoy getting risque on their cruise. Nearly 10% of respondents to our survey admit to having had sex outside of the privacy of their cabin. (Note that in our question, we defined the balcony as outside the cabin.)
In our survey, 9.3% of people admitted to having relations outside of their cabin. On a ship with 5,000 passengers — or about 2,500 couples — that would equate to 230 couples doing the deed where they could be caught.
It goes to show that something about vacation simply makes people let loose. Maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s spending all day by the pool, or maybe it’s the carefree mindset of being on vacation. Whatever the case, it’s obvious that people like to open up a little more on their trip.
Takeaways
Our survey results shed some light on topics that many cruisers had always wondered, but never been able to get a clear answer. Yes, people sneak alcohol on the ships frequently. Passengers love Cozumel, but can’t stand Progreso (keep this in mind when booking your next trip). And despite cruises always being advertised with cheap headline fares, the total cost for adds up to thousands of dollars.
All in all, we’re happy to be able to finally have some hard data to give more insight into what cruise passengers think and how they act. Oh, and if your cruise is headed to Progreso, you might want to think twice.Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE (R-Texas) on Friday threw his support behind former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton to replace Michael Flynn as President Trump's national security adviser.
"He's someone who understands the world. He understands the threats of radical Islamic terrorism," Cruz told CNN's Manu Raju. "He understands the threats of an over-aggressive [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."
"And at the same, I think he has demonstrated an understanding that we should be reluctant to use military force. That we should do so only when absolutely necessary."
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Bolton, a foreign policy hawk who served as President George W. Bush's ambassador to the U.N., has also been a rumored pick for deputy secretary of State.
Despite Cruz's approval, some Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (R-Ky.), have fiercely opposed Bolton's appointment to the Trump administration.
Further complicating an appointment, Bolton was a staunch supporter of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Trump has criticized the war after initially supporting the invasion, calling into question whether their perspectives will align.
Flynn abruptly resigned on Monday amid revelations that he may have mislead Vice President Pence about a phone call Flynn had with the Russian ambassador.
The president offered the job to retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward after Flynn's resignation, but Harward turned down the offer.AP Images Gas prices have exploded in California, surging 50 cents per gallon in just one week to an all-time high of $4.614.
The state's gas supply has been squeezed by refinery outages as well as EPA requirements that prevent certain blends of gasoline from being sold before November.
However, the LA Times Stuart Pfeifer reports that California governor Jerry Brown is moving to suspend those requirements.
"Gas prices in California have risen to their highest levels ever, with unacceptable cost impacts on consumers and small businesses," Brown said in a statement.
"I am directing the Air Resources Board to immediately take whatever steps are necessary to allow an early transition to winter-blend gasoline."
An analyst Pfeifer spoke to said the move could cause gas prices to fall by 10 to 15 cents within days.
SEE ALSO: This Is What An Oil Boom Town Looks Like After It's Gone Bust >Shortly before the announcement Thursday night of the ceasefire in Gaza that went into effect Friday morning and was immediately broken, the Deutsche Welle, the German radio station, posted the transcript of an interview with the Israeli novelist Amos Oz. Here’s how it started:
OZ: I would like to begin the interview in a very unusual way: by presenting one or two questions to your readers and listeners. May I do that?
DEUTSCHE WELLE: Go ahead!
QUESTION 1: What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap, and starts shooting machine-gun fire into your nursery?
QUESTION 2: What would you do if your neighbor across the street digs a tunnel from his nursery to your nursery in order to blow up your home or in order to kidnap your family?
Oz is no hawk. He is the godfather of Israeli peaceniks: in 1967, right after the Six-Day War—in which he fought—left Israel in control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, he was the first Israeli to call publicly for the creation of an independent Palestinian state in those territories, writing, “Even unavoidable occupation is a corrupting occupation.” He has always opposed the establishment of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, and, in 1978, he was a founder of Peace Now. He is a steadfast critic of the policies toward Palestinians of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and, in the Deutsche Welle interview, advocated once again an Israeli deal with the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. “My suggestion,” he said, is “a two-state solution and coexistence between Israel and the West Bank: two capitals in Jerusalem, a mutually agreed territorial modification, removal of most of the Jewish settlements from the West Bank.”
Although Netanyahu has said that he accepts the two-state idea, he has doggedly resisted efforts to realize it, and his resistance has carried a terrible price for both Israelis and Palestinians. Oz argues cogently that such an agreement, followed by heavy Israeli investment in the success of the West Bank, would do more to destroy Hamas’s hold over Gaza than all of Israel’s wars there have managed. “The people in Gaza will be very jealous of the freedom and prosperity enjoyed by their brothers and sisters on the West Bank in the state of Palestine,” he said.
Oz’s interview is not only one of the most sober reckonings of Israel’s current position that you can find, his insistence that Israel and Palestine really could do vastly better by each other also makes it one of the most optimistic. While Oz finds it impossible to oppose Israel’s current war on principle—he calls it “justified, but excessive”—his longstanding commitment to the end of settlements and a two-state peace deal means that he is convinced that this war could have been avoided. In this, the peacenik novelist sounds very much like the six former Israeli spy chiefs profiled in the powerful documentary “The Gatekeepers,” all of whom left Israel’s national-security apparatus convinced that there can be no military solution to their conflict with the Palestinians, only a political one. That is Oz’s point in asking the brutal questions at the start of his interview: “For Israel,” he said, “it is a lose-lose situation.”
Meanwhile, on newyorker.com, the Columbia professor and former Palestinian diplomat Rashid Khalidi brushes aside the sort of questions that Oz poses—“What would you do if … ”—as mere “pretexts” and “red herrings” to excuse wanton Israeli aggression. Just last month, Netanyahu told Israelis, as he has repeatedly, that they must never relinquish “security control” over the West Bank, and Khalidi interprets this to mean that Israel’s war in Gaza “is not really about Hamas.” No, he writes, “It is not about rockets. It is not about ‘human shields’ or terrorism or tunnels. It is about Israel’s permanent control over Palestinian land and Palestinian lives.” In short, Khalidi claims, Israel’s only purpose is the collective punishment of Palestinians for resisting Israeli subjugation, and it follows that the unjustifiability of Israeli violence justifies Palestinian violence. After all, he writes, “Gaza is a ghetto and ghettos will inevitably fight back against those who ghettoize them.”
When Oz speaks of the neighbor who shoots at you with a child on his lap, he is speaking, of course, of Hamas, and he consistently makes the distinction clear between Hamas and Palestinian civilians, for whom this war has been a devastating bloodbath. Oz does not absolve Israel from its responsibility for the death and destruction in Gaza—that would be impossible—but he sees Hamas as more than an equal partner in it. That is what he means, he explains, when he describes the war as lose-lose for Israel: “The more Israeli casualties, the better it is for Hamas. The more Palestinian civilian casualties, the better it is for Hamas.” There is no end of argument about how to parcel out responsibility for this war and its ghastly toll on Gazans, but Oz is hardly alone in his view of Hamas’s strategy. My colleague Lawrence Wright, in his deep reporting and one-man theatre piece about Gaza, is unsparingly critical of the Israeli occupation. But, when he turns to Hamas’s attitude towards Gaza’s disproportionately young population, he concludes, “These children are being groomed to die.”
Khalidi, however, hasn’t got a bad word for Hamas. He says, “We might not like Hamas or some of its methods, but that is not the same as accepting the proposition that Palestinians should supinely accept the denial of their right to exist as a free people in their ancestral homeland.” Right—of course it’s not the same. But that doesn’t negate the fact that Hamas doesn’t accept, or even nominally recognize, the right of Israelis to exist as a free people. As Khalidi says, we should pay attention when Netanyahu tells Israelis about controlling their security on the West Bank. So shouldn’t we also listen when Hamas tells Palestinians that they should never accept the existence of Israel—and that victory will not come until they have wiped out not only the Jewish state but all the Jews?
If you take an interest in the war in Gaza, you should read the Hamas charter, but Oz sums up its biggest idea handily enough: “It says that the Prophet commands every Muslim to kill every Jew, everywhere in the world.” If Khalidi has a problem with this, he keeps it to himself. While Oz has no problem saying that Israel’s violent occupation is unjust to Palestinians and endangers its own people, Khalidi refuses to acknowledge that Hamas exists to end Israel’s existence and thrives on Palestinian wretchedness. In the heat of his moral condemnation of Israel—and of America for supporting Israel against Hamas—the hardest line that he will allow himself against Gaza’s categorically genocidal leadership is that “we may not like” it. What would he lose to say that we must not?
Ultimately, Khalidi’s argument seems to be that might makes wrong. Israel, he says, is “the stronger party.” He sees that strength as entirely dependent on America, and he argues that, if America seriously wants to make peace, it must cut Israel loose. Khalidi’s aim is to drive a wedge between Israel and what he sees as the only thing it has going for it—American support—but, by blinding himself to Hamas’s reality, or by denying it, he trips himself up. As we have seen since the breakdown on Friday of the American-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, the dastardliness of Hamas has, in fact, created a greater sense of common cause between Obama and Netanyahu than we have ever seen before. Oz cannot be happy about that, but he can surely understand it, whereas Khalidi’s magical thinking invites incomprehension. That is the real difference that Oz represents: whatever you may think of his position, you cannot but recognize that he is that rarest thing in this war—an honest voice.poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201701/1416/1155968404_5298987424001_5298935803001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true While slamming media, Trump estimates 600K to attend March for Life
President Donald Trump continued his self-described war with the media Thursday, telling Republican congressmen during a retreat in Philadelphia that there is “nothing fair about the media.”
“On Friday, a lot of people are gonna be showing up to Washington, right, Mike?” Trump said to Vice President Mike Pence, who will host a March for Life welcome reception later Thursday and is expected to speak at its march on Friday. “A lot of people.”
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Trump seemed to predict that the anti-abortion protest would draw up to 600,000 people, exceeding estimates of the half-million people who flooded Washington to participate in last weekend’s women’s march in support of progressive women’s issues and in protest of Trump’s presidency.
“The press never gives them the credit that they deserve,” Trump claimed. “They’ll have 300, 400, 500, 600,000 people. You won’t even read about it.”
He appeared to nod at the historic turnout for the women’s march, which was joined by similar marches across the country Saturday, by suggesting “other people” get more favorable coverage for their turnouts.
“When other people show up, you read big time about it. Right? So it's not fair, but nothing is fair about the media,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the audience. “Nothing.”
During a CIA address Saturday in front of the hallowed memorial wall for CIA agents who have died in the line of duty, Trump said he has “a running war with the media” and called them “among the most dishonest human beings on earth.”Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso Boku (Your Lie in April)
Cute anime series with solid performances. Pulling out great virtuoso pieces like Camille Saint-Saëns - Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso and Chopin's Etude Op. 25, No. 11. These are studio recordings of the original compositions, but I'd love to snag a compilation of the original arrangements heard during the episodes. They added a cool drum beat and baseline to a few of the pieces for added dramatic tension and created a pretty cool atmosphere.
I'd recommend this show to anyone seeking a fun introduction to popular classics. Your Lie in April takes a heavy hand to what it means to be a musician and the difference between playing for a committee versus playing for yourself. The show itself isn't incredibly deep, but the focus is the music, and it really showcases each composition in a way that not only focuses on the notes, but also the emotional intensity. It's a nice touch how they play each piece through, so you can appreciate the whole performance as if you were there. An anime that is more like an animated recital.Around four millennia ago, the Xia dynasty – China’s first line of unbroken hereditary rulers – was born along the Yellow River, according to legendary texts. Save for some mysterious stone carvings and possible tombs, though, there’s very little archaeological evidence that convincingly shows that the Xia dynasty ever existed.
It is, however, immortalized in the tale of the Great Flood. This epic story describes how a huge natural disaster almost destroyed the region before a man named Yu stepped in to save the day. According to legend, an immense flood 4,000 years ago left a portion of China on the brink of ruin, but, supposedly, Yu managed to divert much of the floodwater away from major settlements.
Many have thought that this was nothing more than an elaborate work of fiction, but a striking new study published in Science reveals that the Great Flood was almost certainly a historical fact.
An international team of researchers were carefully mapping ancient sediments along the Yellow River when they stumbled across something shocking. The sedimentological records indicated that a powerful flood did indeed inundate the land thousands of years ago, and it would have certainly looked like the end of the world to anyone caught in its fury.
“This was one of the largest floods to have happened on Earth in the last 10,000 years,” study co-author Darryl Granger, professor in the department of earth atmospheric planetary sciences at Purdue University, said in a press conference. The flood was likely to have destroyed settlements as far as 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) downstream.
Using radiocarbon dating on a series of skeletons, ones belonging to people killed by the earthquake and then buried by the flood, they determined that it occurred in the year 1920 BCE, right at the time that written legends say the Xia dynasty came into being.
Image in text: Rough location of the Xia dynasty. Gurdjieff/Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0
Some of the skeletons at the key Lajia archaeological site. Cai Linhai
Earlier that year, a powerful earthquake shook the region, and the team’s evidence shows that a huge landslide blocked the upper section of the Yellow River. This natural dam, roughly a third of the size of the Empire State Building, accumulated water over nine months, before catastrophically bursting.
This geological evidence matches up incredibly well with the story of the flood described in ancient apocryphal Chinese texts, which strongly suggests that the revered myth was true all along. So was the Xia dynasty, the nucleus of Chinese civilization, more fact than fiction as well?
The Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River. Leruswing/Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0The wait is over. After four months, Batman #32 (written by Tom King and illustrated by Mikel Janin) finally revealed Catwoman’s answer to Batman’s proposal: she said yes.
Selina Kyle gave Bruce her answer after he confessed his deepest darkest secret to her: during the War of Jokes and Riddles, a bloody turf battle between the Joker and the Riddler that was recounted in the past eight issues, Batman almost broke his cardinal no killing rule by trying to stab the Riddler with a knife. Ironically, the Joker intervened and stopped him from crossing that line because he thought it was funny. In spite of this shocking revelation, Selina still agrees to marry him because their love is more important than all of their sadness and tragedies, earned or not.
Now, Bruce needs to break the news to his family and friends. The upcoming arc “The Rules of Engagement,” which begins in Batman #33 (on stands Oct. 18), follows the Dark Knight as he tells everyone from Dick Grayson (the original Robin) and Superman to Talia al Ghul, his former flame and the mother of his son Damian. (Awkward!)
“As crazy as it is to the audience, it’s even crazier to the people in the fictional world,” King tells EW. “That’s going to cause both tension and happiness throughout DC comic books.”
EW caught up with King to discuss the reasoning behind pairing Batman and Catwoman up, how “War of Jokes and Riddles” complicates Batman and Joker’s relationship, and most importantly, everyone’s favorite tragic C-level villain Kite Man.
DC Comics
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you decide to actually go through with having Batman and Catwoman get engaged?
TOM KING: When you approach a character like Batman, the only thing you can bring to it that’s new – because Batman’s been written by everybody, has done every medium, for 78 years — is you. In trying to do something different, something that surprises people, you look to what you care about in your life and your great passion. I’m passionately in love with my wife; it’s been that way for 17 years, and that’s a source of great happiness to me and it’s a source of the biggest dramas in my life, the biggest risks I’ve taken in life, like leaving her to go to Iraq or something like that. So, I wanted to bring that emotion and passion and put it into comic books. So, it just comes from me stealing from my own life, which is probably a good place to steal from.
In the writing process, was there ever a version of the story in which Catwoman said no, or was this story always heading toward “yes”?
This has been the direction since issue #1. I’ve got a 100 issues plan. If you look back in issue #1, Catwoman is not in the issue, but we do alternative covers, and you’ll see that a lot of the alternative covers feature Catwoman because when they first asked “What is your run going to be about?” way before I wrote it, I said, “It’s going to be about Catwoman and Batman.”
In comics, there’s this general idea that superheroes shouldn’t be happy. We’ve seen this in Spider-Man, Bat-family, and other places. How did you pitch this story to DC Comics? Was there any pushback?
No, because what you’re talking about is looking at happiness as the end of conflict, right? This idea that if a character is content, then there’s nothing dramatic about them and you don’t want a cliffhanger and you don’t want to turn the page. That’s my whole point as an artist — I’m trying to get you to turn a page. But what makes Batman unique is that happiness is, instead of being the end of conflict, the source of conflict. It’s something you haven’t seen before. You throw sadness, you throw depression, you throw horror at Batman, he’s like, “yeah, yawn, I’ve done that.” You throw happiness at him? That’s something that riles him, that’s something that he’s not used to. That’s throwing gas on a fire, and that’s always how I pitched it. This is not the end of something. This is the beginning of something.
Looking ahead, how will this engagement affect Batman and his story moving forward?
Oh, it’s 100 percent at the center of the story. It’s a new status quo for Batman that you haven’t seen before. After 78 years of the character, here he’s going to into every situation brand new, but he’s not changed in his Batman ways. He’s still Batman. He’s still Bruce Wayne. He still has the pain. You’re not losing the core of the character, but there’s something new here. He’s going to talk to Superman in a different way now. He’s going to talk to Green Lantern in a different way. He’s going to approach danger in a different way. He’s got a partner that’s his equal in every sort of way but is not the same as him morally. There are plenty of places to point the camera, so we’re going to point it as many places as we can.
Will we actually get to see him telling the rest of the Trinity about this engagement?
I’ve never told anyone this before, but we pulled a little trick. In comic books, they do something called the solicitations, which means we have to release the title of our next arc months before they come out, and we lied. We told everyone the next arc is “A Dream of Me.” The next arc is actually called “The Rules of Engagement,” and it’s about Batman going back to his family, going back to Dick Grayson, the original Robin, Damian, his biological son, Superman, [and] Green Lantern. It’s him going back into his comfort zone and them reacting to this, because the honest reaction is, people are going to look at Batman proposing to Catwoman as something insane. They’re not going to understand it. As crazy as it is to the audience, it’s even crazier to the people in the fictional world. So, that’s going to cause both tension and happiness throughout DC comic books, and that’s what we’re going to record in our next books.
So, does that mean we’ll still get Batman on a horse?
Yeah, it’s going to be Batman on a horse. His first mission is: If you’ve been following the Batman mythos, Catwoman’s wanted for 237 murders, and she’s covering for her best friend Holly Robinson, who actually did the murders. Holly Robinson is now on the run, so now we’re going to try and find her and try to sort the whole thing out. They run into Talia al Ghul. So the next issue is Batman going on a quest and running into the mother of his child, who is not his fiancé.
I’m guessing that’s going to be rather awkward…
Yes, it’s quite awkward, but it’s drawn by Joëlle Jones, who is one of the best artists in comics, and it’s violent and bloody and cool. I love it.
The other big development in this issue is that Joker stopped Batman from killing the Riddler. What made that an interesting addition to the character’s backstory?
I think it would’ve been an easier story to write where Batman tries to kill someone — that’s weird — but the fact that Batman tried to kill someone and the Joker saved him, I think that’s what I like about it. This is a story that happened to him when he was young, when he didn’t understand the job as much, so he was in a different emotional place than he is now. To me, to have that concession in your heart to have hidden that for all these years, “I pretend I’m better than these people, but I’m not. At the end of the day, I did something as bad as they did, and the only reason I didn’t succeed is because the worst human that has ever occupied this Earth, the worst person anyone has ever imagined in fiction, stopped me. I owe my goodness to his evil. He stopped me to make himself laugh.” That sets up a Batman I want to read. That sets up a Batman whose pain comes from guilt, not just from inaction. I think a lot of us, when we think about the worst parts of our life, we think about ourselves being involved in them. It’s not just the pain that was done to us but [also] the pain we caused ourselves. In looking at Batman and making him more human and raising the stakes of the series, I wanted to bring out that guilt.
This also complicates Batman and Joker’s relationship.
That’s exactly it. [Growing up], I loved comics but I sort of grew up as a Marvel fan. I came to Batman after the 1989 movie. So, I was introduced to Batman and Joker at the same time. I think the first Batman story I ever read was “The Killing Joke,” and I was way too young, but that’s what happened. So I’ve always seen them as two parts of the Batman story. You can’t tell a Batman story without the Joker, and you can’t tell a Joker story without Batman. They’re just the symbols of the best and worst of humanity. Like I said, Batman turns pain into hope and Joker turns hope into pain. They’re the alpha and omega of comics.
DC Comics
DC Comics
Kite Man has been one of my favorite parts of your run. What made Kite Man the perfect C-list Batman villain to rehabilitate?
Honestly, I grew up a huge Peanuts fan. When it came to Kite Man, I sort of used him just for a background joke at first, but then I realized his name was Chuck Brown. So, I started to see him as this Charlie Brown-esque character — nothing right ever happens to him, his whole life is the football getting yanked away. There’s something appealing to me in that tragedy. I wrote it directly into the script, but there’s something Sisyphean about it. He’s a supervillain who is always pushing up the rock and having it fall down again, which is both funny and tragic at the same time. So, I wanted to play with that. I think you see that play out in issue #32, because when that first Kite Man came out, people were like, “What does this Kite Man have to do with anything?” and you see that moment where Batman’s sitting there and he’s watching Kite Man’s son die and that’s the trigger, that’s what pulls him over the edge in the very end. This whole thing comes right back to Kite Man, and that’s the idea behind jokes and riddles — they’re funny because they’re sad and they’re sad because they’re funny. It all just sort of thematically fits.
Do you have plans for Kite Man moving forward?
Oh yeah, Kite Man’s in play. Kite Man’s at the beginning and he’ll be at the end. These 100 issues are a story about Batman and Catwoman and a story about Kite Man, too.
Batman #32 is available to purchase now.The ocean contains a vast number of living things, including many, many pathogens — from bacteria that thrive on coral to fungi that infect lobsters. A drop of seawater may hold 10 million viruses.
Recently, a team of scientists revealed a frightening member of this menagerie: free-floating cancer cells that cause contagious tumors in shellfish. Last year, they found |
in the end? Most likely it is going to come after the end of your tenure I believe in April..
Zeti: I'm hoping that it can be all concluded by then so that I can hand over a clean slate to the next governor. Well, I did make a statement much earlier saying that this issue is..funds that move the money trail is followed throughout the world... and agreements have been signed between regulators around the world on anti-money laundering and so on. Therefore there is no way that there can be any (pause) funds will come to be known where they went and where they came from.
Bernie: 1MDB is not new but it is only in recent times that it's arrived in the headline for a lot of the wrong reasons. When the bad press started to happen, what went through your mind? What was your reaction?
Zeti: Well, first of all I have to tell you that we do monitor any highly leveraged entity. Any entity in Malaysia that has borrowed more than 2 billion will be on our watch list. So we have always watched and monitored this company but only when we were informed of some potential irregularities being practised that investigations commenced.
Bernie: The collateral damage has been quite apparent as well. All three major rating agencies have country still in investment grade but at the bottom, and the currency is now much weaker than it was during those years of capital controls.
Zeti: But this is as a result of cumulative factors. First, the anticipation of normalisation of the interest rates in the United States and this affected most emerging economies, so it is not unique to Malaysia. Then the drop and collapse in commodity and energy prices. This again is not unique to Malaysia and it was perceived that Malaysia would be very badly affected because we are an oil producing economy. However, we have restructured our economy in the sense that we have diversified the economic structure to be in manufacturing and services. Those two sectors account for 80 per cent of our economy. Then to be fair to the government, they have implemented fiscal reforms rationalisation of subsidies and the implementation of the GST. So the dependence on oil revenue has been reduced from more than 40 per cent to about 20 per cent and the deficit has been reduced over the years from six per cent fiscal deficit to 3.2 per cent. So within this we have reduced our dependence on the energy as an economic sector significantly in terms of the economic structure, in terms of employment, in terms of fiscal revenue. But the market hasn't wised up to this and therefore we have the perception, every time when there is a recovery in oil prices, the currency actually appreciates. So there is that link to the currency, and of course any domestic uncertainty or political tensions, all these contribute to it so what we all want to see is a quick conclusion to this whole matter.
Bernie: I kind of wonder if the world really understands how Malaysia's economy has evolved, they seem to think of oil as oil, period. Oil that the Saudis and the Iranians produce is very different because you have.. actually you have many different types of oil (Zeti: Exactly, exactly) including a lot of edible oil. It is edible oil manufacturer in the world but it is a fact that seems to be lost in the markets something that Malaysia doesn't get rewarded for..
Zeti: We are not as good as to articulate to investors and the world at large, that they should appreciate the economic restructuring that we have undertaken to better place us in domestic demand. We used to be an export-led economy in the 1990s but (we're) no longer so, it is driven by domestic demand for more than a decade that saved us. This is why we have five to six per cent growth even in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, it is because even though our trade contracted but domestic demand drove our growth, we have at least a five per cent growth.
Bernie: Why is the story not better told, certainly that is not the domain of the central bank, is there something missing? Is there some PR department that is missing the message? Or not making sure that it is you know registered with the rest of the world?
Zeti: Well I believe we make every effort to do so, including from the central bank, but another factor is we are a country that hasn't really borrowed significantly from the international capital markets and because when you raise funds then you go for roadshows and then you get better known. This is exactly what we did that turned the tide for Malaysia for the Asian crisis because as you mentioned the whole world is sort of turned against us when we implemented those extreme measures. But in May of 1999, which is just almost less than a year later, we decided to raise funds and we went on a road show around the world. I was in the team that went to the U.S. from coast to coast we had 26 meetings in 10 days and we were able to raise funds even under unstable market conditions, because developments while we were on the roadshow, there were developments in Argentina and Greenspan announced the bias towards tightening, spread started to widen but we proceeded with this and our issuance despite being brought down by two notches by rating agencies it was over-subscribed and the pricing was within the range that we wanted to see. So at that time when you really tell your story directly to the markets, there is a major economic payoff and I guess we haven't done that and that is why we are less known.
Bernie: When you are overseas, when you meet with potential industrial governance, do you still have a lot of questions about the whole what happened to the democratic movement? What happened to Anwar Ibrahim, where is he, how is he doing? Do you get questions like that which are normally not questions for the governor of the central bank to answer I might add...
Zeti: Well, there is not very much to what I can add to what they read in the press, but yes they do ask questions on Malaysia.
Bernie: What are you telling them? What do you try to impress upon them?
Zeti: Well, that there is a political process and that we have to let this political process roll out.
Bernie: It's not my purpose at all to dig up you know dirt from local press or fabricate things that don't exist, but there is no lack of the press about a how should I say, a challenging relationship between yourself and the prime minister...
Zeti: Well I would like to say that so far the central bank has maintained its independence and actually this current leadership was the one that supported our legislation a new central banking legislation in 2009. After 50 years of existence we wrote our central banking act. In that very act, many quoters had reservations on it but we received the support and it was tabled in parliament and that act legislates our independence, and to me that was particularly important. I would like to (think) that we always had this independence but I want to see it legislated for the future generation of central bankers in Malaysia. We were successful in legislating that independence and on top of it, we also legislated wide ranging powers which made some people question that the central bank was becoming too powerful in fact, but within that legislation we also legislated the accountability and the governance process and the transparency so that the central bank would never abuse its powers. So (pause) that is the relationship that we have with the government, it is a professional relationship and as an emerging market central bank we have a role in also performing other functions that some central banks in the developed world don't have, that relates to achieving some social objectives like financial inclusion and supporting small businesses and so on.
Bernie: The ability of Bank Negara Malaysia to stand alone, to be independent is enshrined, and you feel comfortable that you leave office in April knowing that this institution is protected, nobody can undo a lot of the work that you oversaw during your tenure. Is that correct?
Zeti: Yes that is correct but because I spend a lot of time and attention on instituting that legislation in particular but others as well during my term in office we have enacted more than 10 pieces of legislation for the financial sector and this gives certainty and predictability. Then there is a governance process was also instituted in the decision making process, and even the selection of the new governor will go through a governance committee of the board made up of private sector individuals.
Bernie: The front runner seems to be Muhammad Ibrahim. Is that a done deal, a forgone conclusion? Or is nothing ever done until it is done, with things of this matter?
Zeti: Of this matter, nothing is done until the King, the Agong, gives the royal assent.
Bernie: When you retire i think that's 30 years?
Zeti: I have been 35 years with the central bank and 16 years as governor. That is quite a long marathon that I have run and it has been some parts of the run through very treacherous terrain.
Bernie: What kept you doing this? Why did you dedicate your life to civil service, to the central bank serving the country like this under successive prime ministers? You are as educated as anybody could be. Masters, PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, I mean a lot of people would have taken a resume like that, done national duty, so you can say I've done it, I've done my job, I did my good to country and then gone off and made a gazillion dollars as a banker or something like that. But you never took that route, why?
Zeti: No, because it's a privilege. I believe (I am) given an opportunity to make a contribution and I felt this is where I can make a contribution and it's exciting and highly rewarding to be able to make a contribution to the Malaysian people and the economy, and to see the progress in the financial system that supports the entire economy.
Bernie: You faced a lot of odds along the way, you had your detractors, you faced criticism from successive administrations. I mean it takes a thick skin to go through that and not just say oh heck this isn't worth it..why in the world do I put myself through this? Were there moments likethat? In those 35 years?
Zeti: No, never, because I am a highly focused person, focused on what are the objectives I want.. what are the goals,what are the outcomes, and I had great clarity in my mind about what's needed to be achieved and transformation of the financial system, how we would build resilience. It is all about actually building resilience of the economy, of the financial system, and of the bank as well, the institutional resilience is equally important. So I found it very exciting and exhilarating to be involved in that.
Bernie: The work that you have done you know now you have seen the independence of the central bank legislating cast in law for eternity. Some would say that what you have been able to achieve in the central bank is something that society, the Malaysian society, could use and adopt some principles. You know the whole progress with democracy Malaysian style has taken a different course than a lot of people might have hoped 20 years ago; the ability of people to have a free choice, whether there is true democracy those were main open questions in some ways, don't you agree?
Zeti: Well, I am not a politician and I would like to think that I spent time protecting the bank from being drawn into any political controversy, tension and disruptions as they do occur. Because we can't allow ourselves to be distracted, and it's so easy to be distracted by the noise that is happening around you. But if you're very focused and you know in the end what you have to deliver, you always stay very focused and you always ensure that the whole governance process is also in place. There is a framework for how decisions are made so you will not be influenced by this kind of developments and there are things that just are beyond our powers, that we just have to take as a given, so within this then, this is what we need to focus on.
Bernie: I know enough about you to know that you are not going to just retire and then fade quietly into the sunset. You happen to be here at a forum today where there are a lot of central bankers there is even a helicopter pilot here today, Ben Bernanke. What can we expect from Dr Zeti in the years to come after BNM? Speech circuit? Kiss and tell? What comes next?
Zeti: Well I have already said I am going to do some writing. For a while now, I just want some time out for myself and for my family which I ave neglected immensely. Then I will decide what I am going to do but I don't think I will be taking on any position.
Bernie: You could impart your knowledge though, many people, many generations could learn from you, I'm sure you feel some obligation to share that expertise, don't you?
Something in academia perhaps?
Zeti: Well, not quite, I have been a policy maker and I will always be a policy maker in that sense that I will teach but not take on any jobs. We are setting up a business school in partnership with MIT Sloane and so that's a very exciting project that I will continue to support.
Bernie: And I can assume that you won't be holding beach parties with the Mahathirs or Najib anytime soon?
Zeti: I have never attended, I have always maintain a professional relationship not only with the politicians but also with the industry. So it is a sacrifice actually for whoever takes on the position of the governor, because you cannot build up any close relationship with politicians or with the financial industry. So who have been my friends? They are actually other central bankers and they will probably be what I will miss the most, the long lasting friendships that we meet all the time as central bankers. We are very cohesive and close knit and that is the community I will miss.Scenario 1: You live or are traveling around a place with expensive data or spotty service
We’ve all been through this — whether in our own backyard or a different country. You need to get directions, but you don’t have service. Or you do have service – but it’s spotty – so you find yourself staring at the map in a perpetual state of loading while you sit in your car waiting to find out which way to go. Now, when you know you’ll have spotty service or just want to save on data, you can toggle to “Wi-fi only” to use Google Maps entirely offline on Android. And the best part is that you can still use other apps and the rest of your phone as you normally would. You might even save on battery life too.A politician in your living room
In A Tower in Babel, media historian Erik Barnouw describes the invention of bleeping at the dawn of the radio age. Or proto-bleeping, I should say, since the earliest system didn’t produce a censorship sound, but rather provided the engineer with a switch to a nearby phonograph that could be flipped to play music in case any troublesome content should appear over the live microphone.
This innovation seems to have been prompted by the 1921 appearance on Newark’s WJZ of one Olga Petrova (born Muriel Harding in 1884), a famous vaudeville actress and singer known (and feared) for her strong views. Petrova was “a fanatic on birth control and always making speeches about it,” according to Barnouw. She was friends with Margaret Sanger, who founded the American Birth Control League, the organization that would later become Planned Parenthood.
One night in 1921, Petrova, then engaged at a Newark theater, went to the local radio station WJZ to perform. The Great War had just ended, during the course of which the government had forbidden the use of private radio equipment. After the armistice the Navy tried to retain monopoly control of radio, but Congress put a stop to their power grab. Wartime restrictions were lifted, but the pioneers of broadcasting such as those at WJZ were mindful of potential government interference, and Petrova had a reputation as a firebrand. She disarmed her hosts by announcing that she would be performing her own versions of Mother Goose rhymes, and then proceeded to read the following:
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, She had so many children because she didn’t know what to do.
The 1873 Comstock laws, which banned the distribution of “obscene” materials, including information about contraception, were still in force; Petrova had, arguably, kind of broken the law.
The means for censoring broadcast content came years before the emergence of the first national broadcast network
“The staff was terrified,” Barnouw relates. “They were certain there would be trouble from Washington. Westinghouse [then owner of WJZ] executives were already nervous about possibilities of this sort, and had wondered what to do if a'red' got on the air. An emergency switch was provided for the engineer in the shack.” Thus, he could switch to that “phonograph beside him — on his own judgment or on a signal from the studio.”
Thus it was that the means for censoring broadcast content came years before the emergence of the first national broadcast network, NBC, in 1926, and the Federal Radio Commission in 1927. By then, the technique was well established. Petrova recounts an episode that took place in 1924: she’d been reading a scene from her play, Hurricane, on radio station WOR when the red on-air light suddenly went out. Afterward, she learned she’d been cut off; the engineer told her that “radio audiences were very mixed … it wouldn’t do to offend any of their listeners.”
“One would suppose that radio audiences must be completely paralyzed,” Petrova observed dryly, “and therefore unable to turn off the switches of their own sets the instant their ears were shocked … by what they heard.”
The tug-of-war in the courts, in Congress and in the media over restrictions on free speech in broadcasting has altered very little since then. Justice William Brennan was still making Petrova’s argument in his dissent in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), the Supreme Court case involving George Carlin’s “Filthy Words” routine: “Whatever the minimal discomfort suffered by a listener who inadvertently tunes into a program he finds offensive during the brief interval before he can simply extend his arm and switch stations or flick the ‘off’ button, it is surely worth the candle to preserve the broadcaster’s right to send, and the right of those interested to receive, a message entitled to full First Amendment protection.”
Decades later, Stephen King repeated the sentiment in a 2002 interview: “If [Howard Stern] is saying stuff that you don’t like, if it offends you, you got a hand, you reach out, take hold of the knob, turn it off. He’s gone, goodbye … You don’t need a politician in your living room to say you’ve got to put a Band-Aid over that guy’s mouth.”The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a $35 million jury award stemming from a violent 2007 beating incident outside Six Flags Over Georgia that left a Marietta teen permanently brain damaged.
The Supreme Court upheld the finding of the lower court that Six Flags was liable for Joshua Martin's injuries, and reversed the 2015 Georgia Court of Appeals decision which tossed out the jury award.
“This case stands for the common sense proposition that a property owner does not escape liability for an attack that begins on its premises simply because the victim moves outside the premises before the attack is completed,” says today’s unanimous opinion, written by Justice Britt Grant. “We now expressly adopt this narrow principle, and hold that although the landowner’s duty is to maintain safety and security within its premises and approaches, liability may arise from a breach of that duty that proximately causes injuries even if the resulting injury ultimately is completed beyond that territorial sphere.”
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Attorney Ashley Wilcott said it is important to note that in its initial finding, the Georgia Court of Appeals did not reverse the Cobb County court's decision that Six Flags along with the identified attackers were liable for the beating incident.
Joshua Martin
"It only reversed as to damages, as damages were apportioned among all of the attackers," Wilcott said. "It is saying damages were incorrectly allocated, as it should have allowed the jury to allocate among all attackers."
According to the Supreme Court's reinstatement, Six Flags and the four young men convicted in the attack are all liable -- a new hearing will have to be held to determine the exact amounts each will be responsible for.
The court record says that on July 3, 2007, Joshua Martin--who was 19 at the time--had gone to Six Flags with his brother and another friend to celebrate the friend's acceptance to college. Earlier that day, several young men tied to a gang known as YGL had harassed and threatened at least two families inside the amusement park, and later in the parking lot. Notably, according to police, the gang included employees of the amusement park.
The families had alerted Six Flags security officers, who had confronted and reprimanded the young men but afterward released them back into the amusement park.
Just before the park's closing time of 9 p.m., Martin, his brother and his friend left the park and walked to a nearby hotel to use the restroom. By the time they returned to the front entrance of the park to await the 9 p.m. bus, they had missed it and had to wait on the next one. They sat on a nearby guardrail to wait.
After noticing a large group of similarly dressed young men and hearing murmurings of a fight, they left the guardrail and began to walk back toward the bus stop itself. The group of young men followed the trio. It had grown considerably by that point, and included the young men that had accosted the families inside the amusement park.
For no apparent reason, the group attacked Martin when they got back to the bus stop, beating him with brass knuckles, knocking him to the ground and repeatedly stomping on him.
Three of the four convicted Six Flags attackers: (from left) Claude Morey III, Brad Johnson and Willie Franklin
The attack left Martin in a coma for the next seven days and with severe and permanent brain damage as a result of his injuries.
Four Six Flags employees -- Willie Gray Franklin Jr., Brad McGail Johnson, DeAndre Evans and Claude Morey III -- were each convicted of aggravated assault and violating Georgia's Gang Act in criminal court in connection with the attack on Martin.While all eyes were on Boston the Peachtree Invitational once again showed that Atlanta is the home of the premier southern platform tennis tournament. Players came from as far away as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, and New York for their chance to experience some southern hospitality and snatch up some highly coveted National points.
However for the first time since 2010, it was a Region VII team who prevailed. Atlanta’s own Graham McNerney and newly adopted southerner Jerry Albrikes defeated Ohioans Eric Miller and Leland Morris by 6-0, 6-3 to take the title.
Round of 16
The first shock in the tournament came in the round of 16’s where regular finalists Steve Gareleck and Brian O’Connor fell victim to the Atlanta’s own Bob Stratton and Trevor Short in a grueling 2 hour 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 win for the local boys. Trevor Short, new to the game just last year, showed his raw tennis skills with an unseen amount of chip and charge combined with seemingly second nature forehand volleys.
Quarter-finals
The tournament was a good showing for Atlanta’s David Eastman and Joe Perdue who made the quarter-finals unseeded for the second straight year. The first quarter-final saw their run end as the number three seeded Ohio boys Eric Heil and Dan Mott cruised to a 6-1,6-1 win over in what seemed like 25 minutes.
The second quarter-final put the five time Peachtree Invitational champions of Peter Lauer and Jay Bailey against the two seeds Leland Morris and the platform tennis journeyman extraordinaire, Eric Miller. Seriously though, is there a tournament this guy doesn’t play? The first set was a tight battle as Lauer and Bailey broke out to an early lead. Eric and Leland refused to go down without a fight and steadied their play to secure the first set 6-4. After that, it seemed the Atlanta team got flustered and the two seeds refused to loosen their hold over their match. Leading to a comfortable second set score of 6-2 to the visitors.
Next up came the battle of the Atlanta teams whose similarities forecasted an entertaining battle. The experience of Bob Stratton and the talent of Trevor Short versus the patience of John Moneypenny and unbelievable shot making ability of the former #108 ranked tennis player in the world, Doug Flach. Doug and John got hot early and jumped on Stratton and Short to take the first set 6-4. The set break gave Bob and Trevor a chance to regroup and in typical Stratton fashion, his second set was much better than his first leading his team to a 6-2 second. From here on out it was Trevor Short who stole the show leading his team to a 7-5 third set and a ticket to the semi-finals.
Last up, the team of McNerney and Albrikes had to defend home turf and hold off the strong team of New York’s Russ Jellinek and Charlotte’s Greg Schild. The first set was incredibly even with both teams being locked at 4-4. It was then Jerry decided to pull out an incredibly well timed net cord shot to earn the break. After a hold to secure the break, the one seeds wrapped up the first set 6-4. From there it seemed they grew in confidence, as Graham soon took control over the court to secure a quicker second set 6-1.
Semi-finals
Albrikes-McNerney were first on the court to take on the surprise team of Stratton and Short. Stratton and Short were slow to get into the match, allowing Albrikes to take control and seize a quick 4-1 lead. But after a string of great points won by the underdogs, they gathered momentum and put the one seeds down in a 4-5 hole. Albrikes’ experience showed as he steadied the ship and led his team to a first set victory of 7-5. The second set was a violent affair, much to the enjoyment of the audience, where McNerney exploited the movement of Stratton by using the FYM shot to full effect over 5 times. After letting go of their grasp on the first set, it seemed Stratton and Short’s backs had been broken as they lost the second in a much quicker 6-3. This match proved to be the greatest test for Albrikes-McNerney and was said to be the most entertaining match of the whole weekend.
As the Atlanta players did their best to hit each other as hard as possible, it was a much calmer affair as Morris-Miller secured a seemingly comfortable victory over the fellow Ohio team of Heil and Mott 6-3, 6-2.
Finals
With perfect paddle weather of overcast skies and temperatures in the 40’s, the final took place in front of a large crowd at Cherokee Town and Country Club. McNerney started out on fire as he dominated the whole court to lead his team to a very fast 6-0 first set. Morris-Miller decided they had had enough of trying to beat fire with fire as they slowed the game down in an attempt to calm the red hot team of Albrikes-McNerney. Initially it paid off, as Morris-Miller won their two first games of the match to lead the second set 2-0. It did not take long for the one seeds to adjust, as they proceeded to win 6 out of the next 7 games to take the finals 6-0, 6-3.
It was Graham’s first National Ranking Tournament victory at the young age of 21. We will be checking the history books to determine if this is in fact a record, although it would not be the most impressive one, as he is seemingly the only 21 year old out there. Albrikes added another title to his long list that he brought down with him to Region VII. It will be interesting to see how the newly formed team of the Region VII’s strongest players can compete at the National level.Do police officers really have to kill people when they shoot them? Couldn’t they be more humane and just aim for arms or legs?
As reported in Force Science News, New York state Senator David Paterson [D.-Harlem] pondered those questions in 2006 and concluded that officers were needlessly killing suspects. In response, he introduced legislation that would require officers to try to shoot offenders’ limbs instead of targeting locations that would more likely stop the threat but could also result in death. Paterson proposed that any officer who employed more than the minimum force necessary to stop a life-threatening suspect be charged with felony manslaughter. Law enforcement exploded in protest and Paterson withdrew the bill.
But the battle isn’t over.
The New York Post has just reported that Brooklyn Assembly Members Annette Robinson [D.-Bedford Stuyvesant] and Darryl Towns [D.-East New York] have introduced a “minimum force” bill that would require officers to “shoot a suspect in the arm or the leg” and to use firearms “with the intent to stop, rather than kill.”
“When I encounter civilian response to officer-involved shootings, it’s very often ‘Why didn’t they just shoot him in the leg?’” Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute, told Force Science News in a 2006 interview centered on Paterson’s proposed legislation. “When civilians judge police shooting deaths–on juries, on review boards, in the media, in the community–this same argument is often brought forward. Shooting to wound is naively regarded as a reasonable means of stopping dangerous behavior.
“In reality, this thinking is a result of ‘training by Hollywood,’ in which movie and TV cops are able to do anything to control the outcomes of events that serve the director’s dramatic interests. It reflects a misconception of real-life dynamics and ends up imposing unrealistic expectations of skill on real-life officers.”
Vice President Joe Biden agrees. When Michael Paladino, president of New York’s Detectives Endowment Association, showed him the bill he reportedly scoffed and suggested that it be called the “John Wayne Bill” because of the unrealistic, movie-like sharpshooting skills it demands of officers.
In light of this resurfacing of misguided “shoot-to-wound” thinking, Force Science News is reissuing a “position paper,” originally introduced following Paterson’s ’06 proposed legislation, that discusses why shooting to wound versus shooting to stop is neither practical nor desirable as a performance standard. We hope this information proves useful to you in addressing any shoot-to-wound advocacy that may arise in your jurisdiction.
Practical Issues
Robinson and Towns’ bill was drafted in the wake of the controversial shooting of Sean Bell who died after New York officers fired a total of 50 rounds at him and two other men. Sen. Paterson said his proposed legislation in ’06 was motivated by the fatal shooting in New York City of Amadou Diallo, who was struck by 19 bullets when officers mistakenly thought he was reaching for a weapon as they approached him for questioning. Paterson believed that shooting an arm or leg would tend to stop a suspect’s threatening actions, precluding the need to shoot to the head or chest, where death is more probable. By requiring only the least amount of force needed to control a suspect he apparently hoped to reduce the likelihood of “excessive” shots being fired.
Studies by the Force Science Research Center reveal some of the practical problems with these positions. Lewinski explains some of the basics of human dynamics and anatomy and the relative risks of misses and hits:
“Hands and arms can be the fastest-moving body parts. For example, an average suspect can move his hand and forearm across his body to a 90-degree angle in 12/100 of a second. He can move his hand from his hip to shoulder height in 18/100 of a second.
“The average officer pulling the trigger as fast as he can on a Glock, one of the fastest- cycling semi-autos, requires 1/4 second to discharge each round.
“There is no way an officer can react, track, shoot and reliably hit a threatening suspect’s forearm or a weapon in a suspect’s hand in the time spans involved.
“Even if the suspect held his weapon arm steady for half a second or more, an accurate hit would be highly unlikely, and in police shootings the suspect and his weapon are seldom stationary. Plus, the officer himself may be moving as he shoots.
“The upper arms move more slowly than the lower arms and hands. But shooting at the upper arms, there’s a greater chance you’re going to hit the suspect’s brachial artery or center mass, areas with a high probability of fatality. So where does shooting only to wound come in when even areas considered by some to ‘safe’ from fatality risk could in fact carry the same level of risk as targeting center mass?
“Legs tend initially to move slower than arms and to maintain more static positions. However, areas of the lower trunk and upper thigh are rich with vascularity. A suspect who’s hit there can bleed out in seconds if one of the major arteries is severed, so again shooting just to wound may not result in just wounding.
“On the other hand, if an officer manages to take a suspect’s legs out non-fatally, that still leaves the offender’s hands free to shoot. His ability to threaten lives hasn’t necessarily been stopped.”
As to preventing so-called “overkill” from shots that are fired after a threat is neutralized, Lewinski offers these observations:
“Twenty years ago officers were trained to ’shoot then assess.’ They fired 1 or 2 rounds, then stopped to see the effect. This required 1/4 to 1/2 second, during which time the suspect could keep firing, if he hadn’t been incapacitated.
“Now they’re taught to ‘shoot and assess,’ to judge the effect of their shots as they continue to fire, an on-going process. This allows the officer to continually defend himself, but because the brain is trying to do 2 things at once–shoot and assess–a very significant change in the offender’s behavior needs to take place in order for the officer to recognize the change of circumstances.
“A suspect falling to the ground from being shot would be a significant change. But by analyzing the way people fall, we’ve determined that it takes 2/3 of a second to a full second or more for a person to fall to the ground from a standing position. And that is when they’ve been hit in a motor center that produces instant loss of muscle tension.
“While an officer is noticing this change, he is going to continue firing if he is shooting as fast as he can under the stress of trying to save his life. On average, from the time an officer perceives a change in stimulus to the time he is able to process that and actually stop firing, 2 to 3 additional rounds will be expended.
“Shooting beyond the moment a threat is neutralized is not a willful, malicious action in most cases. It’s an involuntary factor of human dynamics.
“Given what science tells us about armed encounters, this most recent proposal is a fantasy, just like Paterson’s legislation before it. They would hold officers to super-human performance and punish them criminally for being unable to achieve it.”
Legal Issues
A shoot-to-wound mandate would “not be valid legally” because it sets a standard far beyond that established by Graham v. Connor, the benchmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on police use of force, says former prosecutor Jeff Chudwin, now chief of the Olympia Fields (IL) PD and president of the Illinois Tactical Officers Assn.
Recognizing that violent encounters are “tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving,” the Court “does not require officers to use the least intrusive method” of forcefully controlling a threatening suspect, but “only what’s reasonable,” Chudwin explains. When an officer’s life or that of a third party appears in jeopardy, shooting can be justified as reasonable.
By legal definition, the possible consequences of deadly force include both death and great bodily harm. “The law has never broken these two apart,” Chudwin says, which is what these proposals have tried to do. “The politicians who propose this kind of legislation are saying that police should only shoot someone just a little bit. Deadly force is not about ‘just a little bit.’ Any time you fire a firearm, there’s a substantial risk of great bodily harm or death. The law doesn’t even so much as suggest that deadly force should be just enough to wound but with no probability of death. That’s plain wrong legally and tactically, and sends the wrong message.”
Attorney Bill Everett, a former risk-management executive, use-of-force instructor, former LEO, and Force Science National Advisory Board member, agrees. As he explains it, use of force from a legal standpoint is a matter of “proportionality,” and there are two ways to measure it: what’s necessary and what’s reasonable.
He draws the analogy of a house being on fire. “Firefighters can pour what seems at the time to be about the right amount of water on it to stop the fire versus not using one drop more of water than necessary, even in hindsight, to put the fire out.” The former fits the “reasonable” approach, the latter is the “necessary” perspective and is the essence of the shoot-to-wound/minimal force bill.
“When you impose a standard of strict necessity, you require officers to do a whole lot of thinking in a situation where the Supreme Court recognizes there’s not a whole lot of time to think in,” Everett declares. Under a shoot-to-wound directive, “an officer faced with a suspect running at him with a jagged bottle is expected to think about getting target acquisition on an arm or a leg, while his own life is at risk.” The hesitation it is likely to create will only heighten his risk.
The critical issue of officer survival aside, Everett predicts that the kind of legislation proposed would “substantially expand the civil and criminal liability of police officers.” He asks, “What if an officer tries to wing a suspect and ends up hitting an innocent bystander? What about the liability there? What if an officer tries to shoot an offender’s limb but shoots him in the chest instead? How does his true intent get judged?
“Right now under the Supreme Court’s prevailing standard lawyers and judges in a large percentage of police shootings can look at the facts and conclude that there is no basis for allowing a civil suit to go to trial. But if you change the standard, there’ll be a lot more cases going to j |
nat Udruženi zločinački projekt a Srbi nemaju ništa. Ta će Srbi.
Jedini koji nisu radili zločine su Bošnjaci. Ako Bošnjaku kažeš konc logor, Bošnjak kaže šta bola pričaš, šta ti je to. Kako ti nije neugodno to povezivati s nama?
Ako Bošnjaku kažeš silovanje zarobljenica, on kaže šta ti je bolan to.
Ako Bošnjaku kažeš ubojstva djece, on od čuđenja pocrveni. Jer mu je to nezamislivo.
Ako mu kažeš El Mudžahid je bio preteča ISIL-a sjekli su glave zarobljenicima. Ubijali su čak i bošnjačku djecu on ti kaže da ti tvrdiš da su u Ahmićima ubijani ISIL-ovci.
Premda postoji mali dio Bošnjaka koji tvrde i da su Bošnjaci radili UZP, konc logore, i zločine, i da na prostoru pod kontrolom Armije BIH danas nedostaje 475.000 Srba i Hrvata, Haag tako ne misli. A Haag što misli tako ti je. Ustašo.
Pogledaju li se presude Haaga, jasno je ko dan, da su zločine u BIH radili samo Srbi i Hrvati. Ako je koji Bošnjak i napao Hrvata ili Srbina, ili ubio nekog srpskog ili hrvatskog civila, on je to uradio samo da ga spriječi da zločin ne učini. Čak i ako je silovao Hrvaticu ili Srpkinju to je uradio da ona ne uzme pušku. Jer zadovoljna žena ne uzima pušku. Samo frustrirane pucaju.
U svakom slučaju poštujmo Haag. Pomirimo se sa činjenicom da imamo čast živjeti u jedinoj državi na svijetu, koja ima vojsku koja puca a ne ubija, koja siluje a ne siluje, koja otvara konc logore koji su zapravo muzeji, koja te protjera tako da imaš osjećaj da si sam sebe protjerao.
Slavimo Isa Beg Isakovića velikog graditelja iz srednjeg vijeka, nema veze što je lik koljač, lik je volio arhitekturu, šetajmo ulicama Rasima Delića, čitajmo Fra Milu Babića i Ivana Šarčevića, školujmo se u školama Mustafa Busuladžiža, jednom u godini otiđimo do Sanskog mosta dočekati sulatana El Fatiha, budimo sretni kad Cerić kaže “Mi smo Turci” ni slučajno tada ne govori “Niste nego Poturice” i pitajmo se, čime smo ovakvi fašistoidni kakvi jesmo, zaslužili tu čast da nas taj divni nacionalizam i dalje želi kraj sebe.
Velik je Bog. I divna je Bosna. A ovo smeće od Thompsona. Ne ponovilo se. U njihovom gradu.
Budimo sretni što ti ljudi još uvijek opraštaju naša zla i što i dalje žele da smo mi njihovi sugrađani. Mi, ustaška gamad.
Poskok.infoThe Syrian opposition’s major international backers agreed here Saturday to provide “urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment” to rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The agreement did not specify what kind of weapons would be sent or which supporters would provide what. But officials attending the Doha conference said that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are prepared to quickly supply shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles and armor-piercing shells to be used against Assad’s air force and tanks.
Despite offering a series of pledges of coordination and increased aid in recent months, the rebels’ backers have been divided and inconsistent in acting on them. But officials insisted the new pledge was firm and specific in terms of both quality and quantity of supplies.
“Something different happened today,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said after a four-hour meeting of foreign ministers from 11 Western and Middle Eastern governments. Because of Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons and the large-scale intervention of Hezbollah and Iranian militia fighters in Syria’s civil war, he said, “we have decided that we have no choice... but to provide greater assistance.”
Although the rebels have been receiving arms from Persian Gulf nations, reportedly including a recent influx of surface-to-air missiles from Libya via Qatar, officials said the Doha decision will ensure a continuous, coordinated flow and procedures to ensure the weapons will be kept from Islamic militants. Officials from participating governments spoke about their closed-door discussions here and in other recent talks on the condition of anonymity.
A European official described Saturday’s decision as a “collective answer” to desperate appeals from Gen. Salim Idriss, head of the opposition’s Supreme Military Council, in the wake of recent rebel defeats.
The session was the fourth time the 11 nations that make up the Friends of Syria group — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — have gathered this year. But since their last meeting, barely a month ago in Amman, Jordan, the situation on the ground has turned sharply against the rebels.
First France and Britain, and early this month the United States, said their separate investigations had concluded that Assad had used chemical weapons. President Obama said a “red line” had been crossed and that the United States would provide direct military support to rebel fighters. More important, Iranian and Hezbollah intervention inflamed fears that Syria’s civil conflict would spill beyond its borders to become a regional sectarian war.
The escalation of fighting and increasing rebel losses also set back plans to hold peace negotiations this summer on a post-Assad transition government.
Agreement was not unanimous in the Saturday meeting, and officials said Germany led a small minority opposed to the provision of arms to the rebels on the basis that it would intensify Syria’s humanitarian crisis and promote, rather than restrain, sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East. The region’s Sunni powers back the largely Sunni opposition, while Iran and Hezbollah, who support Assad, are Shiite, as is Assad’s minority Alawite sect.
But others were harsh in their judgment of the group’s previous ineffectiveness. “All of the Arab and international efforts to end the Syrian tragedy have failed, rendering the international community a helpless observer that cannot deal with the situation,” Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani said as he opened the group’s formal session.
“It’s not in the talking about it, it’s in the doing,” Kerry said at a news conference. “Not anything we say today” will change the situation on the ground, he said. “It’s what happens in the days and months ahead. I hope not too many months. What happened here today is different, because the situation on the ground is different.”
Kerry said that he would not go into specifics about which country would provide what equipment and that each nation would make its own decisions. He said the Obama administration would consider the contributions of others in deciding what its own contribution should be. Officials said earlier that the administration would initially provide light weaponry and ammunition.
In a joint declaration, the foreign ministers said their decisions were designed specifically “to change the balance of power on the ground.”
They also agreed to increase humanitarian assistance to nearly 5 million Syrians who have been internally displaced or have fled to neighboring countries to escape the fighting that has left more than 90,000 dead, according to U.N. figures.Tesla CEO Elon Musk and CTO JB Straubel have attempted to play down the role of lithium in a lithium ion battery, but could have inadvertently given themselves further supply headaches.
In response to a question of whether there is enough lithium supply, Musk diverted it onto two other key battery raw materials of nickel and graphite in an attempt to allay fears that there will not be enough lithium for an operational Gigafactory, which is set to become world’s largest lithium ion battery plant.
“Our cells should be called Nickel-Graphite, because primarily the cathode is nickel and the anode side is graphite with silicon oxide… [there’s] a little bit of lithium in there, but it’s like the salt on the salad,” the CEO explained.
Musk said that the amount of lithium in a lithium ion battery is about 2% of its total volume and that “lithium in a salt form is virtually everywhere… there is definitely no supply issues with lithium.”
Tesla also explained that it has been working with a number of lithium producers “from tiny start-ups to large name lithium companies all around the world and working with them to figure out the most economical or efficient ways … to have the capacity ready when we need it”.
Lithium’s most severe shortage
Despite Musk’s confidence, the lithium market is in its most severe shortage of modern times, a shortage that has seen internal Chinese prices for hydroxide reach $30/kg while rest of the world contract prices have risen to up to $14/kg (FCL).
While Tesla has said that it does not expect any shortage for the Gigafactory, it also revealed that the battery megafactory will be producing complete cells, from scratch, ahead of schedule in Q4 2016.
“We need to make sure we have the [lithium] extraction and processing capacity [ready] but it’s not that much different to lining up other supply chain components for the car it just has long lead time,” Straubel explained.
However, with limited new lithium supply set to hit the market within the next 18 months, the shortage of both carbonate and hydroxide is set to continue particularly as China’s electric bus production and electric car output surges.
This timing will also coincide with Tesla’s Gigafactory expansions in 2017 and 2018.
It is, however, important to note that new short term lithium supply will be coming from hard rock lithium sources in Australia destined for China.
As stressed by Tesla, lithium is an immature market that is not exchange traded. Last year, only 15,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide was used in batteries.
Tesla alone will need at least a third of this quantity in 2017, its first year of Gigafactory operation.
While FMC Lithium were the latest to announce plans to triple its lithium hydroxide production by 2019 to 30,000 tonnes, the question remains whether there will be enough feedstock product available to supply this.
Graphite overlooked
When downplaying the lithium supply issue, Tesla explained that the most important cost factors to a lithium ion battery included the cost of nickel and the graphite anode.
“The main determinants on the cost of the cell are the price of the nickel in the form that we need it… and the cost of the synthetic graphite with silicon oxide coating,” explained Musk.
Graphite has not experienced the price spikes that lithium is going through primarily because the price is driven by the materials’ consumption in steel, a globally depressed market.
As a result, graphite’s supply situation has fallen under the radar.
At present, Tesla uses Panasonic manufactured cells which use both synthetic graphite and natural spherical graphite for anode material, all of which is sourced from China.
For the Gigafactory, however, Tesla has had to source all raw materials itself and, in a bid to drive costs down and improve battery performance, Benchmark understands that Tesla favours the natural spherical product due to its lower cost profile and lower carbon footprint for manufacturing.
Today, 100% of natural spherical graphite is produced in China, and last year alone production expanded by nearly 50%. Increasing demand has seen prices of uncoated spherical graphite increase by 10% in the last two months.
While the country is increasing its spherical graphite capacity, there is a fear that there will not be enough quality product available for internal Chinese needs together with other emerging customers such as Tesla.
In many ways, however, Elon Musk was correct. Graphite’s importance to the cost of a lithium ion battery cannot be underestimated.
While the average cost of an anode is 30% of a battery, graphite is 50% of the anode cost equating to 15% of the cost of a cell.
If you consider that there is more graphite in a lithium ion battery than lithium, the cost of graphite to a battery could be as, if not more, significant than lithium. It just has not been considered because the price of flake graphite feedstock is low and there is a synthetic substitute.
But considering the preference towards natural spherical graphite, and the fact that demand is outpacing new supply, it is a subject that could soon rise to the surface, and in many ways, that is thanks to Tesla putting it on the radar.Eric Jacobson (b. January 15, 1971)[1] started working with the Muppets in 1994 as a puppeteer on Sesame Street, and rose through the ranks of Sesame puppeteers. In order to keep the characters of Frank Oz - who was focusing more on directing and other pursuits - alive and visible, Jacobson was selected due to his strong puppeteer talent and extremely similar vocal range. Jacobson has worked on projects starring the classic Muppet Show and Sesame Street characters, and on Bear in the Big Blue House.
“ I grew up watching the Muppets, and was a rabid fan myself and to carry on this legacy is really important. ”
—Eric Jacobson[2]
Contents show]
Sesame Street
Jacobson started performing on Sesame Street in 1994. In 1997, Jacobson started performing Bert on a semi-regular basis, and the next year he added Grover to his list as well; he began to perform both characters full-time with Play with Me Sesame. Today, Jacobson is the principal performer of these two Sesame stars – however Frank Oz would occasionally come in to record new material with them until Season 44.
Jacobson has also taken on Guy Smiley since 2005, and has also been Caroll Spinney's understudy and successor for Oscar the Grouch since 2015. He has also performed minor characters on the show, such as Mr. Tiger, one of The Three Little Pigs and Hammy the Dwarf.
Jacobson's wife Mary was a production assistant on the show; they met on the program. His daughter's godfather works for the series.[3]
The Muppets
Jacobson is currently the principal performer of Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Animal and Sam the Eagle – as Frank Oz had retired as their performer in 2000.
At 2001's MuppetFest fan convention Jacobson made his Muppet debut secretly performing Miss Piggy welcoming the fans "live via satellite". Jacobson made his first major Muppet production debut performing Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, and Animal for 2002's It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. He took over the role of Sam the Eagle starting in 2005 with The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.
In 2011, Dave Goelz commented on Jacobson;
“ When Steve was able to do Kermit, I thought, "Wow, we got off lucky there, but if something happens to Frank or he leaves, we'll just be dead." Lo and behold, Eric Jacobson, who like Steve had been around for a long time in the Sesame Street performing group, was able to do very credible versions of Frank's characters. He's incredible with Miss Piggy. The first time I was at a read-through with Eric, I hadn't noticed his arrival, and we started reading the script. I heard Frank and looked around the room. And Frank wasn't there. So it was really an interesting thing.[4] ”
Other Works
Jacobson performed Harry the Duck and other characters on Bear in the Big Blue House.
Outside of Henson, Jacobson has worked on The Puzzle Place, Jack's Big Music Show, and Disney's The Book of Pooh (plus a TV show called Once Upon a Tree, in which he performed Billy Bob the Bobcat). He also has performed on stage performing live puppet theater in New York City with The Puppet Company, The Cosmic Bicycle Theater, and The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park.
Jacobson has been honored for his work on several occasions and holds the distinction of being the first puppeteer to work on multiple film and television productions cited for excellence by UNIMA in the same year.[5]
In 2013, Jacobson served as puppeteer for Shaggy Rogers (with Matthew Lillard serving as Shaggy's voice) for the DVD movie, Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map.
Puppeteer CreditsLONDON – Philip Hammond has a Brexit plan that will infuriate Brussels. The open question is whether the U.K. chancellor is politically strong enough at home to force it through.
Britain, the country's finance minister believes, should sit back and let the Brexit lobbying frenzy commence. With a trade deficit with the EU running at almost £70 billion, the U.K. has time on its side and can secure access to the EU single market outside the club, he has privately told colleagues.
His views contrast with the more strident Brexiteers in the government, who are wary of any deal with Brussels, eager to leave the EU and dismissive of worries about the economic shock to the U.K. cut off from the single market. Those influential voices include a trio of hardliners in other key jobs in Theresa May's cabinet.
Sounding more open to a compromise with Brussels than they are, the chancellor insists European industry is “desperate” to maintain free trade and will increasingly make its voice heard in continental capitals as the Brexit negotiation moves into focus, according to Westminster sources familiar with his thinking. By that logic, the longer Britain waits, the more pressure there will be to maintain the status quo.
As soon as Article 50 is triggered next year, the U.K. can also begin trade talks with a host of other world powers, Hammond has told Westminster sources, despite EU claims that it would be illegal. The U.S., Canada, Japan, China, India and Australia have begun making quiet overtures about opening up trade talks, senior Treasury sources said.
Hammond's handicap in carrying this strategy out is that for the first time since the 1960s, the chancellor’s cabinet supremacy over U.K. economic strategy is being challenged. Not since Harold Wilson’s ill-fated attempt to create a rival department for economic affairs has the preeminence of Britain’s all-powerful Treasury been called into question.
In May's team of rivals, Brexit Secretary David Davis wants an end to the right of EU citizens to live and work freely in the U.K., even if that means losing British access to the single market, and is running the department tasked with drawing up the U.K.'s exit plan. Liam Fox, the trade minister, and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson are also lined up against Hammond on Brexit and trade.
While Prime Minister May rates Hammond, and promoted him from the Foreign Office in the previous cabinet, she is skeptical about the overweening power of his department, according to interviews with senior government figures. Hammond's predecessors ranged across government as deputy prime minister in all but name. Britain's new prime minister wants a chancellor focused only on his day job.
So, while the chancellor may have a plan to guide Britain painlessly out of the EU without tipping the economy into recession, he may not be strong enough to deliver it. How the traditionally second-most important person in British politics fares in coming months will help determine the shape of the divorce deal with Brussels and Britain's relations with the world after quitting the EU.
Hammond's tightrope
Two months into the job Hammond finds himself hemmed in between economic necessity and post-Brexit political reality. On one side, May has left him in little doubt that he must do whatever it takes to keep the economy afloat as Britain negotiates its EU exit. On the other, he finds himself in a battle to protect the economy with one arm tied behind his back, hampered by his referendum support for Remain, which has left him vulnerable to accusations from Euroskeptics of overreacting to economic turbulence.
Hammond's history as an advocate for remaining in the EU has left him limited room for maneuver. Any hint of economic pessimism is met with murmurings of dissent and accusations of “talking the economy down.”
In the run up to the referendum, ardent Euroskeptics threatened to vote against mooted budget cuts that would be necessary after a Brexit downturn, claiming it amounted to “punishment” for voting the wrong way.
Yet with the U.K. government deficit hovering at around £74 billion, Britain cannot afford another recession.
Hammond may introduce multi-year budgets to allow government departments to take a longer term approach.
Veteran Eurosceptic backbencher and Davis ally John Redwood insists there is no need for the Treasury to take any additional measures in the wake of referendum result. “I see no circumstances where the Brexit vote can cause a recession in the U.K,” he said. The former Tory leadership contender added that Hammond’s Treasury was continuing to look at everything through “ridiculously pessimistic Brexit glasses” and said there was no evidence to support concerns about a possible downturn.
Redwood said some big businesses had delayed investment decisions in the U.K. but insisted consumer confidence remained high and most of the economic data pointed to healthy growth. He also criticized the Bank of England for carrying out a “needless” stimulus in the wake of the referendum and maintained that the previous forecast of 2.2 percent growth in 2017 was “perfectly good.”
Claims that Britain's economy has calmly sailed through storm Brexit is causing dismay in the Treasury. And the chancellor is far more concerned than he lets on, senior Treasury sources said.
In private Hammond says the economy, while performing better than expected, will remain “fragile” for years to come and will need “careful” support throughout the Brexit process. “Some of the rhetoric we are seeing about a ‘Brexit boost’ is worrying,” a Treasury source added. “The early data we’ve seen does not suggest that.”
Despite some positive economic figures — notably the increase in consumer spending over the summer and Monday’s bullish service sector PMI data pointing to a growing economy — the Treasury remains braced for a “significant slowdown” and possible recession, senior sources said. Business investment figures are a particular cause for concern.
The Treasury is still weighing the need for fiscal stimulus to complement the Bank of England’s monetary boost, despite a number of banks reversing their forecast for a Brexit-induced recession. A final decision is not expected until much closer to the Tory conference in October.
Hammond’s first concrete tax and spending measures will be laid out in the Autumn Statement on November 23.
The chancellor is considering one major policy change: the introduction of multi-year budgets to allow government departments to take a longer term approach, according to a senior government source.
The radical move, which has been the dream of big-spending departments, would show the Treasury is still capable of bold reforms, despite the limitations imposed by Brexit and Hammond's own perceived political weakness.
Diminished authority
By May's design, Hammond is a far more restricted chancellor than Britain has grown used to. The prime minister sees the chancellor as an ally, but is skeptical of the power of the Treasury.
May has been damning about the department’s record under her predecessor David Cameron. In her opening pitch for the Tory leadership she lambasted Britain’s “striking” lack of economic reform over the past six years.
Gordon Brown used the department as a virtual opposition administration to Tony Blair’s. George Osborne went further — all but running the government for Cameron. “David was like a non-exec chairman,” one veteran Tory MP said. “George was the government’s chief executive.”
Osborne held twice daily meetings with Cameron. Hammond is limited to one regular weekly face-to-face with his prime minister.
When she appointed Hammond, May left him in no doubt what was expected. Alongside every other cabinet minister, the chancellor was given personal instructions from the prime minister. Hammond must prioritize growth and any spare cash must go to the poor. Austerity can wait, for now.
Osborne’s carte blanche over economic affairs has been thrown in the bin. The twice daily meetings between Cameron and his former chancellor have been scrapped. Hammond is now restricted to one regular weekly face-to-face in Number 10, senior sources revealed. His weakness is that he is simply May's chancellor. Unlike his predecessors, he is not his boss's political strategist or confidant.
Treasury aides insist this shows confidence in their man. Number 10’s explanation is more cutting. “They are not a duo,” one Downing Street source said bluntly when asked about the political partnership.
The new prime minister has also created a rival power base for economic reform: Greg Clarke’s giant new department for business, energy and industrial strategy, a throwback to Wilson’s department for economic affairs.
And yet, despite May’s reservations about the Treasury, Hammond is a chancellor she trusts, according to Downing Street sources.
The pair mixed in the same social circles at Oxford a decade before Cameron and Osborne arrived. They are both forthright, unshowy Conservatives from middle-class backgrounds with a reputation for quiet competence.
Hammond has risen through the ranks of government without a major gaffe or scandal. A successful businessman, he made millions from a property firm before entering parliament in 1997.
His most important attribute, some speculate, is that he poses no threat. At 60, Hammond has no political ambitions beyond the Treasury. “It’s his last job in government,” a senior Treasury source said. “He has no aspirations to be leader.”
Hammond will not use the position to grandstand or position himself for further advancement, Downing Street believes. A Number 10 aide said Hammond’s tenure at the Treasury — in contrast to Osborne’s — would be “grown-up, or just professional,” exposing the continuing disdain for the former chancellor.
“You can expect much more workmanlike [House of Commons] statements. No rabbits or political traps, that kind of thing,” a senior source close to the chancellor agreed.
The chancellor himself is also keen to distance himself from his predecessor. “I won’t be wearing high-viz everyday,” he has joked to friends about Osborne’s habit of being pictured at building sites.
Power of the purse
Despite the apparent weakness of his position, senior figures in previous administrations believe Hammond will regain the initiative over time.
“Reports of the Treasury’s demise are common and usually premature,” said a senior former Labour cabinet minister. “Philip Hammond is a fairly assertive politician and I don’t think he will let himself be knocked around by the others."
Hammond, he added, would force his way into almost every decision on Brexit: “Most of the agreements with Brussels will inevitably involve the Treasury because they will involve money.”
“The chancellor and the Treasury will find a pretty strong ally in the prime minister in maintaining growth. I wouldn’t write the Treasury off yet” — Jonathan Powell
He said May’s primary purpose in setting up the Department for Brexit was not to challenge the Treasury, but to ensure that “any betrayals come from them [the Euroskeptics].”
In the upcoming battle for supremacy between Hammond and the three Brexiteers, the senior former cabinet minister only saw one winner. “I would put money on the prime minister and chancellor team over any other, and I think I could go out and buy a drink on the strength of that bet before it had even paid out.”
Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, agreed. “I think the chancellor and the Treasury will find a pretty strong ally in the prime minister in maintaining growth," he said.
“The Treasury has been much underestimated in the past,” Powell said. “They control funding as well as the macroeconomic. When they gave up control of the Bank of England, that was supposed to constrain them, but it didn’t. I wouldn’t write the Treasury off yet.”Team was sent to Maldives to examine debris in Maldives after wing fragment was found on island of Réunion
Debris found in the Maldives in recent weeks is not from a plane and therefore is unrelated to missing the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Malaysia’s transport minister has said.
Last week Malaysia said a wing fragment found on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion was confirmed to be from MH370. The plane disappeared on 8 March last year with 239 people aboard while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Media reports in Maldives indicated that debris found in recent weeks was brought to authorities’ attention following the discovery on Réunion. The transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said a Malaysian team sent to Maldives had examined the debris.
“Most of the debris are … not related to MH370 and they are not plane material,” Liow said. He said he did not know whether the team would bring back any debris for examination, but if they did it would be handed over to the international investigation team. It is unclear whether all the debris found in Maldives has been examined.
The plane was believed to have crashed in the remote southern Indian Ocean but no trace had been found until a barnacle-crusted object was discovered two weeks ago on Réunion. Authorities are certain the fragment is from a Boeing 777 component known as a flaperon, but the French have yet to positively identify it as a piece of MH370.
Malaysia has since sought help from other territories to look for other possible debris, and France deployed a plane, helicopters and boats around Réunion to search the waters.Pete Bianco may an extreme example, but many of the fractivists here at Binghamton University are unhappy with President Barack Obama’s support of natural gas development, which would include hydrofracking.
Bianco, a BU grad and Utica-area community share vegetable farmer, was toting a poster with photos of Obama and the bete noire of many environmentalists, former VP Dick Cheney.
“The poster says it all,” Bianco said, adding “I see what Obama is doing as an extension (of the Bush Cheney energy policies).
Not all of the fractivists, who tend more to be Democrats and on the left side of many issues, took such a harsh view but they were clear that they disagreed with Obama’s gas stance.
Douglas Vitarius, a retired teacher from nearby Sanford said he has a “mixed” view of the president. “I feel he really cares about people,” said Vitarius. “But then he has come out on the side of pro-gas development.”
Added fellow fractivist Joan McKiernan, a retired Bronx teacher who has a home in Windsor: “Obama has never gone against bankers or corporations.”
Perhaps ironically, the pro-frackers that I spoke with earlier this morning, say they are encouraged by Obama’s support for gas development suggesting it could serve as a Part II of the Obama stimulus package.
“There was no stimulus package there,” Bryant Latourette St., of Oxford, said of earlier stimulus plans in his Central New York community.
Obama is about an hour away at this point and anti-frackers are chanting some of the same slogans they’ve used at Capitol rallies, such as “Hey Hey Hey Ho, Hydrofracking has Got to Go.” Alternately group leaders like Walter Hang are talking about what they say are the perils of fracking.Recently, some billboards went up around Ohio proclaiming that “Jesus Is A Muslim” and they are not sitting well with “Coach” Dave Daubenmire who organized a rally against the billboards in Columbus over the weekend.
Daubenmire has posted clips from the rally on his YouTube page and though the event was hampered by cold and rainy conditions, a small group of passionate supporters turned out to join Daubenmire and other speakers in railing against “the evil spirit of Islam” and declaring, as preacher Rusty Thomas did, that America “is the Lord’s house” and no other religion has the right to come here and try undermine this nation’s Christian foundation.
“Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Thomas screamed, “he has defined himself in the sixty-six books of the Bible and HE WARNS, HE WARNS do not add, do not subtract from my book, otherwise you are a part of the den of thieves!”
Then, pointing across the street to the billboard in question, Thomas declared that if it were entered into a court of law as evidence, “it would be called perjury.”
“In the court of public opinion,” he continued, “it is slander! This is defamation of character. In religious circles, it is heresy and spiritually, it is blasphemy!”Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race is expected to go ahead
The 163rd University Boat Race is expected to go ahead as planned despite a suspected World War Two shell being discovered by the River Thames.
Race organisers said they were setting up for the event later this afternoon.
They expect to receive an official update from the Met Police as to the status of the shell at 13:00 BST.
The shell was discovered on the northern shore of the Thames near Putney Bridge, west London, on Saturday.
The police said work to assess what is believed to be "submerged ordnance" is continuing on Sunday morning.
A bomb disposal unit had to wait for the tide to go out to take a better look at it, police said. The Thames river tide receded at about 01:00 BST.
Crowds of up to 300,000 people are expected to line the banks of the River Thames.
It is still possible some viewing areas may have to be suspended if the shell is deemed to pose a hazard, but event organisers said they have not been advised to do this as yet.
Metropolitan Police Ch Insp Tracy Stephenson said: "Our specialist experts are dealing with the suspected WWII ordnance. We have been working very closely with the organisers of the boat race to plan this event which is eagerly awaited by spectators and supporters alike. At this stage, the races will go ahead as planned."
Spectators have been warned to be vigilant following the attack at Westminster, reported the Telegraph.
"The security threat level remains at severe and, as always, we would encourage those attending to be aware of their surroundings and be vigilant," the Met said in a statement.
Passing sailor
Roads in the area of the suspected bomb currently remain open.
The Met confirmed officers were in attendance on the northern bank of the river at Chelsea.
In an earlier statement the Met said: "Police were called by a member of the public at approximately 13:50 BST on Saturday... reporting what they thought to be World War Two ordnance on the Chelsea shoreline by Putney Bridge.
Image copyright Google Image caption The Boat Races start on the other side of Putney Bridge to where the suspected World War Two bomb has been found
"Officers including the Marine Policing Unit are in attendance."
Michelle Dite, race director of the Boat Race, said on Saturday: "At this stage the races will go ahead as planned.
"Any decisions regarding changes to the event will be made in conjunction with the police."
The BBC understands the bomb was found by a passing sailor and was located on the Chelsea bank of the river on the north side of Putney Bridge.
The races start on the other side of Putney Bridge, with the women's race at 16:35 BST and the men's race at 17:35 BST.I have been writing a lot of Javascript code (both server and client side) over the last few months. Having worked entirely with Visual Studio and R# for the last 10 years, I had a couple of options for my Javascript IDE. I could use Visual Studio Code, or JetBrains WebStorm or Vim, which I have been using for the last few years for text editing. I have been wanting to level up my Vim-Fu for a while, so I decided to start with that.
In this post, I’ll outline the plugins that have helped me get a good coding workflow going. I use Vundle to manage my Vim plugins, though any good plugin manager should suffice. I am using MacVim currently, but the same setup should work in Terminal Vim too.
Tern
Tern lets you Jump to Definition, Find References and Rename variables. In addition to installing the plugin, you have to install the Tern server by running npm install in the.vim/bundle/tern_for_vim directory.
Jump to Definition
Find and Navigate to References
Rename Variable
I found some useful pointers in the post and comments here and have the below customizations in my vimrc
"enable keyboard shortcuts let g:tern_map_keys=1 "show argument hints let g:tern_show_argument_hints='on_hold'
YouCompleteMe
YouCompleteMe is a fast, fuzzy-search code completion engine that integrates with the TernJS plugin to give you pretty good intellisense. You get the suggestions as you start typing, and you press <TAB> to accept a suggestion.
To get the installed plugin to work, you need to compile its corresponding component (instructions are provided in the readme). On my Mac, I had to run the following:
cd ~/.vim/bundle/YouCompleteMe./install.py --tern-completer
You also need a file named.tern-project to exist in the current working directory or a directory which is an ancestor of the current working directory. Mine looks like this:
{ "libs": [ "lodash", "moment" ], "plugins": { "node": {} } }
Syntastic
Syntastic integrates with JSHint to show you syntax errors in your code as soon as you save your file. This has been a lifesaver for me. Years of programming in a static language and getting fast feedback from a compiler has spoiled me, and I make all kinds of typos and stupid errors while writing JavaScript. Thankfully, this catches a lot of them really early.
vim-surround
vim-surround lets you edit brackets, quotes, parentheses, XML tags etc. easily.
SnipMate
SnipMate enables snippets. I have changed the trigger to <Ctrl> + J instead of <TAB> to prevent a clash with the YouCompleteMe plugin.
"to prevent clash with youcompleteme, change snippet trigger imap <C-J> <esc>a<Plug>snipMateNextOrTrigger smap <C-J> <Plug>snipMateNextOrTrigger
CtrlP
CtrlP lets you open files quickly. It also supports fuzzy searching.
If you use ctags, you can also jump directly to any method or variable in any file. Two more awesome plugins related to ctags are Tagbar (lets you browse tags of the current file), and |
Ossetian ethnic religion, is also widespread among Ossetians, with ritual traditions like animal sacrifices, holy shrines, non-Christian saints, etc. There are temples, known as kuvandon, in most villages.[47] According to the research service Sreda, North Ossetia is the primary center of Ossetian Paganism, and 29% of the population reported practicing pagan faiths in the 2012 Russian Census.[48] Ætsæg Din has been rising in popularity since the 1980s.[49]
Economy [ edit ]
The northern Ossetians export lumber and cultivate various crops, mainly corn. The southern Ossetians are chiefly pastoral, herding sheep, goats, and cattle. Traditional manufactured products include leather goods, fur caps, daggers, and metalware.[33]
Demographics [ edit ]
Outside of South Ossetia, there are also a significant number of Ossetians living in Trialeti, in north-central Georgia. A large Ossetian diaspora lives in Turkey, and Ossetians have also settled in Belgium, France, Sweden, Syria, the United States (primarily New York City, Florida and California), Canada (Toronto), Australia (Sydney), and other countries all around the world.
Russian Census of 2002 [ edit ]
The vast majority of Ossetians live in Russia (according to the Russian Census (2002)):
Genetics [ edit ]
The Ossetians are a unique ethnic group of the Caucasus, speaking an Indo-European language surrounded by Caucasian ethnolinguistic groups. The Y-haplogroup data indicate that North Ossetians are more similar to other North Caucasian groups, and South Ossetians to other South Caucasian groups, than the two are to each other. With respect to mtDNA, Ossetians are significantly more similar to some Iranian groups than to Caucasian groups. It is thus suggested that there is a common origin of Ossetians from the Proto-Iranian Urheimat, followed by subsequent male-mediated migrations from their Caucasian neighbours.[50]
Gallery [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Dehydrating eggs and other dairy products is not difficult, and the end result tastes great. Sure, you can buy expensive #10 cans of powdered eggs, but frugal preppers can opt to make their own and use their savings to buy other long-term food items and necessary supplies.
As most preparedness authors have already noted, learning how to prepare long-term food products in advance and making sure you actually enjoy the taste is extremely important. When you are starving, just about anything will taste good, but there is no need to go to such extremes if you learn how to dehydrate and powder your own produce and meat.
There are two ways to dehydrate eggs: the wet method and the dry method. The dry method is more time consuming, stinky, and really only works well when using the rehydrated eggs for baking or cooking. The wet method is quick, simple, foul-odor free, and can be used for making a big batch of scrambled eggs or an omelet as well.
This handbook provides an introduction to key aspects of raising and breeding chickens.
How to Dehydrate Eggs
Place 1 dozen eggs into a blender or food processor and mix until extremely well blended. The process takes only about one minute in my Ninja mixer.
Place plastic dehydrator discs into each of the trays you will be using.
Pour half of the egg mixture into each tray.
Repeat the steps until all your trays are filled with about a half-dozen eggs.
Set the dehydrator to 135 degrees, or the fruit and vegetables setting.
The processing time will vary dependent upon the power of your chosen dehydrator. I have three, all different sizes and brands, and the eggs are typically done in about 8 to 10 hours.
Powdering the eggs is optional, but makes for more compact storage and exact rehydration to avoid runny eggs. To powder, dump the eggs back into your mixer or food processor and blend into a fine powder. This will take about a minute or two. Seal the powdered eggs inside Mason jars and store in a cool dark place. These should be safe to eat for at least two to five years – possibly longer.
To rehydrate the eggs, mix about one tablespoon of warm water with two tablespoons of powdered eggs. Stir and wait about five minutes and use as you would regular eggs.
Tips and Hints
When the dehydrated eggs are done, they will look a bit like a piece of peanut brittle. It won’t be as hard, but it will have the same texture. If you do not blend the eggs well enough, you will notice some burnt looking spots on the top of the finished product and it will be greasy to the touch. Should this occur, just dab the eggs with a towel to remove any of the grease and allow them to dry thoroughly before powdering.
I have also successfully dehydrated cottage cheese and sour cream. Simply pour and spread the sour cream or cottage cheese onto plastic insert discs inside the dehydrator trays. Try to make the food levels in each tray fairly even and not too thick. Set the dehydrator to 135 or 140 degrees and walk away for the next seven hours. The dehydrated dairy items can be powdered and rehydrated by using the wet egg storage and restoration steps noted above.
With the exception of 100 percent fluid items, it is possible to dehydrate anything with a home-grade drying machine. The one I use to dehydrate eggs was purchased from Amazon for less than $75 dollars. When purchasing a dehydrator, make sure to order some plastic disc inserts and plastic disc screen for dehydrating dairy products and baby food, as well as other partial liquids and small items like corn.The successful Uruguay side of 1930 enter the pitch before the first World Cup final
A piece of the original World Cup trophy has been discovered in storage in a basement at the headquarters of world governing body Fifa.
The base of the Jules Rimet trophy carries the names of the first four World Cup winners between 1930 and 1950.
Uruguay and Italy were the only winners of the World Cup between 1930 and 1950
David Ausseil, creative director of Fifa's museum, said the trophy was given a new base in 1954.
"We think no Fifa president has seen it since Jules Rimet himself," he said.
The full gold statuette was given to Brazil to keep after their third World Cup success in 1970 but was stolen in 1983 and never recovered.
"We thought the base was lost in Brazil,'' Ausseil told Associated Press.
He added: "It's like finding an Egyptian mummy. You can't put a price tag on it because it's family jewels."
The 10-centimetre tall, octagonal piece of the original trophy will go on display at the Fifa World Football Museum in Zurich, which is scheduled to open in March 2016.
Uruguay won the first World Cup in 1930 before Italy lifted the trophy in 1934 and 1938.
The tournament was not held again until after World War Two, in 1950, when Uruguay were again successful.
Rimet was Fifa president from 1921 to 1954.Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) came out as gay in a column released to three of Maine's major news outlets on Monday morning.
Michaud, who officially announced his gubernatorial bid in August, could become the first openly gay governor if successful in 2014.
"For me, it’s just a part of who I am, as much as being a third-generation mill worker or a lifelong Mainer," Michaud wrote. "One thing I do know is that it has nothing to do with my ability to lead the state of Maine."
The Democratic representative said he became aware of "whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls" about his personal life following his campaign announcement, and wanted to address the speculation "with a simple, honest answer."
"I don’t plan to make my personal life or my opponents’ personal lives an issue in this campaign," Michaud wrote. "We’ve had enough negativity in our politics and too many personal attacks over the last few years. We owe it to the people of Maine to focus on how we get our state back on track."Utter chaos enveloped the board of Viacom on Thursday.
National Amusements Inc., the media giant’s controlling shareholder, moved to oust five of the company’s board members, including Chief Executive Philippe Dauman — but the members refused to yield.
The move by NAI “is a brazen and demonstrably invalid attempt” to pirate the Viacom board, Viacom’s lead independent director, Fred Salerno, said in an afternoon statement.
Salerno, not for the first time, claimed Shari Redstone, in a rogue attempt to gain control of Viacom, was behind the move, “in disregard of [her father] Sumner Redstone’s wishes.”
Salerno said the 11-person board did not recognize the ouster and promised it would quickly file suit in a Delaware court to protest her scheme.
But Sumner Redstone appears to have beaten Salerno’s soldiers to the punch — having filed his own Delaware action to gain approval of NAI’s move.
The only thing missing from Thursday’s dustup — the latest in a series of C-suite maneuvers — was the popcorn and 3-D glasses.
NAI has already moved to oust Dauman, a longtime confidant of Sumner Redstone’s, from its board and as a trustee of the Redstone family trust.
At the center of the in-fighting is control of Sumner Redstone’s $40 billion media empire when the ailing 93-year-old mogul dies or is incapacitated.
Dauman claims Shari, once estranged from her dad, has returned to his good graces with a plan to gain control of Viacom, the parent company of MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures.
The move on Thursday — which included NAI naming five new pro-Redstone directors to the Viacom board — lays the groundwork for the new board to fire Dauman.
Sumner Redstone, once a staunch supporter of his 62-year-old CEO, has steadily lost confidence in the executive as Viacom’s stock price, profit, revenue and ratings have sagged in recent years.
The only thing that hasn’t sagged, it appears, is Dauman’s salary.
In the five years ended in 2015, Dauman has averaged $85 million a year in compensation, one compensation expert told CNBC earlier this year.
Viacom shares are down 32 percent in the last year.
On Wednesday, Sumner Redstone, in a statement, said, “I no longer trust Philippe Dauman or those who support him.”
In addition to Dauman, Redstone announced the removal of independent directors Salerno, George Abrams, Blythe McGarvie and William Schwartz from the company’s board.
Replacements named for the five are: Kenneth Lerer, chairman of BuzzFeed and a co-founder of The Huffington Post; Thomas May of Eversource Energy; Judith McHale of Cane Investments; Ronald Nelson of Avis Budget Group; and Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony Entertainment.
Apparently pleased by the prospect of a Viacom no longer being run by Dauman, investors sent Viacom shares up 6.8 percent, to $45.05.
Ironically, the rise — among the largest one-day gains in recent times — added $3.5 million to Dauman’s net worth.
Redstone’s NAI holds 80 percent of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS.
Redstone owns 80 percent of National Amusements, while Shari owns the remaining 20 percent.EFFINGHAM COUNTY, Ga. -- Josh and Jessaka Clark always planned to have a big family.
On their first date, Josh told Jessaka that he wanted 10 kids -- and that he wanted most of them to be adopted. That sounded fine with Jessaka.
"I grew up with a lot of foster brothers and sisters and my parents were foster parents so I was used to having lots of kids around the house," she said.
Years later, after the birth of their son Noah, the Clarks began the adoption process. They were interested in a sibling group "of at least two or three."
Then, in March 2016, Josh got a call from adoption officials.
"When he got off the phone, he said to me, 'What do you think about seven?," Jessaka said. "I said, 'A 7-year-old?' He said, 'Well, there is a 7-year-old, but no... seven children'"
Needless to say, Jessaka was surprised.
"My eyes probably got as big as his and we both said the same thing: 'We need to pray about this,'" she said. "We prayed that night and didn't sleep well because God told us that these were the kids for us."
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PHOTOS (Story continues below gallery)
The Clarks met the children at the end of March 2016, and they moved in the following August.
"Our lives have definitely been busier," Jessaka said. "We didn't have school-age kids before this, so that was new territory for us. But it has been fun! It was rough at first but we have settled into a routine of 'normalcy' so to speak."
Family, friends and church members stepped up to help the family.
"We had some moments where it seemed too hard and we felt ill-equipped,but that's where those unbelievable friends came to the rescue," Jessaka said.
And how has their 3-year-old adjusted to going from an only child to a big AND little brother?
"Noah has adjusted well," Jessaka said. "He has mentioned before how he wanted brothers and sisters and it was a seamless transition for him to become a brother. He slid right into the role of younger annoying brother who fights with his 5-year-old brother James because they are two peas in a pod!"
After 9 months of living together, the adoption finally became official this week.
"We were very excited," said Jessaka. "We woke up the kids up with party horns and confetti poppers! "
This photo says it all:
The family may not be finished growing. Jessaka Clark said the "Super 7" has a babysitter who is still in foster care.
"We would love to adopt her but we are limited in our house and can't take anymore children until we get more rooms," she said. "We also know that God has more in store so we want to make sure we have the space to grow."
With May being National Foster Care Month, Jessaka Clark had some words of wisdom:
"It is not easy. You have to know that you know that you know that God called you to adopt. And you need a lot of support! You will feel the greatest joys! And you will feel the biggest heart breaks. But just like there is pain in labor, at the end you get a beautiful child... or seven!"
A family friend has created a GoFundMe page to help the family save money for a larger home. Click here for information on how to donate.Setting up Sublime Text for Python development I recently started using Sublime Text 2 more and more as my main editor for Python development. This article explains my setup and some tweaks that make Python programmers happy.
Why Sublime Text? I’ve been an avid user of TextMate for a long time. It’s light-weight, open-source, and as a native OS X application it feels very Mac-esque. While TextMate is a great editor it seems very bare bones sometimes. For some projects I used the more beefy IntelliJ IDEA with the Python plug-in. I especially like its debugger and test runner. Yet, often a full-blown IDE like IntelliJ is overkill when working on small to medium-sized projects. Over the last few weeks I began using Sublime Text more and more. Once I took the time to set it up I felt very much at home. It’s really fast, receives steady updates, and – as a big bonus – fully cross-platform. What finally won me over compared to TextMate was Sublime’s great plug-in ecosystem. There are several plug-ins available that make Python development very smooth and enjoyable. I’m still switching editors on a per project basis now. But I noticed that for me Sublime Text seems to hit the sweet spot between a bare bones editor and a full-blown IDE for Python development.
Font choice Ubuntu Mono is a great font. I’ve switched from primarily using Menlo a few days ago and I’m not regretting it so far. With Ubuntu Mono, I find font size 16 very comfortable to read on my 15-inch MacBook. At 1680 × 1050 the sidebar plus two editor views (wrapped at 80 characters) fit nicely next to each other. If you want to go nuclear on making the ideal font choice, this topic on slant.co gives a good overview. It includes screenshots and download links for popular programming fonts.
Installed plug-ins As mentioned before, Sublime has a very extensive plug-in ecosystem. I’m currently using the following plug-ins: Package Control A package manager for installing additional plug-ins directly from within Sublime. This should be the only package you have to install manually. All other packages listed here can be installed via Package Control. It’s also possible to update installed packages with Package Control. Simply think of it as the apt-get of Sublime packages.
Color Scheme - Tomorrow Night Color schemes determine the font colors used for syntax highlighting in the editor view. Tomorrow is a nice dark color scheme.
Theme - Soda Dark Themes change the color and style of Sublime’s UI elements. This one fits perfectly with the Tomorrow color scheme.
SideBarEnhancements This plug-in provides additional context menu options in the sidebar, such as “New file” or “New Folder”. These should be in there by default, but they are not.
All Autocomplete Sublime’s default autocomplete only considers words found in the current file. This plug-in extends the autocomplete word list to find matches across all open files.
SublimeCodeIntel Enhances autocomplete for some languages including Python. The plug-in also lets you jump to symbol definitions across files by pressing alt and then clicking on a symbol. Very handy.
SublimeREPL Allows you to run a Python interpreter session in an editor view. I tend to use bpython in a separate terminal window but sometimes SublimeREPL is helpful.
GitGutter Adds little icons to the editor’s gutter area indicating whether a line has been inserted, modified, or deleted according to Git. To get colored icons update your color scheme file as instructed in the GitGutter readme.
Pylinter This plug-in provides the best pylint editor integration I’ve seen so far. It automatically lints.py files whenever they’re saved and displays pylint violations directly in the editor view. It also has a convenient shortcut that locally disables a pylint check by inserting a #pylint: disable comment. This plug-in sealed the deal for me.
Preferences files One of the nice things about Sublime Text is that it can be completely configured using simple JSON-based preferences files. This allows you to easily transfer your settings to another system. I’ve also seen people use Dropbox to automatically synchronize their settings on every computer they’re using. Preferences.sublime-settings configures Sublime’s look-and-feel and its built-in behavior. You can open the prefs file for editing within Sublime via Preferences > Settings – User. I’m using the following settings: { // Colors "color_scheme" : "Packages/Tomorrow Color Schemes/Tomorrow-Night.tmTheme", "theme" : "Soda Dark.sublime-theme", // Font "font_face" : "Ubuntu Mono", "font_size" : 16.0, "font_options" : [ "subpixel_antialias", "no_bold" ], "line_padding_bottom" : 0, "line_padding_top" : 0, // Cursor style - no blinking and slightly wider than default "caret_style" : "solid", "wide_caret" : true, // Editor view look-and-feel "draw_white_space" : "all", "fold_buttons" : false, "highlight_line" : true, "auto_complete" : false, "show_minimap" : false, "show_full_path" : true, // Editor behavior "scroll_past_end" : false, "highlight_modified_tabs" : true, "find_selected_text" : true, // Word wrapping - follow PEP 8 recommendations "rulers" : [ 72, 79 ], "word_wrap" : true, "wrap_width" : 80, // Whitespace - no tabs, trimming, end files with
"tab_size" : 4, "translate_tabs_to_spaces" : true, "trim_trailing_white_space_on_save" : true, "ensure_newline_at_eof_on_save" : true, // Sidebar - exclude distracting files and folders "file_exclude_patterns" : [ ".DS_Store", "*.pid", "*.pyc" ], "folder_exclude_patterns" : [ ".git", "__pycache__", "env", "env3" ] } Pylinter.sublime-settings configures the pylinter plug-in. I use the following settings to lint Python files automatically on save and to display graphical icons for lint violations: { // Configure pylint's behavior "pylint_rc" : "/Users/daniel/dev/pylintrc", // Show different icons for errors, warnings, etc. "use_icons" : true, // Automatically run Pylinter when saving a Python document "run_on_save" : true, // Don't hide pylint messages when moving the cursor "message_stay" : true }
Key bindings Sublime’s key bindings are also fully user-configurable via JSON-based sublime-keymap preferences files. I’ve made a few changes to the default bindings to better serve my existing TextMate/IntelliJ muscle memory. You may not need to make changes to the key bindings at all. But if you want to, modifying them is very easy and transferable across platforms. I use the following additional key bindings: [ // Rebind "go to file" to cmd+shift+O { "keys" : [ "super+shift+o" ], "command" : "show_overlay", "args" : { "overlay" : "goto", "show_files" : true }}, // Rebind swap line up/down to cmd+shift+up/down { "keys" : [ "super+shift+up" ], "command" : "swap_line_up" }, { "keys" : [ "super+shift+down" ], "command" : "swap_line_down" }, // Delete a line with cmd+delete { "keys" : [ "super+backspace" ], "command" : "run_macro_file", "args" : { "file" : "Packages/Default/Delete Line.sublime-macro" }}, // Reindent selection with cmd+alt+L { "keys" : [ "super+alt+l" ], "command" : "reindent" } ]Carolyn Reckhow Part 1 // Ethereum Thought Leaders
How to tell non-technical people about Ethereum? How the adoption of the technology will take place? What are the applications for the energy industry? Carolyn Reckhow, the Director of Operations at ConsenSys gave us her view on these matters.
Status Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 23, 2017
Or watch it on Reuters: http://reut.rs/2jcdW8L
You can find Part 2 of the interview here.
How did you get into Ethereum?
My name’s Carolyn, and I work with ConsenSys Systems, which is a company that’s building applications on the Ethereum blockchain. I got into Blockchain technology, and Ethereum specifically, through, i guess like a non-traditional route. I’m not a developer, I’m not a technical person. When I learned about Ethereum through some friends of mine, actually in Boston, at the MIT Media lab, some people who were doing research on it, I was introduced to it from almost a philosophical perspective. What really appealed to me about it was the massive potential that the technology has for shifting humanity forward in a lot of different, social, economic, political realms, and really sort of, being a piece of technology that will help to actualize the organic movement of human systems and human relationships, from localized and requiring trust in institutions, to global and networked with increasing complexity.
My background is in the social sciences, so learning about some of the more technical aspects of Ethereum was kind of daunting and took me a while to get into it and learn all of the terminology, like what’s a hash and a Merkle tree. All that stuff is really foreign, and being in this industry and not coming from a technical background, it can be kind of funny and frustrating to kind of hear all that technical terminology to describe it all the time. Because really, I think what the technology is in its essence, can be described in ways that kind of don’t go into all the cryptography and the math. And it’s something that I think that you could reach a lot of people in a lot of different audiences, if there were more people in this space who understood it in a more holistic and historical perspective.
How would you define Ethereum?
Ethereum is a type of a blockchain that allows you to have peer-to-peer transactions without the need for a centralized trusted third party. And what makes Ethereum special and different from a blockchain like the Bitcoin blockchain, is that it has a virtual machine that runs like a Turing complete programming language and has these pieces of code called smart contracts that can essentially allow for more complex transactions and logic. And that’s a lot of fancy computer language, but essentially what Ethereum allows you to do is, be able to have peer-to-peer interactions that can encode business logic into a blockchain.
Another thing I like to say, a one-liner about what blockchain is, what Ethereum is, is think about what the internet did for communications, for the media, for the spread of information of any type, it democratized it. What blockchains are going to be capable of doing is essentially doing that, but instead of for media and communications and information, blockchain is going to be able to democratize business logic. And this has applications for the financial world, for really any sort of industry that has, or requires complex interactions between parties that need to trust each other. It’s going to allow you to build economies for your own lives and your own communities, that are defined by a value that is self-sovereign to the individual and to the communities, and not a value that is assigned and codified by institutions.
How would you define a smart contract?
A smart contract is just a piece of code that executes autonomously on a blockchain. The reason why having a piece of code on a blockchain is special, is because a blockchain is a record of all different state changes or transactions that doesn’t have to be owned by a centralized institution and it’s supported and verified by a community.
A smart contract, essentially, it’s just kind of like a little add-on to a blockchain that makes it have extra functionality and do more things than a normal ledger can do where it’s just like enter and exit information.
How do you explain blockchain to non-technical people?
Usually when I meet somebody or I talk to a relative and they ask what do you do, it’s sort of a cocktail party question, and I jump into explaining what blockchain is, sometimes I’ll go down the Bitcoin route. I’ll usually mention it because most people have heard of Bitcoin. But the example that I go to immediately is to talk about, think about peer-to-peer platforms. Now peer-to-peer platforms are something that’s actually very new, like 10 years ago people would have thought you were crazy if you brought up the concept of Airbnb, letting strangers sleep in your home and whatever, but now it’s totally common place.
But to give the example, Ethereum is a technology that can allow you to have peer-to-peer interactions, peer-to-peer transfer of value without a middle man, without intermediaries. So imagine a peer-to-peer platform like Uber or Airbnb, but without the Uber, without the Airbnb, with just code creating that trusted connection between two peers. And that’s something that people usually kind of grasp on to. Like, okay, that makes sense as the next evolutionary piece in peer-to-peer platforms.
Another example I like to use is, thinking about self-sovereignty in our digital lives. Self-sovereignty and identity and also self-sovereignty around personal data — that, I think, is something that a certain class of people have started to think about a lot. You spend so many hours of your life on Facebook, and on Google, and all these big corporations that are profiting off of all of the data that they are collecting from your digital lives. And so, explaining that Ethereum is a technology that, when built out properly, and kind of Web3, and that Ethereum as a global computer allows for self-ownership of identity in a digital space.
And kind of describing how taking out the middle men of these large corporations that have all your data on, I guess it’s in the cloud, but it’s on servers in giant server farms in deserts, and really sort of explaining to people that your data is actually there. You know, it’s not something that is owned by you. And allowing people’s imaginations to grasp on to that concept of, oh, if I could actually own all of my digital interactions, owned who I was online, be able to give permission to who I give my data to, to be able to maybe sell your personal data to attention markets, so ad’s can maybe be more beneficial to you, or things like that. I find that people can kind of imagine that and understand that a little bit more readily, rather than going right into consensus algorithms and you know the virtual machine and all that kind of stuff.
Continue to Part 2 of the interview.The first films selected for the 2015 Toronto Film Festival have been announced in the Gala and Special Presentation selections as well as the opening night film, which just so happens to be Jean-Marc Vallee‘s Demolitian starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts, which Fox Searchlight recently dated for an April 8, 2016 release date. Have they reconsidered? Are they planning on gauging the reception at Toronto to see if it’s worth opening this year in hopes of Oscars? Might it have had something to do with the tepid response to the release of Southpaw?
As for the films announced today, and there are many more announcements to come, I’ll begin with the Special Presentations, which include several highly anticipated titles as well as many that played to acclaim earlier this year, either in Sundance or at Cannes.
New to the festival circuit include Cary Fukunaga‘s Beasts of No Nation starring Idris Elba, Black Mass starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, Tom Hooper‘s The Danish Girl starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight and Jay Roach‘s Trumbo.
Other Gala features that have played elsewhere but are nonetheless exciting announcements are Brooklyn starring Saoirse Ronan, Jacques Audiard‘s Cannes winner Dheepan, Yorgos Lanthimos‘ The Lobster, Denis Villeneuve‘s Sicario, Laszlo Nemes‘ Son of Saul, Paolo Sorrentino‘s Youth and Michael Moore‘s latest Where to Invade Next.
In the Gala selection we have Jocelyn Moorehouse‘s The Dressmaker, Peter Sollett‘s Freeheld starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, Brian Helgeland‘s Legend starring Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy,Ridley Scott‘s The Martian starring Matt Damon, Stephen Frears‘ The Program and Roland Emmerich‘s Stonewall.
Most all of the films announced are world premieres, though, of the notable titles that are not world premieres and will play either Telluride or Venice first, they include Legend and Spotlight, which are international premieres; Beasts of No Nation, Black Mass and Anomalisa are Canadian premieres; and The Danish Girl will clearly be in Venice as it is a North American premiere.
What’s notable are some of the films not announced, films such as Carol, Steve Jobs, Suffragette, Bridge of Spies, The Walk, Truth, I Saw the Light, Adam Jones, Genius, Midnight Special, In the Heart of the Sea, Macbeth and Our Brand is Crisis. Of course, there are still plenty of titles to be announced, some that may be showing up in Venice’s lineup tomorrow and others that may be premiering at Telluride that will be playing second in Toronto.
GALAS
Beeba Boys ( dir. Deepa Mehta)
Deepa Mehta) Demolitian ( dir. Jean-Marc Vallee) *OPENING NIGHT FILM*
Jean-Marc Vallee) The Dressmaker ( dir. Jocelyn Moorhouse)
Jocelyn Moorhouse) Eye in the Sky ( dir. Gavin Hood)
Gavin Hood) Forsaken ( dir. Jon Cassar)
Jon Cassar) Freeheld ( dir. Peter Sollett)
Peter Sollett) Hyena Road ( dir. Paul Gross)
Paul Gross) Lolo ( dir. Julie Delpy)
Julie Delpy) Legend ( dir. Brian Hegeland)
Brian Hegeland) The Man Who Knew Infinity ( dir. Matt Brown)
Matt Brown) The Martian ( dir. Ridley Scott)
Ridley Scott) The Program ( dir. Stephen Frears)
Stephen Frears) Remember ( dir. Atom Egoyan)
Atom Egoyan) Septembers of Shiraz ( dir. Wayne Blair)
Wayne Blair) Stonewall (dir. Roland Emmerich)
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONSSkip to comments.
Hello, I'm a Racist, Pleased to Meet You
American Thinker ^ | 7/23/10 | Selwyn Duke
Posted on by American Dream 246
There is such a thing as a conditioned response. Here's an example: Leftists call conservatives "racists." Conservatives cower and stutter some defense. Leftists call conservatives "racists" some more. Conservatives cower some more. Question: How do you think you break this pattern?
We've seen this again with the recent vitriol spewed by NAACP head Ben Jealous (a fitting last name). Speaking at the NAACP convention in Kansas City, Jealous accused the Tea Party of, take a guess...cue the "Jeopardy!" music..."racism." Just as predictably, many conservatives are running around trying to convince everyone that, by gum, they really are swell guys. No, really. I'm not a racist. I don't beat my wife. I don't kick my dog. I eat my organic vegetables and drive a Prius.
Look, why don't we just save everyone the trouble? Every time a conservative renders an opinion, we can just play a recording with a little weaselly voice screeching, "You're a wacist! You're a wacist!" (Barney Frank-style) followed by a music video featuring The Cowering Conservative -- I mean 1950s-style, duck-and-cover footage, with the tune and all.
And such conservatives abound. Oh, don't get me wrong, conservative brethren, I love ya, man. But frankly, too many of you are saps. You really don't get it. People who advocated welfare reform in the 1990s were accused of being "racist." If you're for border control, you're "racist." If you criticize Obama, you're "racist." If you oppose quotas, you're "racist." If you say that, be it nature or nurture, there are differences among groups, you're "racist." If you want English to be the national language, you're "racist." The word has become meaningless, used only to stifle and stigmatize opposition. And if calling you a heretic worked in that regard, the left would do that. And if calling you a Fig Newton worked, they would do that.
Nevertheless, the ploy prevents sap conservatives from speaking -- and even conceiving of -- certain truths. They won't say that so-called racial profiling is just part of proper profiling, they pay lip service to the relativistic idea that all cultures are morally equal, they refuse to call bigoted blacks such as Obama and Eric Holder out on their bigotry, they tolerate double standards with respect to hate crime-law application and racial jokes, and they let whites persecuted for making innocent comments twist in the wind. They won't speak unfashionable truths for fear of becoming unfashionable people. Well, all I can say is that if the Truth can be "racist," then hello, I'm a "racist." Pleased to meet you.
And this gets at a deeper point. On the "O'Reilly Factor" recently, Bill O'Reilly was discussing the Jealous situation with Professor Marc Lamont Hill. The good professor, in so many words, put forth the leftist definition stating that only whites can be "racist" because being so requires one to have "institutional power." OK, whatever. I accept the definition. Really, I do.
I just reject the word.
What I mean is, I've long warned against using the Lexicon of the Left. "Racism" is a term as stupid as "ageism," only we're inured to it. We forget that "ism" refers to a doctrine, system, or theory. So is the leftist definition really so ridiculous? What's more ridiculous is that we actually use their chosen term. This is why I prefer using what simply refers to attitude -- "bigotry" -- as in Barack Obama is a bigot, Eric Holder is a bigot, and Ben Jealous is a bigot. As for "racism," it was originated by the left. So leave it to them. They can define it. They can whine it. And if they ask me, I'll tell them where they can stick it.
The point is that you can't prove you're not a "racist" to the left, because they'll just define "racist" as being whatever you are. In fact, sap conservatives, understand something: You're not going to "prove" anything to the NAACP. You're not going to prove anything to the mainstream media. You're not going to prove anything to any dyed-in-the-fool liberal. They are enemies. And enemies aren't interested in proof; they're interested in propaganda.
So cultivate the right warrior attitude. Look at it like this: If you were engaging in a cold war against the Nazis in 1938, would you bend over backwards to "prove" to them that their propaganda about you was invalid? Of course not! They know it's invalid -- that's the nature of propaganda. And it's designed to invalidate you. And you don't respond to enemies with defens |
sorted if (left >= right) return; // For small arrays, use a faster serial routine if ( right-left <= 32) { InsertionSort(array, left, right); return; } // Select a pivot, then quicksort each sub-array int pivot = Partition(array, left, right); QuickSort(array, left, pivot - 1); QuickSort(array, pivot + 1, right); } static void Main(string[] args) { const int ArraySize = 50000000; for (int iters = 0; iters < 1; iters++) { int[] array; Stopwatch stopwatch; array = new int[ArraySize]; Random random1 = new Random(5); for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; ++i) { array[i] = random1.Next(); } stopwatch = Stopwatch.StartNew(); QuickSort(array, 0, array.Length - 1); stopwatch.Stop(); // Verify it is sorted for (int i = 1; i < array.Length; ++i) if (array[i - 1] > array[i - 1]) throw new ApplicationException("Sort Failed"); Console.WriteLine("Serialt: {0} ms", stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds); } } } } If you look at the QuicSort function, you’ll see that it recursively divides the array in two until a threshold is reached, at which point it sorts the list without further subdivision. If you change this to a parallel version, all you have to do is change these two lines: XML++ Copy QuickSort( array, lo, pivot - 1); QuickSort( array, pivot + 1, hi); The parallelized version is: XML++ Copy Parallel.Invoke( delegate { QuickSort(array, left, pivot - 1); }, delegate { QuickSort(array, pivot + 1, right); } ); The Parallel.Invoke interface is part of the Systems.Threading.Tasks namespace found in the.NET Task Parallel Library. It allows you to specify a function to be run asynchronously. In this case, I tell it that I want to run each sorting function on a separate thread. While it would be more efficient to spawn only one new thread and to use the current thread of execution to sort the other sublist, I wanted to maintain symmetry and illustrate how easy it is to convert a serial program into a parallel program.
Core Utilization
The next obvious question is: Has this parallelization improved performance at all?
Visual Studio 2010 includes several tools to help you understand where your program is spending its time and how it behaves as a multithreaded application. There’s a great introduction to using these tools for measuring the performance of your multithreaded app with Visual Studio 2010 in the September 2009 MSDN Magazine article “Debugging Task-Based Parallel Applications in Visual Studio 2010” by Stephen Toub and Daniel Moth (msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/ee410778), plus there’s a good video introduction by Daniel Moth on Channel 9 (channel9.msdn.com/posts/DanielMoth/Parallel-Tasks--new-Visual-Studio-2010-debugger-window/).
Parallel programming requires you to actually make measurements to verify that you’ve truly improved performance and are utilizing all the hardware. To learn more about how parallelization was being used in my example application, let’s use these tools to measure the sorting routines in action. I launched the Visual Studio 2010 Performance Wizard to take concurrency measurements of my sorting application while it runs.
The first thing you want to look at is core utilization, which shows how the application made use of the CPU cycles available. My test program runs the serial sort, sleeps for a second, then runs the parallel version of the sort. On my 4-core machine I get the graph of core utilization shown in Figure 4. The green is my application, yellow is the OS and other programs, and gray is idle. The flat line at the 1-core level shows that I totally saturate the processing on a single core when I’m running the serial version, and that I get about 2.25 out of four cores when running the parallel version. Not too surprisingly, the time to execute the parallel sort is about 45 percent of the time required for the serial sort. Not too shabby for changing two lines of code.
Figure 4 Core Utilization
Now, let’s switch from looking at the CPU utilization chart to the thread display shown in Figure 5, which shows how the application utilized threads that were available. Notice that there is a single thread for the majority of the execution time. It’s not until you start spawning off tasks that more threads are created. In this display the salmon color indicates a thread that’s been blocked by another thread.
Figure 5 Thread Work
In fact, the thread display shows that while I did get a significant increase in execution speed, I didn’t do it very efficiently. It’s perfectly OK to have a thread block, waiting for other threads as the main thread is waiting for the tasks to complete. However, what you really want to see is solid green on as many tasks as you have CPU cores. So even though the CPU utilization chart shows improved utilization of the CPU cores, when you take a closer look at how tasks were spread throughout the thread pool, you see room for further optimization.
In fact, you should always measure your code for performance after you’ve done some multithreading work—even work as simple as I’ve done here. For small jobs, you don’t want to multithread because the overhead will overwhelm any threading performance. For larger jobs, you’d want to break the job up onto as many CPU cores as are available to you so as not to oversubscribe the thread pool.
What Next?
There are a number of ways to squeeze even better performance out of the code, but that’s not the objective of this initial article. But you did see how to get 80 percent CPU utilization by making just a few changes to the code that make it thread-friendly. Rather than optimizing this code further, however, we’re going to focus on getting maximum performance out of the CPUs on a system by architecting jobs a bit differently.
Sorting in the manner I’ve demonstrated here is particularly amenable to multithreading. You can calculate how far you’re going to divide the job and then give each sub-job to a thread. However, while I did get a performance boost, I did leave some performance behind.
But in real applications you might run into a situation where you either have many jobs giving you groups of unique tasks, or possibly not knowing how long any particular task is going to run and having to schedule tasks around this uncertainty. It’s a particularly challenging problem. In my next article, I’m going to take a look at an architecture that takes a holistic approach to threading, allowing you to distribute multiple, perhaps dissimilar jobs. I’ll show you how to architect an application to make it multicore-aware from the start through the use of tasks and thread pools.
Ron Fosner has been optimizing high-performance applications and games on Windows for 20 years and is starting to get the hang of it. He’s a graphics and optimization expert at Intel and is happiest when he sees all CPU cores running flat out. You can reach him at [email protected].
Thanks to the following technical expert for reviewing this article: Stephen ToubThe Trump Administration The 45th President and His Administration
The Travel Ban The Impact of Trump’s Executive Order
In a clandestine mission that had the makings of a hostage rescue, the Cleveland Clinic and its lawyers arranged for medical resident Suha Abushamma to fly back to the United States yesterday, more than a week after she was forced to leave because of President Donald Trump’s travel ban.
Abushamma is being introduced at a news conference at this hour at the Intercontinental Hotel in Cleveland.
Abushamma was among the highest-profile people affected by the president’s executive order, which banned visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries. A first-year resident at the Cleveland Clinic, she was forced to leave the U.S. hours after landing at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, Jan. 28.
Abushamma, a Sudanese citizen, was given the choice of withdrawing her visa application “voluntarily” or being forcibly deported and not allowed back to the U.S. for at least five years. She chose to withdraw her visa application, meaning she did not have a valid document with which to enter the U.S. She flew back to Saudi Arabia, where her family lives.
Her return to the U.S. resulted from high-level discussions between lawyers for the clinic, outside lawyers working with them and officials at the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. Even though Abushamma’s visa was cancelled, the U.S. Attorney’s office secured permission for her to return yesterday without problem, said David Rowan, the clinic’s chief legal officer.
Abushamma said she hadn’t lost hope, even when her situation appeared most tangled.
“I knew from the beginning that things were going to resolve,” Abushamma said in an interview with ProPublica on Tuesday morning. “I didn’t know when exactly, but I knew it was going to work out in the end and that I would be back.”
Rowan would not discuss specifics of the Cleveland Clinic team’s conversations with the U.S. Attorney’s office.
“There were a lot of behind-the-scenes activities,” Rowan said in an interview. He said the U.S. Attorney’s office communicated with the Department of Homeland Security “as far as the unique circumstances here and having the necessary paperwork... We had to have authorization to let her board a flight in Saudi Arabia.”
Even when a federal judge in Washington state issued a stay late Friday, preventing Trump’s executive order from being enforced, the ruling did not apply to Abushamma because she didn’t have a valid visa in hand. Other doctors and family members returned before she did.
Rowan said the legal team explored a variety of options to get Abushamma back. For one, she sued Trump and other federal officials, seeking her return. The lawsuit contends that Abushamma was denied access to legal advice and was unlawfully removed.
Abushamma will be filing a notice to dismiss her lawsuit this afternoon, though that was not a condition of her return, said Jennifer Kroman, an attorney for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which represented Abushamma in the lawsuit pro bono.
Abushamma took off from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at about 6 a.m. Monday morning, which is about 10 p.m. Sunday in New York. She landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport a little after 11 a.m. Monday, where she was greeted by lawyers and a team from the clinic. They returned to Cleveland later in the day.
Her trip back was not assured. Although lawyers for both sides had agreed that she would be allowed back in, they kept it quiet. Even airport workers were not fully clued in.
Abushamma said she booked her ticket to return on Saturday. And on Sunday night, she flew from Yanbu, where her family lives, to Jeddah. After resting at a friend’s house for a few hours, she returned to the Jeddah airport at 3 a.m. There, a ticket agent looked at her passport and, not seeing a valid visa, alerted an airline supervisor.
Dr. Suha Abushamma, left, with Dr. Abby Spencer, program director of the internal medicine residency program at the Cleveland Clinic. Spencer had flown to New York to greet Abushamma when she returned to the U.S. on Monday. (Courtesy of the Cleveland Clinic)
The supervisor told Abushamma that he had received an email about her and said, “I knew you were going to be boarding the plane.” But he, too, was confused and took her documents for 35 minutes before giving her a boarding pass and allowing her to proceed.
Once through security, Abushamma said, she was asked for her passport again and had to wait five minutes. Finally, she said, while boarding the plane, when the ticket agent scanned her boarding pass, she saw “high-risk passenger” pop up on the screen for a split second before a light turned green allowing her to board.
“High-risk passenger, that’s what I’m considered, I don’t know,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous at all. I’m a very calm person.”
She remained in contact with her legal team until the plane took off.
When she landed in New York, Abushamma said she was greeted by Customs and Border Protection Agents “with smiling faces.” An agent said, “We’ve been waiting for you” and then escorted her to the room in which she was held for hours when she arrived on Jan. 28 before being sent home. “My favorite room at JFK,” she joked. “But this time, it literally took one minute.”
They gave her a form to sign, stamped her passport as if she had a H-1B visa (her original visa type before it was canceled) and escorted her to get her luggage.
Reporters were waiting outside customs, so Abushamma was let out a side door where she was greeted by Cleveland Clinic colleagues, including Dr. Abby Spencer, program director for the internal medicine residency program.
In a court filing, Spencer had said that Abushamma “has been a stand-out physician and colleague. She has repeatedly and consistently demonstrated the utmost ethical standards and continued to prioritize patient needs.”
“It was just really emotional,” said Eileen Sheil, a clinic spokeswoman who was among those to greet Abushamma in New York. “Everyone was trying really hard to keep it low key because there was a lot of media around.”
The Cleveland Clinic’s chief executive, Dr. Toby Cosgrove, is a close advisor to Trump. Cosgrove and the clinic “have been very concerned about the effects of the executive order on health care itself, education and research, and Dr. Cosgrove has put forth proposals” about how the order could be applied, taking into account the unique issues in health care, Rowan said.
Abushamma said the experience has been unforgettable.
“The support that I have received is just amazing. It is incredible,” she said. “From the Cleveland Clinic, from friends, from residents that I’ve never met before … from people in Cleveland itself, from people across America as well. Just the support I received is the one thing that I will never ever forget about this experience.”"If one finds something once, it's accidental. If it is found twice, it's puzzling. If found thrice, there is a pattern," the archaeologists Olle Hemdorff and Eva Thäte say.
In 2005 the archaeologists investigated a grave at Avaldsnes in Karmøy in southwestern Norway, supposed to be from the late Iron Age, i.e. from 600 to 1000 AD. Avaldsnes is rich in archeological finds. They dot an area that has been a seat of power all the way back to around 300. Archaeologist Olle Hemdorff at the University of Stavanger's Museum of Archaeology was responsible for a series of excavations at Avaldsnes in 1993-94 and 2005-06.
"It became clear to us quite early that the grave had been plundered. The material in the grave had been messed up and now contained brick and porcelain fragments from younger layers of soil," Hemdorff says.
Plundering of graves was very common in the 19th century and actually legal. It was not until the Cultural Heritage Act in 1905 made it a criminal offence for lay persons to excavate cultural monuments.
Axes and pearls
The German archaeologist Eva Thäte is in the spring of 2010 visiting researcher at the Museum of Archaeology. She is also a guest researcher at the University of Chester in England. The cooperation with Hemdorff started in 2003 when Thäte came to Stavanger in connection with a doctoral work on the recycling of ancient tombs. The latest research project carried out by the two archaeologists is on finds of older artifacts in younger graves. In the grave at Avaldsnes the researchers found seven handsome glass pearls in the dirt.
"In the late Iron Age glass was the most common material for making pearls, and therefore glass pearls are often found in men's and women's graves from this period. The women wore the pearls in a cord around the neck and brought more pearls with them into the grave than men did. The discovery of the seven pearls made us assume that it was a woman's grave we investigated," Hemdorff says.
"But then we suddenly found a stone axe. It was in the same layer of soil as some of the pearls. The axe is from the Stone Age and more than a thousand years older than the pearls! It is a so-called greenstone axe. All the other indicators suggested that the cairn was from the Iron Age and belonged to a buried woman. So why was there an old axe from the Stone Age in the grave?," the archaeologist asks.
Not accidental
During the last three years documented discoveries of artifacts have been made that are typical for the Stone Age -- marks from flint, flint fragments, quartz, axes, etc. in younger burial mounds.
"Unfortunately this documentation did not begin until the 1970s. Up to that date neither archeologists nor grave robbers were aware of these objects. They were just seen as unimportant and without archeological value. It is only now that we are beginning to have enough data for analysis, and we have made many enough discoveries of Stone Age artifacts in younger graves to say that they make a clear pattern," Thäte says.
She points to a good example from Sogndal in Sogn og Fjordane where a stone axe was found in an untouched stone coffin from the 5th century.
"The axe must have been placed there intentionally. Other finds in Scandinavia make this pattern even clearer. In Halland in Sweden they have found a burial site consisting of almost one hundred graves from the late Iron Age where one has registered processed flint objects in nearly every grave," Hemdorff says.
Starting with the finds around the grave at Avaldsnes and taking the other finds into account, it is not likely that the axe ended up in the grave by accident. Why was it deposited there?
Thunderstones from the sky
The researchers say that people back in the Iron Age had a conscious relationship to objects from earlier times that connected them to their past.
"People probably considered old objects as a heritage from their ancestors. Recycling of old burial mounds for new graves is an indication of this relationship. The idea was that the mounds were memories from a distant past, and written sources indicate that recycling of mounds had a double function. Apart from providing a grave for the dead they also legitimized property and rights. People asserted their control over an area by burying their family in a gravesite belonging to their ancestors," Thäte explains.
The archeologists think that people in pre-history were superstitious and that the axe was deposited in the grave as a part of the burial ritual.
"People believed that the lightning created thunderstones and that individuals who owned such stones would not be hit by the lightning," Hemdorff says.
The idea of a rock falling from the sky caused by lightning is known all over the world. It is certainly found in Roman times and it is connected to objects like meteors, flint stone axes and petrified sea urchins.
"According to folklore a flint axe might protect against lightning and function as a kind of charm," Thäte says.
In Northern Europe the old idea of the thunder god Thor, who throws his hammer when lightning strikes, is common property. It was alive all the way up to the 19th century.
"Thor's mission was to protect gods and people against evil and chaos and it was therefore believed that Thor's rocks protected houses and people. Two things seem to be important when choosing thunderstones: The form had to be similar to an axe or a hammer, that is a ground stone or flint, or the stone had to have "flaming" properties, which flint and quartz have," Hendorff says.
Phallus and fertility
"Both the form of the axe and the flint stones to make fire may be associated with fertility. Thor's hammer is clearly linked to fertility and prosperity. The hammer is a phallus fertilizing the soil, which gives it apotropaic quality, i.e. it has the ability to protect against evil and accidents," Thäte explains.
Since people imagined that thunderstones fell to the ground in connection with lightning, it is possible that the rocks incorporated some of the qualities of lightning or had the power to create a bright light.
"Here is a clear pattern once more. We find old artifacts made of flint in the younger burial mounds. Flint had a strong symbolic power. The stones created fire and were seen as important objects. They can also symbolize the power of lightning," Hemdorff says.
The Avaldsnes axe
But now back to the axe at Avaldsnes and the question why it was in the plundered grave.
"If you consider how widespread the idea of thunderstones was all the way up to the 19th century, and how common superstition was, it is not unlikely that the grave robbers left a protective amulet to make up for their misdeed. After all they opened a grave and committed sacrilege. Maybe they hoped that the axe provided protection against the spirit of the dead and their ghosts," Hemdorff says.
More excavations of graves and houses with unusual artifacts and comparing them to data from different places will probably yield an even clearer pattern.
Thunderstones are definitely of great archaeological value.I moved from San Francisco to Salt Lake City in 1993.
I was generally well-prepared for the cultural adjustment. My best friend from high school is Mormon and through her I had learned about LDS culture and its attraction for people who want a tight-knit nurturing religion. From living in in-land San Diego I knew how to get those trying to convert me to stop, quickly and definitively. And I quickly learned that, in Utah, the mountains were gloriously uncrowded on Sundays. For the most part, SLC was a gorgeous city where I could afford a house.
My biggest problem was the way Mormons treated gays.
For the year before my move, I had been the only "out" straight girl on a Bay Area woman’s rugby team. It was an instructive experience for me, having to come out as straight, having to prove to the women on my team I’d do things with them–like share a hotel bed–I would do with guy friends I trusted, having to beat down silly stereotypes they had of heteros ("oh, I didn’t think straight people had monogamous relationships!"). I was definitely an oddball on the team–for many of them, the team was their main social circle, and several of them were dating women on the team or on rival teams. I had an entirely separate social life and I spent much less time with the team than my teammates.
That spring, my Dad was dying. Rather than go to tournaments with the team on weekends, I was flying to AZ to spend time with my parents. Though I tried to make it to practice during the week to blow off steam, my mind wasn’t really with the team. Which is why it was so meaningful to me that the team made it clear to me that, even though I was gone most of the time, even though I was an oddball straight girl, I was still part of the team. I remember one morning, stopping by the apartment between the airport and work, finding a bouquet of flowers from the other backs on the team. I had a lot of other support from closer friends at the time, but that gesture meant so much to me because it reassured me that my extended community remained strong, that even a community where I was an outsider was reaching out.
When people said anti-gay things in my presence in UT, I’d explain to them how loving my rugby team was, even for me, an outsider. I don’t think I convinced them, but I think describing a community in terms of its love, its support, its generosity–all traits Mormons rightly cherish about their own community–at least meant they couldn’t respond, they just had to accept it.
Not long after I moved to UT, a woman in my department in her early 20s got divorced, a rare thing for a Mormon woman. She had learned her husband was gay when he revealed to her he had been exposed to HIV during a relationship with a man in AZ. She went twice, utterly alone, to be tested herself. When she told me about it afterward she still seemed ashamed, scared. I think I was the one person she knew who had known people living with HIV.
The worst thing, though, was that (perhaps predictably) they blamed her. It was because of her inadequacies as a woman and a wife, the former mother-in-law said, that her husband had slept with other men. And every time I saw the amazing generosity and community that Mormons are capable of (I’m thinking, in particular, of the funeral of another co-worker’s mother out by Dugway), I thought of how they had failed two of their own when they were having a crisis.
It’s through that lens that I see the fight over the right to marry in California. I always knew that Mormons had no monopoly on caring–that gay men and women are every bit as loving as the incredibly warm community of Mormons. For that reason alone, they should be able to get married. But at least in my own personal experience, my gay team mates were the ones who extended themselves to others, not the Mormons I knew. And when it counted–and when it pertained to one gay man and his unfortunate former wife–the Mormon community was even willing to fail one of its own to make their hateful stance.
The opposition to Proposition 8 in California is largely funded by Mormons, claiming that their own loving relations and their lifestyle will be threatened by other humans entering into legally sanctioned loving relations. That offends me, and reminds me of how angry I was at Mormon hate 15 years ago when I moved to UT.
Don’t let that hateful stance win now. Donate to defeat Prop 8.Plus recommendations from the year's best authors.
Of all the books I read last year, the most mind-bendingly futuristic was one I can't believe was published over twenty years ago. Greg Egan's Permutation City imagines a future in which the human mind can be scanned and uploaded into virtual worlds, offering a kind of eternal life. Like all the best science fiction, it explores philosophical territory that would be impossible in any other form. As the world around us gets weirder and more unstable, Permutation City feels like it's getting closer.
—when the novel transforms into straight up horror. It’s the rare book that does everything—a vital story that reckons with American history in an extraordinarily modern way.
It's a phenomenal book that changes shape. The first section will make you cry from laughter, as it sends up music hipsterdom. Then you'll cry tears of sadness after those hipsters start to suffer real consequences. And in the stunning final act, you'll cry tears of fear—
So what kind of tears are we talking here? Tears of joy?
I reread Jorge Luis Borges's Fictions this year. If you haven't read it, you're very lucky. Do. His writing is exquisite, compressed, beautiful, funny. His short stories manage to contain bigger ideas than the biggest novels. He is utterly global in his knowledge and influences. And I think he is the best writer we have on the online world and the internet, even though he died well before such things actually existed.
Exit West is a novel about two people emigrating from an unnamed country. There are fantastical elements—doorways that allow the two main characters to travel from place to place with ease. So whereas most stories about refugees are about the difficulty of movement, Mohsin Hamid has written a book about the difficulty of place. Also, the writing is really stunning, almost fable-like in its lyricism.
The best thing I read in 2017 is This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a book that has taken up permanent residence in my heart. It is a beautiful collection of stories and songs concerned with the fragility and resilience of heritage, connection and love—all at once a scream and a whisper, a work of perfect quietness and overwhelming volume. It’s also, in many parts, funny as hell.
We start with the rebellion in the South with a young girl named Sarat. After her father is killed, she and her family are sent to a refugee camp where her hatred of “the Blues” festers, and slowly, Sarat is radicalized into a violent rebel. Even outside of American War’s obvious timeliness and real-world parallels, its just a tremendous exercise in empathy in fiction.
Well, in Omar El Akkad’s debut novel, he imagines a second Civil War in 2074 that erupts after the government passes a ban on fossil fuels.
You know how whenever there’s a mass shooting, people are reluctant to call it terrorism? Especially if the shooter is white?
I have long been a compulsive reader of detective novels, but, somehow, I only this year discovered the remarkable works of Ross MacDonald. I pored through The Underground Man, Sleeping Beauty, The Moving Target, The Galton Case, The Drowning Pool, The Chill, and, perhaps my favorite of the bunch, The Blue Hammer. Their plots are wildly intricate, but what sets these books apart, and makes MacDonald a worthy heir of Dashiell Hammett, is their psychological depth. Rarely has a simple probing question been deployed to such devastating effect.
Yes, detective. People were after the Osage people’s oil money. And in tandem with that horrifying story is the rise of the FBI, which J. Edgar Hoover created as a means to muscle his way into power. This book is incredibly researched and stunningly written.
Close enough. Killers of the Flower Moon is chronicles the “Reign of Terror”—a five-year span in the 1920s when over two dozen Osage people were mysteriously killed.
There is no author on the planet who has a more versatile vision than Jennifer Egan. We are talking about a woman who wrote one of the most genre defying, experimental, truly punk novels ever, with A Visit from the Goon Squad, and has now followed up that weirdo work with a seemingly straight forward piece of historical fiction—Manhattan Beach—that turns out to be just as compelling. This novel unfolds with all the delicious, absorbing pleasure of a great, almost trashy mystery, but resonates on the deep, profoundly human level that makes for Serious Literature. Brava.
There’s a lot of it in here. The Strokes stall out when Albert Hammond Jr. gets addicted to heroin—which leads to a confrontation between the band and Ryan Adams, who apparently supplied Hammond Jr. with the smack. James Murphy comes across as an opportunist. Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was disparagingly nicknamed “midget Elvis.” The book is full of spirit and shade.
Okay, but I want to know how much gossip is in it.
Yes! And among other bands featured in this wild portrait of early ‘00s New York: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, among many others. The book is basically a big, long oral history of the rise of indie rock over a decade. It really encapsulates a moment.
Because I haven't listened to new music since college, I know that Meet Me in the Bathroom is a Strokes reference.
Wrenchingly sad comedic fiction is my year-round love language, but I find it especially necessary during the holidays. Patty Yumi Cottrell's peerless debut novel Sorry to Disrupt the Peace crushes me into fetal position every time, and I'm so masochistically thankful. While investigating a suicide, the book's sharp philosophical humor delves straight into the mystery of suffering and the abyss—it's a perfect, aching antidote to "the season."
Wow you... actually nailed that. That's exactly what Made for Love is about.
So this book is about a woman who hates her nerd husband, but when she tried to leave him, he used a myriad of technologies to surveil her, and also there is a random guy who wants to fuck a dolphin.
At a literary festival in Bangladesh earlier this year, I encountered a tall, ex-patriate Englishman in a linen jacket named Lawrence Osborne. Out of curiosity, I started reading his first novel, The Forgiven. On the face of it, it’s a mildly thriller-ish satire about upper-class foreigners who come a terrible cropper in Morocco. But its greatest qualities are in its beautifully controlled language and merciless, multi-layered irony. Osborne’s like a grown-up version of Graham Greene, an Evelyn Waugh or Edward St Aubyn without the snobbery and cruelty. I immediately ordered everything else he has published, including his latest, the widely praised Beautiful Animals.
It's actually written in a way that's measured, never overdramatic. But… yeah, it’s pretty heartbreaking all the way through.
Richard Lloyd Parry spent six years collecting accounts from survivors, the culmination of which is this intimate portrait of calamity. There’s a lot to take in, but the most remarkable idea is that Japan is better prepared for disasters than any other country in the world, at least in terms of training and infrastructure. But nothing really prepares people for tragedy.
Well, now I feel like an asshole for using emoji.
This book is about the 2011 tsunami in Japan and all the people it killed. And, more to the point, all the people it didn’t kill.
Ghosts of the Tsunami? So it’s like 👻 of the 🌊.
I recently read Aghori: At the Left Hand of God, by Robert Svoboda. It's mostly the words of the Aghori teacher, Vimalananda. A book has never made me feel so happy: affirming that experience is happening beyond the material world reminds me, for one, to shut out all the bells and whistles of capitalist brainwashing. My life is way more interesting with this in mind, and I can laugh at the absurdity in myself and others instead of blaming it for my misery.
Moshfegh’s work hinges on the strength and strangeness of her voice. And each story here is strange, some even weirdly moving. The perfect Christmas gift for the English major in your life.
The title and cover might relay that, but this is not science fiction, though its tone is otherworldly. Homesick has a lot of damaged people: meth addicts, alcoholics, people who rub crystal skulls. You know, the usual suspects.
I found I had to re-read Djuna Barnes's The Book of Repulsive Women: 8 Rhythms and and 5 Drawings. From the poem “Seen from the ‘L’”: "Ravelling grandly into vice / Dropping crooked into rhyme. / Slipping through the stitch of virtue, / Intro crime." From “Twilight of the Illicit”: "Lips long lengthened by wise words / Unsaid." Readers can find the short book online on UPenn's Digital Library, which had the temerity to post it under "A Celebration of Women Writers." Women writers, women writers, women writers. It's time, by god, that we be celebrated as writers.
If 2017 has proven anything, it's that the misogyny of technology predates Uber and will outlive Uber.
It is and it isn't. Each essay captures a different year of Silicon Valley, dating back to 1994.
It's about, among other things, being a woman in tech.
Ellen Ullman is maybe the best tech essayist we have. She's built a career dissecting, through personal experience, the ways people must act to move through the tech sphere. The title is a double entendre.
As someone who learned the basics of HTML from editing my Xanga template in middle school, I feel like I can relate to a book called Life in Code.
I’d been meaning to read to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go for years, but for some reason kept putting it off. When he won the Nobel Prize this fall, I finally stopped procrastinating, and I’m glad I did. Never Let Me Go is a sneaky masterpiece—what begins as a melancholy coming-of-age novel slowly morphs into one of the most convincing dystopian nightmares I’ve ever encountered. This is a book about what it means to be human in a society that systematically denies the humanity of some its members. It will haunt you.
In some ways, that's sort of what Mrs. Fletcher attempts to do: hilariously trick its readers into confronting the social mores of sex. Perrotta is a satirist of the suburbs, and Mrs. Fletcher is nothing if not constantly hilarious.
I just wanted to see if I could get you to spell it out.
I've seen your search history. You know what a MILF is.
Anyway, the entire novel is predicated on the titular Mrs. Fletcher receiving an errant text from a friend of her teenage son, declaring her a MILF.
He wrote The Leftovers—both the original novel and its TV adaptation.
Weike Wang's Chemistry is a story about love and family and expectations of all kinds—from parents, from partners, from yourself—told in little gemlike sections that combine to be much more than the sum of those parts. It's slim enough to be wolfed down in one sitting, yet rich enough to merit an immediate re-read.
Little Fires doesn’t really offer any easy answers! But we do get, through a handful of well-drawn characters and voices, a smart and often sincere glimpse into all the ways people delude themselves.
It followed Shaker ideals—equality, diversity, planning, that good stuff. Basically all the Shakers died out and now the town is just a regular old suburb full of well meaning people who don’t know all that much about how racism works, which makes it a rich setting for Celeste Ng’s book. After a white family attempts to take custody of a Chinese baby, seemingly abandoned at a fire station, people in Shaker Heights become divided on whether the cross-racial adoption is okay.
Speaking of the suburbs, Little Fires Everywhere takes place in what was supposed to be a utopian community outside of Cleveland called Shaker Heights.
In this neon collection of Anna Haifisch's weekly VICE comics, The Artist, we follow a fragile young bird-being who struggles as an artist in the big city: he clumsily navigates the art party scene, his Tumblr work is misunderstood by gallerists and parents alike, he languishes alone and uncelebrated on a bare mattress on the floor. But Haifisch imbues him with an anxious optimism fortified by beer and not knowing any better, and asks that we regard him "with nothing but love and mercy."
You know, sometimes I think the rich worry about money the most.
Well, this Korean comic is a memoir about leaving the city for the rural |
… that’s right nerds! No more of this quadratic nonsense!
Linked Shapes:
Define a shape once, like an ‘o’, and re-use it across many characters, like ‘bdgpq’. Make changes to the Linked Shape, and it updates all the characters linked to it.
Test Drive:
Try out your font as you type. Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs!
One HTML File:
The whole thing is just a single HTML file: small, portable, and easy. Works best in the Chrome Browser, but any modern browser should do.As the world’s population ages, an ever-growing number of people are experiencing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The World Health Organization reports that more than 35 million people live with dementia today. That number is expected to grow to more than 65 million by 2030 and 115 million by 2050.
Dementia is a progressive disease, starting with occasional forgetfulness and eventually developing into a major disability. Although there are some medications on the market to treat dementia, and there are others in development, they can’t reverse damage that’s already been done — they can only help keep the brain from deteriorating further. This makes it vitally important to spot the warning signs of dementia as early as possible.
Learn More About What Causes Dementia »
New research published today in Radiology explains a technique that can be used to detect dementia long before patients show any signs of mental decline.
Taking a Look Under the Hood
In the study, researchers recruited 148 healthy volunteers and 65 people who already showed signs of mild cognitive impairment. Their average age was 76. Researchers performed 25 neurocognitive tests on the volunteers to build a detailed profile of their abilities. Then, they ran a brain scan on each person using a type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The specific technique, called arterial spin labeling MRI (ASL MRI), measures the penetration of oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood into the tissues, using blood as a naturally-occurring contrast agent. This lets doctors examine the metabolic rates of different regions of the brain, a task currently performed using positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
Eighteen months later, the researchers called the participants back to the lab for another round of cognitive testing to see what had changed. About half of the initially healthy people in the sample showed signs of cognitive decline, while the other half remained stable.
The researchers then examined the brain scans from the start of the study to see if there were any differences between the participants who stayed stable and those who went on to show signs of dementia. They found significant differences in the blood penetration levels in one specific part of the brain: the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC).
The PCC is part of the default mode network (DMN), the network of brain regions responsible for inward-facing tasks like self-reflection.
“The DMN is more active during rest, and it is believed that it is necessary to restore brain function,” said study author Dr. Sven Haller, a neuroradiologist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, in an interview with Healthline. “Simply speaking, the DMN re-synchronizes the brain so that the brain is again fresh and responsive. In dementia, the DMN activation decreases, which might be one of the reasons that the brain ‘recovers’ less and consequently is less [high] performing.”
Related News: Why Do Some People Quit in the Face of Stress While Others Persevere? »
People who went on to show signs of cognitive decline at the 18-month mark showed reduced blood flow to their PCC at the beginning of the study. In fact, their PCC blood flow patterns more closely resembled those of the group who showed cognitive impairment at the start of the study.
Most neuropsychological tests can’t detect dementia at its earliest stages. That’s because people with mild dementia are able to perform functional compensation. In other words, they have extra mental resources at their disposal to make up for forgetfulness. These resources pick up the slack left by other systems that might be damaged by early dementia so that the person is still able to function normally. However, this compensation doesn’t last forever.
A New Method for Early Detection
Haller hopes that his discovery will help make early detection of dementia easier and cheaper. “In our study, ASL performed as [well] as cognitive testing,” said Haller. “Yet ASL only takes [an] additional five minutes for an already routinely performed MRI, while the cognitive testing is very challenging for the patient and takes a few hours.” PET scans are also time-consuming and expensive, and they require injecting patients with a radioactive contrast agent that can trigger a rare allergic reaction in some people.
Ideally, Haller hopes, the techniques could be combined. ASL MRI and neurocognitive testing together provide a more accurate diagnosis than either method alone. From there, a specialized PET scan could examine the accumulation of specific amyloid proteins related to dementia to confirm the diagnosis. This would spare patients the current diagnostic process, which requires two PET scans: one metabolic scan, which ASL would replace, and the second amyloid scan.
For dementia, early diagnosis is key. “A potential medication will probably not be able to restore lost cognitive function in advanced dementia, yet [will] hopefully stop or at least slow down the neurodegenerative process,” Haller said. “Consequently, the earlier the detection, the earlier the treatment and the better the effect. ASL might be a simple, non-invasive, fast, and operator-independent tool which might contribute to the early detection of cognitive decline.”
Read More: Dementia Drugs Ineffective at Slowing Mental Decline »In a small, anonymous office in the Trump Tower, 28 floors above Wall Street, a man sits in front of a computer screen sifting through satellite images of a foreign desert. The images depict a vast, sandy emptiness, marked every so often by dunes and hills. He is searching for man-made structures: houses, compounds, airfields, any sign of civilization that might be visible from the sky. The images flash at a rate of 20 per second, so fast that before he can truly perceive the details of each landscape, it is gone. He pushes no buttons, takes no notes. His performance is near perfect.
Or rather, his brain's performance is near perfect. The man has a machine strapped to his head, an array of electrodes called an electroencephalogram, or EEG, which is recording his brain activity as each image skips by. It then sends the brain-activity data wirelessly to a large computer. The computer has learned what the man's brain activity looks like when he sees one of the visual targets, and, based on that information, it quickly reshuffles the images. When the man sorts back through the hundreds of images—most without structures, but some with—almost all the ones with buildings in them pop to the front of the pack. His brain and the computer have done good work.
That display was a demonstration of a new technology being developed through a collaboration between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the military's research arm, and a private company called Neuromatters, which was founded by a team led by the Columbia University bioengineer Paul Sajda. The hope is that, in the near future, military analysts might use the technology to eliminate worthless images in seconds, speeding up their review of satellite images by orders of magnitude. By the looks of it, it's working.
The program, called Neurotechnology for Intelligence Analysts, or NIA, is just one of many being pursued by Darpa, as the agency is known, to translate basic neuroscience research into tools that will make the military more able and efficient. Other projects Darpa finances include one to test whether sending electricity through the brain can accelerate learning; another that seeks to use psychology and neuroscience to understand which types of communication best convince those living in occupied lands that they should yield to American forces, a sort of Propaganda 2.0; and a project aimed at developing drugs that would reduce or erase traumatic memories.
Some critics view these projects with suspicion and raise ethical objections: They see Darpa initiating a military invasion of the mind that warps the goals of basic research to fit the battlefield. "As a scientist I dislike that someone might be hurt by my work. I want to reduce suffering, to make the world a better place, but there are people in the world with different intentions, and I don't know how to deal with that," Vincent P. Clark, an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico whose work with brain stimulation has influenced the military, told The Guardian earlier this year.
For others, however, such military projects are just another outgrowth of years of basic-science research, the natural siblings of other clinical and bioengineering applications.
Either way, the NIA project makes clear the often unpredictable routes that basic-science findings take on their way to becoming something useful in the wider world. Because of that unpredictability, support for basic biological science occasionally comes under attack for lacking clear, direct benefits to society. But in 2009, in a speech before the National Academy of Sciences, President Obama spoke about the value of such research: "The fact is, an investigation into a particular physical, chemical, or biological process might not pay off for a year, or a decade, or at all. And when it does, the rewards are often broadly shared, enjoyed by those who bore its costs but also by those who did not." Now, in an age of increasing interest in bioengineering and, specifically, tapping into the computational power of the brain, these Darpa-financed projects are proof that basic-science discoveries in the biological sciences do lead to unexpected places, including to war.
In the 1990s, the military began to realize it had a problem: too many pictures and not enough eyeballs.
Specifically, it had a glut of satellite images, photos covering every inch of the planet, waiting to be sifted, scrutinized, and analyzed for any precious bits of intelligence. Paul Sajda, who would later found Neuromatters and develop the NIA program, learned of this problem on a visit to the National Photographic Interpretation Center, in Washington, D.C., in 1995. The center was staffed with hundreds of analysts whose job was to sort painstakingly through piles and piles of satellite images, looking for communications lines one day, rebel camps the next.
At the time, Sajda was working for the nonprofit David Sarnoff Research Center, in Princeton, N.J. Sarnoff had many contracts with the Department of Defense, including a project Sajda himself had been working on to apply the military's computer technologies to the analysis of radiological images of potential cases of breast cancer, hoping to improve diagnostic screenings. It was that project that brought him to NPIC, to see its image-analysis process in action.
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During his visit, Sajda was struck by how the analysts could tell, from only a few pixels, what they were looking at. It was analysts at the center, for example, who first discovered, in a set of grainy photos taken during flyovers of Cuba by American U-2 planes, the Russian cache of nuclear missiles that led to the Cuban missile crisis. These analysts were good.
Nevertheless, looking through images was a slow and laborious process, and while computer technology had improved the program's results, the gains were limited. Further, as the sites of important intelligence became more widely distributed, the number of potentially significant images ballooned.
Sajda was amazed at how many gigabytes of images went unanalyzed, even unviewed. "Here was this huge pile of data, and no one could even look at it. There just wasn't enough manpower," he told me. In 1996, the government merged the NPIC with several related organizations to form the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, hoping to improve its success. But the problem did not go away, and in 2001 a Congressionally appointed committee released a report condemning the agency for its poor performance.
For Sajda, the problem was an intriguing one, and it held his attention starting with that first visit. "I thought then," Sajda remembers, "that there has to be a way we can speed this up."
Though Sajda was an engineer, he had studied the human visual system as a graduate student, developing models for how the brain picks apart a scene, identifying what is important and what is not. He knew that the brain still outperformed any computer at identifying important features of images like satellite photos. Most importantly, Sajda was familiar with a long literature, dating back to the mid-1960s, that related rapid changes in brain activity to visual processing of important information.
What is most remarkable about Sajda's attempt at solving the military's problem is that it is based primarily on that 1960s-era research. In particular, a series of EEG studies published starting in 1964 in the journals Nature and Science demonstrated, for the first time, specific markers of cognitive processing in the brain activity of people while they viewed images.
One of those studies in particular is a clear precursor of Sajda's work. It was carried out by a young psychologist named Robert Chapman, and it showed that brain activity was quite different while people viewed images that held important information than while they viewed images that meant nothing to them.
Chapman's experimental design would seem primitive to psychologists today, but it worked. Subjects sat in a chair in a dimly lit room. In front of them were two illuminated boxes. In one box, a single number was shown, while in the other, a series of numbers, interspersed with plus signs, flashed in front of the subject. The numbers were selected randomly, via holes punched into a piece of paper that was fed by a motored gear through the illuminated machine (the days of experiments presented on computer screens had not yet arrived). A subject had to decide, with each number flashed on the right, whether the number on the left was smaller. Chapman then used a hulking computer, made by Packard Bell, to average all the data surrounding the different types of trials—those with numbers, and those with blanks or plusses.
This data averaging itself was a major step forward. In the early 1960s, the use of EEG to study brain activity was about 40 years old, but the brain's signals were still poorly understood. In the 1930s, for example, the originator of the EEG technique, Hans Berger, had shown that the squiggly lines representative of electrical brain activity changed significantly when people closed their eyes, or did math in their heads. But, because such early EEG researchers had to do all analysis by looking at the data visually and counting important events or changes, it was almost impossible to conduct and analyze complicated cognitive experiments.
With the introduction of computers, however, researchers could look not just at the continuous EEG over long periods of time but also at the changes that occurred around specific events by averaging the data from a large number of painstakingly timed trials. Most researchers began using this newfound capability to study sensory responses—placing electrodes over the visual cortex at the back of the head, for example, and analyzing how the EEG signal changed when flashes of light of different durations were presented to subjects. Chapman was one of the first to apply that approach to cognitive tasks.
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What Chapman found in his study immediately excited him: When subjects viewed any stimulus, there was a quick change in brain activity, the size of which depended on how bright the stimulus was. But when subjects were shown a number, crucial to performing the task before them, the EEG registered a huge spike in brain activity about 300 milliseconds after the stimulus appeared. When a plus sign was shown instead of a number, the spike was notably smaller.
That simple task had revealed something profound: a clear EEG marker of the perception and processing of information relevant to a decision. Samuel Sutton, in a series of experiments published in 1965 in the journal Science, continued to explore that class of responses, focusing specifically on the spike that occurred 300 milliseconds after the stimulus. Eventually, that spike was named the P300 response.
Since those early findings, the P300 has been used to study almost every conceivable topic in neurology and neuroscience: decision-making, consciousness, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and, quite prominently, as a brain-computer interface to allow paralyzed people to spell using EEG.
At the time of his visit to the National Photographic Interpretation Center, Sajda was already familiar with the P300 literature, and he began to wonder if there was some way that brain activity itself could be used to speed up image analysis.
The idea was not so far-fetched. In 1996 a paper was published in Nature about a technique called rapid serial visual presentation: RSVP. Researchers demonstrated that images shown extremely rapidly could still be parsed by the visual system, that the telltale signs of visual processing in the EEG were still there. "This was a big inspiration for me," Sajda remembers. If he could find a difference in brain activity between the rare images that had important targets and those that didn't, he could use that signature to create a system to analyze the military's images. And the Nature paper suggested it could be done extremely rapidly, faster than 10 images per second. What's more, the P300 effect had been shown to be modulated by expertise: Analysts who spent all day looking through images would have particularly robust brain responses.
In 2003, at the urging of a Darpa program officer named Amy Kruse, Sajda wrote a proposal and brought the idea to the agency's attention. First, he wrote, the system would take advantage of state-of-the-art computer vision techniques, weeding out images that could be easily analyzed without human involvement. Once the more difficult images were isolated, he would train a computer to recognize what an analyst's brain activity looked like after viewing an image with a target, and one without a target. Then he would present images to analysts at a rapid rate, up to 20 times per second. If his algorithm worked, the computer could generate an "interest score" for each image simply by looking at how robust the P300 response was. Analysts could then spend their time studying the images that mattered, those with the highest scores. After several false starts, the project was backed by Darpa, and Sajda founded Neuromatters to do the product development and engineering. Darpa also set up and financed seven other groups to pursue the technique.
By the time I saw the project, only two groups remained in the hunt, and Sajda's approach was in the process of being tested by government analysts. According to all of Neuromatters' studies, the project was a huge success, ready for the field: They claim to have achieved a 300-percent increase in the speed of image analysis by peeking in on the brain. The government might, finally, be able to analyze most of those images.
It seems clear that the technology, if validated by analysts, will be used to speed up the routine processing of satellite imagery. But other military uses, such as the rapid selection of targets for bombing, remain unclear: The program manager for the project at Darpa, William Casebeer, refused a request for an interview for this article. Instead he issued a statement that read, "Taking advantage of the massively distributed parallel-processing capabilities of the human brain by sensing when it has detected anomalies in images could be an important part of a comprehensive approach for dealing with the deluge of data our intelligence analysts deal with each day. Testing of promising prototype NIA systems is ongoing so we can make fully-informed transition decisions."
But it's not just the military that is faced with a glut of visual information these days, and both Sajda and the chief executive at Neuromatters, Barbara Hanna, were willing to discuss other potential commercializations of their technology. Hanna and Michael Repucci, who was at the time a Neuromatters engineer and who served as the subject in the sorting demonstrating, showed me a system in which a series of random objects, instead of landscapes, flew by. Repucci is a biker, so he decided to look for images of bikes. When the experiment finished, the bikes flew to the front of the pack, skipping over baseball mitts and lighthouses. Hanna and Repucci excitedly described how, one day, we might no longer flip slowly through catalogs, instead letting the brain-activity interest score decide which products we most want to see. They're not there yet, they caution, but the applications have begun to seem endless.
In the 50 years since its discovery, the fundamental principle of the P300 has been used to create tools that allow paralyzed people to communicate, to find biomarkers that differentiate people with Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia from healthy people, and, now, to efficiently sort the vast data troves of the U.S. government and, perhaps soon, retailers.
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According to Robert Chapman, many of those applications were foreseeable, even at the beginning, once it was clear that his team had discovered a basic marker of cognition. "I immediately saw the clinical implications," he told me. "I saw practically no limit to what we could do." But what he admitted he could not foresee was that one day a field he helped found would find one of its most promising applications to be a tool developed for the U.S. military.
The irony is that the basic-science laboratory in which Chapman conducted his research was at the Army's Walter Reed Military Research Center. Chapman had been drafted while in graduate school at Brown University and had worked with his faculty mentors to devise a way for him to remain in science during his conscription by doing research at Walter Reed, where many Brown faculty had connections. In fact, Chapman almost didn't carry out his EEG research at all; a mistake on his military paperwork sent him to Davids' Island, off the coast of New York in Long Island Sound, to serve as a statistician at the Chaplain School there. Only after he worked out a swap with a statistician from Kansas was he finally allowed to move to Walter Reed.
He describes Walter Reed in the early 1960s as an idyllic, interdisciplinary research environment reminiscent of the golden era of Bell Labs. According to Chapman, scientists were required to put 50 percent of their effort into their main project, but the other 50 percent was up to them—they could pursue any research they liked. It was this openness that allowed Chapman and his mentor, John Armington, to take time away from their study of the retina to stick those electrodes on the scalp and study cognition.
While all of Chapman's work at Walter Reed was government-supported, his funds came from the National Institutes of Health, not the military. His work was basic; it had no obvious application at the time outside of cognitive science.
Basic science regularly follows those types of meandering paths to practical relevance, according to Jonathan Moreno, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "Scientists often fail to foresee where their research is headed," says Moreno, whose 2006 book Mind Wars discusses the ethical issues surrounding military applications of neuroscience. "Even Einstein refused, for a long time, to believe his work contributed to the atomic bomb."
While predictions may be nearly impossible, Moreno believes that basic neuroscientists have a responsibility to remain a part of the conversation about how their work is used. "It's easy to just be too busy to care, with meetings, grad students, grants. But if scientists find the time to stay involved, they can create a true culture of thoughtfulness around these complex issues," he says.
There are already several groups of scientists and national-security experts attempting to create such a culture. In particular, the National Research Council recently commissioned a two-year study of the potential impacts and ethical implications of using neuroscience research in the military, which was published in 2008. Christopher Green, the chair of the council's committee and an assistant dean at the Wayne State School of Medicine, in Detroit, says that he believes such reports, if taken seriously by Congress, can fill the role of ethical watchdog effectively.
"There would be nothing wrong with Congress giving one to three million dollars to the National Research Council simply to do a yearly study of the current state of this research and its ethics," Green says. What's more, he points out, the process of calling dozens of experts to give their opinions on the topic provides basic scientists a forum to voice their support for or concerns regarding the use of their work.
With that in mind, I asked Chapman whether it bothered him that the ideas he helped uncover and now applies clinically might be used by the military to help plan attacks. He doesn't see things that way. "I can appreciate that view, but I don't hold it strongly," he told me. "I think it's becoming increasingly difficult to make moral decisions in this world." Besides, he pointed out, the image-analysis tool was just as likely to be used to avoid civilian casualties as it was to help soldiers kill insurgents, and the early work in his field had also led to major clinical breakthroughs in populations as disparate as the severely brain injured and the schizophrenic.
He paused for a moment, thinking, and then rejected my premise outright. "The truth is, you just can't hide your discoveries."
Jon Bardin is a freelance writer based in New York.Battering rams, military armored vehicles and the use of SWAT teams by law enforcement has the American Civil Liberties Union up in arms.
Battering rams, military armored vehicles and the use of SWAT teams by law enforcement has the American Civil Liberties Union up in arms.
The civil rights organization has raised concerns over how military hardware and technology have seeped into day-to-day policing. But law enforcement in the Poconos say the ACLU is way off base.
"I looked at the ACLU survey, and it left me with more questions than answers," said Bob Werts, program manager of the Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Counter Terrorism Task Force. "It's very important to note that the courts have consistently agreed that law enforcement does not have to have less of ability than criminals do."
In a recent study, the ACLU estimated that there are 45,000 SWAT raids in the United States each year.
"That means this sort of violent, paramilitary raid is happening in about 124 homes every day, or more likely every night, not in an overseas combat zone, but here in American neighborhoods," said Kara Dansky, senior counsel for the ACLU's Center for Justice. "The police, who are supposed to serve and protect communities, are instead waging war on the people who live in them."
The ACLU's new report, "War at Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing," looked at 800 of the raids Dansky spoke of and what state and local law enforcement agencies are willing to divulge, she said.
"We found that almost 80 percent of SWAT raids are to search homes, usually for drugs, and disproportionately, in communities of color. During these drug searches, at least 10 officers often piled into armored personnel carriers," Dansky said.
"They forced their way into people's homes using military equipment like battering rams 60 percent of the time. And they were 14 times more likely to deploy flash-bang grenades than during SWAT raids for other purposes."
Approximately 79 percent involved raids on private homes. By contrast, only about 7 percent fell into those categories for which the technique was originally intended, such as hostage situations or barricades, according to ACLU officials.
Backing the ACLU's report, the Center for Investigative Reporting said since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, $34 billion in grants from the Department of Homeland Security were allocated to states to procure military-grade weapons and other security defenses.
The CIR said it found through records from 41 states and interviews with more than two dozen current and former police officials and terrorism experts that police departments around the U.S. have transformed into small army-like forces.
Still, law enforcement officials in the Poconos said they haven't used grenades or stockpiled any military-style weapons, and their SWAT teams are used only when absolutely necessary.
"There have been no changes with the exception of about six or seven years ago, when we received a Vietnam-era armored personnel carrier," said Capt. Brian Kimmins of Stroud Area Regional Police. "We've refurbished it, and we use it when there's a victim or an officer down and we can drive to an area where there's gunfire."
The captain said certain tools such as stun guns are effective and "we'd be foolish not to capitalize on that."
Among other benefits, stun guns help to greatly reduce injuries to police officers and, as a result, there hasn't been much lost time due to injury.
"When I first started out, we didn't even have pepper spray," Kimmins said. "Now, with tasers, no one has gone out."
Officials with Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department, which serves several communities including Tobyhanna and Mount Pocono, said their SWAT team was formed in 1996 and consists of 19 highly trained officers, who've worked with the FBI, state police and the U.S. Secret Service, among other agencies.
The PMRPD SWAT team is trained in the employment of explosive devices, automatic and semi-automatic weapons, long-range scoped rifles, gas munitions and platforms, less lethal munitions, electronic surveillance equipment and specialized team tactics.
PMRPD acquired a Lenco Bearcat armored rescue vehicle in 2011. The 9-ton vehicle, which cost $287,000, was secured through a Homeland Security grant. When it was introduced, officials said it would be used for manmade disasters, standoffs and other unstable situations.
Pennsylvania State Police spokeswoman Maria Finn said troopers don't use military-style weapons or tactics.
"The military's 1033 surplus program may be a good option for some, but at this point the Pennsylvania State Police do not utilize equipment from this program."
Monroe County Sheriff Todd Martin said his department also doesn't have or use military-style equipment and tactics.
Mark Lomax, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association in Doylestown, defended the use of military equipment in local policing.
Lomax said the ACLU's report doesn't detail or discuss the overwhelming, vast majority of police situations and responses that occur each day.
"Every day in which tactical equipment and vehicles are either purchased or obtained from the government, it's saved lives, both civilian and law enforcement," he said. "Whether it is a response to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, domestic terrorism such as the Sept. 11 terror attacks or the Boston marathon bombing, or an active shooter situation like Newtown or Aurora, the equipment provided by the government, such as generators, boats, rescue equipment and surveillance equipment, have saved lives and minimized the loss of life."
Further, the tactics and equipment used by the vast majority of SWAT or tactical teams, when needed, are in direct response to the criminal element law enforcement is confronted with, Lomax said.
Still, the ACLU contends that public support for the War on Drugs is at its lowest ever, and yet it says police are still using hyper-aggressive tactics and heavy artillery to fight it.
The organization said that the paramilitary approach to everyday policing brutalizes bystanders and ravages homes.
However, Werts of the Northeast Regional Counterterrorism Task Force argues that the ACLU is making a mountain out of a molehill.
Werts said most police agencies have kept pace with what they have to encounter in enforcing the law.
"You are legally allowed to have greater force as a law enforcement officer than those criminals that you're going to attempt to arrest," he said. "I feel sorry for the community once that changes."It's a really exciting book and in his talk Ray explored working with limits and doing something that had never been done in comics before, and wanting to prove people wrong who said the medium has already done all it can (who would say that? CRAZY PEOPLE.) I've only read 16 or so pages so far and already it's a surprising and deeply rewarding book - I really recommend it!
GUESS WHAT JUST CAME OUT: IT'S MY NEW BOOK!! If you've ever wondered what you'd do if you were stranded in the past, wonder no longer! With HOW TO INVENT EVERYTHING, you'll reinvent civilization from scratch, no matter what time period you're in. You'll become the single most influential, decisive, and important person ever born. You'll make history...
...better.
Here's the trailer!
One year ago today: it also means that my dad met me and decided i WASN'T a dud and that he totally had to make me happen
– RyanTaeyang romanticized the struggles of black people for the sake of his music
For the 10th anniversary of Big Bang‘s debut, a photobook called ‘BIGBANG10 THE COLLECTION: A TO Z‘ was released on October 25 of this year. Sounds good.
Recently though, an image started spreading around Twitter of a Taeyang quote in said photobook … and it’s cringy at best and terrible at worst.
If you squint, you can understand what he was going for with this, and he probably thought to himself as he said it, “Oh fuck yeah, my black international fans are gonna love this shit.” Unfortunately, he ends up romanticizing the struggle of black people and black artists, and essentially thinks that if he suffers more he can become more black and thus make better music.
With Taeyang’s history, it’s hard to dispute that he feels that way, honestly.
Also, it’s worth noting that as a Korean, if he wanted to channel a history of pain and suffering, it’s right there in his own people’s story. But no, he won’t do that, because it’s clear he just wants to be seen as black, at least in terms of his artistry.
It’s just … what are you doing?
Everything went downhill for Taeyang after he ditched the mohawk. — Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) December 9, 2016
Maybe that’s because until that point he had a company-crafted image, but this is him doing what he actually wants.
Tragic.Sadly I don't know who my gifter is, but this stuff ROCKS! I got a beautiful Christmas tree gnome figure (I collect garden gnomes), an awesome book about the little lawn devils (I actually have a notebook that matches the cover of this book... I had no idea there was a real book about it!!!!), and an amazing book about trivia (my other big love) written by Ken Jennings- 74 game Jeopardy champ. I have his first book, which I had autographed in person, and this adds to the collection. Thank you so much Secret Santa!!!!! I'll have reading material at work now. I love it all.
I haven't posted pix because I've been a mixture of lazy and busy, but my Santa also got me a great cookbook and some presents for my goggies!!! I'll post pix ASAP.A rock chimney on the side of an old house. (Photo11: Tony L. Moore, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Human remains found in an abandoned cabin are those of a Colorado 18-year-old who went missing seven years ago, according to local officials.
Dental records confirmed that the remains were those of Joshua Vernon Maddux, who went missing in 2008, Teller County Coroner Al Born told AP.
Investigators think Maddux was likely trying to squeeze down the chimney when he became stuck, AP reported.
Chuck Murphy, the owner of the cabin, said the cabin was vacant for 10 years, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
Murphy said he checked on the property periodically and that "it smelled bad," the Gazette reported.
The body was discovered on Aug. 7, when Murphy and a crew were tearing the cabin down to make way for a new development, the Gazette reported.
Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1FHWS3WThe 74-year-old is also charged for taking photos of VA police
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today announced it will provide legal representation to Robert L. Rosebrock, a Vietnam-era veteran who faces federal criminal charges for displaying two four by six inch American flags outside a Veterans Affairs (VA) fence on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016 (see picture below). Trial will begin on March 7, 2017, in Los Angeles, CA.
Rosebrock also is being criminally prosecuted for taking photographs on Memorial Day 2016, and on Sunday, June 12, 2016, without permission. The Memorial Day charge stems from photographs Rosebrock took of a Veterans Affairs police officer while the officer detained and cited him for displaying the two small flags outside the fence. Rosebrock also took photos of VA police detaining and handcuffing conservative activist Ted Hayes after Hayes displayed an American Flag above the same VA fence. Hayes, dressed as “Uncle Sam,” was not charged with any wrongdoing despite being detained and handcuffed (see picture below).
The case, United States of America v. Robert L. Rosebrock, (CC11, 4920201; 4920202; 6593951), will be heard by U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve Kim in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Judicial Watch attorney Sterling E. Norris, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, and Los Angeles-based defense attorney Robert Patrick Sticht will represent Rosebrock.
The fence is part of the “Great Lawn Gate” entrance to the Los Angeles National Veterans Park, a public park on the corner of Wilshire and San Vincente Boulevards in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. The gate and park are part of a larger, 388-acre parcel that includes the Veterans Home of West Los Angeles.
Rosebrock (below), 74, along with fellow veterans, Hayes and others, have been assembling at the site nearly every Sunday and Memorial Day since March 9, 2008, to protest what they believe is the VA’s failure to make full use of the valuable West Los Angeles property for the benefit and care of veterans, particularly homeless veterans.
Deeded to the federal government in 1888 for the specific purpose of caring for disabled veterans, the property includes the veterans’ home, but also entirely unrelated uses such as a stadium for UCLA’s baseball team, an athletic complex for a nearby private prep school, a golf course, laundry facilities for a nearby Marriott hotel, storage and maintenance facilities for 20th Century Fox Television’s production sets, the Brentwood Theatre, soccer practice and match fields for a private girls’ soccer club, dog park, and a farmer’s market.
VA officials previously told Rosebrock that a federal regulation allowed hanging the American Flag and POW/MIA flags on the “Great Lawn Gate” fence, and Rosebrock, Hayes and others hung as many as 30 full-size America Flags at the fence at the same time without incident.
Rosebrock faces up to six months’ imprisonment if found guilty on any of the three charges.
“The federal government’s pursuit of these vindictive charges against Mr. Rosebrock is mind-blowing,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Why in the world would the feds prosecute a 74-year-old veteran over the placement of two small American Flags at the entrance to a park honoring veterans on Memorial Day? Frankly, President Trump should ask why the |
3 will be about periodization.
We encourage you to always use critical thinking when reading fitness articles.
Training frequency
In this section, we mainly focus on the following question: if everything else is equal (i.e. volume, sets, reps, intensity, exercises, etc.) is it better to divide strength training volume over more days or fewer days?
How frequency affects hypertrophy
Volume-matched research (training frequency per muscle group per week)
In frequency research, participants are usually divided into two or three groups. For example 1x, 2x, or 3x per week. This refers to how often they train a muscle group per week. There are several ways to train a muscle 1x per week. You can train one day per week as a whole-body session, or you could split the 1x into multiple days (one body part per day). Hence, you can train multiple sessions a week but only have 1x training frequency per muscle group. On the other hand, you can do a 3x program (per muscle group per week) and only do three whole-body sessions.
When testing different frequencies, it’s important to give groups similar programs. To figure out whether high frequency or low frequency is best, we need to make sure both groups use the same amount of volume per week. Volume-matched means that two programs have the same weekly training volume, even if they train a muscle group with different frequencies per week. In studies where volume isn’t matched, high-frequency groups tend to do more volume.
Below is an overview of volume-matched research that looks at hypertrophy.
Note: Most of the research listed above didn’t reach statistical significance when looking at outcome differences between groups. This is probably because the study durations were too short, and because there were too few participants in the studies (amongst many other reasons!). This makes the studies underpowered. Hence, they wouldn’t be able to detect statistically significant differences even if they existed. However, the studies on the left trended towards being better for higher frequency.
Some might argue that the research presented above actually didn’t support higher-frequency training because results weren’t statistically significant (when comparing gains between groups). In other words both groups got the same gains if we look at it from the point of view of statistical significance. However, as I wrote in the paragraph above, if a study is underpowered, it’s meaningless to look for significant differences. It’s much more valuable to look for effect sizes, aka the differences between the groups (i.e. compare percentage % gains):
"The widespread practice of interpreting p values as evidence in support of hypothesized effects constitutes a blatant disregard for the limitations of statistical significance testing." (Ellis, 2010)
Please read the frequency limitations section for more details
Moving on from this issue, a recent meta-analysis by Schoenfeld et al. (2016) looked at most of these studies. In agreement with the table above, they found that training every muscle group twice a week is better for hypertrophy than once a week. This is because most of the evidence shows a positive trend for training a muscle group twice a week for hypertrophy.
Here are our thoughts on the meta-analysis by Schoenfeld et al., 2016:
Strengths of the meta : across a wide range of different trials, we see a consistent pattern that favours higher-frequency training, even with substantial heterogeneity between trials.
: across a wide range of different trials, we see a consistent pattern that favours higher-frequency training, even with substantial heterogeneity between trials. Weaknesses of the meta : The meta could have discussed the limitations of the studies at greater length: several studies had (post-menopausal) obese women, mostly untrained participants, low-quality methodology, lacking randomization and in some studies the participants self-selected which group they wanted to be in, women and men were unevenly mixed in groups, low-quality body composition measurement tools (BodPod, BIA, limb circumference), major strength differences at baseline, short durations, heterogeneity, etc.
: The meta could have discussed the limitations of the studies at greater length: several studies had (post-menopausal) obese women, mostly untrained participants, low-quality methodology, lacking randomization and in some studies the participants self-selected which group they wanted to be in, women and men were unevenly mixed in groups, low-quality body composition measurement tools (BodPod, BIA, limb circumference), major strength differences at baseline, short durations, heterogeneity, etc. Final thoughts: There seems to be a trend that favours training a muscle group twice per week for hypertrophy, rather than once per week. However, most of the studies are limited by many factors. And if the overall study quality levels were higher, we might see different results. Also, most of the studies apply to untrained populations, and several of the studies examine older women. Most studies are also very short, which means we don’t know whether a higher-frequency program is better in the long-term (i.e. a year):
"Although increasing the training frequency may provide greater muscle growth, it may be difficult to increase the training frequency beyond a certain point. We propose that once an individual has been training at a higher frequency for a sufficient duration (e.g., 16 weeks), it may then be beneficial to decrease the training frequency for a period of time (e.g., 24 weeks)." (Dankel et al., 2016)
Several recent reviews now state that a training a muscle group 1x per week (“bro-split”) is non-ideal for hypertrophy (Schoenfeld et al., 2016; Dankel et al., 2016) while some disagree (Fisher et al., 2013; Gentil et al., 2015). In a study where subjects did bro-splits, the lower-volume group had better gains than the higher-volume group (Amirthalingam et al., 2017). Meaning that doing a lot of volume on one day might not be ideal (Helms et al., 2014). So, for natural athletes there doesn’t seem to be much reason to dedicate training days to a single body part (though it might be different for enhanced athletes or elite lifters?).
It should be said that the research we have on frequency right now is mostly low/medium quality (the Schoenfeld et al., 2015 study and 2016 meta being exceptions), and it’s mostly done with untrained, old, obese, (etc.) participants. There is very little research on healthy, young, trained, men/women. We’re not aware of any frequency hypertrophy research on elite/advanced lifters.
Non-matched volume research (training frequency per muscle group per week)
How frequency affects strength
There aren’t many high-quality studies that examine high-frequency muscle-group training vs. low-frequency muscle group training when it comes to strength. Most of the studies are on the untrained elderly, etc. Some volume-matched studies suggest that training a muscle group more (i.e. 2-3x per week) is better than 1x per week, but much of the data is mixed as you can see in the table below.
Volume-matched research (training frequency per muscle group per week)
Non-matched volume research (training frequency per muscle group per week)
In these studies, higher training frequencies implies higher weekly training volumes. Here we see more studies supporting the notion that higher training frequencies (2-3x per muscle group per week) are better for strength development. This shouldn’t be surprising given that more volume usually means more gains, whether it is strength or hypertrophy.
Higher frequency = more volume. Figure by McMaster et al., 2013 (edited for clarity)
We don’t really know how frequency affects trained and elite lifters, because there aren’t many studies that compare low-frequency to high-frequency in a volume-matched manner, in these lifters (Helms et al., 2014). Though we have an interesting case-series on three well-trained powerlifters (Zourdos et al., 2015). The study shows that three lifters are able to make good progress with daily 1RM training (they didn’t compare different groups).
Figure: Changes in squat 1RM after 36 days of daily 1RM squat training (Zourdos et al., 2015)
Very high frequency training should probably only be done in blocks, because it is unsustainable in the long-term (Fry et al., 1994; Zourdos et al., 2015; Schoenfeld et al., 2016). As some point out, it’s important to look at how you respond as an individual (Helms et al., 2014).
"It is unlikely this type of training can nor should be maintained year-round and rather may be more appropriate as a single intensity block (mesocycle) to peak for competition within a macrocycle of sound periodization principles. Furthermore, it is advisable that only lifters with multiple years of training experience and technical proficiency should engage in daily 1RM training; novice/ intermediate trainees can make progress with much lower volume/ frequency and should take advantage of the opportunity to progress with less demanding training" (Zourdos et al., 2015)
Indeed, 2 weeks of daily squat training for 10 sets (1RM) per session was detrimental for a group of trained lifters (Fry et al., 1994). Though their strength loss could simply be a result of them overreaching. It’s possible their strength would super-compensate and exceed their previous 1RM if the researchers waited for 1 more week before testing. After the study was over, two of the subjects in the overtraining group were diagnosed with overuse injury of the knee. Questionnaires of the lifters show that they didn’t look forward to the daily sessions.
Figure by Fry et al., 1994 (edited). Lifters had 4.5 years mean experience, minimum of 1.5x bodyweight squat.
Conclusions for frequency (strength and hypertrophy)
If we look at all the evidence as a whole with all of its limitations, we can conclude that higher frequency training (i.e. 2-3x per muscle group per week) might be better than 1x per week. Nonetheless, frequency shouldn’t be an unchangeable or permanent factor. It’s highly likely that long-term high frequency training (i.e. 3x-7x per muscle group per week) can lead to overreaching, injury, and fatigue. Thus, it might be a good idea to use moderate frequencies (i.e. 1-3x) as a foundation for your program, with periods of intensified training (i.e. 3-6x). There are many ways to play around with this, and due to practical considerations (i.e. time, interest), genetics, and inter-individual differences, there’s no answer that will fit everyone. It should be said that substantial gains can be made with low frequency training, and the differences when volume is matched, are not huge.
Limitations of frequency research
When it comes to hypertrophy, painfully little volume-matched research has been done on the frequency of strength training. Volume-matched means that two groups use the same weekly training volume, even if they train a muscle group with different frequencies per week. In studies where volume isn’t matched, high-frequency groups tend to do more volume. This poses a problem, because we don’t know for sure whether the study outcomes (i.e. gains) are a result of the higher frequency, or higher volume (Serra et al., 2015).
With that said, volume and frequency have a symbiotic relationship. A low training frequency strongly limits the amount of volume you can do (Serra et al., 2015), unless you spend several hours in the gym per session. Some studies also suggest that it’s not necessarily better to do a ton of volume in one session (Amirthalingam et al., 2017). Hence, the higher training frequency you have per week, the more total volume you can do.
Another issue with most frequency studies is that they have very small sample sizes (Crewther et al., 2016), which limits their statistical power (Purcell et al., 2003; Ellis, 2010). As we see in many of the studies, high frequency training tends to be better for hypertrophy and strength. However, these results often do not reach statistical significance, likely due to lacking power.
Ideally, we’d see authors do a power analysis to see if their study is sufficiently powered to detect differences between groups. If a study with a small sample size finds no differences between two groups, we need to see calculations that show their study was sufficiently powered to detect these differences if they exist. If they haven’t done a power analysis, we can’t say whether they made a type II error or not.
The graph below shows us how sample size (number of participants) is connected to power, and effect size (the magnitude of the difference).
Source: Epiville
As you can see, power is very low when we have 10 participants per group (which is standard in fitness research) and we need to see very large effect sizes (differences between groups) to reach statistical significance. If we follow convention and aim for 80% (0.8) power, we need large effects or large sample sizes. In fitness research the effects are usually small, and so are the sample sizes. Hence, studies aren't likely to detect a difference between groups even if it exists.
Isolation exercise vs. compound movements
Most programs are built around a couple of main compound movements. Most of the emphasis is placed on improving these main lifts like the bench, squat, overhead press, and deadlift. Though when it comes to strength and hypertrophy, would we benefit from adding “isolation exercises” (aka single-joint movements)?
Some research groups would say that no, isolation exercises are not necessary since they don’t give us extra benefit and they are time-inefficient (Gentil et al., 2013; Gentil et al., 2015; de França et al., 2015; Gentil et al., 2016).
"In order to save time [we] can choose exercises that target a higher number of muscle groups at a time. This strategy can increase training volume and reduce the time commitment, which, in turn, may improve exercise adherence since lack of time is the most cited barrier for an individual engaging in any exercise program (20-23)." (Gentil et al., 2015)
Others point out that isolation exercises gives trained lifters more DOMS for a longer period of time (Soares et al., 2015).
Figure by Soares et al., 2015 showing how an isolation exercise increases DOMS to a greater extent compared to a compound exercise in lifters with 5 years experience. The 72 hour DOMS might be because the exercises were unfamiliar to the participants (DOMS is stronger and lasts longer when you do unaccustomed exercises, even if you’re highly trained). Though, we should note that DOMS only lasted 48 hours when doing the compound exercise.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it takes longer to recover from isolation exercise. In fact, one study reports the opposite: it seems to take at least 48h hours to properly recover compound exercise performance for most participants (Korak et al., 2015). The 48+ hour recovery recommendation is supported by others as well (McLester et al., 2003; Jones et al., 2006). Though there seems to be a lot of inter-individual variability (people recover differently) and 48 hours isn’t a “rule” or “law” that applies to everyone (Bishop et al., 2008). Also, since recovery is muscle and exercise-specific, this opens up to the idea that we can switch between which muscle groups and compound exercises we train from session to session to optimize progress.
It is also possible that the body will adapt to a high-frequency program over time and that performance is maintained between sessions. Though this remains speculative until we see specific studies testing this hypothesis over a longer period of time. See Frequency section for more.
Figure by Korak et al., 2015 shows that only 30% of the participants (trained lifters) had recovered completely 24h after doing compound exercises (i.e. deadlift, bench, leg press). To determine recovery, they measured how many reps the lifters could do, compared to last session. 70% of the lifters had recovered in all compound lifts after 48 hours. Though some individual lifts recovered faster in some individuals:
Figure by Korak et al., 2015: Some lifts recover faster than others
Several research teams agree that isolation exercises have their use, namely for bodybuilding and for correcting muscle imbalances that usually affect the rotator cuff, hamstring, and hips (Tovin, 2006; Ferreira et al., 2016; Gentil et al., 2016). They also note that we might need to add isolation exercises for muscles that aren’t worked directly by compound movements (Gentil et al., 2016).
Some studies and articles speak against Gentil et al’s conclusions that isolation exercises are generally unnecessary (Kompf and Arandjelović, 2016; Ribeiro et al., 2016): Beginners who trained the bench press for 6 months increased their pectoral CSA (hypertrophy) by ~37% while their tricep CSA only increased by ~20% (Ogasawara et al., 2013). This could mean that isolation movements might need to be added for maximal tricep gains. Though, they only trained bench press in this study (they didn’t do a whole-body program). It’s possible the tricep would catch up if they did other compound exercises that included the tricep, like overhead presses and dips.
Some studies show that muscle activation and hypertrophy varies depending on which exercise we do (Bryanton et al., 2012; Wakahara et al., 2012; Wakahara et al., 2013; Schoenfeld et al., 2014; Matta et al., 2015; Wakahara, 2015; Mendez-Villanueva et al., 2016). This could mean that it’s important to hammer a muscle with different types of exercises to get optimal growth (Antonio, 2000). But this remains slightly speculative until we get more studies.
Figure by Ogasawara et al., 2013 (red lines & text added by us): TB = triceps brachii, PM = pectoralis major, CSA = cross-sectional area (hypertrophy). This study suggests that compound exercises like the bench press leads to solid pectoral growth, but suboptimal tricep growth.
The question “should we add isolation movements to a compound program?” can be approached from many angles: first, we have to identify which muscle(s) we are talking about. Some muscles are usually trained much more than others. For example, the quadriceps are worked through a long range of motion in the squat exercise (given high bar to depth). But what about the calves? They are somewhat stimulated in the leg press, squat, and deadlift, but the range of motion is very short (Ribeiro et al., 2016). We could make the case that muscle groups like calves and rotator cuffs need to be trained separately from the lower-body compounds. Indeed, some muscles and muscle groups are notoriously undertrained compared to their counterparts (compare rotator cuff and posterior deltoid to the anterior deltoid which is included in basically every upper-body pressing exercise).
When calculating how many weekly sets to do per muscle, we should include muscles that are worked by compound movements (Ferreira et al., 2016). For example, we could say that a bench press set means 1 set for pec + 1 set for tricep + 1 set for anterior deltoid. However, Ogasawara et al’s (2013) study suggests that maybe we should only count “partial sets” for some muscles. What we mean by that is for every bench press set, we count it as 0.5 sets for the tricep. This way we acknowledge that the tricep is involved and stimulated, but we also acknowledge that the stimulus is suboptimal. So if you’re looking to do 20 sets for the tricep per week, 10 sets of bench will only get you 1/4th of the way to that volume goal.
Beyond hypertrophy and strength, muscle weakness or imbalance could increase injury risk (Baumhauer et al., 1995; Wang and Cochrane, 2001; Croisier et al., 2002; Tovin, 2006; Kolber et al., 2010; Witchalls et al., 2012; Bourne et al., 2015; Gentil et al., 2016), though we still need more evidence before we can accurately predict injuries in certain sports (McCall et al., 2015). Using isolation exercise could be an effective way to correct muscle imbalances and lower injury risk (“prehab”) (Gentil et al., 2016). For example, external rotations (rotator cuff exercise), decreases risk of shoulder impingement (Kolber et al., 2014). Isolation work could also help us overcome “sticking points” in compound exercises (Kompf and Arandjelović, 2016)
"When the serratus anterior becomes fatigued, the scapula fails to protract and upwardly rotate and the subacromial space may be compromised" (Tovin, 2006)
"Individuals with a muscle strength imbalance as calculated by an elevated eversion-to-inversion strength ratio (>1.0) had a higher incidence of inversion ankle injury." (Baumhauer et al., 1995)
To conclude this section, the choice of compound vs. isolation exercise goes beyond the issues of strength and hypertrophy. Isolation exercise has its uses in rehab, injury prevention, muscle imbalance correction, recovery management, programming, and bodybuilding (Tovin, 2006; Korak et al., 2015; Kolber et al., 2010; Gentil et al., 2016; Kompf and Arandjelović, 2016). There’s evidence that it could improve hypertrophy in muscles that are only indirectly targeted in compound movements (i.e. rotator cuff muscles, posterior deltoid, calves, hamstrings) but it’s unclear whether it will improve hypertrophy and strength in “mirror muscles” that already get a lot of stimulus via compound movements (pectorals, quads, anterior deltoid, etc.). Thus, it’s probably a good idea to do calf raises and external rotations to reduce injury risk and improve hypertrophy in these relatively unstimulated muscle groups.
Exercise Order
Some organizations recommend that multi joint exercises should be placed at the beginning of a training session (ACSM). In our article, we refer to volume and frequency as two of the most important factors when designing a program. So, if you’re doing enough total volume does it matter what order you do exercises?
Anecdotally, it makes sense to work large muscle groups before small muscle groups. If we pre-fatigue a smaller muscle like the tricep with isolation exercises, we may not be able to use as much weight on the bench press to overload the chest.
One of the first studies to look at exercise order used an acute test (Sforzo and Touey, 1996). They used a crossover design where the same trained subjects completed a small to large workout or a large to small workout. Using four sets of 6-8 rep max with popular exercises like the squat, bench, leg curl, tricep extension, etc. The results suggest that when smaller muscle groups were trained before larger muscles, the subjects did less total volume (Sforzo and Touey, 1996).
Several others have gone on to do acute studies and most of the research agrees that placing an exercise first in a training session, allows you to do more repetitions for that exercise (Sforzo and Touey, 1996; Spreuwenberg et al., 2006; Miranda et al., 2010; Simão et al., 2012; Soncin et al., 2014; Soares et al., 2016, Romano et al., 2013). But some disagree (Shelkholeslami-Vatani et al., 2016).
As you get further into your workout, it’s possible that you induce more central fatigue even if you switch muscle groups. This fatigue could make you less confident in performing a lift later in the workout - so you lift less overall (Simão et al., 2012). Imagine doing a 1RM deadlift after a high volume leg day. We will do a full review on central and local fatigue in the future.
“Muscle fatigue increases the variability of movements, changing the strategies of biomechanic coordination and / or a muscle activation pattern.” - Soncin et al., 2014
In a study by Shelkholeslami-Vatani et al., 2016, they used two exercise orders in untrained men. One group worked small to large, and the other group worked large to small muscle groups. There was no significant difference between the duration and volume of the training protocols. They found placing an exercise late in the session reduced the number of reps lifter were able to do, regardless of the amount of muscle involved. Overall, the groups completed the same total number of reps. Yet, Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) was higher in those who worked from smaller muscles to larger. This same result was found in other studies as well (Simoa et al, 2005).
If the training session is not supervised by a coach or trainer, higher RPE could cause a reduction in volume/load (lack of adherence) (Mazzetti et al., 2000, Coutts et al., 2004, Gentil and Bottaro, 2010, Amagliani et al., 2010). One exception to this is teenage boys (Romano et al, 2013) who were able to do the same number of reps per set even when going to failure - in 3 sets using different exercise orders. The authors speculate this may be because younger subjects can’t produce as much force. Some suggest adolescents also recover better from fatigue (Falk and Dotan, 2006). Oddly, this study found an increase in RPE during the first exercise session for one of the exercise sequences.
Exercises that are done later in a training session could be negatively affected by the buildup of fatigue. In other words, less repetitions can be done per set when the exercise is placed late in the workout. To add some practical application to the mix - it seems that women can withstand more volume than men. We’re sure Lyle’s new book will cover the gender differences more in depth.
In an athletic population acute power production could be affected by exercise order. Spreuwenberg et al. compared performance for 4 sets of 85% 1RM squats when completed before or after a whole-body exercise routine (2006). Much like the previous studies - subjects could do more repetitions if squats were done first in the workout. Surprisingly, the average power for each set of squats was higher when performed last in the workout. This indicates that we might need different recommendations for different sports.
Practically speaking:
“athletes aiming for maximal strength gains should perform multi-joint muscle group exercises first in a session and athletes striving for maximal power gains may perform a power-type exercise before strength-type exercises” - Spreuwenberg et al., 2006
So far it seems we can do more reps for a given exercise if it’s done at the beginning of the session and it’ll have a lower RPE than if done later in a training session. Does it matter in the long run? Well, Dias et al tested this on 48 young untrained men. They assigned lifters into a large to small group, and small to large group exercises (like the acute studies previously mentioned). After 8 weeks of training 3x per week they found no differences in strength between groups for the large muscle groups. There were also no differences in total work performed. But as you can see below, the group that did bench press and lat pull-down first, improved those exercises the most. The same is true for the group that started with triceps extensions and biceps curls.
Figure from Dias et al., 2010
Black = Order: Bench press, lat pulldown, shoulder press, bicep curl, tricep extension
White = Order: Tricep extension, bicep curl, shoulder press, lat pulldown, bench press
The trends indicate that doing an exercise first in a session improved it more than doing it later.
They conclude that:
“if an exercise is important for the training goals of a program, then it should be placed at the beginning of the training session, whether or not it is a large or a small muscle group exercise” - Dias et al 2010
How exercise order affects hypertrophy
In respect to more advanced, hypertrophy based athletes - one method that has been used in bodybuilding circles is pre-exhaustion techniques. Basically, you complete a set of isolation exercises prior to compound exercises. For example, leg extensions before squats. This idea is based on the hypothesis that a point of failure in a compound exercise occurs when the weakest muscles are no longer able to apply enough force (Jones 1970).
Gentil et al, (2007) compared two trained groups using a pre-exhaustion (pec dec then chest press) or priority system (chest press then pec dec). Subjects completed more reps in the first exercise, but ultimately the volume was not different between groups. They also measured EMG from the triceps, delts and pec major during both exercises and found no differences in pec activation between groups.
Table 1 from Gentil et al, 2007
The issue here is acute studies may not predict long-term gains, especially EMG studies (Vigotsky et al., 2015; Enoka et al., 2015). In studies that look at the short-term and the long-term gains, it appears that pre-exhaustion may not matter (Gentil et al, 2007; Simão et al., 2012; Fisher et al, 2014). One study compared hypertrophy between two groups with equated volume: a pre-exhaustion group and normal exercise order group. The normal exercise group trained large to small muscle groups. There were no differences between groups in terms of muscle mass and strength after 12 weeks of training (Fisher et al, 2014).
“...strength gains are not influenced by the use of [pre-exhaustion], exercise order, or between-exercise rest intervals. “ - Fisher et al, 2014
Based on the current literature, it might be a good idea to order exercises based on how important they are to you and what your strengths/weaknesses are. The most important exercise(s) should be done first in the session (Sforzo et al., 1996; Spreuwenberg et al., 2006; Gentil et al, 2007; Dias et al., 2010; Simão et al., 2012). Larger muscle groups don’t have to be exercised before smaller ones (for example, you might want to train small, lagging muscle groups first in the workout) (Simão et al., 2012). For hypertrophy and strength, several studies show a trend where lifters get better gains for exercises that are done early in a session (Simão et al., 2012, Dias et al 2010), but a recent study disagrees (Fisher et al, 2014).
Training to failure
Most studies and reviews find that failure is either superior to, or equal to non-failure training for hypertrophy and strength gains. No study or review found that failure was worse than non-failure training. Failure might be more important the lower the intensity (Mitchell et al., 2012; Ogasawara et al., 2013; Nóbrega and Libardi, 2016; Gieβsing et al., 2016) and it might be more important to go to failure if you’re trained (Nóbrega and Libardi, 2016). Beginners seem to be able to gain strength and hypertrophy pretty well when they’re doing unilateral training, regardless of whether they go to failure or not (Nóbrega and Libardi, 2016; Nóbrega et al., 2017). Though many of the studies are not ecologically valid.
Mitchell et al., 2012 - Similar hypertrophy between high-load and low-load when sets are taken to failure
Though there there are some caveats; if you frequently train to failure, you could increase risk of injury (Willardson, 2007; Helms et al., 2014; Davies et al., 2015; Nóbrega and Libardi, 2016).
“training to failure should not be performed repeatedly over long periods, due to the high potential for overtraining and overuse injuries” (Willardson, 2007)
In addition, failure also makes the workout feel more difficult (Sampson and Groeller, 2015) and it might slow recovery and possibly lead to overreaching (Helms et al., 2014; Davies et al., 2015; González-Badillo et al., 2016; Nóbrega and Libardi, 2016). Exertion (RPE) and physical discomfort is higher when training to failure (Davies et al., 2015; Fisher et al., 2016). If a program contains a lot of failure sets, it will be more taxing physiologically, and psychologically. This could affect program adherence (i.e. you’re more likely to drop out if it’s very difficult and unrewarding) (Wienke and Jekauc, 2016).
Going to failure early on the first set cuts down on the amount of reps you can do in subsequent sets (Senna et al., 2011; Davies et al., 2015; Fink et al., 2016; González-Badillo et al., 2016; Jenkins et al., 2016). Hence, excessive training to failure could lower the total volume you’re able to do per session, and it could mess with your program if it has a specified set/rep scheme (for example 5x5, 4x8, etc.).
Figure by Senna et al., 2011 where 15 trained men were doing bench press for 5 sets. It shows that going to failure on every set leads to drastically less reps on the last set vs. the first set (10RM to 6-7RM) when taking 3-5 minute breaks between sets. The result is even more drastic with 1 minute rests.
If you want to go to failure, it might be better to do so on the last set(s) rather than the first sets of an exercise. Some programs use AMRAP sets (where you do “As Many Reps As Possible”) on the last set. That way you get the best of both worlds; volume without decreased reps, combined with failure. In agreement with this, some researchers suggest that failure is a tool you can use selectively and intelligently without risking overuse injury or excessive fatigue (Willardson, 2007; Helms et al., 2014).
Overview of failure studies
This is the studies we reviewed for failure. The table encompasses as many failure studies we could find, but we might have missed some studies. Low quality studies (i.e. Folland et al., 2002), and studies that didn’t test dynamic 1RM strength nor hypertrophy (i.e. Fisher et al., 2016) are omitted from the table. Older studies that have been covered in Willardson (2007) are not included (i.e. Izquierdo et al., 2006). and Sampson and Groeller, 2015 included in Davies et al., 2015 (in regards to strength, but not hypertrophy).
Limitations: Does failure research apply to you?
Isolation machine exercise
Most failure studies use unilateral single-joint (isolation) machine exercises for one muscle group during the entire study. And in many studies they would take every set to failure. This might work if you’re only exercising one body part in isolation, because it’s not too fatiguing. It is possible the results would be different with a whole-body program where every exercise and every set was taken to failure. Most likely, a program like that would be overwhelmingly difficult not only physically but psychologically, as some studies show. In other words, very few studies were practical or realistic (“ecological validity”)
Volume matching
Many studies didn’t match volume between groups (i.e. one group would do more volume, in addition to going to failure (or not going to failure)).
Duration
The short duration of most the studies (6-12 weeks) can’t tell us whether failure is an optimal strategy in the long-term. It’s likely that constant use of failure leads to overreaching, and later overtraining.
Heterogeneity
There’s a lot of disagreement and heterogeneity in the literature. I.e. many of the studies are dissimilar.
Convenience sampling
Most, if not all of the studies, used convenience sampling. Almost all participants were 23 year old untrained university males. This isn’t good in terms of representativeness. It’s possible people of different ages and genders would experience different effects. For example, older people might be at greater risk of injury, hence they might want to train with lower intensities and not go to failure because failure increases injury risk.
Rest duration between sets
Rest intervals are interesting when it comes to strength and hypertrophy training. In general, many research groups suggest that longer rest intervals allow you to accumulate more volume because you can complete more reps per set (Willardson and Burkett 2006; Miranda et al., 2007; Senna et al., 2009; Senna et al., 2011; Filho et al., 2012; Henselmans and Schoenfeld, 2014; Schoenfeld 2016a, Fink 2016a). On the other hand, shorter rest periods (i.e. 1 minute rest between sets), means that you can do more sets in the same amount of time.
A good example of this is a study that looked at how different rest durations affected bench press, machine fly, leg press, and leg extension in trained men (Senna et al., 2011):
“Shorter rest intervals resulted in greater reductions in the number of repetitions completed and higher RPE scores for all exercises”
Figure by Senna |
judge Mr Cherwayko had provided £5m worth of share certificates to his wife's lawyers as security on the payments owing.
But he had promptly acquired duplicate certificates and sold the shares, leaving his wife's team holding worthless pieces of paper in their office safe.
The barrister asked the judge to commit Mr Cherwayko - who did not attend the hearing - to prison for his defiance.
Duncan Watson, for Mr Cherwayko, told the judge that he was too ill to attend court, saying he had heart trouble and high blood pressure.
He said that Mr Cherwayko has 'apologised' for obtaining the replacement share certificates.
He would be able to pay his wife a sum in the region of £890,000 later this month, having sold some shares and called in some debts.
Mr Watson said the oilman 'has little in the way of cash resources' until that date.
'He has credit card debts. His main assets are shares in companies,' the barrister added.
Warning Mr Cherwayko that his health problems will not let him off the hook, the judge said:
'Even if he is in a coma, he might still be in breach (of the court's order). If he can physically get here, he must come.'
The judge adjourned the hearing to a later date, saying Mr Cherwayko could face 'two years max' behind bars, or a substantial fine.With your support, Hero Chest is going to rock. Why? Because it will be a fun experience for all types of comic book readers. Whether you're new to comics or you've been reading for decades, we want to bring you more great comics to read.
Our curators will be choosing a variety of titles each month and explaining in the monthly notes why the books were chosen. You'll get a peek into parts of the industry you might not be familiar with as well as some esoteric history and trivia.
The Beta Box
What else? We'll be:
blogging on our site about everything from books to cons to industry gossip
hosting regular discussions of recent books on our site
trying out podcasting
hosting the SideKick team, a group of avid readers with varying experiences with comics
New, coming back or an avid collector - we're here for you!
For people looking to dip a toe back into reading comics after a long break or for the new reader, Hero Chest will provide a great reading experience. We think a trade book and 3 issues are a great package for the casual reader or busy fan.
For long-time readers, Hero Chest offers an introduction to new titles and will hopefully provide access to exclusive content unavailable elsewhere. We hope this gives the avid reader and collector a valuable resource for discovering more titles and items that are available nowhere else.
If you're looking for a gift for your friend the comic fan, look no further! We're happy to help you out on that front. You don't need to know what he or she likes, we'll take care of keeping the monthly Hero Chest delivery fun and interesting.
Part of the goal of the first year of this adventure will be to figure out what works in the box. We'll be relying heavily on our early subscribers to give us honest feedback and we'll be taking it very seriously. We'll have some hits, we'll have some misses, and hopefully we'll all have a great deal of fun with Hero Chest.
As we grow, we intend to have special incentives and offers available to our multi-month subscribers. Their boxes will have a chance of containing special variant covers in addition to their normal comics.
Also for our multi-month subscribers, we want to offer the option to add specific titles to their boxes each month at a discounted price. So, if we send you a title that you love you will be able log in and tell us to add it to your box every month.
Another growth area for us will be the ability for subscribers to add in a children's comic to their box. Our long term goal is to be able to support a separate box just for our budding young comic fans.
We are looking to start with a subscription base of roughly 250 subscribers for 3 months. We feel that this allows us to have the buying power to get better deals for our subscribers and get exclusive content for them as well.
All logos and images are (c) and TM 2014 Hero Chest, LLC.Apparently, there’s one part of the human brain that seems programmed to never forget things. It’s somewhere in the limbic system, and it connects smells to emotions. Perhaps this why we find sniffing books so wonderfully satisfying. Either that or we’re just suckers for vanilla. Whatever the answer, in this era of odourless ebooks, you’ll still find us with our noses buried in battered old tomes, every chance we get.
The above photo reads as follows:
“Lignin, the stuff that prevents all tress from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.”
— Perfumes: The Guide
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more mind-blowing coolness.A few months after I wrote the original Sick Systems essay, I walked straight into a new job that was a permanent, festering, inground sick system. This advice bears no relationship to my experiences there.
Sick Systems
How to Be a Perfect Manager
So you're a manager, and you're doing a good job. A great job. A perfect job, actually, but so few people notice. In fact, some of your employees keep trying to make it look like some of the mistakes they make might be attributable to you, that their petty maladjustments to work life are the result of your policies. Don't let them drag you under. Here are a few tips for fighting back when your employees try to pin their mistakes on you:
Remember that if it doesn't make sense to you, it's not true. Your employees tell you that a new policy is making their work much harder. But the policy doesn't make your work harder, and when you imagine yourself in their shoes, you don't see why they couldn't work just like you do. Question them about why they don't work like you do. Remember to throw in little hints that if they don't have your work habits, they're careless and lazy. If your work style is currently different from theirs—for instance, you have an assistant who does all your paperwork—then remind them that you used to be in their position, so you know what it's like. If their answers continue to not make any sense, drop some subtle hints that they're lazy (and liars), then get out of the conversation as fast as you can. You can't reason with the irrational.
Control the flow of conversation. Employees will often try to tell you things in their own way—their own rambling, disorganized, ignorant way. For instance, Gregory might tell you that Bob did this thing, then Judy did this thing, then Bob did this thing in response—and completely fail to notice that he's just told you that Bob handled the late-night filing completely wrong. You need to stop him and get all the details of this error. He may persist in trying to tell you the next step of the story, but he doesn't understand where the conversation needs to go. You must understand Bob's filing issues right now, in as much detail as possible. When you've fully explored the problem, then Gregory can go on with whatever he feels he needs to say.
When he does go on, you may find that the story is disjointed, that parts are missing. Make Gregory collect his thoughts and start over. He'll tell you that Bob did this thing, then Judy did that thing, then Bob fouled up the late-night filing—so you'll need to stop and explore the filing error again. Then Gregory can finish his story. Which, again, is likely to make no sense, like he's forgotten to tell you what led up to it. Ask him to tell you again.
Eventually, Gregory may realize that his storytelling skills aren't up to standards, and skip to what he thinks the point of his little story is: “Judy is embezzling.” Embezzling?! Your best friend Judy!?! That can't be! What's the proof? He'll try to explain. But his story will be impossible to follow. Clearly he's inventing accusations. You'll need to give him a talking-to, and you certainly aren't going to listen to him again.
Have a pet rant. Let's say you work at a store with a ridiculously strict dress code that the head office backs up with surprise inspections and heavy penalties for infractions. When issues come up—and they will—you have two options:
Option 1: “Yes, the dress code is way too stringent. We keep talking to Corporate about it, but the founder has a bee in his bonnet about formal dress in the workplace, so we haven't been able to do anything. Please try to grin and bear it a while longer while we work on him, and I'll make sure that writeup for wearing white shoes after Labor Day doesn't affect your chances for promotion.”
Option 2: “We're all affected by it. It doesn't affect just you. Did you know that I was put on probation for two weeks for having a crooked cummerbund when I was pregnant? That wasn't fair, was it? We all have to deal with it. And I was pregnant at the time, so it was even harder for me. You're not pregnant, are you? So you don't have an excuse for not keeping your cummerbund straight. This is what you have to be willing to do in this business. If you think you can wear ripped miniskirts and halter tops to work, you're in the wrong business. If you want to dress that way, you need to consider a career somewhere else. Right? Well? [Ignore anything the employee says at this point about not wanting to dress like a hooker at work; they want to loosen up the dress code, therefore they secretly want to go to the other extreme. Also ignore anything the employee says about the issue not being her cummerbund.] Okay, then. Remember that. Make sure your cummerbund is straight. I'll be watching.”
The correct option is obvious.
Now that you have your pet rant, trot it out often. Bring it up whenever the dress code comes up. Bring it up whenever anything slightly related to the dress code comes up. Bring it up whenever clothes come up, even if they're not work-related. By this point you'll be repeating it several times daily, which means your employees' reactions to the dress code are a huge problem, which means that most of the problems in your workplace must be dress code-related, which means that even if a problem looks unrelated, it must be related, and therefore you need to bring up the rant as soon as the employee gives you the slightest pretext.
Each time you deliver the rant to an employee, put a mental black mark by his or her name. The more black marks an employee has, the sooner you should haul out the rant when you talk to them. Eventually some employees will have scores of black marks; you'll have to give them the rant every single time you talk to them. You may even have to hunt them down just to give them the rant. Eventually you'll need to fire them for the good of the team. You can't have people at work dressed like hookers, no matter how straight their cummerbunds are.
You may consider varying the wording of your pet rant. This would be a mistake. Have a few sentences at the beginning and end that you can alter so you don't sound like a robot, but keep the middle as intact as your memory will allow you to. You want to make your employees understand: “You don't argue with a broken record, and you don't argue with me.”
This method may seem oblique, but it works brilliantly. Over time you'll notice that your employees come to you with fewer and fewer issues. Your ranting has fixed all the other problems in your store, too!
Be proactive with warnings. You care about your employees. You don't want them to make mistakes that will damage their careers. Make sure they're aware of the dangers that lie ahead, and help them to steer clear.
You: Pippa, in recognition of your outstanding work, we're promoting you to assistant manager.
Pippa: Oh my god! Thank you!
You: Just remember, if the work's too much for you, there are four other associates in line for your position.
Gregory: Oh wow, this new office is sweet. Look at this view! Look at this flat-screen TV! It's the third biggest in the building!
You: I hope you like the office, because if you don't, there are a dozen other people who would kill for it, small TV and all.
Don't save your warnings for the big moments in your employees' lives, either. Slipping a little gentle puncturing into any conversation will keep your employees alert to trouble.
Be efficient. If an employee comes to you to talk about an issue they're having, take the opportunity to bring up any issues you've been having with them. You want your employees to know that you're on top of all the problems in the office, that you're proactively looking for solutions and willing to communicate. It makes them feel secure.
Follow the script. Great managers, like great performers, follow scripts. Your employees may not be as great as you. They may not have the script. That's okay. Keep on following the script, and the people who are keeping track will know that you've done the right thing. For example, one of your employees made a mistake on a report that wouldn't have happened if she'd checked the database:
You: Do you check the database every time you write a report?
Her: Normally I do, but this time I got distracted and forgot.
HER CORRECT LINE IS: Yes, every single time!
You: Well, I don't buy that, because you wouldn't have made this mistake if you had checked the database.
You see? Follow the script. The script will lead you to the right.
If you follow these simple tips, you'll—but of course, you're already following the tips. In fact, you've been following them all for years, even the ones you just read about. That's what it's like, being perfect. So enjoy your progress up the career ladder, and may all your employees learn to be as perfect as you!A recommendation to create three new urban electoral ridings by consolidating ridings in rural Alberta is reviving old arguments over what factors to use in determining constituency size.
In an interim report released Thursday, the five-person Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission recommended Calgary and Edmonton each get one new riding, and that a new riding be created northwest of Calgary to accommodate population growth in Airdrie and Cochrane.
To keep the number of seats at 87, the commission says constituencies in less populated parts of the province should be consolidated so there are three fewer rural ridings.
The reason behind these changes is population. Over the past eight years, 600,000 people have moved to Alberta. Most have settled in urban areas.
This has created a wide disparity between urban and rural constituencies. Populations in rural areas haven't grown as quickly as the cities, particularly Calgary and Edmonton.
The chair of the commissioner, Justice Myra Bielby, noted a vote cast in Jasper carries three times the weight of a vote cast in Calgary-South East due to that difference in population.
Larry Booi, chairman of Public Interest Alberta's Democracy Task Force, praised the commission for supporting the principle of voter parity.
He said past commissions and governments were content with the status quo, either to avoid backlash from rural residents or to maintain a hold on power.
"This particular commission had the guts to say, 'No, let's reform it so that we strengthen democracy rather than continue to participate in undermining it,' " Booi said. "And good for them for doing so."
Rural concerns
But people in rural areas of Alberta argue population shouldn't be the only factor in determining constituency size.
Al Kemmere, president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC), said he was disappointed the commission didn't use other factors in its decision.
According to the Electoral Boundaries Commissions Act, factors like sparsity of population, common community interests and geographic size should be taken into account.
Kemmere argues larger, rural ridings make it difficult for MLAs to have sufficient contact with their constituents.
"It identifies parity only in numbers of voters per constituency," he said. "And it doesn't look at parity from a balanced point of view in being able to connect with your MLA. I think that's one of the things that's missing."
A small population compelled the commission to recommend the boundary for Fort McMurray-Conklin to be redrawn to include Athabasca and Lac La Biche.
The boundaries commission relied on a population figure of 17,129 for Fort McMurray-Conklin to make that decision.
But that figure was tallied after the 2016 wildfire. The commission acknowledges its accuracy is in question and wants residents help them compile better information.
The constituency is represented by Wildrose Leader Brian Jean.
Jean said the commission should have left the boundary untouched. He argued many people in his constituency were displaced by the fire and plan to come back once their homes are rebuilt, well before the next election.
"To suggest they've moved away permanently is ridiculous," Jean said.
"I just think this fire has really kicked the people of Fort McMurray at a time of low resource prices and now this commission is kicking us again by not allowing proper representation."
Face-to-face contact
The commission suggested MLAs in rural areas could be given more money to hire additional staff to set up satellite offices across the constituency, or have hired drivers so they could read documents on the long trips to Edmonton to sit in the legislature.
Jean was an MP for a decade prior to entering provincial politics. He is aware of the challenges of representing a vast area as his federal riding included Fort McMurray, Lac La Biche and Athabasca.
He says MLAs meet with their constituents and go to events on Fridays and Saturdays. Representing a vast area proposed by the commission would mean he would have to take turns going to Fort McMurray, Athabasca and Lac La Biche on subsequent weekends.
As for setting up satellite offices, Jean said it would cost more money without solving the access problem.
"I think most Alberta residents want to see their politicians, not staff," he said. "They want to have a face-to-face meeting with their elected officials about how that elected official can help them."
The recommendations will now go out to another round of public consultations this summer. The commission is scheduled to submit its final report by Oct. 31.
Any changes to constituencies have to be approved by the legislative assembly before coming into effect.
Booi expects the NDP won't be as swayed by arguments to maintain the status quo in rural areas as past Progressive Conservative governments, which he says had its power base outside of Alberta's cities.
He thinks that the majority of Albertans are fair-minded and will understand the reasons behind the commission's recommendations.Leviticus 19:29, “Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore ; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.”
“'Parents have invested in her a godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back.' Raunch is relative.”[1]
Walt Disney is of the Devil. Miley Cyrus has led a generation of young girls into whoredom, lasciviousness, rebellion and every form of evil. Miley Cyrus is known mostly for her sinful role as HANNAH MONTANA, raking in over a BILLION DOLLARS annually for the Disney corporation. Miley Cyrus gets paid $3,500,000 a year[2], bringing in that much money PER DAY for Walt Disney! What a bunch of losers in God's eyes. God is angry! Disney, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus are wicked, and God is angry with the wicked. Psalm 7:11, “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” Miley Cyrus has broken away from Hannah Montana, now using her real name as Miss Raunchy U.S.A.! Her latest piece of filth album in 2010 is CAN'T BE TAMED, boasting that she is a whore that will not be changed...
Miley Cyrus' Can't Be Tamed lyrics...
(The first single of Miley's 2010 album.) For those who don't know me, I can get a bit crazy
Have to get my way, 24 hours a day
'Cause I'm hot like that
Every guy everywhere just gives me mad attention
Like I'm under inspection, I always get the 10s
'Cause I'm built like that
I go through guys like money flyin' out their hands
They try to change me but they realize they can't
And every tomorrow is a day I never planned
If you're gonna be my man, understand
[Chorus]
I can't be tamed, I can't be saved
I can't be blamed, I can't, can't
I can't be tamed, I can't be changed
I can't be saved, I can't be (can't be)
I can't be tamed
CAN'T BE TAMED is plain evidence of the rebellious nature of Pop and Rock music today. No doubt, Miley Cyrus wants to make more of the money for herself by using her own name instead of Hannah Montana and handing all the filthy lucre over to Walt Disney. Disney pays Miley Cyrus less than one-third percent of the money they're raking in. Compared to the profits made by Disney, Miley Cyrus is nothing but a cheap whore being exploited. I don't think she should receive one penny! I wish Walt Disney would go out of business! But what would all the Southern Baptist churches do without Walt Disney World? Evidently their 8-year ban was costing them too many worldly church members so they lifted their ban. But Disney didn't budge an inch and GAY DAY is still one of their featured events. God hasn't lifted His ban on Walt Disney!
Disney and all their whores wouldn't be making all that money if the American people weren't so in love with every form of wickedness. All this filth is being produced in AMERICA!!! The U.S. is the cesspool of this world's iniquity and God is going to severely punish us for it as a nation! Already our nation is in economic, moral, educational, political, medical, social and legal shambles! Evil corruption is everywhere! Theft is commonplace! Most people only think of God in religious terms; but I assure you that He is pondering our every thought, word and action (Proverb 24:12). Those fools who dismiss God as “organized religion” will be sorry the second they enter into eternity and plunge into the fires of Hell forever. The second you die you will find out the horrible truth!!! You will be in Hell, crying out in torment and pain, day and night the Bible warns (Revelation 20:10), forever and ever and ever and ever and ever!!!
Would to God that more Christians became upset over the filth and lewdness in our nation. Would to God that more parents would get angry at Walt Disney's Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez, who target young children and teenagers, leading girls into whoredom, sleaze, idolatry and feminism. Miley Cyrus' videos are sexually suggestive, raunchy, slutty, and she is arrogant, rebellious and disgraceful. America's children are being taught to serve the Devil (and they are)! Children rarely rise above their role models in moral character. Miley Cyrus has no moral character!
Mark Dice Exposes Miley Cyrus
The Sinister Agenda Behind the Moral Corruption of American Society
It is not by coincidence, nor by natural occurrence, that America is plagued today with whorish singers and actors who are being featured on Prime-time TV, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, and everything pertaining to teenagers. It's all deliberate, intended to eliminate courtship, replaced by sexual promiscuity. Teen girls are being conditioned to behave like homosexuals, who don't marry and have children...
ERASING GENDER IDENTITY FEMINISM & HOMOSEXUALITY; HOW HETEROSEXUALITY WORKS Feminism, our official gender ideology, masquerades as a movement for women's rights. In reality, feminism is a cruel hoax, telling women their natural biological instincts are "socially constructed" to oppress them.
Feminism is elite social engineering designed to destroy gender identity by making women masculine and men feminine. Increasingly heterosexuals are conditioned to behave like homosexuals who generally don't marry and have children. Courtship and monogamy are being replaced by sexual promiscuity, prophesied in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
The Rockefellers and Rothschilds created feminism to poison male-female relations (divide and conquer.) Their twin objectives are depopulation and totalitarian world government. Why? These bankers create money out of nothing and think they are God.
"Cruel Hoax" shows the connection between feminism, Communism and 9-11. It examines male-female relations and shows how we can take back our heterosexuality. SOURCE: Dr. Henry Makow, Ph.D.; CRUEL HOAX: Feminism & The New World Order.
As you read in CAN'T BE TAMED, and will read below in the lyrics to more of Miley Cyrus' vile songs, she promotes fornication, rebellion, being whorish and lewd, promiscuousness, partying all night long, getting down, acting crazy, et cetera. This is exactly what the perpetrators behind the New World Order want, i.e., to create a sexually-degenerate society through the use of sexually-degenerate celebrities, movies, music, magazines and television.
In so doing, gender identity is erased, courtship and marriage are eliminated, and parents become mere incubators of servants of the Police State. Moral corruption ALWAYS leads to political subversion! An immoral nation devoid of God cannot maintain it's social integrity. We are witnessing the breakdown of American culture, into chaos and ruin, from which will emerge a dictator—the Antichrist!
America is doomed. I believe we are at the point of no return, because of the filthy trash who own and control the television networks, Hollywood and Walt Disney. People sit in front of their TVs as if worshipping a god. As long as people get all their information from the TV, they will become more foolish, dumbed-down and brainwashed. The moral decline in America will continue it's downward spiral into the abyss of Hell and damnation.
There will be fewer marriages because of fear of divorce and all it's woes. There'll be a lot more shacking up because of sexed pigs like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus (teaching teens to fornicate and forget about marriage). I dare you to name one sleazy whore singer today who praises the institution of marriage in her music. Name one! It would hurt their sin-glorifying career. You don't become rich and famous in the Pop music industry today unless you're a worldly, compromising, filthy piece of trash. You MUST be supportive of gay rights to make it in Hollywood, music or Broadway.
Parents will become mere incubators, producing servants of a Godless Global Communist Totalitarian Police State. Our nation has gone to Hell. While feminists, CPS and a rigged court system work relentlessly to destroy families over trifle matters; massive government crimes are completely ignored by the media, overlooked and no one is brought to justice. In fact, we have no country anymore because we have no borders anymore.
I don't condemn anyone, for I am a sinner like anyone else. Albeit, I am obligated as a believer to expose evil in all its forms (Ephesians 5:11), and Miley Cyrus defines evil. Miley continues her downward spiral into heathendom, taking more clothes off and behaving more weird each year. In July of 2013 I saw an ABC news clip which showed Miley in a television appearance. She was wearing a black leather miniskirt all the way to her crotch, beyond immodest. He hair was punk'd and she looked like something the cat dragged out of the garbage. What a vile and shameful woman, who dares to profess the name of Jesus. Hypocritically, Cyrus claims to love Jesus...
"We love Jesus!" Cyrus, 15, says. "Jesus rocks! She dances for Jesus. I sing, dance and act for Jesus!... Now that I think about it, I do everything for Jesus. We make the YouTube videos for Jesus. We’re all about it."
The news shouldn't surprise Cyrus fans. The Hannah Montana star quoted the Bible while appearing on Oprah just a few months ago. SOURCE: Miley Cyrus Dedicates Web Video to Jesus - Miley Cyrus :People.com
I can't even show you photos of Miley Cyrus because she has abandoned all morality in a sinful quest for continued popularity and fame. In order to prevent the next spoiled whorish brat from taking her place, Miley is doing what many losers are doing, that is, doing publicity stunts to gain attention. We are too calloused as a society I believe to ever recover from this. America's days are numbered. Every culture since the beginning of time hasn't survived its moral meltdown. My ministry is focused on reaching the small remnant of people who desire the truth. I'm just a humble preacher who's throwing out life preservers to those souls who want the truth of the Word of God. There is always hope in Christ Jesus. Amen!
Leviticus 19:29, “Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.”
Miley Cyrus And Father Billy Ray Cyrus Promote Incest
The photo online is creepy. You can find is quickly by typing the names of both Billy and Miley Cyrus in a photo search engine. Miley's arm is down between her dad's legs. Billy is holding that particular hand on Miley. Then whole image is deliberate, staged and creepy. It's definitely suggests incest. Professor Henry Makow states in his excellent work titled “ILLUMINATI 2: DECEIT AND SEDUCTION”...
A society always takes the values of its ruling class, and America (indeed the world) is run by a satanic cult of pedophiles, occultists and criminals known as the Illuminati. They represent the top rung of Freemasonry which is now putting the capstone on their satanic New World Order, which turns Christian civilization on its head. Cyrus and her father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, do not become mega-stars without becoming pawns of the Illuminati. That's Miley flashing the sign of Baphomet. (Of course she has some alibi to gull the wilfully ignorant. They aren't going to tell you they are flashing the sign of the devil. The point is to get you to do it!) Society will continue to condemn and punish some pedophilia and child p-rn, while at the same time conditioning the public for its eventual acceptance. Pedophilia is the logical outcome of the values promoted by the New World Order: sex for its own sake without reference to love, marriage and procreation. Schools are teaching children to have sex as young as age 13 and to experiment with homosexuality. MTV has taught a generation of young girls to believe their whole value derives from how “hot” they are. Having an adult lover would be a great status symbol. “Wholesome” 'tween role models like Miley Cyrus (whose favorite TV show is “Sex and the City”) “accidentally” pose in sexually provocative ways. Gay organizations push to lower the age of consent, and you know how important “gay rights” are. Heterosexuals have been conditioned to imitate gay sexual behavior. For example, courtship has been replaced by “hooking up” which in gay terms is “cruisin.” Pedophilia is the last gay behaviour pattern we must learn. Photographer Annie Leibovitz says she's sorry her photos have been “misinterpreted.” Geez, how could a picture of a half-naked 15-years-old girl on the cover of a national magazine be misinterpreted? And lying in father's lap with her pelvis thrust forward; how could that be misinterpreted? Is this the way fathers and daughters should relate? Are incest and pedophilia the next “next frontier?”... The satanist Sabbateans who organized the Illuminati in the 18th century are a pagan sex cult. The world is in their grip. They are determined that their values will be ours. SOURCE: Dr. Henry Makow, Ph.D.; “ILLUMINATI 2: DECEIT AND SEDUCTION” (pages 107-108).
Lewd Raunchiness Equals $Billions in Profits for Walt Disney
The same people who get upset with my preaching against the sexually-suggestive filth coming out of Walt Disney are the same adulterous God-haters who have abortions, despise the righteous, support rebellious feminism, divorce their spouse, support homosexual rights, bring Catholic idols into their living room to worship, steal from others, curse in God's name, idolize television celebrities, and live selfish lives pleasing to the Devil.
The wicked support the wicked; but the righteous are hated (John 15:19). I am on the Lord's side. God is always for decency, morality and doing right! It is very wrong, and sinful to God, for any woman to strip down naked for the public to lust upon (Matthew 5:28; 1st Timothy 2:9). Proverb 29:27, “An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.” Miley Cyrus and the shameful Hannah Montana character she plays are an abomination! Miley Cyrus is now raunchier than ever...
“Furthermore, Can't Be Tamed launches Cyrus's new, raunchier image. Those of us old enough to remember when Madonna launched a new, raunchier image by being photographed dangling from a hang-glider with her fairy out might look at Can't Be Tamed's cover, showing Cyrus in a crop top and leather jacket, and wonder what her less raunchy image consisted of: a burqa? A diving helmet? However, it's worth noting that two years ago, when Cyrus posed for Annie Leibovitz wrapped in a bedsheet, exposing part of her back, it caused parenting blogs to suggest people burn her CDs and her Disney Channel paymasters to start saying creepy things: 'Parents have invested in her a godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back.' Raunch is relative.” SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jun/24/miley-cyrus-cant-be-tamed-review
Raunch is relative? This is Walt Disney's SICKO attitude toward your children... who cares if Miley Cyrus is raunchy, sexually explicit and smutty... she's godly as far as we're concerned because we're making lots of money! What a bunch of losers in God's eyes. Disney has profited over a billion dollars from the Hannah Montana franchise...
“The New York Times reports that retail sales for 'Hannah Montana' are expected to be about $1 billion this year, with a movie coming out in 2009. Also, apparently Ms. Cyrus signed with the Disney Book Group last week for a seven-figure book deal.” SOURCE: America Family Association; Miley Cyrus Poses Topless for 'Vanity Fair'; June 19, 2009.
“FOR LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL...” (1st Timothy 6:10).
The intent of my article is not to condemn Miley Cyrus, for we are all guilty, hell-deserving, sinners; but rather, my intent is to expose the evils of her public lewdness, nudity, and raunchiness (especially since she is targeting and influencing MILLIONS of young girls in America)... that Walt Disney sinfully says is a relative issue. No, the Bible is very clear on how women are to dress, behave and carry themselves in public. Miley Cyrus is sleazy, lewd and a reprobate! Instead of having a meek and quiet spirit (1st Peter 3:4); Miley Cyrus is a boisterous, impudent, arrogant, lewd and spoiled brat! Woe unto America!
Miley Cyrus Has an Evil Influence Over MILLIONS of Children
It is tragic and no coincidence. Satan buys people off with the riches and pleasures of this world, to destroy families and corrupt societies. Miley Cyrus is part of the rot of American culture, making Sodom and Gomorrah look like nice places to live. God has damned America because of evil trash like Hannah Montana. Get mad at me if you want, I'm on the Lord's side. There's nothing more evil than teaching young girls by example to be lewd, slutty, rebellious, and sex-crazed. She's influencing millions of children and teens for evil...
“Last week, the public relations problem du jour was a green bra; photos online showing Ms. Cyrus pulling away her tank top to flash her underwear. Ms. Cyrus and the 'Hannah Montana' series have been championed as one of the few entertainment sanctuaries for children, complicating matters. Last month, Ms. Cyrus was chosen favorite television actress at Nickelodeon’s 'Kids’ Choice Awards.' More than 3 million viewers regularly watch 'Hannah Montana,' most of them age 6 to 14. Media outlets, in particular the rabid celebrity-focused tabloids, have been pushing to capture new angles of the ubiquitous Ms. Cyrus. After popping up everywhere from the Academy Awards to 'American Idol' in recent months, the only photos of her that are assured of selling are controversial ones.” SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES; Revealing Photo Threatens a Major Disney Franchise; April 28, 2008.
Here's some of the sexually suggestive lyrics from one of Miley's songs:
Miley Cyrus' BIG BIG BANG lyrics... (Oh Babe) I don’t wanna lie, I’m gonna take what you’re giving
Cause I know you’re willing, to take me all the way.. You got me right here.
Combustible. And I can’t wait to finally explode.
The Big Big Bang, (oh) the reason I’m alive, (hey)
When all the |
’s almost nothing left to celebrate after a quarter century in the NBA.
The Heart & Hustle team will never see a jersey retired, either. They didn't earn it; they couldn’t get any farther than a two-point regular season loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. But there is more hope in the memory of this team than in every just-passing-through legend the Magic have ever employed. The '99-00 Magic defied every reasonable expectation seemingly just by playing really, really hard, and believing it could work as if their jobs depended upon it. They tried. They failed. They won, and they endure.Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots[a] is an action-adventure stealth video game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami exclusively for the PlayStation 3 console. It is the sixth Metal Gear game directed by Hideo Kojima and was released worldwide on June 12, 2008.[2]
Set five years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty,[b] the story centers around a prematurely aged Solid Snake, now known as Old Snake, as he goes on one last mission to assassinate his nemesis Liquid Snake, who now inhabits the body of his former henchman Revolver Ocelot under the guise of Liquid Ocelot, before he takes control of the Sons of the Patriots, an A.I. system that controls the activities of PMCs worldwide.[3]
Guns of the Patriots received universal acclaim, garnering perfect reviews and Game of the Year awards from several major gaming publications, including GameSpot, which claimed that the game was "technically flawless".[4] The game has been considered one of the best games of the seventh generation of console gaming and among the greatest of all time. Its release caused a boost in sales of the PlayStation 3, where it sold over six million copies worldwide.
Gameplay [ edit ]
Solid Snake shooting a militiaman
In MGS4, players assume the role of an aged Solid Snake (also referred to as Old Snake), using stealth, close quarters combat, and traditional Metal Gear combat. The overhead third-person camera of earlier games has been replaced by a streamlined view and over-the-shoulder camera for aiming a weapon, with an optional first-person view at the toggle of a button.
A further addition to gameplay mechanics is the Psyche Meter. Psyche is decreased by non-lethal attacks and is influenced by battlefield psychology. Stressors (including temperature extremes, foul smells, and being hunted by the enemy) increase Snake's stress gauge, eventually depleting his Psyche. Adverse effects include difficulty in aiming, more frequent back pain and the possibility of Snake passing out upon receiving damage. Among the available methods of restoring Psyche are eating, drinking, smoking, and reading an adult magazine.[5]
Snake has a few gadgets to aid him in battle. The OctoCamo suit mimics the appearance and texture of any surface in a similar fashion to an octopus, or a chameleon, decreasing the probability of Snake being noticed. Additionally, FaceCamo is made available to players after they defeat Laughing Octopus. FaceCamo can be worn by Solid Snake on his face and it can be set to either work in tandem with the Octocamo or instead mimic the face of other in-game characters. However, to get access to these unique FaceCamos, players have to complete certain in-game requirements first. When the FaceCamo is worn with OctoCamo, under ideal conditions, Snake's stealth quotient can reach 100%. The Solid Eye device highlights items and enemies and can operate in a night vision and a binocular mode. It also offers a baseline map, which indicates the location of nearby units.[6] The latter function is also performed by the Threat Ring, a visualization of Snake's senses that deforms based on nearby unit proximity and relays them to the player.
Metal Gear Mk.II (later replaced with Mk.III), a small support robot that always tags along with Snake, offers codec functionality and a means to the in-game menu for a large part of Snake's mission. It can be remotely controlled to stun enemies, provide reconnaissance and interact with the environment.[7] Its design is based on the namesake robot from Snatcher, a game designed by Hideo Kojima. It is also controlled during the beginning of each separate "Act", although the player is not able to utilize its capabilities during this time.
Whenever the Drebin menu is available, weapons, attachments, and ammunition can be purchased via Drebin Points (DPs), awarded for on-site procurement of weapons already in the inventory and by initiating specific scripted events or destroying Unmanned Vehicles. The conversion rate between weapons and DPs depends on current battlefield conditions, with more-intense fighting yielding higher prices. Also, Drebin would purchase items from the player at a discounted price, especially at certain points in the story and certain days in real life. The game may also be finished without killing anyone, using non-lethal weapons.
The Virtual Range, similar to the Virtual Reality training of previous titles, functions as a test facility for weapon performance and gameplay controls.[5]
Plot [ edit ]
Setting [ edit ]
Guns of the Patriots is set in 2014, nine years after the events of the original Metal Gear Solid[8] and five years after Sons of Liberty.[9] The world's economy relies on continuous civil wars fought by PMCs, which outnumber government military forces. Soldiers are equipped with nanomachines that monitor and enhance their performance on the battlefield, controlled by a vast network known as the Sons of the Patriots (SOP) system. Liquid Ocelot, missing since the events of Sons of Liberty, re-emerges from hiding to launch an insurrection against the Patriots.
Solid Snake, meanwhile, is experiencing accelerated aging, and is given about a year left to live. He is living on board the airplane Nomad with Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich and Olga Gurlukovich's daughter Sunny. When his former commanding officer Roy Campbell approaches him with one final mission - to terminate Liquid Ocelot - Snake accepts. Since the aftermath of the Big Shell Incident, Raiden has drifted away from Rose, who had apparently suffered a miscarriage with their child and gone to live with Campbell, and has become a cyborg ninja fighting against the Patriots.
Story [ edit ]
Shortly after learning of his year-long lifespan from symptoms similar to Werner syndrome, Snake is given a mission by Roy Campbell to assassinate Liquid Ocelot. Snake travels to the Middle East, infiltrating a war zone occupied by Liquid's PMC Praying Mantis, where he meets Drebin 893, an underground arms dealer, who then injects Snake with nanomachines that enable him to use the latest generation of weaponry. Just as he finally reaches Liquid, Liquid transmits a signal that incapacitates the nearby members of Liquid's own nanomachine-equipped PMC, a patrol led by Snake's old comrade, Meryl Silverburgh, and Snake himself. As Snake collapses, he sees Dr. Naomi Hunter again for the first time since he infiltrated Shadow Moses.
Naomi explains via an encoded message that she is being forced to do research for Liquid in South America, and asks Snake to rescue her. Snake locates Naomi, who explains that Liquid plans to use Big Boss' biometric data as a key to access the Patriots' core AI and take sole command of its firearms control system, the SOP. After a medical examination, Snake learns his accelerated aging was due to intentional genetic mutations made before his birth, shortening his natural lifespan. In addition, Naomi discovers the FOXDIE virus inside him will mutate within three months, spreading a deadly version of the virus to the population of the world. Pieuvre Armement PMC soldiers kidnap Naomi, but with the help of Drebin and Raiden, Snake is able to retrieve her and they succeed in escaping the country, though Raiden is injured in a fight with a returning Vamp.
Snake finds an Eastern Europe resistance group that has both the equipment needed to heal Raiden, and the remains of Big Boss. Once there, EVA, leading the resistance group under the alias "Big Mama", reveals that she was the surrogate mother to Snake and Liquid Snake through the "Les Enfants Terribles" cloning project. Liquid's Raven Sword PMC attack Snake, Big Mama, and the decoy vehicles pretending to transport Big Boss' remains. Snake helps Big Mama escape to the riverside, where Big Boss' real remains are hidden in a coffin to be taken to safety by ship, but Liquid reveals that he no longer needs Big Boss' body and that he has already infiltrated the system using his own system core to act as a Trojan. US military forces attempt to arrest Liquid, but he disables their firearms via his Trojan core, before incapacitating them, leaving them vulnerable and helpless to be slaughtered by his elite all-female Haven Troopers. Vamp throws Big Boss' body into flames, leaving the side of Snake's face burned after he saves Big Mama from jumping in after it. Liquid escapes with Naomi as collateral, but Otacon's robot sneaks onto Liquid's boat after them. Big Mama later dies from her injuries.
Snake and Otacon learn of Liquid's plan to destroy the Patriots' core AI with a nuclear strike using Metal Gear REX's railgun, and that he will substitute the core with his own to gain full control of the system. To facilitate his plan, Liquid needs a non-ID-tagged nuclear warhead, which is to be recovered from the Shadow Moses facility, familiar to Snake from prior adventures. Snake, tormented by old memories, infiltrates Shadow Moses Island and reaches REX's hangar, only to be ambushed by Vamp, who has Naomi with him. Raiden assists Snake in battling Vamp and ultimately kills him. Naomi reveals that she has terminal cancer and, overcome with guilt over her mistakes, disables the nanomachines holding off the effects of the cancer and dies. Snake and Raiden use REX to escape the hangar, where they encounter and battle Metal Gear RAY, piloted by Liquid himself. Upon his defeat, Liquid reveals Outer Haven, a modified version of Arsenal Gear, ready to fulfill his launch plan. Raiden is severely injured during the attack while defending Snake. The USS Missouri, captained by Mei Ling, arrives and begins firing on Haven, causing it to retreat.
Seizing the moment it surfaces to launch the nuke, Snake, Meryl, and Johnny board the ship via catapults. When Snake arrives at the core, he uses Otacon's robot to install a computer virus coded by Naomi and Sunny, that destroys the core AI and the entire Patriot system controlling the entire world, leaving the bare necessities for the modern civilization to survive. The destruction of the Patriots brings the war economy to a halt, counteracts the Patriots' upcoming civilian control scheme, and causes a mental breakdown for the Haven Troopers as their mind-suppression systems are disabled. Snake, after passing out in the core room, awakes atop Outer Haven's tower to find Liquid. Liquid reveals that his plan the whole time was to have Snake himself defeat the Patriots, while Liquid drew their attention to himself. The two engage in a tough and emotional hand-to-hand battle, with Snake emerging victorious. After telling Snake a few last words, Liquid reverts to his old identity of Revolver Ocelot and dies.
In the aftermath of the battle, Meryl reconciles with Campbell and marries Johnny. At the wedding, Drebin reveals his origin as a child soldier as well as his role in Patriots' schemes. He also reveals that Meryl's unit had been an unwitting pawn used by the Patriots, but that they and Drebin were now free. Otacon decides to raise Sunny to allow her to live a normal childhood. Raiden's body is rebuilt and he reconciles with Rose after learning that their child was not miscarried, and that her marriage to Campbell was a ruse to protect them from the Patriots. Snake, meanwhile, visits the grave of Big Boss at a cemetery. With nothing left to fight for, and to prevent a global epidemic from his mutant FOXDIE strain, Snake attempts suicide.
In a post-credits scene, Snake is surprised when Big Boss, very much alive, arrives at the cemetery with a vegetative Major Zero in a wheelchair. Big Boss explains that the body burned in Eastern Europe was actually Solidus Snake, and reveals that the Patriots, founded by Major Zero, EVA, Ocelot, Sigint, Para-Medic, and Big Boss himself, were originally an interpretation of the will of The Boss, his former mentor. While their power increased, differing interpretations split the Patriots' ranks into two rival factions - Zero's, who stood for complete control of society to prevent conflict; and Big Boss's, who dreamed of a world where people could fight solely for what they believed in, and not for governments or countries. Zero let the newly established AI network assume control, which lead to the dependence on the war economy, a vision far from The Boss's will. Ocelot used nanomachines and hypnotherapy to implant the persona of Liquid onto his own, as a ploy to mislead the Patriots' AIs. Big Boss kills Zero by turning off his life support, and informs Snake that the nanomachines Drebin injected into him came with a new strain of FOXDIE, engineered by the Patriot AIs to eradicate the old strains and to kill Big Boss's rival Patriot faction, and were therefore the true cause of EVA and Ocelot's deaths. With the new strain destroying the mutated strain, Snake poses no risk of becoming a biological weapon, so long as he does not live long enough for the new strain to mutate. However, Snake's very presence would kill Big Boss. After understanding his mentor's will, and telling Snake to find a new reason to keep living, thus making amends with Snake and acknowledging Snake as both his son and brother, Big Boss dies beside the Boss's grave. Snake quits smoking and decides to live the short time he has left peacefully with Otacon and Sunny, vowing to live long enough to see what the future holds for the world he has helped create.
Development [ edit ]
From the left to right: Kenichiro Imaizumi (producer), Yumi Kikuchi (Raging Raven character of The Beauty and the Beast Unit, voice and motion capture actress), Hideo Kojima (producer, director, writer) at the Games Convention 2007.
Metal Gear Solid 4 started development due to fan demand. Series creator Hideo Kojima had previously directed the prequel Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater which was meant to end the series. However, people's demand to have a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and clear the mysteries Kojima wanted to leave to the players' interpretations resulted in the making of Metal Gear Solid 4.[10] Kojima announced that he would be retiring as director of the Metal Gear series after Snake Eater, and would leave his position open to another person for Metal Gear Solid 4. As a joke, the new director was announced as "Alan Smithee", but in R, a 400-page book bundled with Metal Gear Solid 3's Japanese "Premium Package", the director was revealed to be Shuyo Murata, co-writer of MGS3 and director of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. He also contributed easter eggs to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. However, it was announced that Kojima would be co-directing the game with Murata after substantial negative fan reaction, including death threats.[11]
Hideo Kojima wished to implement a new style of gameplay which was set in a full-scale war zone. Kojima wanted to also retain the stealth elements from previous entries in the series, which made the team abandon the original "No Place to Hide" concept. The only announced war zone before release was the Middle East. Using several locations emphasized Kojima's original intention to present the world in full-scale armed conflict. Solid Snake was physically aged to portray to the player the games' overarching theme, "SENSE", and to assign them to a character whose task was to pass moral values to future generations.[10] Kojima's initial ending for the MGS4 would entail Snake and Otacon turning themselves in for breaking the law, and subsequently convicted and executed. This was avoided after negative feedback from the development team. Snake's experience across the series made the creation of new enemies challenging and encouraged staff to create groups of non-human enemies to rival Snake.[12]
During development, the game's exclusivity was continuously questioned, even after Kojima officially confirmed the exclusivity several times. The exclusivity of the game was still in doubt from non-PlayStation 3 owners for a long period after the initial release,[13][14] with the company confirming that the 25th Anniversary edition of the game released in late 2012 was still a PS3 exclusive.[15] Upon the release of Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection, Kojima had once again firmly denied chances of MGS4's release on any other console, stating that an "Xbox 360 version [will not be] released, because an Xbox 360 version of MGS4 hasn't gone on sale." and that "the amount of data in MGS4 is just too enormous".[16]
The game was publicly announced first at E3 2005, by means of a humorous and slightly abstract gag machinima using characters from Metal Gear Solid 3, under the slogan of "No Place to Hide". The title was described as "essentially finished" by January 2008 and went through extensive beta testing.[17] At Destination PlayStation on February 26, 2008, Sony announced that MGS4 would be released worldwide on June 12, 2008, along with the special MGS4 PlayStation 3 bundle.[18] It was announced that Guns of the Patriots is the first PlayStation 3 game that uses a 50GB dual layer Blu-ray Disc[19] even with the use of file compression.
The budget for the game has been estimated to be between US$ 50-70 million.[20][21] However, Kenichiro Imaizumi from Kojima Productions denied this stating if it had cost this much, the game would have been for multiple platforms.[22] One of the main objectives of the budget was research of environments the game would feature.[23]
Music [ edit ]
The score to Metal Gear Solid 4 was led by Harry Gregson-Williams, his third Metal Gear Solid soundtrack,[24] and Nobuko Toda, who provided music for Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Acid 2.[25] Other contributors are Konami employees Shuichi Kobori, Kazuma Jinnouchi, Akihiro Honda, and Sota Fujimori.[26] Directed by Norihiko Hibino, GEM Impact employees Yoshitaka Suzuki and Takahiro Izutani also made compositions late in the game's production.[27] It was revealed in an interview with Norihiko Hibino that the team, in fact, wrote 90 minutes of music for the game's cutscenes, only 15 minutes of which made its way onto the official soundtrack.[28]
There are two vocal themes for the game. The opening theme, "Love Theme", is sung by Jackie Presti and composed by Nobuko Toda. The ending theme, "Here's to You", is sung by Lisbeth Scott. Before the release of the game, "MGS4 - Theme of Love - Smash Bros. Brawl Version" was provided for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the Shadow Moses Island level.[29] The "Metal Gear Solid Main Theme", composed by Tappi "Tappy" Iwase, was notably omitted from the soundtrack, and the soundtrack of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, Norihiko Hibino stated that the company had difficulties with "Russian composers who said we stole their music", referring to an occasion when a group of Russian games journalists presented Hideo Kojima with a composition by Georgy Sviridov and claimed this had been plagiarised to create the theme. Hibino states that "they didn't actually", however, the company was "too sensitive about the situation" and elected to drop the theme.[30]
The official soundtrack was released on May 28, 2008, by Konami Digital Entertainment under the catalog number GFCA-98/9.[31] It consists of two discs of music and 47 tracks. A soundtrack album was also packaged with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition.[32]
Trophy support [ edit ]
In August 2009, when asked if there would be a patch to add Trophies to the game, Kojima Productions' Sean Eyestone asked people to "stay patient". This led to speculation that an updated version of the game in the vein of Substance or Subsistence would be released alongside a Trophy patch.[33] In November 2010, an updated Greatest Hits box art of the game was released, which in the top right-hand corner boasted the addition of "Trophies" to the game. This was later reported as a "typo", and removed from later printings.[34] False reports of an "incoming Trophy Patch" often appeared, usually on internet forums and on April Fools' Day, some even going to the extent of a mock-up Trophy listing.[35] In July 2012, a patch was announced which would include Trophies for the game, which would later be released on August 6, 2012.[36] In addition to the support for Trophies, the patch also allowed a full install of the game onto the hard drive to remove the installs between acts.
Downloadable content [ edit ]
The game received new content through PlayStation Network (in-game downloads) between 2008 and 2009. A total of 49 free add-ons have been released, which include 25 additional OctoCamo patterns, 12 podcasts and 12 iPod songs (a thirteenth song, named "Chair Race" was removed for copyright reasons in 2011). On July 16, 2014, it was announced on the Japanese site that all DLC downloads would terminate on July 31.[37] However, a workaround was made in January 2015.[38] As of today, this is the only way to obtain the content, as it was never made available on PlayStation Store.
Release [ edit ]
Metal Gear Solid 4 includes the Starter Pack for Metal Gear Online (MGO). MGO features up to 16 player online tactical battles and incorporates several gameplay elements from Metal Gear Solid 4, including the SOP system that allows players to have a visual confirmation of their teammates' position and battle status.[39] MGO also allows fully customizable characters. The Starter Pack allows players to engage in sneaking missions, where Old Snake and Metal Gear Mk.II acquire dog tags from other human contestants, along with standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and several special modes.[40] Expansions packs, offering more maps and playable special characters (Mei Ling, Meryl, Akiba, Liquid Ocelot, Raiden, and Vamp), can be purchased via the MGO menu item "MGO Shop (PlayStation Network)", or via MGO or Konami's shop. The PlayStation Wallet is used for the first option and a credit card for the latter two.[41] Metal Gear Online was completely shut down on June 13, 2012.
On June 19, 2008, Konami released the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database onto the PlayStation Store in North America and Japan,[42] and one week later on the European store. The Database is a downloadable application for PlayStation 3 that catalogs every piece of Metal Gear lore from all the canonical entries in the series released up to Metal Gear Solid 4 in the form of an encyclopedia (browsable by alphabet and category), a timeline, and character relationship diagrams. Highlighted words in each article link to related articles, and it keeps track of which ones the user has already read. The Database automatically locks any items related to MGS4, in order to prevent the leaking of spoilers to players who have not completed the game yet. In order to reveal these articles, the user must have a completed MGS4 game save that was created on the same console and with a version of the game from the same region as their account.
Marketing [ edit ]
At a press conference on May 13, 2008, Hideo Kojima announced a marketing campaign and agreements with several companies to promote the game. Apple computers and monitors feature in the game and an Apple iPod is an in-game item that Snake can use to change the background music, listen to in-game podcasts and collect hidden songs scattered throughout the game. ReGain Energy Drinks are used in the game as a Psyche gauge booster, and Sony Ericsson mobile phones are used, specifically by Naomi and Vamp.[43] In addition, the motorcycles featured in the game are a Triumph Bonneville and Speed Triple. Konami and Ubisoft put an unlockable costume in the game for Snake, Altaïr from the Ubisoft stealth game Assassin's Creed. Initially revealed on April Fool's Day 2008, Kojima later announced that it would actually be in the game, unlockable by doing "something special". To obtain the attire, the player must acquire the "Assassin Emblem", a nod to the game's title (or input a password in the Extras section).[44]
Konami had originally planned to organize grand launch events in Tokyo, but some of them were canceled with the "safety of participants in mind" in light of the Akihabara massacre on June 8, 2008.[45][46] On June 15, 2009, a year after its release, Konami re-released MGS4 as a part of Sony's Greatest Hits collection.[47]
Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is a "touch shooting" game that revisits MGS4's plot and action through the touch interface.[48] Developers of the game LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule, released an expansion pack based on Metal Gear Solid 4 on December 23, 2008. It includes character skins for Old Snake, Raiden, Meryl, and Screaming Mantis, as well as a Metal Gear-themed set of levels.
In October 2011, Konami and Hasbro produced a special MGS4-themed version of Risk, which had playing pieces based on the game's various characters, plus a battle map based on Outer Haven. The game's characters can also be used as special allies.[49] Before his death in 2009, Project Itoh wrote a novelization of Guns of the Patriots. An English-language translation of the novel was published in North America in June 2012.[50]
Versions [ edit ]
A Limited Edition was released simultaneously with the game's standard edition, as an enhanced counterpart. The limited edition contains Guns of the Patriots, a box with artwork by Yoji Shinkawa, a Blu-ray Disc containing two "making of" documentaries, and partial game soundtrack containing only songs written by Harry Gregson-Williams. The Limited Edition was available exclusively at GameStop in the United States and EB Games in Canada,[51] while a similar bundle with an additional 6-inch 'Olive Drab' Old Snake Figurine was made available at Play.com in the United Kingdom.[52] It is also included in the 40GB Limited Edition PlayStation 3 Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle.
In North America, a bundle containing an 80GB PlayStation 3, a DualShock 3 wireless controller, a downloadable game coupon for Pain, and a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was released for US$499 on June 12, 2008, to coincide with the release of the standalone edition.[53] Japan saw the release of the Guns of the Patriots Welcome Box that contains the game itself, a DualShock 3 controller, a Sixaxis controller, and a 40GB PlayStation 3 in either black, white or silver.[54]
Sony also announced a limited edition pre-order bundle containing Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition and a matte grey (officially titled Gunmetal Grey) 40GB PlayStation 3. First announced in Japan on March 18, 2008, at a cost of ¥51,800,[55] the bundle sold out by March 25, 2008.[56] An identical bundle was available in North America for pre-order on May 19, 2008, in "very limited" supply for US$600 at Konami's official website.[57] David Reeves has announced a similar bundle for Europe which includes a 40GB PlayStation 3, the game itself and a DualShock 3 controller.
A downloadable version of the game was released on PlayStation Store at the end of 2014.[58] It was also briefly available as a PlayStation Now rental title in North America,[59] before being delisted by Konami due to undisclosed reasons.[60]
Reception [ edit ]
Commercial [ edit ]
According to Konami, the game shipped over 3 million units worldwide on the day of its release.[61] According to Enterbrain, Guns of the Patriots sold 476,334 copies in its first four days on sale in Japan, which includes copies bundled with the PlayStation 3, and caused a boost in PlayStation 3 sales.[62] The PS3, which at the time sold about 10,000 units in a given week, went on to sell 77,208 units in the game's debut week.[62] It was the 11th best-selling game of Japan in 2008, selling 686,254 copies.[63] According to Chart-Track, the game is the second fastest-selling PlayStation 3 title in the United Kingdom after Grand Theft Auto IV and was below Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty's opening weekend figure by 14,000 copies recorded in 2002; the sales of the PlayStation 3 increased by a "minimal" seven percent over the opening weekend.[64] Konami has reported that MGS4 sold over one million copies across Europe in its first week, with 25,000 limited-edition copies "snapped up almost immediately".[65] The game received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[66] indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[67] In the United States, MGS4 was the best-selling game in June 2008 selling 774,600 copies (nearly one million if the number of copies bundled with the PlayStation 3 console was included), causing PS3 sales to double over the previous month, according to the NPD Group.[68] As of December 2009, the game had sold over 5 million copies worldwide, as stated on page 5 of Konami's 3rd Quarter Financial Results. This milestone labeled it as the best-selling PlayStation 3 exclusive until the release of Gran Turismo 5. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is now one of the Platinum range of bestselling games.[69] However, these figures were widely misreported as it also included other games in the franchise.[70] On May 21, 2014, Ryan Payton, a former employee of Kojima Productions who worked on Metal Gear Solid 4, stated that the game has sold 6 million copies.[71]
Critical reception [ edit ]
Metal Gear Solid 4 received universal acclaim, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[72] The first review was a 10/10 from PlayStation Official Magazine (UK), commenting "MGS4 shifts gears constantly, innovating again and again".[89] The game has been awarded 10/10 from Game Informer[79] and a 5/5 in all categories (graphics, control, sound, and fun factor) from GamePro.[77] Japanese magazine Famitsu (40/40)[76] and Empire.[90] The game received a 9.9/10 from IGN,[83] a 9.5/10 from IGN Australia,[84] and a 10/10 from IGN.[82] IGN was quoted in a video review, saying MGS4 is "one of the best games ever made".[82] Edge[74] and Eurogamer[75] both gave the game 8/10. GameSpot gave it a 10/10 saying "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is the most technically stunning video game ever made",[80] making MGS4 one of only five games ever to receive a perfect "10" from both IGN and GameSpot, and the sixth of only nine games to receive a perfect ten from GameSpot overall. IGN also included the game at #59 in its list of Top 100 Games of a Generation.[91]
Reviewers acclaimed the manner in which the title concludes the series. Eurogamer stated that "You could not ask for a funnier, cleverer, more ambitious or inspired or over-the-top conclusion",[75] and IGN found that the result "refines the MGS formula and introduces just enough new (or respectfully influenced) ideas to ensure that it stands on its own as a game".[84] Edge concluded that "it is faithful to its fans, its premise and its heart, delivering an experience that is, in so many ways, without equal",[74] while IGN UK described it simply as "the ultimate Metal Gear game" and "a dazzling, heart-lifting, voyage of discovery".[83]
The game was also described as being very sad and depressing for a video game, with the main character dealing with death, depression, and self-carelessness. Kotaku said, "Metal Gear Solid 4 is so unusual in that it's the rare game that asks them to be interested in something else: a march toward defeat, an interactive tragedy."[92]
The new control scheme ("the ideal balance of intuitiveness and range"),[74] camouflage system[74][83] and shift to more free-form, "replayable" gameplay (in particular the Drebin Points system and alternatives to "stealthy" play)[74][83] were particularly highly praised with a few minor annoyances.[84] The variety of set-piece events, details such as the "psyche" meter, and healthy provision of secrets were also remarked upon.[74][83] Eurogamer tempered their overall praise with concern that one of the chapters may induce "ennui", but noted that the game quickly recovered,[75] while Edge expressed mild disappointment that the "Beauty and the Beast" unit compare poorly to the previous title's main foes, the "Cobra Unit".[74]
The game was also lauded for its technological and artistic achievements, with Edge describing the "Otacon" character as "the real star", and "a gaming revolution" while they found the game's score to be superior to that of many Hollywood offerings. The magazine felt that the few visual shortfalls (such as texture detail) did nothing to detract from the game's overall quality.[74] IGN UK commented that the attention to detail in both visuals and audio represented "sublime brilliance", and remarked upon innovations such as the use of split-screen.[83]
Criticism of the game was largely leveled at the storyline, which reviewers found at times to be confusing[75][84] or poorly executed[83] and with IGN UK advising players to revisit the earlier titles for clarity. However, the overall result was praised as emotionally engaging and topical, and characters such as Liquid Ocelot were singled out for the quality of their depiction.[74][75][83] It was generally conceded that although the use of cut scenes were more intrusive than they needed to be (comprising "about half of the content of the game" by one estimate, and which "might make you crave action, or wonder why they couldn't have been turned into interactive sequences"),[83] the style was somewhat appropriate given the rest of the series[84] ("in many ways it's a vindication of Kojima's unique interpretation of the videogame medium"[83]) and unlikely to trouble fans.[74] The addition of a pause function for these story sequences was universally welcomed.[75][83][84]
Edge and Eurogamer alike concluded that although the game represents an apotheosis of the series style, it ultimately fails to revitalize it, and would not win over new fans.[74][75] IGN UK was concerned that the game's hype and widespread praise may lead to disappointment, but felt that the game was a "masterpiece".[83]
Awards [ edit ]
Following the critical acclaim it received upon its release, Metal Gear Solid 4 won many Game of the Year awards from many international outlets, these including GameSpot, Gamezine,[93] and PALGN, along with a significant amount of Readers' Choice awards, and awards directed towards its story-telling, graphical, and voice-acting aspects.[94] GameSpot praised the game significantly, and awarded it "Game of the Year", "Best PS3 Game", "Best Graphics (Technical)", "Best Boss Battles", "Best Story", "Best Voice Acting", "Most Memorable Moment", and "Best Action/Adventure Game". IGN awarded the game "Best PS3 Game of 2008", "Best Graphics Technology", "Best Original Score", and "Best Action Game". PALGN awarded it "Game of the Year", "PS3 Game of the Year", and "Best Visuals". PC World also heralded MGS4 with "Game of the Year". Playfire awarded the game "Game of the Year", "Best Action/Adventure Game", and "Best Graphics". MGS4 also won "Game of the Year" from the Portuguese Eurogamer.[95] On NeoGAF, MGS4 was also awarded "Game of the Year". The German site 4PLAYER.de gave MGS4 "Game of the Year" also. GamePro awarded the game "Best PS3 Game of 2008" and "Best Action/Adventure Game". 1UP.com gave MGS4 "Game of the Year", "Best PS3 Game", "Best Action Game", and "Best Audiovisual Experience". Fox News Channel awarded the game "Best PS3 Game of 2008" and "Best Game of 2008". GameSpy awarded it "Best PS3 Action Game". From Gamezine, MGS4 won "Game of the Year", and "Best PS3 Game". Giant Bomb gave it "Best PS3-Only Game", "Best Graphics", and "Most Satisfying Sequel". In the Golden Joystick 2008 awards, MGS4 was awarded "Best PS3 Game". At Tokyo Game Show 2009, Metal Gear Solid 4 received the Grand Award (alongside Mario Kart Wii) and the Award of Excellence. The readers of PlayStation Official Magazine voted it the 5th best PlayStation title released.[96][97]
Konami review limitations [ edit ]
Several publications have commented[98][99][100] on limitations given to pre-release reviewers by Konami, including discussion on the length of cutscenes and size of the PS3 installation. These limitations resulted in Electronic Gaming Monthly |
had cut off their sacrifice, the Yuan [Mongol] dynasty had risen from the desert to enter and rule over Zhongguo for more than a hundred years, when Heaven, wearied of their misgovernment and debauchery, thought also fit to turn their fate to ruin, and the affairs of Zhongguo were in a state of disorder for eighteen years. But when the nation began to arouse itself, We, as a simple peasant of Huai-yu, conceived the patriotic idea to save the people, and it pleased the Creator to grant that Our civil and military officers effected their passage across eastward to the left side of the River. We have then been engaged in war for fourteen years; We have, in the west, subdued the king of Han, Ch'en Yu-liang; We have, in the east, bound the king of Wu, Chang Shih-ch'eng; We have, in the south, subdued Min and Yueh [Fukien and Kuang-tung], and conquered Pa and Shu [Sze-chuan]; We have, in the north, established order in Yu and Yen [Chih-li]; We have established peace in the Empire, and restored the old boundaries of Zhongguo. We were selected by Our people to occupy the Imperial throne of Zhongguo under the dynastic title of 'the Great Ming,' commencing with Our reign styled Hung-wu, of which we now are in the fourth year. We have sent officers to all the foreign kingdoms with this Manifesto except to you, Fu-lin, who, being separated from us by the western sea, have not as yet received the announcement. We now send a native of your country, Nieh-ku-lun, to hand you this Manifesto. Although We are not equal in wisdom to our ancient rulers whose virtue was recognized all over the universe, We cannot but let the world know Our intention to maintain peace within the four seas. It is on this ground alone that We have issued this Manifesto." And he again ordered the ambassador Pu-la and otheAustralian Michael Sidonio is “a competitive strongman” and also a first rate amateur astrophotographer who spotted a previously unheralded dwarf galaxy:
From his gallery:
NGC 253-dw2 Deep Discovery Image – Credits Michael Sidonio
As part of a professional team lead by Aaron J. Romanowsky and David Martinez-Delgardo, this is my first involvement in a scientific discovery and my first scientific paper too. The paper was accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of The Royal Astronomical Society on Monday 21 Dec 2015.
The galaxy, in this case a Dwarf Spheroidal, was first discovered in a deep image I did of NGC 253 using my Orion Optics UK AG12 a 12″ F3.8 corrected Newtonian. This was then subsequently followed up by deep exposures by the CHART 32 team with their 32″ F7 corrected Cassegrain telescope at Cerro Tololo and then finally the Suprime-Cam on the 8m Subaru telescope was used, in sub arc sec seeing, to resolve stars and confirm the discovery and galaxy classification.
So to discover something so faint and so close to such a well researched galaxy like NGC 253 is extra special and the new galaxy is called NGC 253-dw2
The last line of the abstract is very encouraging too: “We also note the continued efficacy of small telescopes for making big discoveries”
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RedditAfter beating a Custom Night preset on Very Hard mode, you will be greeted to a secret minigame, which shows the events after Ennard had been stuffed inside of Michael. In the first minigame, Michael looks like a normal man, wearing a purple shirt and blue pants. The people around him wave cheerfully. In the second minigame, everything is the same just with him having a minor skin color change from tan-pink to tan. The people around him continue to wave cheerfully. In the third minigame, Michael's skin seems to be more of a green color. The first person he walks past has a bewildered expression on his face. The rest are normal, just waving happily like nothing happened. In the fourth minigame, Michael's skin becomes a darker greenish-brown; his eyes are also now completely black. The last three people he walks by give him a look of confusion. In the fifth minigame, he looks much more decrepit than he did in the past minigames, with a strange glowing in one eye. Everyone around him appears very concerned. In the sixth minigame, his skin has turned a dull purple, now having a white glow in both of his eyes. He also acts to be more senile and less lively than he was before. There are much fewer people around him and one of them is hiding behind their house in fear. In the last minigame, he is hunched over and his skin is a dark purple color. His appearance is now very reminiscent of purple guy. Everyone around him has hidden behind their houses in dread and fear. Eventually, his body has a spasm, and he regurgitates the robotic parts belonging to Ennard into the sewer. He lies on the ground, presumably dead. The player then hears Circus Baby's voice repeating the words, "you won't die." Michael then gets revived while all of the animatronics' eyes show up in the entrance of the sewer.As we’re based in Ottawa, Ontario, we have a couple local haunts that we always like coming back to. Places where we know we’ll get good food, unique cocktails, and a great atmosphere. EVOO Greek Kitchen in Ottawa’s Little Italy is one of those places.
Full disclosure: FMMS is not paid or solicited to advertise for local businesses. We’re simply recounting our experience at one of our favourite hangouts.
Recently, we were invited by owners Elias Theodossiou and his wife April to help them test out some new cocktails for EVOO’s fall menu. We were more than happy to oblige and provide feedback on the new drinks.
“We’re looking to add some heavier fall and winter flavours, but retain those Greek ingredients that make our menu unique,” explained Elias when asked about his approach. Understandably, he didn’t want to venture too far off his current drink menu which features Skinos-based cocktails.
Skinos is a Mastiha-based liqueur native to Greece. Click here to read our original post on it.
Elias tasked bartender Duncan Paterson, an imposing guy with a heart, and beard, of gold, to come up with some recipes. Some should be new, some established, but all should usher in the colder weather.
As Duncan presented us with one concoction after another, we took a couple of sips (or nine or ten) and provided a bit of feedback on each one – a bit more sweetness, less bitters, well-balanced, etc.
Overall, we came away thoroughly impressed with the offerings. Not all of the cocktails we tasted will end up on their menu, but the following ones were our favourites.
Skinos Peach Pie
This was arguably my favourite, if only because it was so unique. The Skinos and peach juice worked well together, and the kick of the cinnamon is pure Christmas. It resembled a Brandy Alexander, but with a unique flavour that only the Mastiha liqueur can provide.
The Skinos Peach Pie is definitely one to make for friends and family during the Holidays.
1 oz Skinos
1/2 oz spiced/dark rum
2 oz peach juice
1 oz cream (10%)
Couple dashes of cinnamon
Peach slice garnish
Add ice and all of the ingredients in a shaker and shake well. Strain into a highball glass over ice. Garnish with a peach slice.
Skinos Fizz
Similar to its cousin the Skinos Fresh, the Fizz is a more casual cocktail that’s appropriate for any time of the year, in my opinion. The club soda works well with the cucumber. If you find that it lacks in sweetness, just add a bit more simple syrup to the mix.
1 1/2 oz Skinos
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
¼ cucumber muddled
Club soda
Add Skinos, lemon juice, and simple syrup to a shaker with ice. Muddle the cucumber and strain into a highball glass with ice. Top with club soda.
Micheladopoulos
A take on the Mexican cocktail the Michelada, this version is just a bit more Greek (and not only in name). Mixed with delicious dark Vulcan beer from Santorini, this is for anyone who loves spicy drinks.
The kicker here is the Tsipouro. Tsipouro is a type of Brandy that is notorious in Greece. With 40%-45% alcohol content, it beats out good ol’ tequila in the strength category. But don’t worry, it plays nicely with the other ingredients.
Coincidentally, this was Marco’s favourite cocktail of the evening. He was adamant that I mention that fact.
½ bottle of Vulcan dark (or another type of dark beer)
½ cup of Clamato juice
½ a lime
1 oz Tsipouro (or tequila)
Couple dashes of hot sauce
Steak spice
Muddle lime in a shaker with Tsipouro. Add beer and Clamato juice into a pint glass with ice. Pour the lime juice and Tsipouro into the glass. Add a couple dashes of hot sauce and garnish creatively.
EVOO Greek Kitchen Sink
Duncan threw everything at us with this one, but to my surprise, it worked. All of the ingredients were thought out and mixed well together. The result is a strong, balanced cocktail that appeals to many tastes.
1 oz tequila
1 oz rye
1/2 oz lychee liqueur
Splash of lime
Ginger ale
Add all ingredients (except ginger ale) into a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a tall glass over ice. Top with ginger ale.
We had a great time trying out these cocktails and offering our humble advice to Elias and company. We were honoured to be part of the process and look forward to helping them out again in the future.
Make these yourself at home, or if you’re in the Ottawa area pay Elias and April a visit and order a couple. It may just become your regular hangout as well.
Be sure to come and say hi to the five handsome men sitting at the bar while you’re there!When will rappers learn? Be careful what you tweet. Now Chief Keef is the latest example of a rapper sending something out on social media that they regret.
On Friday (Jan. 29), Sosa sent out a strange tweet directing fans to an address in North Minneapolis. Along with the address, he wrote, "Throw eggs and shit in a bag and rocks and all that at this address Ima repost it." The tweet has since been deleted.
It turns out the home at that address is being occupied by three college students who have stayed there for over a year. They tell Minneapolis' Eyewitness 5 News they have no connection to the rapper.
That didn't stop Chief Keef's Twitter followers, who were in the area, from riding by the house in large numbers and taking pictures and posting them to social media. So much so that the residents had to call the police. "I'm fearing for my safety," said Ashley, one of the women living in the home. "I have two other roommates that aren't able to come home tonight because of this, and it's not going to end tonight. Social media goes on forever. You could re-tweet this in four months and throw eggs at my house."
Meanwhile, a fan who pulled up on the scene notified Chief Keef of the action on Twitter and the "I Don't Like" rhymer responded, "They might Have the Police looking for me."
Police guarded the house against attacks and advised the residents to relocate for the night. There was no reported damage to the home. But the inconvenience and prospect of something happening in the future have those who live there pissed.
"You have a lot of say in what goes on in the world, being so famous, that this is just kind of sickening in what you do with your time, and if you're going to put a hit on a house, you make sure that they live there," Ashley said.
Chief Keef hasn't revealed the reason why he sent out the initial tweet.An unofficial gay Pride parade organised by a right-wing nationalist is planned for July 29 to run through a predominantly immigrant neighbourhood with a large Muslim population.
The event is making the headlines in the country and globally for all the wrong reasons.
Pride Järva is organised by Jan Sjunnesson, a former editor-in-chief of Samtiden, a web-magazine owned by Sweden Democrats (SD), the anti-immigration party that became the third largest political party in the Swedish parliament following the 2014 general election.
Sjunnesson is also the editor of website Avpixlat, often described in mainstream Swedish media as a xenophobic and far-right website.
The planned parade has attracted criticism from the official Pride organisers, Sweden's LGBT federation, and anti-racism groups.
They believe the agenda behind this parade organised by the far-right is to try to provoke Muslims in the predominantly immigrant areas.
In a joint statement released to Al Jazeera, the official Stockholm Pride and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) said they were distancing themselves from the initiative.
"Jan Sjunnesson has for a long time made himself known as a person who's spreading hatred towards Muslims on social media [and] who's not supporting LGBT rights.
"The magazine Expo in February published a compilation in which they, among other things, showed how Sjunnesson... had shared an American film where Muslims were described as paedophiles and homosexuals and a 'Satanistic threat against society' who should be deported," the statement said.
Read the full statement here.
Sjunnesson, a 57-year-old father of one, told Al Jazeera he rejected the claims that he is "homophobic" and "racist".
RELATED: Seeing Sweden's race problem for what it is
"I am not homophobic, the media made these remarks about me. I used to be bisexual, now I am married to an Indian woman, so I am not racist either," he said.
"However, I am against the Islamisation of Sweden."
Sjunnesson says the leftist media has been very critical of the parade which they say is "provocative".
"I don't think there is anything wrong with that! I think it's good to be provocative and have an element of surprise," he said.
Element of'surprise'
Sjunnesson said the plan is to have a fun and peaceful parade. About 100 people are expected to attend the parade.
He believes it is time to bring the Pride Järva to areas other than central Stockholm, and that is why he chose to have it in these areas.
"I chose the area because I think we should be able to parade anywhere and we should not allow the Islamisation of Sweden to grow and stop us from what we want to do," he said.
Annika Hamrud, a journalist, believes Sjunnesson is staging the parade for attention and publicity, and the media is buying into it.
"The organiser has a history of making homophobic statements in the past, and he was expelled from SD for being too extreme. He is using this as a platform to make it more antagonistic between the LGBT and the Muslim community," she said.
Hamrud said: "There are so many areas in the capital that have never had the Pride parade, why not go there, why isolate the event by holding it in an area that is too far from the main parade?"
She concluded that the parade is called Pride because people are supposed to parade with pride in the heart of Stockholm, not in isolated areas.
A counter parade is planned on the same day, according to a post on the Facebook page of the Anti-racist Pride Park March.
Emelie Martensson, organiser of the counter parade, says 800 people have registered to attend.
They intend to meet the parade at the finishing point in Husby. "When the racists and Islamophobes want to use LGBT as a tool we have to unite and say NO," said Martensson.
The marchers in the counter parade will turn their back at the alternative pride parade once they pass their area and after that the entire group will head to the park where everyone in the community from all walks of life can be together.
RELATED: Sweden immigrants dismayed by far-right gain
Al Jazeera spoke to Mohammed Noor, a resident of Tensta for over 20 years and a member of the local ruling Social Democrats party.
"I have the right to my ideology," Noor said. "I shouldn't be forced to agree with any other ideology or way of life. However, it does not give me the right to insult anyone else's ideology and way of life.
"We live in a country that has freedom of speech. Everyone should be allowed to express themselves. However, with that freedom comes the responsibility not to insult any other group."
'No one is bothered'
Noor worries the Pride Järva parade could lead to possible clashes; however, he is not worried about the adults in the area.
In an area that has recently been plagued by violence and social exclusions that led to riots last summer, there are many restless teens that may play into the hands of the organisers.
"To be honest the only people debating this parade are politicians and the media. In the streets no one is really bothered and no one is talking about this, just in the last two weeks there have been two murders in the area and that is what people here are concerned about," said Noor.
He said the organiser is using Pride to promote his hidden agenda.
"Why can't he just be transparent? Sjunnesson should not hijack pride parade and pretend to care about the rights of LGBT community.
"Pride has been taking place in Sweden since 1991, and we have never had any clashes. In the end, as a Muslim, I don't think it's our place to judge anyone that walks on this earth, leave the judging to God and stop the normalising of Islamophobia," Noor said.
Joanna Ljunggren, the official Pride spokesperson, echoed Noor's sentiment.
"We are bigger and stronger together. Pride represents to me the politics of inclusiveness and ability to be who you are and be able to come out, love, and of course take part in the big party," Ljunggren said.Professionalisation through central contracts and a greater focus on T20s have allowed women's cricket to take a big leap in the last decade or so. With the 11th Women's World Cup around the corner, our correspondents Annesha Ghosh, Firdose Moonda, Melinda Farrell, Shashank Kishore and Vishal Dikshit asked some of the leading female cricketers and a coach about the developments they have seen
How has power-hitting evolved in the women's game, which was traditionally more reliant on touch play?
Alex Blackwell, Australia batsman: Because of the influence of T20s, I've needed to work on my power-hitting. Over the last 12 months, coach Mark McInnes [New South Wales and Sydney Thunder] has helped look at my hand speed, the trajectory that I'm trying to hit the ball, what sort of angle works best to clear the fence.
Professionalism has had an impact. I'm able to train for hours during the day, which wasn't possible earlier because of daytime jobs. Now, there's time for rest and recovery.
Mithali Raj, India batsman and ODI captain: Developing core strength has been key to the adjustments I have made. Those have helped me loft easily. As a teenager, I used to struggle to do that. I think Stafanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Ellyse Perry have taken power-hitting to a new level in the women's game.
Harmanpreet Kaur, India allrounder: Gym sessions have become very important. It's not just your arms or core that you need to generate power with. You also need to have a strong lower body to complete quick singles and convert ones into twos and not fizzle out during a long innings.
Heather Knight, England batsman and captain: I think the biggest change in power-hitting is a bit more about mentality. Batters are more willing to take risks. Obviously when you play T20 World Cups in India and the boundary is 80 metres, it's quite difficult, particularly on slow pitches, to showcase that power-hitting. On slightly faster pitches and more suitable boundary sizes, players are better able to showcase those skills. Strength is part of that, but I don't think it's the full story. General skill levels have increased massively and you're seeing a lot more of the so-called difficult shots, like hitting over extra cover.
Sophie Devine, New Zealand allrounder: Having central contracts around the world has given the girls a lot of time to put the extra effort into their strength and conditioning. In the last couple of years, we've seen players hit the fence relatively easily. Alongside that, it's the bat and equipment we use. But at the end of the day, it does come a lot down to the ability to train and gym.
Harmanpreet Kaur plays a shot to the leg side Getty Images
Bismah Maroof, Pakistan allrounder: When I came into international cricket at the age of 15, I had very little understanding of the relationship between body mechanics and athletic performance. But over time I realised power-hitting is one aspect we, the Pakistan players, and the Asian teams in general, are conspicuously weaker in than any of the top nations. In recent years, West Indies have upped the standard of their game by injecting greater power into their strokeplay. They have improved their fitness immensely, especially over the past three years or so, and it shows in the results they have achieved.
As someone who focuses on timing the ball well, my emphasis has largely been on assessing the needs of the team in the context of a particular phase of play. And, perhaps, that has also been the overall approach of the Pakistan team as a batting unit, even though we have a bunch of players who have the ability to hit fours and sixes.
Tammy Beaumont, England batsman: I've seen a South African player, Lizelle Lee, hit one of our bowlers out of the ground over extra cover. All of us just stood there in shock because we didn't really know what to make of it. You're seeing girls hit it all around the ground. But they have still got that deft touch of scooping it over their head, sweeping, all those kind of shots. It's just making batters so much more dangerous.
Natalie Sciver, England allrounder: Coming up against the likes of Deandra Dottin and people who can hit it miles, it adds that pressure that you don't get otherwise.
Asmavia Iqbal, Pakistan fast bowler: The incredible batting standards set by the men's game has been key to women players aspiring to send more balls soaring into the stands. I think my natural build as a fast bowler has helped me enjoy my occasional stints as a pinch-hitter, and following the fair bit of success I enjoyed on those occasions, I have tried to work on my physique in order to add more power to my shots.
What role have strength and conditioning coaches played in taking the game forward?
Knight: Probably the biggest change is that the younger players are a lot more prepared now. We probably spend six days a week doing some sort of physical session, and now that we are professionally contracted, a lot of players see strength and conditioning work as the mainstay of the day.
"A lot of girls taking up cricket in Pakistan find themselves without access to gyms and fitness centres. For players in the national side, therefore, strength and conditioning coaches become almost indispensable" Sana Mir
Sciver: When I started, we'd do lunges, but these days it's more power exercises for the whole body, not just one movement. It's not just about your arms or your legs but how much power you can put through the ball using your whole body.
Maroof: It's been a little over two years since the Pakistan team consciously started investing more time and thought into acquiring greater physical strength. We started spending more time at the gym, doing a lot of weight training, plyometric exercises, and speed and agility training, and that reflects in the improved fitness levels of the players from what it used to be five years ago.
Beaumont: Even if we get a week off from cricket and training at Loughborough to catch up with friends or family, our strength and conditioning stuff doesn't stop. It just might change in that we don't all have to have sessions together.
Suzie Bates, New Zealand allrounder and captain: Since I've played international cricket, there has always been the odd player in each team that had that power. But recently, more and more girls are hitting the ball hard from ball one. It comes down to probably the fact that the girls are now training a lot more. I think coaches have coached girls to be more aggressive, and we are able to spend more time on our strength and conditioning because teams are becoming professional and semi-professional.
Sana Mir, Pakistan offspinner and ODI captain: Considering the sporting culture at the grass-roots level in Pakistan is somewhat non-existent, a lot of girls taking up cricket, or wanting to do so at a young age, find themselves without access to gyms and fitness centres. For players in the national side, therefore, strength and conditioning coaches become almost indispensable.
Mark Robinson, England coach: I think sometimes they [women's teams] had part-time [strength and conditioning coaches], so sometimes they did weights for the sake of weights and probably the wrong type of weights. The beauty of us having full-time strength and conditioning coaches is that they are tailoring their programmes to the individual.
Since the last World Cup, we have seen more and more female batsmen hit lofted shots on the off side, while earlier most would try to clear the leg-side boundaries. What has changed?
Sciver: That comes down to the technique and the timing. Harmanpreet Kaur is not a very big girl, is she? She can hit it miles, so it's not necessarily how many weights you lift. It's actually calculated. People are playing to their strengths. It's not just swinging and hoping for the best
Stats graph: Average runs per innings in women's cricket from 2009 to 2017 Getty Images
Bates: [Earlier] there was the odd player that was strong, hitting it through over cover, but now girls have 360 games. I don't think that's so much down to improved strength and power. It's just the more cricket they play, the more they train, the more you grow in the game, you are able to practise shots that perhaps weren't your strengths.
Devine: I think it's a natural evolution of the game, isn't it? Players want to get better and use different parts of the ground. In the Women's Big Bash, Harmanpreet Kaur hit a beautiful six over cover, which was the shot of the tournament for me. I think we'll see that a lot more in the next couple of years - the power to go over the off side.
Ellyse Perry, Australia allrounder: A few girls in world cricket have hit really well over cover. That's a lot to do with their natural set-up and the way they hit the ball. I think now girls are developing that too as an extra shot. With four [fielders] out in one-day cricket, there's always a fielder up, so one way you can get a lot of runs is over the covers.
Mir: Earlier the fielding side knew the batsman would invariably target the leg side, so the first instinct was to bowl outside the off stump. Since then, the batsmen and the analysts have worked on addressing the issue and they have developed their games to loft those balls over the off side for fours. Just like it so often happens with the men's sides, when a team develops a certain playing pattern, others analyse it and try and adopt it.
Do you think bringing the boundaries in - as we have seen being done recently, especially in England - is good for the women's game?
Raj: It shouldn't be too near that you have mishits carry, but not so big that the scores are less than what you'd generally want to have in ODIs or T20s. You want games to be competitive and one way is to ensure there is encouragement for batters to attempt big shots. If the boundaries are going to be 75 metres, that isn't going to happen.
Maroof: During our tour of England last year, the 50-metre boundaries didn't suit us at all. The English players have greater strength than us, which is why it became easier for them to hit even the good balls for sixes, and we ended up having to chase scores over 350 in two of the three ODIs.
"It's not just your arms or core that you need to generate power with. You also need to have a strong lower body to complete quick singles and covert ones into twos and not fizzle out during a long innings" Harmanpreet Kaur
Sciver: We played Pakistan in England and set the boundaries where we wanted them to be. It was going to be in our favour. But it was to show our team that it is possible to hit it over the rope and hit it a long way. We had a really short boundary at Worcester, and Tammy and Lauren [Winfield] were hitting it over the rope - not just a little bit. In contrast, we went to the West Indies and played on really slow pitches, really slow outfields and massive boundaries. The games were exciting, of course, but they were low-scoring, so it's up to the people that watch as to whether or not that's exciting.
Beaumont: It's actually nothing to do with the boundary size, it's more the pitch we play on. If you play on a good pitch, you can trust to hit through the line of the ball to 70-75 metres. We play on pitches that are used and a bit two-paced or slow or spinning a lot - that's where you can't trust that you can hit it 75 metres. In the World T20 in India, I think New Zealand men only got 120-130, which is kind of unheard of, and they won. Their game was very exciting, but if that had been a women's game it would have been ridiculed because it's low-scoring, it's boring.
Knight: What short boundaries do - and good pitches do, which I think is even more important - is that your bowlers' skill levels have to increase massively. You have to have a yorker and a good slower ball. I don't think we should set it the same size as men's boundaries. It should be a little bit smaller and in proportion to how the women can hit. I think it's about finding that balance where it's exciting to watch but also not forced.
Perry: If you're going to bring the boundary in, you need to play on smaller-sized grounds, so the spectators are still close to the action.
Bates: When the boundaries are long, you see more catches, but in domestic games, where the boundaries are too small, bad cricket shots are rewarded and it takes out the ability to run twos in small grounds. I think around 60 metres is a good boundary size. But if the wicket is slow and everyone bowls the spinners, you need to have power to really muscle the ball. Making sure we play on faster wickets with a bit of grass in them helps.
Blackwell: My game has been a safe game. I used to hit hard and flat and get one-bounce boundaries. At one time I didn't even consider trying to hit sixes because the reward for risk wasn't there. As the boundaries have come in, especially for T20s, I'm able to clear them, even by five to ten metres. My tactical approach has changed. I don't think it's out of balance. It's been good to encourage more big-hitting from the women.
Iqbal: As a bowler, I can say the shorter boundaries do little to help us. Considering how the players have gone about this WBBL, I'm sure some of them can easily clear 70-75m at will. Most of the present-day batsmen can hit the ball at least over 60m, so why should we pull the ropes in?
A view of Toorak Park Getty Images
Alyssa Healy, Australia wicketkeeper-batsman: Having smaller boundaries suits us. It also brings into play some of the smaller teams and makes the game exciting, which you eventually need for the fans to come.
Mir: I'm in favour of keeping the boundary at 60m or above. It's not only the lofted shots that go for boundaries. Good rolling shots, played with skill and hit through the gaps, can also go for fours. The rule of having five fielders inside the circle has already taken away flight from the spinners. Perhaps I can speak for most spinners around the world: there would be very little left for spin bowlers to play for if the ropes are pulled in even further.
Robinson: When we played in India [the WWT20] with big boundaries on slow wickets, the games were poor spectacles. I actually think it did a disservice to the gifts and the skills of the players. A variety of boundary sizes is great. If the boundaries are in sufficiently, batters don't feel they need to over-hit, and they actually clear the boundaries by a long way, which breeds confidence that they can do it. When the boundaries are too big, people don't go for it and it becomes a game of twos and ones, and it can stagnate, especially at the back end.
How have T20 leagues - the Women's Big Bash League in Australia and the Kia Super League in England - influenced the game?
Blackwell: In some ways, the WBBL is developing players from around the world, isn't it? The KIA League is doing the same. When young players in the team are exposed to what Harmanpreet or Stafanie Taylor can do, it lifts them.
Raj: Players are more confident of taking the game right till the end, and don't bogged down by loss of wickets.
Perry: If there was to be a women's IPL, it would take the cake from the Kia Super League and the WBBL, because the IPL for men is on such a huge scale. And I have no doubt that a female version would be similarly successful. I know all the players in the world would be eager to participate.
Bates: These leagues have given players the opportunity to play professional cricket for even longer rather than perhaps just with New Zealand Cricket, which was mostly seen as part-time. Other girls, who haven't been able to play in the Big Bash or the Super League, are working a lot harder, not only for the White Ferns but to be noticed by teams around the world.
Harmanpreet: In T20s, you have to maintain a strike rate in excess of 100 from the beginning, and strike rotation is a must. You cannot afford to play out one full over all by yourself, blocking deliveries. The defensive mode of play that one associated with women is becoming redundant.
"I think in the World T20, New Zealand men only got 120-130 and they won. Their game was very exciting, but if that had been a women's game it would have been ridiculed because it's low-scoring, it's boring" Tammy Beaumont
Maroof: I've followed the WBBL stints of some of the cricketers, and even played against them in the World Cup Qualifiers. The change in their approach is evident. When required to accelerate the scoring in the death overs, or faced with a daunting asking rate, very little seems to be out of reach for them. They are now better disposed to reading match situations, especially as captains. Bowlers are conceding fewer extras.
Sciver: T20 really helps the bowling mindset, especially when you come into 50-over cricket. You have to nail your variations, you have to bowl yorkers, because you're otherwise going to pay the price. It puts more pressure on you because you know people are going to try and hit you out of the game.
Iqbal: Of the WBBL games I watched, I remember at least two instances when the match turned on its head solely because of a brilliant catch or a couple of diving stops near the boundary.
Are spinners playing a bigger role in the game today?
Perry: Batters are becoming more adventurous with their shots and are wanting to clear boundaries. It's brought spin into the game and we see a lot of catches in the deep. The quality of spin is really high as well at the moment. Kristen Beams [Australian legspinner] is world-class. Pace bowling probably lagged in its development as opposed to batting and spin bowling in women's cricket.
Sciver: Previously spin wasn't really a wicket-taking option. You'd get through 20 overs in the middle of a 50-over game and try to go for as few runs as possible. If you bowled it slowly, they wouldn't be able to hit you. But nowadays, if you're facing spin, I find it even more of an opportunity to score really because you can use sweeps and reverse sweeps and things like that. We've got some really good spinners in the England squad - Heather Knight, Laura Marsh and Alex Hartley coming through - and they're certainly not just lobbing it up. They've got the variations seamers need, and I think spin could play a really important part in our World Cup.
Maroof: Conditions in England inherently favour fast bowlers and the trend is unlikely to change in the World Cup. However, considering how well spinners have fared through the [ICC] Women's Championship, even on pitches that are not regarded as spin-friendly, captains are perhaps becoming more accommodating to the idea of introducing spinners inside the first five-six overs with a view to enticing the batsman to go for big strokes.
Raj: Our attack has been spin-heavy because we've got bowlers who aren't afraid to give it good, slow flight, and the dip means batsmen have to reach out to force the pace. Hitting, especially against the turn, can be hard. In places where there is stiff breeze, it becomes tougher to negotiate spinners.
Harmanpreet: Spinners have been able to dominate because not all batsmen in the women's game have enough |
beyond the formulations of utilitarian individualism.
But they haven’t been abandoned completely. Burkeman’s ringing conclusion—“This, then, is the deep truth about insecurity: it is another word for life”—is a little too open-ended. By identifying all forms of insecurity with “life,” he depoliticizes it. The experience of economic insecurity, from this view, cannot be mitigated (or exacerbated) by particular public policies. Indeed, the equation of insecurity and “life,” while it does contain a “deep truth,” in the end blends all too easily with the neoliberal celebration of risk-taking as an end in itself—a celebration conducted by political and media elites who are themselves well insulated from risk. Burkeman’s notion of happiness, like the positive psychologists’, needs a thicker sense of the ways that social and economic circumstances can promote or undermine possibilities for a satisfying life.
* * *
Until very recently, most writers on happiness shared a common assumption. Happiness was more than a series of internal states; it was way of being in the world, including the public world. It was, in short, about living the good life. We need to recover that way of thinking. The father-and-son team of Robert and Edward Skidelsky have made a significant start in How Much is Enough?
The good life has always had much to do with politics—not because societies can be organized to promote personal happiness by “maximizing utility,” but because they can be organized to reduce unnecessary suffering. The Skidelskys recognize the inevitability of insecurity in human life, not to mention the impossibility and even potential undesirability of eliminating it from human society. They remember, perhaps too vividly, how easily visions of abundance for all succumbed to the totalitarian temptation throughout the twentieth century. Still, they also recognize the possibility of easing certain kinds of economic insecurity through enlightened public policy. A society that frees people from anxiety about basic necessities might not make them happier (“The tears of the world are a constant quantity”), but it might provide them a better shot at the good life. This is where John Maynard Keynes comes in.
Keynes’s influence on public policy has been profound and, on the whole, useful—one could say necessary. He formulated the monetary and fiscal policies that, in the decades following World War II, allowed welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic to flatten the curves in the business cycle and move societies closer to full employment. For a variety of complicated reasons (which the Skidelskys explore), the wheels came off the Keynesian bus in the late 1970s. But that doesn’t mean his policy recommendations are no longer relevant; on the contrary, as Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz and other economists have argued, Keynesian policies of underwriting aggregate demand are precisely what is needed in this era of Great Recession. The Skidelskys endorse Keynes’s policy relevance (indeed, Robert has done so at book length in Keynes: The Return of the Master). But in this book, they are more interested in Keynes as philosopher of the good life than as economist.
The Skidelskys begin with Keynes’s 1930 essay, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” which argued that the material basis for the good life was taking shape. The Skidelskys summarize: “As technological progress made possible an increase in the output of goods per hour worked, people would have to work less and less to satisfy their needs, until in the end they would have to work hardly at all. Then, Keynes wrote, ‘for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem—how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well.’” This could well happen, Keynes believed, by 2030.
All indications are that it won’t. Since the 1980s, in Britain and the United States, working hours have been rising steadily among all classes—including the wealthy, the traditional cultivators of leisure. The rich world is four or five times wealthier than in 1930, but average hours of work have fallen only 20 percent since then. The utopia of abundance and leisure is nowhere in sight. And so the Skidelskys want to know: “Why did Keynes’s prophecy fail?”
Posing that question is a good way to illuminate the impact of economic imperatives on cultural values during the decades since Keynes wrote. Though his policy prescriptions remain vital to our time, his philosophical assumptions seem charmingly archaic in the contemporary world of go-go capitalism. He believed that people had a finite quantity of material needs and that once those needs were met, they would kick back and cultivate genuine leisure. This expectation depended on a distinction between needs (which were material) and wants (which were merely psychic). What Keynes did not foresee is that wants have turned out to be infinitely expansive and easily mistaken for needs. The distinction between needs and wants has all but disappeared from the academy—not only from economics departments, but from the social sciences and humanities as well. The discovery that wants could be recast as needs, that luxuries could be transformed into necessities, has allowed the engines of economic growth to run endlessly. They can slow or stop, the Skidelskys write, only if “people choose not to want more than they need.”
This emphasis on the sovereignty of choice is uncharacteristically single-minded, but in general the Skidelskys are admirably open to multiple interpretations of consumer insatiability. How does one explain this “continuous, unsatisfied craving for more than one has”? Answers, they acknowledge, are no doubt rooted in the dim recesses of “human nature,” but one does not have to be a Marxist (and the Skidelskys are as determined as Keynes to distance themselves from Marx) to acknowledge that capitalism might have something to do with it. For two centuries or more, capitalist institutions have been manipulating wants, stoking status anxiety, rejecting sufficiency. (There is no such thing as “enough” for the hero of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, the go-getter acting on his natural instincts.) We have learned that under capitalism, everything can be monetized. The enlargement of the sphere of monetary value allows the direct comparison of goods previously considered incommensurable. “Education, for instance, is increasingly seen not as a preparation for the good life but as a means to increase the value of ‘human capital,’” the Skidelskys write. The monetary standard dissolves familiar notions of the real: “Traders in futures, derivatives and other rarefied financial products need know nothing at all of the actual goods that lie at the end of their transactions.” The obsession with money, far from promoting “materialism,” actually devalues certain forms of material life. Even as money remains a means for acquiring material goods to fashion a self, the goods themselves (like the self) become mobile and disposable, more and more ephemeral.
* * *
Keynes disdained neoclassical orthodoxies and acknowledged the play of “animal spirits” in the business cycle, the visceral impulses that shaped economic life more decisively than rational calculation ever could. But he remained a genteel aristocrat with respect to consumer culture. He “did not understand that capitalism would set up a new dynamic of want creation that would overwhelm traditional restraints of custom and good sense,” the Skidelskys observe. “Capitalism has achieved incomparable progress in the creation of wealth, but has left us incapable of putting that wealth to civilized use.” Keynes must have known that this disappointing outcome was at least a possibility. He realized that capitalism had declared “fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not.” In a Faustian bargain with the forces of darkness, capitalism licensed motives and practices previously considered “foul” (avarice, usury) in exchange for the prospect of a future utopia—a world delivered from scarcity and toil. Keynes, like other thinkers, “tried to envisage an end state, a point at which humanity could say ‘enough’”; he did not live long enough to join those who found “that the machine [capitalists] had created was out of control, a Frankenstein’s monster that now programmed the game of progress according to its own insane logic.” The Skidelskys are among these critics of capitalist progress.
They trace the rise of the Faustian bargain in economic thought, as early modern thinkers from Machiavelli to Mandeville redefined avarice as “self-interest.” For Adam Smith, who assumed that humans were driven by a desire for self-improvement, classical virtues became vices—extravagance and generosity (not to mention sex) were forms of recklessly scattering one’s seed instead of prudently saving it. In his Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith balanced this emphasis on calculating prudence with an emphasis on the sympathy (or “moral sense”) inherent in man. But later economists ironed out any such complexities. “The study of man as he ‘really is’ rather than as he ‘ought to be’ turned into an unassailable fortress of mathematics, bewitching its acolytes and reducing everyone else to futile protest,” the Skidelskys write. “The value-neutral language of ‘utility’ and ‘preferences’ renders capitalism’s Faustian bargain necessarily invisible” in the contemporary world.
The consequences for the good life—and the conceptions of happiness associated with it—were incalculable. “Acquisitiveness was licensed on condition it serve the social good,” the Skidelskys observe.
What was lost was the idea of the social good as a collective achievement. It became a result of individuals pursuing their self-interest in markets. The logic of contract was sundered from the logic of reciprocity, which in most human cultures and societies has been an integral part of the economy. As economics developed, it became increasingly difficult to distinguish wants from needs.
All these tendencies were well under way before Keynes made his hopeful predictions in 1930. He was swimming against the tide. Even during the Keynesian moment at midcentury, when his ideas had some influence on public policy, his social-democratic vision was concealed by the apparatus of value neutrality. After the revival of neoclassical economics in the 1970s and ’80s, what had occurred in the discipline of economics began happening in the larger world as well. By the late twentieth century, in public discourse on both sides of the Atlantic, capitalism was no longer an economic system that could be changed or challenged; it was simply reality, the Way Things Are.
This is the neoliberal world that gave birth to the happiness industry, which is inspired by the laudable desire to define happiness as something more than per capita GDP, but which wants to do so without ever challenging the economic system that produces the GDP. It is a thankless and futile task, as the Skidelskys make clear. The contemporary science of happiness, they write, “rests far too much faith on the accuracy of the survey data. More disturbingly, it treats happiness as a simple, unconditional good, measurable along a single dimension. The sources or objects of happiness are disregarded. All that matters is whether you have more or less of the stuff. These are false and dangerous ideas,” not least because they systematically ignore the larger interactions of the self and the world. According to the Skidelskys, “self-reports cannot be the ultimate criterion of happiness, however useful they might be as supplementary evidence…. Happiness…is not an item in the mind’s inner theatre, visible only to its owner; it is essentially manifest in acts and happenings.” Happiness, in short, is about being in the world with others.
Distinctions must be made—between happiness and pleasure, for example. Pleasure inheres in experience, not beliefs; a virtual woman might give a man pleasure but cannot make him happy. “Either happiness is understood in the pre-modern sense, as a condition of being, in which case it is not the kind of thing that could be measured by happiness surveys, or it is understood in the modern sense, as a state of mind, in which case it is not the supreme good,” the Skidelskys conclude. They have clearly opted for the pre-modern sense: “A happy life is not just a string of agreeable mental states but one that embodies certain basic human goods.” They devote the rest of the book to trying to show what those goods are.
It is, of course, easier to say why things are wrong than how they can be made right. The closest we have come to realizing Keynes’s vision of the good life was during the midcentury period, from the late 1930s through the early 1970s, when Western Europe and the United States developed social-democratic institutions to counteract unfettered capitalism—strong labor unions, flourishing systems of public education, social insurance and welfare programs for the elderly, sick, disabled and unemployed. As the Skidelskys observe, “the political economy of the period was admirably tailored to realizing our basic goods. The problem was that it lost the language for describing itself in these terms.” As social democrats began justifying the maintenance of a well-paid, healthy working population on utilitarian grounds of efficient productivity, moral arguments for the good life faded from view. When fiscal crises surfaced in the 1970s, social democrats had no cogent response to the neoliberal charge that unions and government largesse were undermining the capacity to compete in the world marketplace. The failure of institutions was at bottom a failure of moral imagination and political nerve.
As the Skidelskys argue, “our continuing addiction to consumption and work is due, above all, to the disappearance from public discussion of any idea of the good life.” And discussion is what it takes, not “counting heads or going around with a questionnaire.” Elements of the good life include “health, respect, security, relationships of trust and love.” These are not simply means to the good life; they are the good life. Such basic goods are universal (“they belong to the good life as such, not just some particular, local conception of it”), absolute (“good in themselves, and not just as a means to some other good”), sui generis and indispensable. And they are all threatened by the corrosive impact of contemporary capitalism. Consider health, surely an item on anyone’s list of basic goods. In our neoliberal era, the Skidelskys argue, health has been redefined from a state of being in “tip-top condition” to a project of “perpetual improvement” that, in the absence of a larger purpose, becomes an end in itself. The cultural consequences are profound. “If every state of the body can be seen as defective relative to some other, preferred state, then we are all in a sense perpetually ill,” they observe. “The world becomes, as Goethe said it would, a vast hospital, in which everyone is nurse to everyone else.” The cultures of therapy and capitalism coincide. The promise of health is available for purchase, but health itself is a fluid and ever-receding goal, part of the universe of “personal growth” imagined by the positive psychologists. Demand for health is insatiable; there can never be enough to go around. The Skidelskys urge a return from this consumer-driven model to the older notion of health as a state of being rather than a self-improvement project.
* * *
Here as elsewhere, the authors reveal an uncommon sensitivity to the abrasive impact of capitalist culture on human relationships. They prefer to focus on friendship rather than community as a nodule of the good life (claiming persuasively that “community” is too easily reified into a collective ideal that somehow transcends the welfare of its individual members). And they note the difficulties of sustaining friendship in a culture obsessed with mobility, autonomy and utility, where the speed-up is a way of life. “You need to rid your life of Leeches and replace them with Energizers,” says American lifestyle coach Robert Pagliarini. It is one of those quotations that, in its very banality and predictability, encapsulates the depth of our moral predicament. Free-market fundamentalists, the Skidelskys argue, “get things precisely backwards. It is not human beings who need adapting to the market; it is the market that needs adapting to human beings.” You cannot find a more succinct and compelling indictment of neoliberalism than that.
The Skidelskys’ alternative is modest and deeply humane, and involves no posturing or jargon. They are social democrats, not socialists, and they want to retrieve the ethical language of social democracy—on the assumption that if we start talking seriously about the good life again, we can begin re-creating the institutions to sustain it. They believe personal autonomy is one good among others, without giving it special preference. They believe that the cultivation of personality is a good as well, and that people need “a room behind the shop,” a protected place apart from commercial transactions to pursue that cultivation. They believe in the importance of property as a base for cultivating one’s tastes and ideals—one’s personality. But they like their property small; they are drawn to the traditions of Catholic personalism and distributionism—the localist communitarianism embraced by figures as diverse as G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy Day. They know, with William Morris, that the precondition for leisure is the reduction of toil. (That would include, for starters, the relaxing of demands for increased productivity, the slowing down of the speeding up.) They also know there are links between social Catholicism, the sociological liberalism of Tocqueville, and Burkean conservatism; with the thinkers in these traditions, they share an enthusiasm for mutual-aid societies and employee cooperatives—for voluntary associations that provide a meeting ground between the remote organization and the isolated individual. They might have mentioned the Protestant Social Gospel, and the need to recover and reassert it against the cult of prosperity that for several decades has commanded center stage in contemporary evangelicalism. An enlarged Protestant ethic—one that prizes commonwealth over wealth—could enrich their vision of the good life as well.
In the Skidelskys’ vision of the good society, noncoercive paternalism would be balanced by localism. The state would bear responsibility for promoting basic goods, would ensure that the fruits of productivity are shared more evenly, and would reduce the pressure to consume—perhaps through a progressive expenditure tax like the one proposed by the economist Robert Frank. This would restrain what he calls the “runaway spending at the top,” which belies the myth that the 1 percent is the “investing class” and has “spawned a luxury fever,” Frank writes, that “has us all in its grip.” To that same end—the dampening of consumption—the Skidelskys propose eliminating advertising as a deductible business expense. They are also refreshingly resistant to free-market globaloney. The good life, they make clear, is not (and cannot be) dependent on globalization: “Developed countries will have to rely more on domestic sources of production to satisfy their needs; developing market economies will need to abandon export-growth models that rely on ever-increasing consumption demand in developed countries.” Scaling back consumption means scaling down international trade. This is not an ascetic agenda—the charge so often leveled against critics of consumer culture, as if consumption is the only imaginable form of leisure. On the contrary: How Much Is Enough? is an effort to imagine possibilities for a satisfying life beyond market discipline.
The Skidelskys want to revive a more capacious sense of leisure, and they conclude their book by underscoring the material basis for it: a “long-term decrease in the demand for labor resulting from continuous improvements in labor productivity.” This has already happened, but the fruits of increased productivity have gone to CEOs and shareholders. Were those gains to be redirected to the workers themselves, the results would be startling: reductions in working hours, early retirements, experiments in work sharing, the thirty-five-hour week and the like. Who knows? People might even be happier.
This vision is timely, a crucial contribution to contemporary political debate. But what gives it arresting force is the commitment behind it. The Skidelskys deploy a tone of moral seriousness that few on the left seem willing to risk today—at least with respect to imagining the good life. Moral seriousness is always a tricky business; no one likes a scold. But after all the Skidelskys’ apt examples and patient arguments, they have established the authority to make this claim: “At the core of our system is a moral decay that is tolerated only because the cleansing of its Augean stables is too traumatic to contemplate.” How Much Is Enough? gets it right. Reading its bracing criticism and humane proposals, I felt a sense, however fleeting, of real happiness.By Philippa Fogarty
BBC News
The Roman Catholic Church is very influential in the Philippines
The group - 16 women and four of their husbands - are fighting a policy which they say denies them access to condoms, to the pill and other effective forms of family planning.
This has had a devastating effect on their lives, they argue, causing unwanted pregnancies, pushing them further into poverty and harming their health and wellbeing.
The case has sparked debate in the Philippines where, says Professor Michael Tan, chair of the anthropology department at the University of the Philippines, there is no national policy on family planning.
More than 80% of Filipinos are Roman Catholics and the Church is hugely influential. Abortion is banned and President Gloria Arroyo openly backs the Church's anti-contraception stance.
The city will not use funds for the procurement of contraceptives
Dr Gina Pardilla,
Manila City health official
Previous attempts to pass laws requiring government funding for services like family planning and Aids prevention have been blocked by conservatives, Mr Tan says.
This has left crucial decisions in the hands of local officials and resulted in a very mixed picture nationwide - so this case is very significant.
"People recognise that the courts must decide once and for all whether local government officials can unilaterally ban family planning services," he said.
'Culture of life
The policy at the centre of the controversy was introduced in February 2000 by the then Manila City Mayor Jose Atienza, a staunch Catholic.
He backed "natural" family planning - a less reliable method which involves couples not having sex when the woman is at her most fertile - and called the use of alternative contraceptives "a very, very destructive practice which ruins Filipino values".
We want to say that this cannot be done in Manila or anywhere else
Elizabeth Pangalangan,
lawyer for the plaintiffs
Mr Atienza passed Executive Order 003, which "upholds natural family planning not just as a method but as a way of self-awareness in promoting the culture of life while discouraging the use of artificial methods of contraception".
Although carefully worded to avoid an outright prohibition on "artificial" contraception, it was interpreted as such by city health officials, campaigners say.
Condoms and pills - which had been free - disappeared from local health centres. Hospitals turned down requests for sterilization operations. Many health workers stopped providing any information whatsoever on contraception.
Some family planning services did remain available at government-run hospitals or in other districts of the sprawling capital which did not fall under Mr Atienza.
But these services came at a price, people had to travel to get them and many simply did not know where to go. NGOs who tried to fill the gap reported harassment by city officials.
Unwanted pregnancies
Lawyers for the group - from Philippine-based rights organisations LIKHAAN and Reprocen, and the US-based Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) - argue that EO 003 has caused "serious and lingering damage" to residents.
The policy has hit poorest people the hardest, they say, forcing people to choose between a packet of pills or food for their families.
President Arroyo says that natural family planning is best for Filipinos
Several of the petitioners have had many more children than they wanted - some at the expense of their health - because they could not afford to pay for contraception.
The policy also exposed women to violence from husbands who did not want to abstain from sex, the rights groups found in an earlier report, and meant more women were resorting to illegal and unsafe abortions.
Mr Atienza is no longer mayor - he is now secretary for the Department of Environment - and his replacement Alfredo Lim is currently looking at the issue.
But EO 003 remains in place and there are no plans to start providing free contraceptives again - not even condoms for sex workers.
"The city will not use funds for the procurement of contraceptives - not when we have a budget deficit of more than 1bn pesos," said Dr Gina Pardilla of Manila City health department.
"We need the money for other social and health needs."
'Held hostage'
The plaintiffs argue that EO 003 violates the constitution - which gives couples the right to plan a family in accordance with their beliefs - as well as several international conventions to which the Philippines is a signatory.
Similar orders have been enacted in two other areas, which is why Elizabeth Pangalangan, Reprocen director and a lawyer for the petitioners, says it is important that the case sets a legal precedent.
"We want to say that this cannot be done in Manila or anywhere else," she said.
The group will take their case to international courts if necessary.
Success in the courts would be welcomed by a silent majority, Professor Tan said, citing surveys which show most Filipinos want access to family planning.
"Demand is very clear, but the problem is that the Catholic Church works on the supply side, getting to politicians like Mayor Atienza and threatening them with the so-called Catholic vote."
A court decision might also embolden government officials to implement nationwide policies, he said.
"The Department of Health is currently held hostage to the views of Arroyo - officials fear that they will lose their jobs if they promote family planning."
"A court decision would free people by taking away the Sword of Damocles hanging over them."A Note to My Readers
September 18, 2013
I apologize to my readers for the absence of a column today: I’m a bit under the weather. Indeed, that’s all I have the strength to give by way of an explanation. See you on Friday!
Anyone who thinks the US regime change operation in Syria is finished hasn’t been keeping up with the news.
Yes, the President and his interventionist advisors – notably Secretary of State John Kerry and US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power – have been rebuked by Congress and the American people: there will be no "shock and awe" over Damascus any time soon. The US military, for its part, has also signaled its displeasure at being asked to fight yet another futile Middle East war. Yet that hardly means the War Party has given up: far from it.
US-Saudi covert action in the Syrian civil war picked up just as Obama balked in the face of public outrage and just before the announcement that an agreement had been reached to dismantle Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal. On September 11, the Washington Post reported:
"The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear – a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the US role in Syria’s civil war."
Track one – direct US military intervention – has been effectively derailed, at least for the moment; however, this just means track two – a years-long effort to build up Syrian opposition forces – has been accelerated. The much-vaunted "moderate" rebel forces are getting $250 million in aid, including "light" weapons and ammunition, as well as "management" training in local governance. The idea is to focus on communities where al-Nusra, the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, is strong, so as to buttress supposedly "emerging moderate leaders."
That’s the theory: the practice, however, is quite another matter.
US aid is handled by the Syrian Support Group, a nonprofit organization which has the official Syrian rebel franchise: in short, SSG is the Daddy Warbucks of the rebel movement. According to Mother Jones reporter Dana Liebelson, Daddy is very laid back in his accounting and auditing methods. As her revealing piece informs us, the so-called vetting process is left largely up to local commanders, who may or may not be "extremists" themselves.
There is no governmental body in charge of oversight: all US aid is sent "directly to Syria’s Supreme Military Council," which in theory commands the loosely-organized "Free Syrian Army." SSG simply ships supplies, now including weapons, to US-Saudi-run warehouses, based in Turkey and Jordan, where the Supreme Council hands them out.
Dan Layman, the SSG’s official lobbyist, explains how the system is supposed to work:
“’A commander from a particular area will authorize a group of soldiers to go to a Supreme Military Council warehouse, and then write a detailed receipt saying this unit picked up three crates of MRE rations from the warehouse,’ Layman explains. The receipts are signed by the commander of the unit picking up the supplies and the local warehouse director, who is also under the command of the Supreme Military Council. Layman notes that his organization confers with senior commanders daily and has a staffer in Syria (a former Pentagon employee) who is responsible for oversight."
We are assured by the Syrian National Coalition – yet another component of the rebels’ labyrinthine organizational chart – that "every FSA brigade must meet certain conditions, including abiding by the FSA’s constitution, not having children or foreigners in their units, and accepting regular audits by the Supreme Military Council and countries providing aid."
In short: some guys show up at the SSG warehouse and hand the spooks in charge a note from a local commander requesting certain items: the warehouse supervisors hand the Syrian supplicants the supplies – say, materials for making a car bomb of the sort that enabled a suicide attack which blew up the headquarters of Syrian intelligence last year – along with a receipt. The local commander then writes up a report saying what has been received and by whom.
The problem is that the alleged division between "moderates" and "extremists" exists only in the minds of the SSG and their backers in the US Congress, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. On the battlefield these groups intermingle and are essentially indistinguishable in the chaos of combat.
One example: the recent siege of Maaloula, where both the Free Syrian Army and Al-Nusra, along with other radical Islamist militias, united to "liberate" one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East. "Convert [to Islam] or you will be beheaded," the rebel fighters told the inhabitants – who subsequently fled en masse as the rebels desecrated ancient monuments and terrorized nuns holed up at the St. Taklas monastery.
Those rebels shown in a New York Times video executing Syrian soldiers after torturing them – those were FSA "moderates." And remember the Syrian rebel cannibal who filmed himself eating the heart – or was it a liver? – of a captive soldier? "With the guy who was eating a heart, he was part of a moderate faction," says Layman, but "we work with [Supreme Military Council head Gen. Salim] Idris and let him know that he needs to prevent these things."
Good luck with that!
The "vetting process" much touted by the administration, as well as Senators McCain and Graham, is basically an act of faith – a de facto mirage, which is further clouded by the heavy involvement of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others less interested in the ideological-theological correctness of the rebel fighters than they are in quickly and effectively deposing the Assad regime.
While we are told the FSA "moderates" are numerically stronger, the reality on the ground is that the radical Islamists are hardened veterans of many conflicts, from Libya to Chechnya to Iraq (where they fought and killed US soldiers under the tutelage of Al Qaeda-in-Iraq). The US has set up a secret training camp in Jordan, with the cooperation of the Saudis and Qataris, but so far only 300 "vetted" fighters have been sent onto the battlefield. It may be too much to expect the rebels to deny US-supplied weapons and other materials to their best fighters.
Qatar is a major funding source for the radicals, and they are going all out in giving not only political support – via Al Jazeera, which is owned by the Qatari Emir – but also arming groups that don’t meet Western or even Saudi standards. As the Wall Street Journal reports:
"In Jordan, officials said they couldn’t yet tell whether the joint operation has reaped success in sifting moderate Syrian rebels from the extremists. Some said they couldn’t rule out the possibility some Saudi funds and arms were being funneled to radicals on the side, simply to counter the influence of rival Islamists backed by Qatar. US officials said they couldn’t rule out that mistakes would be made."
The last time we made a "mistake" of that magnitude US aid to the Afghan mujahideen gave birth to Al Qaeda. In Libya, too, Benghazi was yet another lesson in the consequences of "blowback." Yet we refuse to learn the lesson of these "mistakes" – which leads one to believe that either these people are really quite thick, or that these aren’t "mistakes" at all but rather a grotesque experiment in the tradition of Dr. Frankenstein.
Slithering around under this particular rock is the peripatetic Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud, former Saudi ambassador to the US and now chief of Saudi intelligence. Bandar is the legendary "fixer" whose close relationship with the Bush family and access to almost unlimited oil money greased the skids for the expanding influence of the Saudi lobby in Washington. The Prince, you’ll recall, played a similar role in funneling cash and weaponry to the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s – an operation that tried to end-run Congress and wound up tarring the Reagan administration in a major scandal. Bandar was also the key link in the scheme to arm the Afghan mujahideen – a project that culminated in the birth of Al Qaeda.
The American people rose and said: No war in Syria! They stopped the War Party dead in its tracks – but track two, the covert operation, is still very much in the works. Yet the people have an option in this case, too: they can demand their representatives in Congress put an end to this dangerous and illegal operation. The House, which is strongly opposed to a US strike on Syria, has the power to defund this nonsense once and for all.
So what’s stopping them? Only public ignorance of what’s being done behind the backs of the American people. Yet when the "blowback" blows up in our faces, you can be sure of one thing: no one in government will be held accountable.
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
Read more by Justin RaimondoAndy Blatchford, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- Provincial pressure is intensifying against the Trudeau government's controversial tax-reform proposals, which have angered business owners, doctors and farmers across Canada.
On Friday, provincial leaders representing different political stripes -- Liberals, New Democrats and Conservatives -- spoke out about tax reforms recommended by Ottawa's Liberal government.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister scheduled an afternoon event in Winnipeg, where he planned to publicly air his frustration over the federal tax proposals. Pallister will be flanked by dozens of business owners.
On the East Coast, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil expressed concern that the changes could hurt his province's physician recruitment efforts and hamper the ability of small businesses to create financial cushions as protection during downturns. McNeil was scheduled to meet federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau later in the day to directly convey this message.
Out west, British Columbia Finance Minister Carole James said she didn't think Ottawa had consulted enough on an issue that has spread fears of the "unintended consequences" on small business owners.
The comments by the provincial leaders added to waves of complaints that have come from a range of sectors -- as well as backbench Liberal MPs. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball has also said he thinks the tax changes would hurt his province.
At issue are Ottawa's plan to eliminate several tax incentives designed for private corporations.
Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have argued that the tax system unfairly encourages wealthy Canadians to incorporate, so they can get a better tax rate than middle-income earners.
They say the changes are meant to end tax advantages that some wealthy business owners have unfairly exploited and to ensure all Canadians have a level playing field.
But the federal explanations have yet to ease many concerns.
Pallister planned to add his voice to the uproar out of concern about the potential damage he believes the changes could inflict on thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses and their employees.
"Ask yourself this question: who do you trust to create jobs in Canada? Is it small businesses or the federal government that taxes those small businesses?," Pallister said in a statement prepared for his announcement.
In Halifax, McNeil urged Ottawa not to overlook the importance of these incentives for some small business owners and doctors who lack retirement plans.
"I've raised the issues that I've heard from Nova Scotians and I've raised my concerns that I have with them as well," he said of his discussions with Ottawa.
In Vancouver, James told business leaders after a speech that she believes in closing what Ottawa has described as "tax loopholes."
"But I also believe that there wasn't good consultation done," she said of the federal strategy.
"I have heard from many people, including many small business owners, that this doesn't close loopholes. In fact, it causes unintended consequences for many small business owners."
Morneau first released the government's three-part tax plan in mid-July.
The package includes restrictions on the ability of business owners to reduce their tax rate by sprinkling their income to family members in lower tax brackets, even if those family members do not contribute to the company.
Morneau also proposed limits on the use of private corporations to make passive investments that are unrelated to the company. Another change would limit business owners' ability to convert regular income of a corporation into capital gains, which are typically taxed at a lower rate.
On Friday, before his meeting with McNeil, Morneau said there was "some pretty obvious misinformation" circulating about the impacts of the proposals. Ottawa has been trying to bring clarity |
question. Note that this header is similar to the Allow response header, but used strictly within the context of access control.
The server also sends Access-Control-Allow-Headers with a value of " X-PINGOTHER, Content-Type ", confirming that these are permitted headers to be used with the actual request. Like Access-Control-Allow-Methods, Access-Control-Allow-Headers is a comma separated list of acceptable headers.
Finally, Access-Control-Max-Age gives the value in seconds for how long the response to the preflight request can be cached for without sending another preflight request. In this case, 86400 seconds is 24 hours. Note that each browser has a maximum internal value that takes precedence when the Access-Control-Max-Age is greater.
Preflighted requests and redirects
Not all browsers currently support following redirects after a preflighted request. If a redirect occurs after a preflighted request, some browsers currently will report an error message such as the following.
The request was redirected to 'https://example.com/foo', which is disallowed for cross-origin requests that require preflight
Request requires preflight, which is disallowed to follow cross-origin redirect
The CORS protocol originally required that behavior but was subsequently changed to no longer require it. However, not all browsers have implemented the change, and so still exhibit the behavior that was originally required.
So until all browsers catch up with the spec, you may be able to work around this limitation by doing one or both of the following:
change the server-side behavior to avoid the preflight and/or to avoid the redirect—if you have control over the server the request is being made to
change the request such that it is a simple request that doesn’t cause a preflight
But if it’s not possible to make those changes, then another way that may be possible is to this:
Make a simple request (using Response.url for the Fetch API, or XMLHttpRequest.responseURL ) to determine what URL the real preflighted request would end up at. Make another request (the “real” request) using the URL you obtained from Response.url or XMLHttpRequest.responseURL in the first step.
However, if the request is one that triggers a preflight due to the presence of the Authorization header in the request, you won’t be able to work around the limitation using the steps above. And you won’t be able to work around it at all unless you have control over the server the request is being made to.
Requests with credentials
The most interesting capability exposed by both XMLHttpRequest or Fetch and CORS is the ability to make "credentialed" requests that are aware of HTTP cookies and HTTP Authentication information. By default, in cross-site XMLHttpRequest or Fetch invocations, browsers will not send credentials. A specific flag has to be set on the XMLHttpRequest object or the Request constructor when it is invoked.
In this example, content originally loaded from http://foo.example makes a simple GET request to a resource on http://bar.other which sets Cookies. Content on foo.example might contain JavaScript like this:
const invocation = new XMLHttpRequest(); const url = 'http://bar.other/resources/credentialed-content/'; function callOtherDomain(){ if(invocation) { invocation.open('GET', url, true); invocation.withCredentials = true; invocation.onreadystatechange = handler; invocation.send(); } }
Line 7 shows the flag on XMLHttpRequest that has to be set in order to make the invocation with Cookies, namely the withCredentials boolean value. By default, the invocation is made without Cookies. Since this is a simple GET request, it is not preflighted, but the browser will reject any response that does not have the Access-Control-Allow-Credentials : true header, and not make the response available to the invoking web content.
Here is a sample exchange between client and server:
GET /resources/access-control-with-credentials/ HTTP/1.1 Host: bar.other User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1b3pre) Gecko/20081130 Minefield/3.1b3pre Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7 Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://foo.example/examples/credential.html Origin: http://foo.example Cookie: pageAccess=2 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:34:52 GMT Server: Apache/2.0.61 (Unix) PHP/4.4.7 mod_ssl/2.0.61 OpenSSL/0.9.7e mod_fastcgi/2.4.2 DAV/2 SVN/1.4.2 X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.6 Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://foo.example Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true Cache-Control: no-cache Pragma: no-cache Set-Cookie: pageAccess=3; expires=Wed, 31-Dec-2008 01:34:53 GMT Vary: Accept-Encoding, Origin Content-Encoding: gzip Content-Length: 106 Keep-Alive: timeout=2, max=100 Connection: Keep-Alive Content-Type: text/plain [text/plain payload]
Although line 11 contains the Cookie destined for the content on http://bar.other, if bar.other did not respond with an Access-Control-Allow-Credentials : true (line 19) the response would be ignored and not made available to web content.
Credentialed requests and wildcards
When responding to a credentialed request, the server must specify an origin in the value of the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, instead of specifying the " * " wildcard.
Because the request headers in the above example include a Cookie header, the request would fail if the value of the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header were "*". But it does not fail: Because the value of the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header is " http://foo.example " (an actual origin) rather than the " * " wildcard, the credential-cognizant content is returned to the invoking web content.
Note that the Set-Cookie response header in the example above also sets a further cookie. In case of failure, an exception—depending on the API used—is raised.
Third-party cookies
Note that cookies set in CORS responses are subject to normal third-party cookie policies. In the example above, the page is loaded from foo.example, but the cookie on line 22 is sent by bar.other, and would thus not be saved if the user has configured their browser to reject all third-party cookies.
The HTTP response headers
This section lists the HTTP response headers that servers send back for access control requests as defined by the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing specification. The previous section gives an overview of these in action.
Access-Control-Allow-Origin
A returned resource may have one Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, with the following syntax:
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: <origin> | *
Access-Control-Allow-Origin specifies either a single origin, which tells browsers to allow that origin to access the resource; or else — for requests without credentials — the " * " wildcard, to tell browsers to allow any origin to access the resource.
For example, to allow code from the origin http://mozilla.org to access the resource, you can specify:
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://mozilla.org
If the server specifies a single origin rather than the " * " wildcard, then the server should also include Origin in the Vary response header — to indicate to clients that server responses will differ based on the value of the Origin request header.
Access-Control-Expose-Headers
The Access-Control-Expose-Headers header lets a server whitelist headers that browsers are allowed to access.
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: <field-name>[, <field-name>]*
For example, the following:
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: X-My-Custom-Header, X-Another-Custom-Header
…would allow the X-My-Custom-Header and X-Another-Custom-Header headers to be exposed to the browser.
Access-Control-Max-Age
The Access-Control-Max-Age header indicates how long the results of a preflight request can be cached. For an example of a preflight request, see the above examples.
Access-Control-Max-Age: <delta-seconds>
The delta-seconds parameter indicates the number of seconds the results can be cached.
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials
The Access-Control-Allow-Credentials header Indicates whether or not the response to the request can be exposed when the credentials flag is true. When used as part of a response to a preflight request, this indicates whether or not the actual request can be made using credentials. Note that simple GET requests are not preflighted, and so if a request is made for a resource with credentials, if this header is not returned with the resource, the response is ignored by the browser and not returned to web content.
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Credentialed requests are discussed above.
Access-Control-Allow-Methods
The Access-Control-Allow-Methods header specifies the method or methods allowed when accessing the resource. This is used in response to a preflight request. The conditions under which a request is preflighted are discussed above.
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: <method>[, <method>]*
An example of a preflight request is given above, including an example which sends this header to the browser.
Access-Control-Allow-Headers
The Access-Control-Allow-Headers header is used in response to a preflight request to indicate which HTTP headers can be used when making the actual request.
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: <field-name>[, <field-name>]*
The HTTP request headers
This section lists headers that clients may use when issuing HTTP requests in order to make use of the cross-origin sharing feature. Note that these headers are set for you when making invocations to servers. Developers using cross-site XMLHttpRequest capability do not have to set any cross-origin sharing request headers programmatically.
Origin
The Origin header indicates the origin of the cross-site access request or preflight request.
Origin: <origin>
The origin is a URI indicating the server from which the request initiated. It does not include any path information, but only the server name.
Note: The origin value can be null, or a URI.
Note that in any access control request, the Origin header is always sent.
Access-Control-Request-Method
The Access-Control-Request-Method is used when issuing a preflight request to let the server know what HTTP method will be used when the actual request is made.
Access-Control-Request-Method: <method>
Examples of this usage can be found above.
Access-Control-Request-Headers
The Access-Control-Request-Headers header is used when issuing a preflight request to let the server know what HTTP headers will be used when the actual request is made.
Access-Control-Request-Headers: <field-name>[, <field-name>]*
Examples of this usage can be found above.
Specifications
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Update compatibility data on GitHub Desktop Mobile Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari Android webview Chrome for Android Edge Mobile Firefox for Android Opera for Android Safari on iOS Samsung Internet Basic support Chrome Full support 4 Edge Full support 12 Firefox Full support 3.5 IE Full support 10 Opera Full support 12 Safari Full support 4 WebView Android Full support 2 Chrome Android Full support Yes Edge Mobile Full support Yes Firefox Android Full support 4 Opera Android Full support 12 Safari iOS Full support 3.2 Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes Legend Full support Full support
Compatibility notes
Internet Explorer 8 and 9 expose CORS via the XDomainRequest object, but have a full implementation in IE 10.
object, but have a full implementation in IE 10. While Firefox 3.5 introduced support for cross-site XMLHttpRequests and Web Fonts, certain requests were limited until later versions. Specifically, Firefox 7 introduced the ability for cross-site HTTP requests for WebGL Textures, and Firefox 9 added support for Images drawn on a canvas using drawImage().
See alsoGetty Images
In the 2004 NFL draft, the Chargers selected Eli Manning first overall. Manning was a Charger for an awkward half-hour during which he reiterated what he had said before the draft — that he wouldn’t play for the Chargers — before San Diego traded him to the Giants. Now Manning is preparing to play the Chargers and the quarterback he was traded for, Philip Rivers, but Manning would prefer not to talk about the past.
Asked by reporters today why he didn’t want to play for the Chargers, Manning answered, “I forgot, I think.”
Pressed to go into detail, Manning refused.
“I just can’t remember, it’s been 10 years. It slipped my mind,” Manning said, via Conor Orr of the Star-Ledger. “Ten years ago, I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
Manning did say he likes visiting the city of San Diego.
“I have nothing against San Diego as a city,” Manning said. “We had our rookie symposium there and besides that, we’ve had a few other things, I know it’s a beautiful city and great weather. There’s a lot of great things to it.”
Manning just didn’t want to play there. And he won’t get a warm welcome there on Sunday.Have you been noticing a rise on reported aerial visual and auditory anomalies? Weird sounds coming from the earth and sky seem to be reported from different countries throughout the past few years. As recently as this month, there have been a few reports from Canada and Ukraine in which people describe either strange mechanical sounds emanating from the skies or a combination of low rumbling and low frequency hums.
YouTube has an interesting collection of videos in where people record these strange vibrations and noises. For example, the following compilation of this strange phenomena was uploaded by fidockave213 over at YouTube. It starts off by showing the famous Kiev, Ukraine, “mech noises” and goes on to show some interesting footage of other noises that are similar but heard throughout different parts of the world. Interestingly enough, the video also shows footage of the Windsor rumblings that were reported here on GhostTheory earlier this week. Watch it:
What is causing the strange noises being reported? Is this part of hoax? Or is this some sort of secret technological weapon being developed and tested by some obscure military division? Could the rumblings, vibrations and sounds heard in Canada be a product of this technology?
Or am I just kidding myself, and you as well? Well, let’s take this following video into consideration. The video is said to have been filmed on June 22, 2010, in British Columbia. The video starts off with a high pitched sound being heard and recorded early in the day. Just a few hours later, the person who had recorded the strange sound noticed that there were some ionosphere lights showing across the sky. These are sometimes referred to as “earthquake lights“. Surprisingly a 5.0-magnitude earthquake was registered across Canada just a mere 11 hours later. All of this was caught on tape:
Of course, you’d first have to trust the people who record these strange sounds. Trust that they are not artificially embedding the sounds onto the video, and trust that the videos were recorded on the dates specified. If we were to trust these people, then we are left with the question: “What the hell are these sounds and tremors?”
Many are already blaming HAARP for the sounds. Saying that HAARP’s research into the Earth’s ionosphere has something to do with the “New World Order”. Which makes for a entertaining conversation but that’s about it. If you were to follow and listen to conspiracy theorists, you’d probably remain indoors for the rest of your life.
There are several other videos floating around YouTube about “strange sounds from the sky”. Take the following for example:
Uploaded by lexxman1 on Feb 7, 2011 i heard this this december 2010. i was in my room and thought a jet was flying by … but it kept making noise. so i had to see what was going on outside… and it creeped me out. the roaring sound was no jet…it was not windy at all that night.. this went on for about 30 or 45 minutes… i believe a tuesday at about 1am… it sounded like roaring meets jet engine. and at times it pulsated… it was so loud i cant believe it didnt make local news… (ps: my dog scratched the crap out of my back towards the end lol)
I don’t know what the fascination is about these type of reports, but I’m hooked. It’s to a point that I scan the daily headlines, sometimes twice a day, looking for official news on these sounds and tremors.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced any unusual aerial anomalies or sounds? I can tell you that it’s all quiet and normal here in Los Angeles. Well, at least for now.© AP Photo/Hancock County Sheriff This undated handout photo provided by the Hancock County Sheriff's Office shows State Rep. Henry Rayhons of Garner, Iowa.
GARNER, Iowa — A longtime Iowa state lawmaker was acquitted Wednesday of sexually abusing his wife who suffered from dementia, in a case that centered on questions about when a person is no longer mentally capable of consenting to sex.
After about 13 hours of deliberation, jurors found 78-year-old Henry Rayhons not guilty of sexually abusing Donna Lou Rayhons. He was accused of having sex with her at a nursing home on May 23 after being told she was no longer capable of consenting due to dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease. She died in August.
Henry Rayhons testified in his own defense that he and his wife held hands, prayed and kissed at her nursing home on the evening in question, but that they had no sexual contact.
Jurors weighed testimony from family members, doctors and investigators throughout the trial, which started earlier this month. In closing arguments, Rayhons' defense attorney said a guilty verdict could have widespread implications, arguing that it might spur fear that any interaction between spouses could be interpreted as sexual abuse. But prosecutors said a not-guilty verdict would put others with dementia at risk.
The central question in the case was, when is a previously consenting spouse no longer mentally-capable of consenting to sex? Iowa law defines an act as sexual abuse in the third degree if the two parties are not living together as husband and wife and if one person "is suffering from a mental defect or incapacity which precludes giving consent."
During the trial, nursing home staffers testified that Donna Lou Rayhons' roommate alluded to the couple having sex behind a curtain, but that she never explicitly told them they were having sex. Testimony from the roommate revealed that she was unsure whether the noises she heard that day were sexual in nature, but that they made her uncomfortable.
Prosecutors have said investigators found DNA evidence on sheets and a quilt in his wife's room. They also played a recorded interview with an investigator that showed Rayhons initially said he and his wife never had sex at the nursing home, but later said they had a few times, and possibly briefly on the day in question.
Security-camera footage from the night of the alleged incident was also aired in court, showing Henry Rayhons going into his wife's room, staying there for about half an hour and depositing something into a laundry cart on his way out. Rayhons' attorney said his client frequently dropped his wife's laundry into the bin, but prosecutors said he was trying to discard evidence.
Rayhons served 18 years as a Republican member of the Iowa House. He withdrew from the race for another term shortly before he was charged last yearTyranny at Nuremberg
Tyranny at Nuremberg
Paul Craig Roberts
Update Aug. 12, 2017: Here is David Irving’s account of his arrest, trial, and imprisonment in Austria. His conviction was overturned by a higher court, and he was released. http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Banged/up.pdf
The showtrial of a somewhat arbitrarily selected group of 21 surviving Nazis at Nuremberg during 1945-46 was US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson’s show. Jackson was the chief prosecutor. As a long-time admirer of Jackson, I always assumed that he did a good job.
My admiration for Jackson stems from his defense of law as a shield of the people rather than a weapon in the hands of government, and from his defense of the legal principle known as mens rea, that is, that crime requires intent. I often cite Jackson for his defense of these legal principles that are the very foundation of liberty. Indeed, I cited Jackson in my recent July 31 column. His defense of law as a check on government power plays a central role in the book that I wrote with Lawrence Stratton, The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
In 1940 Jackson was US Attorney General. He addressed federal prosecutors and warned them against “picking the man and then putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm—in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense—that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views or being personally obnoxious to, or in the way of, the prosecutor himself.”
Later as a Supreme Court justice Jackson overturned a lower court conviction of a person who had no idea, or any reason to believe, that he had committed a crime.
Having just finished reading David Irving’s book Nuremberg (1996), I am devastated to learn that in his pursuit of another principle, at Nuremberg Jackson violated all of the legal principles for which I have so long admired him. To be clear, at Nuremberg Jackson was in pursuit of Nazis, but their conviction was the means to his end—the establishment of the international legal principle that the initiation of war, the commitment of military aggression, was a crime.
The problem, of course, was that at Nuremberg people were tried on the basis of ex post facto law—law that did not exist at the time of their actions for which they were convicted.
Moreover, the sentence—death by hanging—was decided prior to the trial and prior to the selection of defendants.
Moreover, the defendants were chosen and then a case was made against them.
Exculpatory evidence was withheld. Charges on which defendants were convicted turned out to be untrue.
The trials were so loaded in favor of the prosecution that defense was pro forma.
The defendants were abused and some were tortured.
The defendants were encouraged to give false witness against one another, which for the most part the defendants refused to do, with Albert Speer being the willing one. His reward was a prison sentence rather than death.
The defendants’ wives and children were arrested and imprisoned. To Jackson’s credit, this infuriated him.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Eisenhower, and Winston Churchill thought that surviving Nazis should be shot without trial. Roosevelt laughed about liquidating 50,000 German military officers. Eisenhower told Lord Halifax that Nazi leaders should be shot while trying to escape, the common euphemism for murder. Russians spoke of castrating German men and breeding German women to annihilate the German race. US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau wanted to reduce Germany to an agrarian society and send able-bodied Germans to Africa as slaves to work on “some big TVA project.”
Robert Jackson saw in these intentions not only rank criminality among the allied leadership but also a missed opportunity to create the legal principle that would criminalize war, thus removing the disaster of war from future history. Jackson’s end was admirable, but the means required bypassing Anglo-American legal principles.
Jackson got his chance, perhaps because Joseph Stalin vetoed execution without trial. First a showtrial, Stalin said, to demonstrate their guilt so that we do not make martyrs out of Nazis.
Whom to select for the list of 21-22 persons to be charged? Well, whom did the allies have in custody? Not all those they desired. They had Reichsmarschall Herman Göring who headed the air force. Whatever the valid charges against Göring, they were not considered to be mitigated by the fact that under Göring the German air force was mainly used against enemy formations on the battleground and not, like the US and British air forces in saturation terror bombing of civilian cities, such as Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, or by the fact that in Hitler’s final days Hitler removed Göring from all his positions, expelled him from the party, and ordered his arrest.
The Nuremberg trials are paradoxical in that the law Jackson intended to establish applied to every country, not to Germany alone. The ex post facto law under which Germans were sentenced to death and to prison also criminalized the terror bombing of German and Japanese cities by the British and US air forces. Yet, the law was only applied to the Germans in the dock. In his book, Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden (1995), Irving quotes US General George C. McDonald’s dissent from the directive to bomb civilian cities such as Dresden. Gen. McDonald characterized the directive as the “extermination of populations and the razing of cities,” war crimes under the Nuremberg standard.
They had foreign minister Ribbentrop. They had field marshals Keitel and Jodl and the grand-admirals Raeder and Dönitz. They had a German banker, who was saved from sentencing by the intervention of the Bank of England. They had a journalist. They had Rudolf Hess who had been in a British prison since 1941 when he went to Britain on a peace mission to end the war. They wanted an industrialist, but Krupp was too old and ill. He was devoid of the persona of a foreboding evil. You can read the list in Irving’s book.
Göring knew from the beginning that the trial was a hoax and that his death sentence had already been decided. He had the means (a poison capsule) throughout his imprisonment to commit suicide, thus depriving his captors of their planned humiliation of him. Instead, he held the Germans together, and they stood their ground. Possessed of a high IQ, time and again he made fools of his captors. He made such a fool of Robert Jackson during his trial that the entire court burst out in laughter. Jackson never lived down being bested in the courtroom by Göring.
And Göring wasn’t through with making his captors look foolish and incompetent. He, the field marshalls and grand admiral requested that they be given a military execution by firing squad, but the pettiness of the Tribunal wanted them hung like dogs. Göring told his captors that he would allow them to shoot him, but not hang him, and a few minutes before he was to be marched to the gallows before the assembled press and cameras he took the poison capsule, throwing the execution propaganda show into chaos. To this injury he added insult leaving the prison commandant, US Col. Andrus a note telling him that he had had 3 capsules. One he had left for the Americans to find, thus causing them to think his means of escaping them had been removed. One he had taken minutes prior to his show execution, and he described where to find the third. He had easily defeated the continuous and thorough inspections inflicted upon him from fear that he would commit suicide and escape their intended propaganda use of his execution.
There was a time in Anglo-American law when the improprieties of the Nuremberg trials would have resulted in the cases being thrown out of court and the defendants freed. Even under the ex post facto law and extra-judicial, extra-legal terms under which the defendants were tried, at least two of the condemned deserved to be cleared.
It is not clear why Admiral Donitz was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The chief American judge of the Tribunal, Francis Biddle, said: “It is, in my opinion, offensive to our concept of justice to punish a man for doing exactly what one has done himself.” “The Germans,” Biddle said, “fought a much cleaner war at sea than we did.“
Jodl, who countermanded many Nazi orders, was sentenced to death. The injustice of the sentence was made clear by a German court in 1953 which cleared Jodl of all Nuremberg charges and rehabilitated him posthumously. The French justice at the Nuremberg Tribunal said at the time that Jodl’s conviction was without merit and was a miscarriage of justice.
The entire Nuremberg proceeding stinks to high heaven. Defendants were charged with aggression for the German invasion of Norway. The fact was kept out of the trial that the British were about to invade Norway themselves and that the Germans, being more efficient, learned of it and managed to invade first.
Defendants were accused of using slave labor, paradoxical in view of the Soviets own practice. Moreover, while the trials were in process the Soviets were apparently gathering up able-bodied Germans to serve as slave labor to rebuild their war-torn economy.
Defendants were accused of mass executions despite the fact that the Russians, who were part of the prosecution and judgment of the defendants, had executed 15,000 or 20,000 Polish officers and buried them in a mass grave. Indeed, the Russians insisted on blaming the Germans on trial for the Katyn Forest Massacre.
Defendants were accused of aggression against Poland, and Ribbentrop was not permitted to mention in his defense the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union, without which Germany could not have attacked Poland. The fact that the Soviets, who were sitting at Nuremberg in judgment on the Germans, had themselves invaded Poland was kept out of the proceedings.
Moreover, without the gratuitous British “guarantee” to Poland, the Polish military dictatorship would likely have agreed to return territories stripped from Germany by the Versailles Treaty and the invasion would have been avoided.
The greatest hypocrisy was the charge of aggression against Germany when the fact of the matter is that World War 2 began when the British and French declared war on Germany. Germany conquered France and drove the British from the European Continent after the British and French started the war with a declaration of war against Germany.
Irving’s book is, of course, politically incorrect. However, he lists in the introduction the voluminous files on which the book is based: Robert Jackson’s official papers and Oral History, Francis Biddle’s private papers and diaries, Col. Andrus’ papers, Adm. Raeder’s prison diary, Rudolf Hess’ prison diary, interrogations of the prisoners, interviews with defense counsel, prosecutors, interrogators, and letters from the prisoners to their wives. All of this and more Irving has made available on microfilms for researchers. He compared magnetic tape copies of the original wire-recordings of the trial with the mimeographed and published transcripts to insure that spoken and published words were the same.
What Irving does in his book is to report the story that the documents tell. This story differs from the patriotic propaganda written by court historians with which we are all imbued. The question arises: Is Irving pro-truth or pro-Nazi. The National Socialist government of Germany is the most demonized government in history. Any lessening of the demonization is unacceptable, so Irving is vulnerable to demonization by those determined to protect their cherished beliefs.
Zionists have branded Irving a “holocaust denier,” and he was convicted of something like that by an Austrian court and spent 14 months in prison before the conviction was thrown out by a higher court.
In Nuremberg, Irving removes various propaganda legends from the holocaust story and reports authoritative findings that many of the concentration camp deaths were from typhus and starvation, especially in the final days of the war when food and medicine were disappearing from Germany, but nowhere in the book does he deny, indeed he reports, that vast numbers of Jews perished. As I understand the term, a simple truthful modification of some element of the official holocaust story is sufficient to brand a person a holocaust denier.
My interest in the book is Robert Jackson. He had a noble cause—to outlaw war—but in pursuit of this purpose he established precedents for American prosecutors to make law a weapon in their pursuit of their noble causes just as it was used against Nazis—organized crime convictions, child abuse convictions, drug convictions, terror convictions. Jackson’s pursuit of Nazis at Nuremberg undermined the strictures he put on US attorneys such that today Americans have no more protection of law than the defendants had at Nuremberg.New light has been shed on solar power generation using devices made with polymers, thanks to a collaboration between scientists in the University of Chicago's chemistry department, the Institute for Molecular Engineering, and Argonne National Laboratory.
Researchers identified a new polymer -- a type of large molecule that forms plastics and other familiar materials -- which improved the efficiency of solar cells. The group also determined the method by which the polymer improved the cells' efficiency. The polymer allowed electrical charges to move more easily throughout the cell, boosting the production of electricity -- a mechanism never before demonstrated in such devices.
"Polymer solar cells have great potential to provide low-cost, lightweight and flexible electronic devices to harvest solar energy," said Luyao Lu, graduate student in chemistry and lead author of a paper describing the result, published online last month in the journal Nature Photonics.
Solar cells made from polymers are a popular topic of research due to their appealing properties. But researchers are still struggling to efficiently generate electrical power with these materials.
"The field is rather immature -- it's in the infancy stage," said Luping Yu, professor in chemistry, fellow in the Institute for Molecular Engineering, who led the UChicago group carrying out the research.
The active regions of such solar cells are composed of a mixture of polymers that give and receive electrons to generate electrical current when exposed to light. The new polymer developed by Yu's group, called PID2, improves the efficiency of electrical power generation by 15 percent when added to a standard polymer-fullerene mixture.
"Fullerene, a small carbon molecule, is one of the standard materials used in polymer solar cells," Lu said. "Basically, in polymer solar cells we have a polymer as electron donor and fullerene as electron acceptor to allow charge separation." In their work, the UChicago-Argonne researchers added another polymer into the device, resulting in solar cells with two polymers and one fullerene.
8.2 percent efficiency
The group achieved an efficiency of 8.2 percent when an optimal amount of PID2 was added -- the highest ever for solar cells made up of two types of polymers with fullerene -- and the result implies that even higher efficiencies could be possible with further work. The group is now working to push efficiencies toward 10 percent, a benchmark necessary for polymer solar cells to be viable for commercial application.
The result was remarkable not only because of the advance in technical capabilities, Yu noted, but also because PID2 enhanced the efficiency via a new method. The standard mechanism for improving efficiency with a third polymer is by increasing the absorption of light in the device. But in addition to that effect, the team found that when PID2 was added, charges were transported more easily between polymers and throughout the cell.
In order for a current to be generated by the solar cell, electrons must be transferred from polymer to fullerene within the device. But the difference between electron energy levels for the standard polymer-fullerene is large enough that electron transfer between them is difficult. PID2 has energy levels in between the other two, and acts as an intermediary in the process.
"It's like a step," Yu said. "When it's too high, it's hard to climb up, but if you put in the middle another step then you can easily walk up."
Thanks to a collaboration with Argonne, Yu and his group were also able to study the changes in structure of the polymer blend when PID2 was added, and show that these changes likewise improved the ability of charges to move throughout the cell, further improving the efficiency. The addition of PID2 caused the polymer blend to form fibers, which improve the mobility of electrons throughout the material. The fibers serve as a pathway to allow electrons to travel to the electrodes on the sides of the solar cell.
"It's like you're generating a street and somebody that's traveling along the street can find a way to go from this end to another," Yu said.
To reveal this structure, Wei Chen of the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory and the Institute for Molecular Engineering performed X-ray scattering studies using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne and the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley.
"Without that it's hard to get insight about the structure," Yu said, calling the collaboration with Argonne "crucial" to the work. "That benefits us tremendously," he said.
Chen noted that "Working together, these groups represent a confluence of the best materials and the best expertise and tools to study them to achieve progress beyond what could be achieved with independent efforts.
"This knowledge will serve as a foundation from which to develop high-efficiency organic photovoltaic devices to meet the nation's future energy needs," Chen said. -- By Emily ConoverIn January of 1887, Mark Twain wrote the above letter to a Reverend Charles D. Crane, pastor of a Methodist Episcopal Church in Maine, to advise him of the most suitable reading for both children and adults. Twain’s letter---which, as he did nearly all his letters, he signed with his given name of Samuel Clemens (or "S.L. Clemens")---came in response to a query in three parts from the Rev. Crane. But we do not seem to have Crane’s letter (at least a thorough search of the exhaustive catalog at the online Mark Twain Project yields no results.) Nonetheless, we can reasonably infer that he asked the famous author---who was between Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court---something like the following:
1) What books should young boys read? 2) And young girls? … 3) [and both/either] What should grown-ups read? [and/or] What are Mr. Samuel Clemens’ favorite books?
Twain, in a hurry, “took a shot on the wing” and replied with the letter below, which, despite his protestations of haste, seems fairly well-considered. I’ll admit that the ambiguity of the last sentence, however, gives me the researcher’s buzz to go back and dig through more archives for Crane’s original letter.
Dear Sir:
I am just starting away from home, & have no time to think the questions over & properly consider my answers; but I take a shot on the wing at the matter, as follows:
1.Macaulay;
Plutarch;
Grant's Memoirs;
Crusoe;
Arabian Nights;
Gulliver.
= 2. The same for the girl, after striking out out Crusoe & substituting |
is momentum in Osaka, too, and I want to join hands [with Hashimoto's party]," Ishihara said. The Asahi Shimbun quoted a senior member of the minor Sunrise party of Japan as saying the group's five MPs would join Ishihara.
Ishihara is unrivaled in his ability to antagonise Japan's neighbours. He has described the Japanese army's slaughter of as many as 300,000 civilians in Nanjing in 1937 as a fabrication, and called on Japan to develop a nuclear deterrent against China and North Korea.
Last year he drew widespread criticism after describing the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, in which almost 20,000 people died, as divine punishment for the "egotism" of the Japanese people.
During his term as governor, he has made derogatory remarks about women and foreigners, and insulted Francophones by dismissing French as a "failed international language". In 2010 he suggested gay people were "deficient", after watching same-sex couples take part in a parade in San Francisco.
Yet in Tokyo at least, he has remained remarkably popular. He downed a glass of the capital's drinking water in public at the height of the Fukushima nuclear crisis to reassure residents about its safety, and has won plaudits from environmentalists for restricting diesel emissions.
He outlined his nationalist agenda in his 1989 book, The Japan that Can Say No, written with Sony's co-founder Akio Morita, which urged the country to end its dependence on the US for its security. A prizewinning novelist at 23, Ishihara wrote the screenplay for I Go to Die For You, a 2007 film that glorifies kamikaze pilots who flew on suicide missions towards the end of the second world war.
Like many Japanese conservatives, Ishihara wants to abandon the country's postwar constitution, which forbids the use of force as a means of settling disputes, and build a stronger, more active military. "There are several major contradictions that we hope the state itself will solve," he said on Thursday. "The biggest is the Japanese constitution, which was imposed by the [US] occupying army, and is rendered in ugly Japanese."
Japan does not have to hold a general election until next August, but Noda is under pressure to go to the polls early, having promised opposition parties he would do so in return for their support for a rise in the consumption tax.
• This article was amended on 26 October 2012. We mistakenly called Shinzo Abe Shintaro Abe. This has been corrected. It was further amended on 9 November 2012 to correct the spelling of the mayor of Osaka's first name. The original said Turo Hashimoto, when it should have said Toru Hashimoto.Image caption The group gathered in Cardiff city centre with placards and banners
Around 30 people gathered to demonstrate against what they describe as "anti-Islamic" laws in Europe.
The protest, organised by Wales-based Islamic organisation Ummah of Muhammad, aimed to highlight an "ideological attack" on Islam.
Last year Switzerland voted to ban the building of new minarets, while France is debating a ban on the Islamic veil.
Organisers leafleted mosques to rally support and had hoped to attract people from across south Wales.
Organiser Muhammad Abu Yaffir said: "Wherever Muslims feel pain anywhere in the world it is our responsibility to respond to their needs.
"The laws being proposed are a form of oppression and we will respond to this oppression."
As well as law reform in Switzerland and France, Belgium's lower house of parliament voted for a law that would ban women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public earlier this year.
Barcelona is the first large Spanish city to announce a ban on the wearing of full Islamic face veils in some public spaces.
According to the 2001 Census there were approximately 22,000 muslims living in Wales.I have read a lot of questions on Yahoo Answers on how to download YouTube videos. There’s an easy way to download any video on YouTube without the need of software or configuration.
To download any video on YouTube, just add the word kick (after www) of the link. See below.
When the kickyoutube site appears, you will now need to choose the video format (supports FLV, MP4, AVI, WMV, 3GP, IPHONE, PSP, 3GP, MP3, OGG and GIF) and click GO button.
The next step is to save your video. You will right click on the Down button and choose “Save Link As” as pictured below.
Enjoy your newly saved videos and share this with your friends and family.
http://kickyoutube.com/
Free download YouTube videos online with this user-friendly YouTube Video Downloader.Respected German news source Sport1 says Bayern have reached an oral agreement with Shakhtar and that official confirmation of the fourth biggest transfer in German football history is expected shortly.
[RUMOUR: Schweinsteiger and Di Maria in swap deal talks]
Costa, 24, has been repeatedly linked with a move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs in recent years with Manchester United and Chelsea among the group of clubs interested in the Brazil international, who is currently at the Copa America.
But it seems Bayern have got their man on a four-year contract.
Last week, Costa did not deny to Sport1 that he had had contact with Bayern, saying: “I have been working for many years to play for a big club in central Europe. And if this possibility exists, then I would be very happy.”
Costa can play on either side of the attack and will be seen as a long-term successor to either Franck Ribery or Arjen Robben, both of whom are the wrong side of 30 and suffered with injury problems last season.
He joined Shakhtar in 2010 from Gremio and has scored 37 goals in 196 games for the Ukrainian club.
Liverpool made Roberto Firmino the most expensive player in German history on Wednesday when announcing a €41m deal to sign him from Hoffenheim, but the only other two deals to exceed the fee to be paid for Costa were Bayern’s captures of Javi Martinez from Athletic Bilbao (€40m) and Mario Goetze from Borussia Dortmund (€37m).
Brazil's national team player Douglas Costa (R) speaks next to teammate David Luiz during a news conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil, June 11, 2015Reuters
EXPERT ANALYSIS
Fabian Kunze, Eurosport Germany: "He is a young but experienced player (having played 34 Champions League matches) who could probably replace Robben or Ribery or would be at least a good backup for the two injury-prone wingers. So a transfer like this would totally make sense for Bayern - and if they can’t swap Schweinsteiger for Di Maria he could be first choice."Image copyright LA(Phot) Shaun Preston Image caption Plymouth-based HMS Argyll is the longest-serving Type 23 frigate in the navy
A Royal Navy warship torpedo was accidentally fired into a dockyard wharf, it has emerged.
HMS Argyll was on a "training exercise" at Devonport dockyard in Plymouth when the torpedo "unexpectedly jettisoned onto the wharf", said the Royal Navy.
It said the Test Variant Torpedo was a dummy weapon with no explosive content, but it did cause minor damage.
Image copyright LA(Phot) Dan Rosenbaum Image caption A Test Variant Torpedo, like this one, became caught in fencing on the wharf after it was fired
There were no casualties involved in the incident on Wednesday, but training has been suspended.
'Avoid any repeat'
The navy said the torpedo flew "a couple of metres" through the air before becoming caught in fencing on the wharf.
No-one was on the jetty at the time of firing, the navy confirmed.
"The torpedo caused minor damage to an adjacent security fence inside the naval base where it landed," it said in a statement.
"The result of the investigation will determine what actions will be necessary to avoid any repeat of this incident in the future."
Plymouth-based HMS Argyll, which was built in the late 1980s, is the longest-serving Type 23 frigate in the Royal Navy.
The navy's website states that following a £20m refit it is "one of the most up-to-date and capable frigates in the fleet".
Last year, it was involved in anti-drugs operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Its commanding officer, Paul Hammond, has served with the navy since 1991.Highly paid superstars Elvis Dumervil and Terrell Suggs get the headlines, but its Pernell McPhee who has become the most consistent and deadly pass rusher on the Baltimore Ravens.
McPhee doesn’t rack up gaudy sack totals the way Dumervil and Suggs do, but rather, he generates pressure on almost every play that goes unnoted in the stat sheet.
Two words sum up McPhee’s skill set, versatile and relentless.
Let’s start with versatile. McPhee was used in every single front-seven position in Sunday’s loss to the Colts alone. Standing up as an outside linebacker, hand in the dirt as a five-tech defensive end or a three-tech defensive tackle or even standing up as a blitzing inside linebacker, McPhee has done it all this season.
Opposing offenses have made locating him a priority, as the Colts often double-teamed McPhee.
So far, McPhee looks most effective as a three-tech defensive tackle, usually paired with Haloti Ngata on the inside and Dumervil and Suggs rushing from the outside. McPhee and Ngata do a tremendous job of pushing the pocket, keeping opposing quarterbacks from moving within the pocket and allowing either Dumervil or Suggs to finish the play.
And that brings us to that second descriptor, relentless. McPhee gets after the passer like his hair is on fire. His hand usage is not always precise, but his hands are always moving, making him difficult for any blocker to get a handle on.
This, paired with his strength and leverage, make McPhee a terror to block. He is consistently lower than the opposing blocker, be it a lineman or tight end. He hasn’t quite displayed the ability to consistently beat double teams yet, but very few pass rushers do.
The physical skills are clearly there for McPhee. His transformation from a pure five-tech defensive end to the versatile terror he is now has been remarkable and was keyed by his consistently improving speed and quickness. McPhee was always athletic, but now he is explosive as well.
His sack of Andrew Luck Sunday proved as much. McPhee, standing between the center and the guard, exploded off the snap, used a quick rip move to beat the Colts’ right guard and pursued the very athletic Luck for the sack. This was a great play by an emerging player.
Ignore McPhee’s stats. He only has six tackles and a single sack, shockingly low numbers for the impact he has had on the Ravens pass rush.
Part of the reason his sack total is so low is because the Ravens defensive backs give up such quick completions. Opposing quarterbacks are able to get rid of the ball almost immediately, so it’s no wonder the Ravens’ pass rush hasn’t been productive in terms of sacks.
For a number that better describes McPhee’s skill as a pass rusher, look to his total pressures. In just 85 total snaps in which he rushed the passer, McPhee has racked up 15 total pressures according to Pro Football Focus (subscription needed). A pass rushers job is to create player, and McPhee has created more pressure than anyone on the Ravens’ defense.
As the Ravens’ secondary improves, and it is improving, the defense’s sack totals will improve as well. When that happens, McPhee should start racking up the sacks that will get him more headlines. For now, he will have to settle for being a quietly cruciel piece of a quality defense.The American election has been destroyed by the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
The aforementioned United States constitutional law case held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting political Independent Expenditures (IE) by corporations, associations or labor unions.
In a nutshell, the decision was described as Corporations are people. If an entity is a person, giving money to whomever one desires is protected by the First Amendment.
For candidates seeking a state office in California, the Fair Political Practices Commission(FPPC) has set guidelines for contributions:
$2,600 per election to a Federal candidate or the candidate’s campaign committee
$5,000 per calendar year to a PAC. This limit applies to a PAC (political action committee) that supports Federal candidates.
$10,000 per calendar year to a State or local party committee.
$32,400 per calendar year to a national party committee. This limit applies separately to a party’s national committee, House campaign committee and Senate campaign committee.
$100 in currency (cash) to any political committee. (Anonymous cash contributions may not exceed $50.)
But the key phrase is the amount of money that can be given to a candidate. With Super PACs—also known as Independent Expenditures (IE)—a person or corporation can spend as much as they want to support or oppose a candidate as long as there is no proof that they have worked with any candidate or the respective campaign staff.
In California one of the greatest violators of the spirit of voting is the Civil Justice Association of California.
Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) board consists of ExxonMobil, Shell and Dow Chemical Company, among others.
The CJAC perverts the election process by running right-leaning, neo-liberal moderate Democrats in areas that they know a Republican could never win. CJAC is anti-environment, anti-consumer and pro-business but in the 2008-2012 election cycles, the organization gave overwhelmingly to Democrats.
CJAC’s SuperPAC Fairpac has been funded by Koch Industries, Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy–a coalition that includes Chevron and Walmart–and Enterprise Holdings INC Political Action Committee which supported Mitt Romney for President.
In California, CJAC is running roughshod over real progressives and propping up Astroturf- green, pro-business moderate Democrats in their place.
CJAC bragged in their promotional materials in 2008 that it spent more than $2,000,000 in efforts to defeat pro-consumer candidates running for the California state legislature.
One person who CJAC targets unmercifully is progressive California Democrat Betsy Butler. Since 2010, CJAC has been making her life hell. A true progressive who understands policy, Butler has been in a fight for her political life owing to millions of dollars that CJAC pours into every race she enters. CJAC’s sole purpose is to take her down.
In the article, “Big Corporate PACs Issue More Crazy Lies in Smear Campaign Against Betsy Butler” in Total Capitol, it was stated:
“Yet another in a continuing series of corporate-funded mudslinging mailers was received by voters in Assembly 53 yesterday.
This one, paid for by the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC), a coalition of insurance, oil, tobacco, banking and pharmaceutical companies, made a number of demonstrably false charges against Betsy Butler.
The mailer claims Betsy has “accepted thousands of dollars from lobbyists representing big oil, drug and insurance companies…” This is a flat out lie. Betsy has accepted no contributions ($0) from lobbyists. Not one cent. This is a particularly ludicrous claim coming from, well, big oil, drug and insurance companies.”
As California is the test ground for the nation, the South Los Angeles section of Los Angeles is the testing ground for California. What tests successfully in South L.A is taken state-wide, and from there it is deployed nationally.
South Los Angeles has a Black voting majority. Nearly the entire Democratic party in the area has been taken over by moderate (almost Blue Dog) Democrats. Many of the politicians in the area are former police officers. The politicians are typically anti-environment and pro-business. The fracking of Inglewood Oil Field was made possible by Yvonne Burke who was the L.A. County Supervisor (which covers all of South L.A.) from 1992 – 2008 and continues to be made possible with current L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas who refuses to take a stand against fracking.
Now South L.A. politicians are passing their Blue Dog ways on to their children and moving to western section of Los Angeles e.g. Marina and Hollywood.
Yvonne Burke’s daughter, Autumn Burke, is running for the 62nd Assembly District race which covers Southwest and South Los Angeles. She has taken $3,000 from CJAC. In May alone over $100,000 was dropped into the 62nd race supporting Burke on behalf of Fairpac Independent Expenditure Committee, which is sponsored by the CJAC.
Sebastian Ridley-Thomas is Mark Ridley-Thomas’ son and he also accepted money from Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and CJAC in his winning race for for the 54rd Assembly and was supported with large amounts of money by IE spent by Fairpac.
The Democratic party in South Los Angeles and California has been perverted by SuperPACs and their dark money.
It’s no longer about just checking the box that says Democrat anymore, because corporate America has changed the game.
Citizens United must be overturned.
“We make the rules of the economy – and we have the power to change those rules.” – Robert Reich
Don’t let anyone tell you that we can’t change the rules. The people can change the rules, but the first thing we all have to do is know that the game has been rigged.
Teka-Lark Fleming is the publisher of the Morningside Park Chronicle newspaper. It is a weekly print newspaper covering Black L.A. from Inglewood to the Eastside. Contact [email protected] June, the io9 Book Club read Jo Walton's Among Others. Now Walton is coming to answer your questions about the book today, June 29. Feel free to ask her questions about her other books, but for the most part we'll focus on Among Others.
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Photo by John W. MacDonald.
She'll be joining us in the comment thread on this very post tomorrow, June 29 between 8:00-9:00 AM Pacific Time. Start posting your questions for her now, and she'll answer as many as she can during that hour.
Please be polite!
Want to get a head start on our next book? In July, we'll be reading Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon, which we've been raving about for months (we reviewed it here). [Amazon] We'll meet July 24 to talk about the book, and Ahmed will join us in a conversation later that week.Prince Philip mocks disabled comedian BelfastTelegraph.co.uk After it was revealed that the Duke of Edinburgh mocked an Army cadet blinded in a Real IRA bomb attack, it has emerged that he has made another gaffe by mocking a disabled comedian. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/prince-philip-mocks-disabled-comedian-28506882.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/migration_catalog/article25665523.ece/23fdc/AUTOCROP/h342/adam-hill
Email
After it was revealed that the Duke of Edinburgh mocked an Army cadet blinded in a Real IRA bomb attack, it has emerged that he has made another gaffe by mocking a disabled comedian.
The duke was asking Australian stand-up Adam Hills about his plans to return home for Christmas.
Spotting the comedian's prosthetic limb Prince Philip said: "You could smuggle a bottle of gin out of the country in that artificial foot."
Hills had been performing in Blackpool at the Royal Variety Performance earlier this month.
Hills, born without a right foot, said he wasn’t offended. He told the Daily Mirror he thought the remark was “brilliant”
Related
Duke mocks Army cadet blinded in bomb attack
Prince Philip: A history of verbal gaffes
Belfast TelegraphAbbot Point approval: Tour operators disappointed by Great Barrier Reef dredge spoil decision
Updated
Great Barrier Reef tour operators say a decision to allow the dumping of dredge spoil near the reef's marine park area will affect the region's tourism industry and Australia's international reputation.
Nearly 3 million cubic metres of spoil will be tipped in an area near the marine park as part of the Abbot Point coal port expansion near Bowen after permission was granted on Friday by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) with 47 strict conditions.
Scientists and conservation lobbyists had urged the rejection of the expansion, arguing sediment from dredging could smother corals and seagrasses and expose them to poisons and elevated nutrients.
Jan Klaxton, the owner and operator of a business in the Whitsunday Islands for 13 years, says the authority's decision to allow the dumping of dredge spoil came as a shock.
"We take over 100 people a day out to visit the wonderful Whitsunday Islands. And we go snorkelling and bushwalking and return them as happy people, having learnt something about our reef and our Whitsunday Islands," she said.
"I've always assumed that GBRMPA, as custodians of our reef, would be the final say and only consider the environment with the decision they make.
"And obviously this has not been the case at all, because it's black and white: if they were considering the environment, they wouldn't even give them an option of dumping dredge spoil in the reef."
Economists have estimated the Great Barrier Reef contributes $6.4 billion a year to Australia and employs more than 60,000 people.
Ecotourism Australia chief executive Rod Hillman says he believes the dredging decision will affect more than just tourism on the reef.
"You look at all the marketing collateral and the campaigns that Tourism Australia use, and the main feature is Australia's natural advantage; we've got all these national parks, we've got the unique animals, fantastic landscapes," he said.
"People will only read the headlines from overseas, they will see that these kinds of decisions seem to be saying that the Australian Government doesn't care.
"So if the Australian Government doesn't care, why should they?"
Fears reef dumping approval will impact international reputation
In announcing the decision on Friday, the marine park authority assured stakeholders there will be safeguards to ensure the reef would not be adversely affected.
Dozen of conditions have been imposed, including limits on when the spoil can be dumped, a long-term water quality monitoring plan and compensation for commercial fishers.
However, all of the tour operators contacted by AM indicated that they were looking at legal action and planned to speak with local politicians.
"There's a 20 per cent probability that the spoil can head towards the direction of the Whitsundays, and there's a lot of sedimentation locally and that's a real concern for water quality to workplace health and safety issues for diving, obviously, for visibility," Whitsunday Charter Boat Industry Association president Tony Brown said.
"UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), if they put the reef on an endangered list, that would be detrimental to tourism not only for the Whitsundays but for the whole Barrier Reef and probably for the whole of Australia."
Alan Grundy runs tour company Explore Whitsundays and says he does not believe the conditions designed to protect the reef are adequate and overseas visitors have already expressed disappointment at the decision.
"From a tourism operator's perspective, my concern is particularly in relation to the quality of the water and the health of the Great Barrier Reef. It's already declining, but the reef can't stand any more sediments," he said.
"The reef is World Heritage listed, and it's one of the seven wonders of the world, so people are surprised that it's being used for industrial spoil dumping.
"The customers that come here are here to visit the reef and to snorkel and dive on it. They all remember the movie Finding Nemo. They come here to see that and unfortunately, it is under stress."
Topics: great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, environment, mining-environmental-issues, mining-industry, environmental-impact, environmental-management, bowen-4805, qld, gladstone-4680, australia
First postedLast week, former FBI director James Comey brought the Hillary Clinton email scandal back to the front burner when he testified that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch forced him to downplay the FBI’s criminal investigation and call it a “matter.” The charge is so serious even Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein is calling for a probe.
That’s hardly the only movement in the case.
Evidence continues to pile up of Clinton’s wrong-doing using an unsecured private email server as secretary of state. But first, a refresher:
The Clinton-Comey Dance
Initially, it looked like Hillary Clinton would escape punishment. On July 7, 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey recommended that no charges be brought against her.
He reasoned that she lacked intent to commit a crime. However, as many pointed out, she did not need to have intended to break the law to be guilty of that crime.
She modified her statement to say that she didn’t knowingly send or receive any classified intel.
The evidence Comey produced still damaged Clinton. She’d sent or received 110 classified emails. She first said she did not email any classified information. She changed her statement after it was clear that wasn’t true. Instead, she said she didn’t knowingly send or receive any classified intel.
A week and a half before voting day, Comey told Congress he was re-opening the probe. Classified emails had been discovered on the laptop of Anthony Weiner. He was the husband of Clinton’s personal aide Huma Abedin. Abedin had forwarded thousands of emails to him.
Many people — including Clinton herself — think Comey’s statement caused her to lose the race. A new study by a consortium of pollsters backs this up. Her emails were “the dominant narrative of the election for her.” Voters associated Donald Trump with several narratives. Some were negative but others were neutral.
Judicial Watch Obtains Unreleased Clinton Emails, Finds More Wrongdoing
Even though Clinton lost the race, the scrutiny hasn’t ended. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to obtain copies of her emails. So far, the group has obtained 433 new emails that were not part of the 55,000 pages of emails she first turned over. She had claimed that she turned over all of them.
Judicial Watch says the new emails contain classified information. The group also says that neither the State Department nor the FBI have conducted a full search for the emails. The FBI admits that thousands of emails remain out there.
One batch of the new emails revealed that Clinton sent classified information to top officials at the Clinton Foundation, including its director Doug Band. They did not hold security clearances.
Clinton’s scheduler also forwarded her calendar to Clinton Foundation staffers. Cheryl Chumley, writing for The Washington Times, observed: “You know — in case the quid pro quo payments had to be made in person that day. At least: that’s a perception, and concern.”
Clinton used an unsecure Blackberry despite being warned against doing so by security hawks.
Judicial Watch submitted new evidence to the court this week revealing that Clinton also used an unsecure Blackberry. She did so despite being warned. She wrote in an email that she carried it, “against the advice of the security hawks.” She said she didn’t use it in her office.
A 2009 memo from Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Eric J. Boswell stated that he “cannot stress too strongly…that any unclassified BlackBerry is highly vulnerable in any setting to remotely and covertly monitoring conversations, retrieving email, and exploiting calendars.” The memo was addressed to Cheryl Mills, who served as Clinton’s Counselor and Chief of Staff.
The Russian Connection
In another email obtained by Judicial Watch, Abedin says she “hooked up” people from the Russian American Foundation with “the right people” at the State Department. She was responding to a request from the foundation’s vice president Rina Kirshner. Clinton Foundation donor Eddie Trump sent the request to Abedin. The foundation received more than $260,000 in grants for “public diplomacy” from the State Department during Clinton’s tenure.
Some of the wrongdoing that came out was less serious, but still unethical. In July 2010, Abedin arranged for Chelsea Clinton to fly to Germany. She would get to be part of the official delegation to watch the U.S. women’s soccer team play. Bari Luri, Chelsea’s Clinton Foundation chief of staff, was also included. Chelsea was to “fly on official govt plane both ways and they will take care of hotels and all transportation.”
Investigations Pile On
In January, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz began looking into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe. He said it would include claims that the FBI “improperly disclosed non-public information.” He also said he would look into whether officials like Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe should have removed themselves from the probe.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed his concern recently about how slow the State Department has been reviewing the email scandal. In March, he sent a letter to the agency asking for an update on Clinton’s security clearance. He found out that Clinton and seven members of her former staff still have them. Yet they are no longer at the agency. In order to retain this status, they were labeled “research assistants.”
Clinton recently called the probe into her email server “the biggest nothing-burger ever.” In contrast, Judicial Watch refers to Clinton as a “serial violator of various laws.” As the evidence continues to pile up, one of them will prove to be right. Although Comey did not suggest charges, the new FBI director could.
Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC.Domain Fronting Via Cloudfront Alternate Domains
These are not the domains you are looking for…
A technique known as Domain Fronting was recently documented for circumventing censorship restrictions by Open Whisper Systems. The benefits of this technique for use in adversary simulations was recognised by several people, including Optiv and Raphael Mudge. If you are not familiar with this concept, these resources are recommended reading. However to summarise, the TLDR is many services and in particular CDN services, can act as redirectors for a c2 channel. The benefit of this is it provides a reputable domain for egress and can therefore be used to circumvent proxy categorisation and other network based monitoring.
In Raphael’s video, he describes how a trusted domain such as a0.awsstatic.com can be used for egress by specifying a Host header that points to an attacker controlled Cloudfront instance within the Malleable c2 profile. Our research expands on this idea to identify additional high reputation domains that can be used for egress.
Amazon customers who do not want to use a generic cloudfront.net domain are able to use an “alternate domain” by simply configuring the appropriate CNAME record to point to their Cloudfront instance. This process is described by Amazon here, as shown below:
As such, any domain with a CNAME record pointing to the Cloudfront CDN can be used as an egress channel. Identifying these domains is relatively trivial, many can be located through Google dorks such as “CNAME *.cloudfront.net”, or using DNS bruteforcing. One of the Google dork results returns cdn.bitnami.com as a possible CNAME. We can trivially confirm that the CNAME is set as shown below:
To validate that it’s possible to use cdn.bitnami.com as an egress domain, we can try and retrieve the “foo.txt” file that’s hosted on our c2 server and pointed to by our Cloudfront instance:
We identified many high reputation domains that can be used for fronting, including cdn.az.gov, media.tumblr.com, images.instagram.com, cdn.zendesk.com and cdn.atlassian.com to name but a few.
The short video below demonstrates this further, showing how they can be used within Cobalt Strike beacons.
This blog post was written by @vysecurity.
UPDATED 08/02/2017:
Raphael Mudge pointed in in his blog post that an RFC 2616 compliant proxy will rewrite the Host header making it impossible to do domain fronting over HTTP or where SSL/TLS interception is taking place.
However, having performed further research we noted that RFC compliance is not always consistently applied. The following video demonstrates how the Sophos Web Security gateway does not rewrite the Host header and can therefore be used for domain fronting. It also demonstrates why fronting a variety of high reputation domains can be a powerful technique for evading proxy categorisation:FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. - Forest Elementary School Principal Steve Vercellino challenged his students to a fundraising goal he really didn't think they would achieve.
They proved him wrong.
Vercellino said he would sleep on the roof of the school if they raised $20,000 during their Color Fun Run. They did it, and he slept in a tent on the roof Thursday night.
The principal thought his sleeping on the roof idea would be more of an incentive to push the fundraising to $10,000 or something like that. But the students hit the $20,000 mark without hesitation. Vercellino knew the game was over when the students got within $500 of the lofty goal a few days ago.
The money is going right back to the students.
"The $20,000 comes right back to them for different programs we offer at our school. They even helped pay for new playground equipment, new technology, and they bought us over $10,000 worth of books... it's a good cause, but I lost. They did it," he said.
He was on the roof sleeping in a tent with a lamp and nightstand. He brought a space heater but he said he didn't really need it.
Some students from the neighborhood were visiting him Thursday night. Vercellino said he got a couple hours of sleep.
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Copyright 2017 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.The nimby is a wearily familiar political breed. Though individuals may support new housing and infrastructure projects in theory, they oppose them in practice (“not in my backyard”). For fear of consequences such as a fall in property values, locals reliably revolt against proposed developments – and politicians retreat. The net result is that cities and countries are denied the housing they need. For the past decade, the UK has fallen far short of the 250,000 new homes required annually to meet demand.
But the nimby has now met its dialectical opposite: the yimby. In contrast to their opponents, yimbys not merely tolerate but welcome development (“yes in my backyard”). The earliest known usage of yimby was in a 1988 New York Times article (“Coping in the Age of Nimby”) and the first organisation was founded in 2007 (Yimby Stockholm). Sister groups have since been established in Toronto, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Helsinki and, most recently, London.
John Myers, a 44-year-old former barrister and financial analyst, co-founded London Yimby with four others last year. They were inspired by the capital’s dysfunctional property market (London is the most expensive major global city for buying or renting) and the success of groups elsewhere.
“We saw what was happening in the States,” Myers said when we spoke. “The San Francisco group has just had three new laws passed in California to get more housing built. There are now more than 30 US cities with yimby groups… There really is a feeling in the air that something has to be done.” Myers lives in a small mortgaged house in Camden, north London, but most of the group’s volunteers are private or social housing tenants and range from “the very young to retired grandparents”.
“The big problem with the housing crisis,” Myers told me, “the dirty little secret that politicians don’t like to talk about is that, actually, people quite like house prices to go up.”
In 2013, shortly after launching the Help to Buy scheme, the former chancellor George Osborne told the cabinet: “Hopefully we will get a little housing boom and everyone will be happy as property values go up” (the average London house now costs £484,362). Though the exorbitant price of housing (such that there are now more outright owners than mortgagors) has become an electoral problem for the Tories, homeowners remain an obstacle to development.
In a recent report for the Adam Smith Institute (“Yes In My Back Yard”), Myers made three proposals to win over this bloc: allowing individual streets to grant themselves planning permission to extend or replace buildings; permitting local parishes to develop “ugly or low amenity” sections of the green belt; and devolving planning powers to city-region mayors.
“There are ways to get support from local people for high-quality developments but we have a system right now that doesn’t try and get that support,” Myers said. “It just imposes measures from the top down.”
In some US cities, yimbys have antagonised anti-gentrification campaigners by supporting luxury developments. There is a tension between the aim of greater supply and that of greater affordability. Myers argued that it was crucial to have “clear rules on what percentage [of affordable housing] is required up front, so it gets priced into the land and taken out of the landowner’s pocket”.
The replacement of stamp duty with a land value tax, he added, would leave both “the buyer and the seller better off: the buyer doesn’t have to scrape a deposit together and the seller doesn’t have the price reduced by the amount of stamp duty”.
That some Conservatives are now prepared to consider previously heretical measures such as building on the green belt and borrowing £50bn for housing investment may herald a new era. The yimby bulldozer is beginning to dislodge the nimbys from their privileged perch.Compensation will soon be distributed as a result of the successful class action against chocolate companies across Canada who were found last fall to have illegally conspired to fix and increase the prices of their products for the better part of the 2000s.
Cadbury, Hershey, Mars and Nestle have paid out a total of $23.2-million in order to provide rebates to everyone in the class after it was found that the wholesale and suggested retail prices of each sweet treat were artificially inflated by the four confectionery giants between 2001 and 2008.
Consumers who purchased chocolate bars between Oct. 1, 2005 and Sept. 30, 2007 are eligible to make a claim for compensation if they provide documentation that shows they bought more than $1,000 worth of chocolate during that time — most likely for a retail business, large or small, which will be entitled to a 2.625 per cent rebate.
There's only 90 days left to submit your claim! Don’t forget to submit |
men, in the coming years.I think Keller Chryst may have been the only (or one of very few) undefeated starter in college football last year, and the Cardinal need him in order to be relevant in the PAC-12, but if he’s not ready to play to start the season, who will suit up?
David Shaw has made it known that there’s no starting quarterback competition; Keller Chryst is his guy. So the question is not if he’ll play but when he’ll play. According to Shaw, Chryst is expected to be back by fall camp, which makes him available for the August 26th game versus Rice, but more likely than not, Chryst will sit out in Australia to protect his knee, so the battle for backup quarterback is on.
The Stanford Cardinal have three options for the backup position: Ryan Burns, KJ Costello, and Davis Mills. Mills will be a true freshman, and given that Shaw has never started a true freshman QB, he’ll probably redshirt. Burns, a fifth year senior, and Costello, a redshirt freshman, meanwhile have already taken their redshirt years and are both healthy.
In the spring game, Burns had a better day than Costello, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get the starting nod against Rice. Shaw might choose Costello’s development over Burn’s experience, but whoever starts will be on a tight leash.
Ultimately, does it really matter who starts against Rice? I mean it’s Rice. The Owls aren’t exactly a formidable foe and should be no problem for the Cardinal.
The real question is, what if Chryst can’t play against USC? The Cardinal head to LA just two weeks later and need Chryst to be ready. Last year, Chryst clearly was a better field general than Burns, and the offense finally sparked when he took the starting job. Luckily, all signs indicate Chryst will be ready to face the Trojans. Shaw has said it, and from a fans perspective, Chryst looks perfectly fine and was walking around without a knee brace at spring practices.
However if Chryst has a setback, let’s just hope that either Burns is a more confident player or better yet Costello is a generational talent.FRIDAY BUZZ COLUMN
In changing managers this week, there was one point Marlins management kept making: Talent is not the problem.
“I still believe and everyone believes this is a good team,” Michael Hill, the Marlins’ president/baseball operations, said Monday. “Ultimately, if that's wrong, that's on me. That's on me and DJ [Dan Jennings], but now he's the manager. That's on me if we misevaluated, but I don't believe that. In my heart, we believe in that roster.
“We're [13th] in batting average. We just haven’t hit when we needed to hit. We're leading the league in defense. Pitching wise, we’ve faltered."
Several pundits --- including former general managers we quoted earlier this spring --- agreed with Hill that this is a better-than-average roster.
But in retrospect, with the Marlins at 16-26, losers of seven in a row and last in the National League East, did they overestimate their talent?
On Wednesday, we posed that question to three longtime, respected big-league scouts who have evaluated the Marlins this season for other teams.
Two said they do not believe the Marlins significantly overestimated their talent (but that they instead have underachieved), adding that the decline of the bullpen couldn’t have been envisioned. Look at the jump in batting average against three key Marlins relievers: Steve Cishek (.237 in 2014 to.308 in 2015), Mike Dunn (.220 to.268), Bryan Morris (.248 to.333).
“It’s a deflating thing when you bank on your closer and he doesn’t deliver,” one of the two scouts said, noting blown leads can skew the perception of a team’s ability.
“Remember, they’re missing Jose Fernandez and they were without Henderson Alvarez for a while. That said, they might have overestimated Christian Yelich [hitting.180]. Nothing with Yelich jumps out that he is going to be a star. And Michael Morse [hitting.206] has been a bust; in San Francisco, he had more of a veteran lineup to protect him. Casey McGehee has struggled in San Francisco [.196], but they miss what McGehee gave them last year, the good professional at-bats.
“But even with all that, they should be ahead of the Phillies. They should be playing.500 until Fernandez gets back.”
The other scout said that on paper “it's a good team. You couldn't have expected Cishek to be down [three] miles per hour and not be able to get left-handed hitters out. Mat Latos [6.12 ERA] has really declined; he looks like an old guy and doesn’t have crispness to his stuff. That big two-handed caveman swing has caught up with Mike Morse, but I don’t know what else they could have done at first.”
But the third scout, who has seen the Marlins a lot, was adamant that Miami overestimated its roster.
“They thought they had a great outfield and that was a terrible overestimation,” the scout said. “Marcell Ozuna has gotten fat and doesn’t move as well offensively or defensively. Yelich is a decent player but it was unrealistic to think that he would all of a sudden become a.300 hitter. For them to enter this season counting on [since-released] Jarrod Saltalamacchia to turn it around was ridiculous.
“Steve Cishek got by for years not only on angle ability but the fact he could throw hard from that angle. Now that he’s lost his velocity, he’s much easier to track and there’s not much difference between his off-speed stuff and fastball. Mike Dunn is a power guy that can’t locate and doesn’t have as much power as he used to. I thought Bryan Morris would be better than this, but there’s a reason Pittsburgh lets guys go.
“Jarred Cosart is a bottom of the rotation guy, nothing special. Coming home was the worst thing that could happen to Mat Latos, with his friends telling him how good he is. He isn’t the pitcher he was. He thinks throwing hard is the answer and it’s not; good hitters can hit fastballs if you don’t locate. Henderson Alvarez’s stuff isn’t good enough to be a No. 1 starter. He’s a two or three.”
That third scout said owner Jeffrey Loria mistakenly “judges guys off their best possible years and overlooks their bad years,” citing John Buck and Saltalamacchia, among others.
“They need more contact hitters,” that scout said. “You need some guys to get on base consistently, move runners over. Dee Gordon obviously can do that and Martin Prado is very good at that. But they don’t have enough guys who can do that. Quality pitchers can get Giancarlo Stanton out. [He’s hitting.239.]
"Morse is a mistake hitter. We talked about Ozuna. They need to play [catcher] J.T. Realmuto [.219] but he’s going to be an average player. It’s an easy lineup to pitch to. They have to self-examine how they build a team.”
And keep this in mind: With the Dodgers’ covering the combined $12.5 million due Dan Haren and Gordon, the Marlins’ out-of-pocket payroll ($68 million) is lowest in baseball. They had interest in Francisco Rodriguez in February but didn’t want to match the Brewers’ two-year, $13 million offer and obviously didn’t know Cishek would implode. Rodriguez is 8 for 8 in saves with a 1.20 ERA. But then again, Houston – which leads the AL West – is 29th in payroll at $70.9 million.
CHATTER
### Not only have the Dolphins distanced themselves from Dion Jordan, who is suspended for the 2015 season, but Jordan also has distanced himself from the Dolphins. “It’s a [expletive/rhymes with ditty] situation,” defensive end Derrick Shelby said. “I’ve texted him a few times but got no response.”
### Ryan Tannehill’s new deal –-- which has $21.5 million guaranteed (according to cap guru Joel Corry), not $45 million as initially reported by national outlets --- dropped his 2016 cap number by $4.5 million to $11.6 million.
But with $155 million in cap commitments (including a $28.6 million hit for Ndamukong Suh in 2016), Miami already is about $3 million over the projected 2016 cap, with Olivier Vernon and Lamar Miller entering free agency next year. So tough decisions await next spring.
As Corry noted, here are Tannehill’s cap numbers in the six years: $4.9 million, $11.6 million, $20.3 million, $19.8 million, $21 million and $19.5 million.
### Even Tannehill’s agent, Pat Dye, said this week that the “Dolphins have to get a little better inside play. We represent Dallas Thomas, too. So Dallas, I’m challenging you.”
Mike Tannenbaum told WMEN-640’s Sid Rosenberg that “we have three young guards competing for two spots” --- front-runner Billy Turner, Thomas and rookie Jamil Douglas.
### Tannehill, speaking to Pro Football Talk Live this week on DeVante Parker: "I like what I see so far. He’s an athletic guy. Fast, strong hands, adjusts to the ball really well. He’s a natural pass catcher, he doesn’t fight the ball and it’s easy for him to make the tough catch. A guy with that range, his body size and natural pass catching ability, I’m really excited to have him and like what I’ve seen thus far.”
### During a Thursday workout Santa Barbara, Cal., Pat Riley and executives from other teams checked out three players in the mix for its pick at No. 10 should Miami not trade it (Arizona small forward Stanley Johnson, Kansas small forward Kelly Oubre and Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky)…. For the first time since 2008, the Heat has no player on any of the top three All-NBA teams. Dwyane Wade got two votes for the third team.… The Heat’s preseason opener was set: Oct. 7 vs. Orlando in Louisville.
### Harry Rothwell, GM of the All-Canes shop near UM’s campus, said Adidas’ five UM football jerseys for this season include, for the first time, a black jersey that UM will wear at least one game.
The new uniforms will be available for fans to purchase in late August and be unveiled to the public in July. Rothwell, who met with Adidas this week, expects the team to wear primarily orange and green at home but said the uniforms naturally will look different than Nike’s.
Please see the last post for details on the possible UM/MLS stadium venture.
Twitter: @flasportsbuzzShe is often seen perfecting the look of former Xpose presenter Lisa Cannon, working on photoshoots or creating new bridal hairstyles - but as a one-time teen mum, Shauna Lawlor thought her career was over before it had began.
She is often seen perfecting the look of former Xpose presenter Lisa Cannon, working on photoshoots or creating new bridal hairstyles - but as a one-time teen mum, Shauna Lawlor thought her career was over before it had began.
'I wish my dad had lived to see my success after I became pregnant at 18' - top hairdresser Shauna
Shauna was 18 and training to be a hairdresser, following in the footsteps of her father Eamonn Sullivan, a top barber, when she became pregnant.
The Clonsilla woman was determined to welcome her son Ryan, now 18, into the world and build her career at the same time.
"I was working at a salon in town and was doing Adi Roche's hair, as she ran for president in 1997, when suddenly I felt sick," Shauna said.
"I found out I was pregnant and I was living at home with my parents. This was the last thing on my mind."
Shauna (37) was in a relationship with the father to her child, Jason, now 45, who she later married at the age of 25.
Shauna Lawlor with husband Jason and sons Zach (20 months), Nathan and Ryan
The fact the couple are still together is testimony to their commitment. They now have two more children, Nathan, (11) and Zach (18 months).
"It was so scary because I wasn't fully trained and when I told my parents, my dad was so disappointed.
"He had such high expectations of me. He was afraid I wouldn't finish my training and that I wouldn't end up doing anything. He was such a great barber that he expected me to be the same and I guess he saw this as letting him down."
Sadly Eamonn died at the age of 44, 15 years ago, never knowing just what a success his daughter would become.
"I was only 21 and I really wish he'd lived to see how well I got on. I've owned two salons and now I'm a freelance hairdresser and I was runner-up recently in a weddingsonline.ie hairdresser of the year competition.
"I work with some of the most amazing clients, mainly doing wedding work and transforming the look of brides. It's a great job.
"I also do Lisa Cannon's hair - she's absolutely lovely. I've done photoshoots with Fair City too and they are a great bunch. I wish my father had got to see how I'd make a success of myself but sadly that wasn't meant to be," she said.
"I was devastated when he passed away but Ryan helped me through it.
"Life is a roller-coaster of ups and down and one of the toughest parts about having a child so young is worrying about money and the future.
"But I was always determined to provide for my child and make sure he had the best chance so that's what I fought to do."
With the help and support of her mum Bernie (59), Ryan and then boyfriend Jason and his family, Shauna completed her training and set about following her career path.
"I only took six weeks off after having Ryan. I didn't understand, I thought I was going to lose my job," Shauna said.
She soldiered on, even working from 7am until 7pm as she progressed in the industry.
She has since taken a step back from long hours to spend more time with her family but her career has continued to go from strength to strength.
"I had a goal to own my own salon and work for myself and I did that twice," she said. "Now freelance is where I want to be due to the freedom it allows me for family time.
"I work the hours I want to and I do work long and hard but I fit it round my life."
Online EditorsAfter the Cleveland Cavaliers eliminated the Raptors in an unexpected sweep, talk immediately turned to what comes next.
Top player Kyle Lowry, key trade acquisitions Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker and veteran utility piece Patrick Patterson all will enter unrestricted free agency this summer.
Lowry, who, with his black hoodie pulled tight, the aches and pains evident as he moved and grimaced, had responded with a hint of sadness, “Nope,” when asked whether he would suit up for the game. Was it his last game as a Raptor?
“I’ll do everything (meaning, talk, at locker cleanout day on Monday),” Lowry said.
Tucker, who did as good a job as possible getting up on the magnificent LeBron James in the finale, said “of course,” when asked whether he could see a return to the team that originally drafted him.
Patterson, who struggled mightily during the regular season and then even more in the playoffs, spoke in similar fashion, but sounded more like a man resigned to a looming change of address.
“Of course, but at the end of the day guys have said ‘I want to be a Raptor,’ ‘I want to be back’ and at the end of the day they don’t, they go elsewhere,” Patterson said. “So, me saying yes right now really doesn’t matter so we’ll see what happens.”
Patterson, who battled a knee injury during the season said, “I’m fine,” when asked whether he was 100%.
If it doesn’t work out, Patterson said he will treasure his time in Toronto.
“The memories from on the court, off the court, fans, (the Toronto International Film Festival). So many to name right now but all in all, the memories I’ve had in this city with my teammates, the fans and this organization.”
Ibaka doesn’t have Patterson’s nearly four seasons as a Raptor to reflect on when he makes his call.
“I’ll take time and spend time with my daughter (he is a single father), and then we’ll see what happens,” Ibaka said, refusing to delve too far into his future.
But did he like it in Toronto?
“Oh yeah, yeah. I like it of course here. But like I said, everything is not in my power right now and I’m going to think about it (later). Just going to focus on trying to enjoy time with my daughter and then we are going to see what happens.”
So, it’s hurry up and wait time for a Raptors franchise that enters the off-season with far more decisions to make than usual.
INCREDIBLE
Cleveland has now won 11 straight playoff games since getting behind Golden State 3-1 at last year’s Finals. All James did was average 36 points, 5.3 assists and 8.3 rebounds per game and, more amazingly, shoot 57% from the field, 48% on three-pointers and 83.3% from the free-throw line.
Is this the best Ibaka, who lost to James and the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals, ever seen him play? “Yes … He’s just the motor of that team. He do everything. He create, he help on defence, he do everything,” Ibaka said.
“It’s tough. For us. LeBron is the kind of player you need your guys to play him 1-on-1, but then, the players they have on the court with him, he just makes it tough,” Ibaka said.
“Even me, for a shot-blocker (he has led the league in blocks three times), I have to think two times before I go (and contest his shots, because it might leave shooters open). So that’s tough.”
Good luck to the rest of the NBA figuring out an answer if James keeps this up.
CHANGE AT POINT
With Lowry out, Dwane Casey opted for rookie Fred VanVleet behind Cory Joseph, instead of Delon Wright, who had played earlier in the series.
“Well, I thought we needed shooting and, no disrespect to Delon — he’s going to be an excellent player in this league — but I thought we needed the threat and the possibility of a three-point shot they way they were double-teaming DeMar,” Casey said.
“Fred missed one badly, but to show who he was he stepped right back and knocked down the next one.That kid is going to be a good player — both Delon and Fred. Both of them are gritty, Fred is a winner, Delon is a winner, but it just felt like we needed another shooter because that is who they were rotating off of and trapping from and we were trying to make them pay.”
Wright said afterward “it is what it is,” but it sounds like he’ll use it as motivation to work on his jump shot.
“Yeah, I’ll be a totally different player physically and mentally coming into next season (because he won’t be hurt coming into it the way he was this season until December). I’ll just put in the work.”
HE’LL BE MISSED
This might have been the last game as a Raptor for Lowry, Tucker, Ibaka and Patterson, it might be for others too. It definitely was it for long-time Raptors media relations guru Jim LaBumbard. LaBumbard has been in his role in Toronto for 17 years, but is leaving to work for the NBA. Through good times and many more dark ones, LaBumbard has consistently been outstanding at his job. The business is changing and many don’t get the job, but LaBumbard always did. He always helped keep the bridge between the players and the media hold up. He made sure the athletes fulfilled their obligations (at a time when many staffs cower) and would appropriately admonish if a media member stepped out of line, earning respect from all corners.
He made my job a lot easier from the day I joined the beat part-time years ago and especially once I started traveling.
He’ll be missed.
Good luck, Lombo.RICHMOND, Va. — In a packed theater here on Saturday, Dave Chappelle introduced a comedy bit by explaining that there was a time when he didn’t want to return to the public eye. “I didn’t want to do comedy,” he said, explaining that he wasn’t sure he had something to say. That’s certainly changed.
After years of dropping by clubs for surprise sets and occasionally playing theaters, Mr. Chappelle is returning to the spotlight in the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival, a tour produced by FunnyorDie.com that will feature Mr. Chappelle, Flight of the Conchords, Hannibal Buress, Demetri Martin and Kristen Schaal, among others. The monthlong tour, which includes a second stage hosted by the comic Brody Stevens, begins in Austin, Tex., on Aug. 23 and will make stops in New Jersey at the Susquehanna Bank Center on Sept. 6 and the PNC Bank Arts Center on Sept. 7.
Almost since he left his Comedy Central hit “Chappelle’s Show” in 2005, his return has been rumored, heating up in the past year since he appeared with Chris Rock at the Comedy Cellar in New York. Mr. Chappelle is now touring the South playing to sold-out audiences. At a show in March, his performance was freewheeling with extended exchanges with the crowd. This past weekend his two sets still had that same spontaneity, but the jokes had tightened, and the transitions were quicker. Wearing a tank top and roaming around the stage in a quickening pace, he had the look of a man getting ready.2014/02/27, 03:30 by checker
I just released build v0.1.3240.0 to the beta, which has some minor bug fixes, but also In-Game Replays, the coolest thing since the new art went in!
I am incredibly excited about the potential for replays! I can’t use enough exclamation points!!!
Update: zerotka made a cool trailer showing them off:
I wrote about replays a bit, but seeing them in action is way cooler. As usual, I streamed the release notes on the SpyParty twitch channel, but I cleaned up the video and put it on the YouTube channel. It’s about 35 minutes long, and shows off some of the cool aspects of replays, and then I answer some interview questions from the beta testers until Comcast decided it was time for the stream to end:
I think replays are going to really help people take their play even deeper than before. Even in the few games I’ve played with it in the wild, it’s made me think about how things I did as a Spy looked from the Sniper side, and how better to protect my Spy actions. I used to think replays were going to help the Sniper more, since you could study Spy moves, but now I’m not so sure…it’s really useful to be able to see your mistakes from the Sniper’s perspective, so you can learn to blend into the crowd more effectively.
And, now that the “hard part” is done, onward to Spectation and the Replays Database!
Oh, I put this note up after editing this stream:(Updates with status of Seaway Twin)
Oct 24 (Reuters) - A leak late on Sunday prompted Enterprise Products Partners to shut its Seaway Crude Pipeline system, the largest conduit for moving oil from the major storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma to Gulf coast refineries.
News of the leak dragged U.S. crude prices lower on Monday on worries that shutting down the 850,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Seaway system would bottle up barrels in storage in Cushing, the delivery point for the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contract.
U.S. crude futures slipped 1.3 percent in afternoon trading, while international benchmark Brent crude futures fell about 1.2 percent.
Enterprise said on Monday it had shut down the 400,000-bpd pipeline, which it calls its legacy line, but did not provide an estimate of the volume spilled. The total amount released would not be determined until recovery efforts were complete, the company said.
The company on Monday afternoon said it had restarted its 450,000 bpd Seaway Twin, which was shut as a precaution.
Most of the oil released was contained in a retention pond at a facility belonging to Enbridge Inc, a joint owner of the Seaway Crude Pipeline Company with Enterprise.
Enterprise said there was no threat to the public and no evacuations were ordered following the spill, located near the intersection of Linwood Avenue and Texaco Road in Cushing.
The company was working with emergency responders and law enforcement to address the situation.
A spokeswoman from the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said the organization was aware of the spill and officials were despatched to take corrective measures and relief.
The spill comes at a time of concern and debate by environmental activists and energy firms over the issues of pipeline safety and security.
Climate-change activists earlier this month disrupted the flow of millions of barrels of crude from Canada to the United States, in support of a Native American tribe protesting the construction of the controversial Dakota Access crude oil pipeline.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has protested the construction of the $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline that will carry oil from North Dakota to the U.S. Gulf Coast, over fears of potential damage to sacred land and water supplies.
The news pushed the discount between front-month U.S. crude futures and the second-month to 69 cents, the widest in nearly two months. The prompt crude spread (CLc1-CLc2), often correlates to the supply-demand balance in Cushing.
(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York and Liz Hampton in Houston; Additional reporting by Arpan Varghese and Karen Rodrigues in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon Webb, Bernadette Baum and David Gregorio)Leicester City have lost another key member of the team behind their Premier League title triumph after Steve Walsh was appointed as Everton’s first director of football.
They initially rejected Everton’s approach for their head of recruitment, credited with the purchases of Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kanté and Jamie Vardy, before the Goodison Park club returned with an improved offer that met Leicester’s compensation demands.
Juventus and Everton set for battle over Newcastle’s £35m Moussa Sissoko Read more
Walsh, who also held the title of assistant manager, has started work at Everton with immediate effect, meeting Ronald Koeman to discuss transfers before his arrival was announced. Newcastle United’s Moussa Sissoko is one target but Everton face strong competition from Juventus for the £35m-valued midfielder.
Walsh is the second departure from Leicester’s backroom team this year after Ben Wrigglesworth, their former head of technical scouting, joined Arsenal last season. Claudio Ranieri has also lost Kanté to Chelsea despite being able to offer Champions League football next season, unlike at Stamford Bridge.
Farhad Moshiri, Everton’s major shareholder, turned to Walsh in his overhaul of the club’s management structure after missing out on Monchi, the sporting director at Sevilla. Walsh was Chelsea’s scout in the north of England for 16 years, while also working as head of PE at schools in his hometown of Chorley. He was promoted to European scout at Chelsea before joining Newcastle, Leicester under Nigel Pearson, Hull City and returning to Leicester in 2011.
“I’m proud and privileged to become director of football at such a fantastic and historic club,” Walsh said. “With a new manager and a new major shareholder, it feels very much like a new era here at Everton and that potential is what is most exciting. I know the club well. My roots are in the north-west and my brother, Mickey, was an Everton player in the Bob Latchford era and always proud of that fact. I also did my initial teacher training at Liverpool Hope University many years ago. I’m genuinely excited to be here at the club and very much looking forward to getting down to work.”
Koeman has signed only the back-up goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg from Fulham since replacing Roberto Martínez as the manager last month. Anticipated bids for John Stones and Romelu Lukaku, with Manchester City firm favourites to sign the England international defender, have complicated Koeman’s rebuilding plans and the manager is anxious to resolve the futures of both players. He had backed Moshiri’s plans for a director of football before completing his switch from Southampton.
“It’s really good for the club to have someone in Steve who has shown his quality at a number of clubs over many years,” Koeman said. “That’s the experience and quality he will bring to us at a good time in the season. He has a great deal of knowledge about building for the long-term and the magnificent work he did at Leicester on top of the job he did at Chelsea makes us excited to have him here at Everton.”
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright added: “It’s great news to welcome Steve to our new era at Everton football club. His track record, particularly at Leicester City, is already the stuff of football folklore, and both myself and Farhad, having spent time with Steve, are convinced he is exactly the right fit for our club and our new manager.”
Leicester’s director of football, Jon Rudkin, said: “Steve has made a signification contribution to the most successful period in the club’s history and it is with a heavy heart that we accept his decision to seek a different challenge in his career. We thank him wholeheartedly for his service and wish him and his family well in the future.”When Patents Attack... Part Two!
This story from Planet Money's Alex Blumberg and NPR's Laura Sydell aired this weekend on This American Life. A shorter version of the piece is also airing today on All Things Considered. Here's the story.
Two years ago we brought you the story of Nathan Myhrvold and his company Intellectual Ventures. Myhrvold, a former chief technology officer at Microsoft, called the business "a company that invests in invention," but in Silicon Valley it has a different reputation. The influential blog Techdirt regularly refers to Intellectual Ventures as a patent troll. Techdirt and other technology blogs have written about how Intellectual Ventures uses its large patent portfolio to demand license fees from technology companies.
Dan Lamont/ZUMA Press
Intellectual Ventures told us if we wanted to understand what the company was all about, we should talk to this inventor it had helped out, a patent holder named Chris Crawford.
When we tried to contact Crawford, he didn't return any phone calls. He didn't return emails. His patents are now in the hands of a company called Oasis Research, and the patents were being used to sue more than a dozen different tech businesses.
Oasis Research has no researchers and no employees of any kind that we could find. Its only place of business seemed to be an empty office in a corridor of empty offices in a small town in Texas.
We had a lot of questions about Chris Crawford and Oasis Research, but because of the secretive nature of these lawsuits, there were basic questions we could not answer. Now, two years later, the litigation is over, and it has given us a rare look inside this world. Here's what we've learned:
Originally, there were 18 tech companies that Oasis claimed were infringing on Chris Crawford's patents. But that pool got smaller and smaller as companies decided to just cut a deal with Oasis and pay a licensing fee.
At a certain point, an online backup company called Carbonite was one of just two companies remaining in the case. The other company was EMC. (Full disclosure: Carbonite is an underwriter of NPR news programs.)
Carbonite CEO David Friend says it was tough to be one of the last men standing, especially when the company's lawyers kept encouraging Friend to settle.
Defending a patent case is really difficult because explaining technology and patents to a jury is a big challenge, so lawyers for Carbonite and EMC pursued a second strategy as well. If they could demonstrate that the inventor wasn't telling the truth when he filled out the patent application, the patent could be invalidated. So the lawyers for Carbonite and EMC started to dig into Crawford's past looking for evidence of this.
One of the first places they went looking was the company where Crawford was working at the time he claimed to have come up with his ideas. They found Crawford's old boss, Chuck Campos. Campos told them he was around when the ideas in the patents were developed, and that they weren't only Crawford's ideas.
Campos told the lawyers that the ideas mainly came from two other guys, Jack Byrd and Don Atwood. Byrd and Atwood were developing software together in 1990, and they wanted to come up with a secure way to back up their work. The only way to do that at the time was to download the work to floppy disk drives, but Byrd and Atwood thought there had to be a better way. They started a company to use phone modems to back up data remotely. They hired Campos and Crawford to help them.
The four men agreed to split ownership four ways, and Byrd named the new company PC Oasis. The "oasis" part of that name was an acronym — short for Offsite Archival Software and Information Server.
They met on Saturdays to discuss setting up the business, but they couldn't figure out a way to get it up and running using the technology available in the early '90s — phone lines and modems. So, they disbanded the company and went their separate ways.
It was the end of Oasis for Bryd, Atwood and Campos, but not for Crawford. Crawford had kept detailed notes of those Saturday meetings, and a couple of years later, he filed patents based on those notes.
Carbonite's chief counsel Danielle Sheer says Crawford then sold those patents to a company called Kwon Holdings for $12 million and a percentage of royalties that the next owner collects.
Sheer says that Byrd, Atwood and Campos knew "nothing about what Chris Crawford is doing. Nothing at all."
A decade later, those patents ended up the property of another company with Oasis in the name, Oasis Research, a company that pays Crawford a portion of the money it collects from the patents.
If Crawford's three former business partners had also developed the ideas, they should have been, at the very least, listed as co-inventors on Crawford's original patent applications. This was the smoking gun the lawyers had been looking for, but they weren't sure it would be enough to convince a jury. At the trial, it would still be just the word of Byrd, Atwood and Campos against Crawford's.
The lawyers wanted proof. They found it in the form of one sentence among thousands of pages that Crawford submitted to the patent office. The sentence was this:
"This proposal it is in response to Jack Byrd's idea to provide automated offsite backup services for PC users."
The lawyers for Carbonite and EMC argued that was conclusive evidence that Crawford's patents were based on Byrd's idea. At a videotaped deposition Crawford gave as part of the Oasis trial, he offered up a surprising defense. He argued that the sentence didn't actually mean the idea was Byrd's, because he, Crawford, had used the apostrophe "s" incorrectly.
Attorney: "I'm asking you, though — you certainly know what the use of an apostrophe's' means, do you not?" Chris Crawford: "As I've written documents over the years, there are times when I use an apostrophe's,' and it seems like I'm supposed to use an apostrophe's.' But I have to say that my grammar is not strong enough to tell you right now with clarity when an apostrophe's' is used."
His explanation apparently did not convince the jury, which concluded that the patents were indeed invalid for failing to name the correct co-inventors. Carbonite won, and yet its lawyers say the victory just shows how difficult it is for a company to defend itself against a patent infringement claim.
The jury concluded that Byrd should have been listed as a co-inventor, but not Campos and Atwood, the other men who testified under oath that they too had been involved in developing the ideas. Only Byrd's name had been on that document, so only Byrd got credit from the jury as a co-inventor. Lawyers for Carbonite believe that if not for that document mentioning Byrd, the jury might not have invalidated Crawford's patent, and Carbonite might have ended up paying damages.
For the 16 companies that did settle with Oasis, the verdict may not change anything. In most cases these licensing agreements have language that makes them nearly impossible to get out of — no matter what happens with the patent.
A spokesman for one of the companies that settled sent us an email saying:
"We were hit hard by this lawsuit. Infringement on our part seemed completely bogus, but we could not afford to fight it. Even with the settlement, we were forced to lay off employees. We are STILL paying out on the settlement agreement. We were unaware that the patent had been invalidated. We will be contacting our attorney to see what recourse we may have."
It's unknown how much money Oasis received from those licensing arrangements. We do know how much it wanted from Carbonite. Danielle Sheer said Oasis proposed a $20 million license fee plus a portion of revenue going forward.
Tom Ewing, an intellectual property lawyer who studies patent infringement cases, says, assuming Oasis was asking for settlements in rough proportion to the size of the company being targeted, a pretty good estimate of its total take "might be in excess of $100 million."
Who gets that money?
Because of documents filed with the court, we now know that Intellectual Ventures, owned by Nathan Myhrvold, gets 90 percent of Oasis Research's net profit. Intellectual Ventures sold Crawford's patents to Oasis on this condition.
And Crawford didn't make out too badly, either. The documents say he gets 17 1/2 percent of the money that Intellectual Ventures makes.
This kind of money makes the business of suing based on patents a very lucrative one, and it's getting easier. Every year more patents are issued than the year before. According |
dedicate the years necessary to master a stenographic shorthand. Alphabetic shorthands cannot be written at the speeds theoretically possible with symbol systems—200 words per minute or more—but require only a fraction of the time to acquire a useful speed of between 60 and 100 words per minute.
Non-stenographic systems often supplement alphabetic characters by using punctuation marks as additional characters, giving special significance to capitalised letters, and sometimes using additional non-alphabetic symbols. Examples of such systems include Stenoscript, Speedwriting and Forkner shorthand. However, there are some pure alphabetic systems, including Personal Shorthand, SuperWrite, Easy Script Speed Writing, and Keyscript Shorthand which limit their symbols to a priori alphabetic characters. These have the added advantage that they can also be typed—for instance, onto a computer, PDA, or cellphone. Early editions of Speedwriting were also adapted so that they could be written on a typewriter, and therefore would possess the same advantage.
Varieties of vowel representation [ edit ]
Shorthand systems can also be classified according to the way that vowels are represented.
Alphabetic – Expression by "normal" vowel signs that are not fundamentally different from consonant signs (e.g., Gregg, Duployan).
– Expression by "normal" vowel signs that are not fundamentally different from consonant signs (e.g., Gregg, Duployan). Mixed alphabetic – Expression of vowels and consonants by different kinds of strokes (e.g., Arends' system for German or Melin's Swedish Shorthand where vowels are expressed by upward or sideway strokes and consonants and consonant clusters by downward strokes).
– Expression of vowels and consonants by different kinds of strokes (e.g., Arends' system for German or Melin's Swedish Shorthand where vowels are expressed by upward or sideway strokes and consonants and consonant clusters by downward strokes). Abjad – No expression of the individual vowels at all except for indications of an initial or final vowel (e.g., Taylor).
– No expression of the individual vowels at all except for indications of an initial or final vowel (e.g., Taylor). Marked abjad – Expression of vowels by the use of detached signs (such as dots, ticks, and other marks) written around the consonant signs.
– Expression of vowels by the use of detached signs (such as dots, ticks, and other marks) written around the consonant signs. Positional abjad – Expression of an initial vowel by the height of the word in relation to the line, no necessary expression of subsequent vowels (e.g., Pitman, which can optionally express other vowels by detached diacritics).
– Expression of an initial vowel by the height of the word in relation to the line, no necessary expression of subsequent vowels (e.g., Pitman, which can optionally express other vowels by detached diacritics). Abugida – Expression of a vowel by the shape of a stroke, with the consonant indicated by orientation (e.g., Boyd).
– Expression of a vowel by the shape of a stroke, with the consonant indicated by orientation (e.g., Boyd). Mixed abugida – Expression of the vowels by the width of the joining stroke that leads to the following consonant sign, the height of the following consonant sign in relation to the preceding one, and the line pressure of the following consonant sign (e.g., most German shorthand systems).
Machine shorthand systems [ edit ]
Traditional shorthand systems are written on paper with a stenographic pencil or a stenographic pen. Some consider that strictly speaking only handwritten systems can be called shorthand.
Machine shorthand is also a common term for writing produced by a stenotype, a specialized keyboard. These are often used for court room transcripts and in live subtitling. However, there are other shorthand machines used worldwide, including: Velotype; Palantype in the UK; Grandjean Stenotype, used extensively in France and French-speaking countries; Michela Stenotype, used extensively in Italy; and Stenokey, used in Bulgaria and elsewhere.
Common modern English shorthand systems [ edit ]
One of the most widely used forms of shorthand is still the Pitman shorthand method described above, which has been adapted for 15 languages.[21] Although Pitman's method was extremely popular at first and is still commonly used, especially in the UK, its popularity has been superseded, especially in the U.S., by Gregg shorthand, developed by John Robert Gregg in 1888.
In the UK, the spelling-based (rather than phonetic) Teeline shorthand is now more commonly taught and used than Pitman, and Teeline is the recommended system of the National Council for the Training of Journalists with an overall speed of 100 words per minute necessary for certification. Other less commonly used systems in the UK are Pitman 2000, PitmanScript, Speedwriting, and Gregg. Teeline is also the most common shorthand method taught to New Zealand journalists, whose certification typically requires a shorthand speed of at least 80 words per minute.
In Nigeria, shorthand is still taught in higher institutions of learning, especially for students studying Office Technology Management and Business Education.
Notable shorthand systems [ edit ]
For a more comprehensive list, see List of shorthand systems
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
125386Whenever a new programming language is announced, a certain segment of the developer population always rolls its eyes and groans that we have quite enough to choose from already, thank you very much.
As a case in point, take Dart, the language Google hopes will replace JavaScript. Was it really necessary to create a whole new client-side language for the Web? Superficially, Dart doesn't seem like much more than JavaScript with a few Java-like features mixed in. It even compiles to JavaScript (and not very efficiently). Wouldn't it have been better to work to improve the JavaScript we already have?
[ Neil McAllister reveals the ugly truth behind programmer hiring quizzes. | Speaking of quizzes, see if you can pass InfoWorld's programming IQ test, round 1, and programming IQ test, round 2. | Get software development news and insights from InfoWorld's Developer World newsletter. ]
To its credit, Google says it's doing just that, in tandem with its Dart effort. But once a language reaches a certain tipping point of popularity, overhauling it to include support for new features, paradigms, and patterns is easier said than done. In fact, judging by the past ten years or so, it can be very, very difficult.
The PHP 6 debacle
Take PHP, for example. The next version of the popular Web applications language shipped its second release candidate this week, and the final build is expected to arrive early next year. This release won't be the long-awaited PHP 6, however. Instead, it will be a far less ambitious revision designated PHP 5.4.
Doubtless that's a disappointment to developers who have been anticipating PHP 6 since the project launched in October 2005. But at this point, even if a release dubbed PHP 6 does eventually appear, it will bear little resemblance to the version that's borne the designation so far. PHP creator Rasmus Lerdorf officially shelved the PHP 6 project in March 2010 after almost five years of fruitless labor, in favor of refocusing on a formal 5.4 release.
Some of the reasons for the PHP 6 effort's failure were technical. The primary focus of the project was retooling PHP to include native support for Unicode. That wouldn't be limited to strings, either; in PHP 6, developers would be able to specify variable names, function names, and other identifiers using any Unicode script, including multibyte encodings such as Chinese and Hindi. As the years rolled on and hidden gotchas began to surface, however, it became clear that the PHP developers had bitten off more than they could chew.
It didn't help that as an open source project, PHP development is largely a volunteer effort. According to PHP contributor Andrei Zmievski, relatively few developers really understood the Unicode push and were committed to making it happen. It was hard to get excited about rewriting lots of working code to support Unicode, and enthusiasm for the project waned. By the time PHP 6 was abandoned in 2010, Lerdorf observed that PHP development "hasn't been fun for quite a while."
Languages move forward, but slowly
Personally, I'm no fan of PHP. I've long held it's a poster child for bad language design, so it doesn't surprise me to learn that evolving it into something better is a Sisyphean task. But I shouldn't single out PHP here. In fact, many of the more popular languages have struggled to move forward with major new versions in recent years.President Obama seems hellbent on forcing the women of the U.S. military into direct combat units at great potential risk both to themselves and their fellow soldiers.
Obama supplicants in the military have been cowed by radical feminist ideology. They are promoting change for the sake of ideology, not because it is actually needed.
Two years ago the current Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey called for a “critical mass” or “significant cohort” of women to be placed in combat. Standards in excess of what female soldiers can achieve should be questioned, he said. The so-called “Dempsey Rule” holds that if something is too difficult for women, the standards will eventually have to be ratcheted down to “equal but lower” levels.
Under Obama's leadership the Pentagon is committed to what former Joint Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen dubbed "diversity as a strategic imperative."
"Diversity," of course, is perhaps the preeminent shibboleth of the Left today and it has a growing body count.
Diversity and the corresponding fear of making members of particular social groups feel uncomfortable, probably contributed to the enemy's success in attacking the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. Leading up to 9/11, some government officials noticed Muslim visitors to America behaving suspiciously but they were afraid of connecting the dots. Doing so might have reinforced negative stereotypes about Arabs, which in addition to not being nice, would have constituted a crime against diversity.
Then there was the case of U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American of Palestinian ancestry who openly described himself as a soldier of Allah on business cards. Hasan was convicted of fatally shooting 13 people and attempting to murder another 32 in his attack at Fort Hood in 2009. Officials were aware of his loud opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, his Muslim proselytizing, and his connections to dangerous Islamists. But they decided not to make waves by connecting the dots because doing so might have hurt somebody's feelings. Move along; nothing to see here.
After the Fort Hood massacre, the clueless now-retired U.S. Army Gen. George Casey continued to stand by diversity as some kind of magical tool that makes America a nicer, better place.
"Our diversity, not only in our army, but in our country, is a strength," Casey said. "And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse."
The same virulent strain of political correctness infects local fire departments across America, some of which routinely induct women as firefighters. Sure, it may be "equality," but if you need to be carried down the stairs of a burning building, would you prefer to be rescued by a big strong man or a woman who probably doesn't have the same muscle power or as much endurance? Some women may be drawn to the idea of fighting fires for a living but very few of them can meet the demanding physical requirements to become firefighters.
There is no harm in allowing women to try out for a position, but to pursue a policy that forces women onto fire departments through a kind of affirmative action is madness. This focus on equality instead of competence is a recipe for mediocrity and death.
Now the feminist expression of the deadly diversity agenda is ripping through the nation's military structure like a slow-moving tsunami.
President Obama announced in 2013 that he intended to rescind rules that exempt female soldiers from serving in direct combat units such as the infantry. The move came two years after the Department of Defense's Military Leadership Diversity Commission released a report endorsing co-ed land combat to advance “gender diversity metrics,” which is another way of saying “quotas.” The goal is to repeal current standards, which stress merit and competence, and replace them with “gender-neutral” standards by January 2016.
"There is no need to push this agenda; for decades women in the military have been promoted at rates equal to or faster than men," according to Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, an independent public policy organization that reports on and analyzes military/social issues.
"The gender diversity ideology is not about ending discrimination; it is about demographic group rights," Donnelly told FrontPage.
Full implementation would have the effect of enforcing "gender-neutral" standards that are equal but lower than before. This would leave men less prepared for combat realities that have not changed, and women subject to resentment they do not deserve.
Federal lawmakers need to start asking tough questions, Donnelly says.
Parachuting women into combat roles is what happens when fevered left-wing utopianism takes over the Pentagon. Radicals on the Left are animated by a morbid obsession with equality, not by results or even by helping people. To them rigid adherence to politically correct fantasies trumps all other concerns. If soldiers die as a result of nutty policies, left-wingers rationalize that --damn the torpedoes!-- it's just the price that has to be paid for their perverse vision of social justice.
It is a fact that women service members are disproportionately more likely to suffer serious injuries in combat. Why should the military adopt policies that will increase the number of physically-disabled female veterans, Donnelly wants to know.
She notes that the U.S. Marine Corps began a multi-stage research project to figure out if women could meet male physical standards.
Since 2012, 29 female Marine officers have tried but flunked the Infantry Officer Course. Only four even made it past the first day on the extraordinarily difficult course that prepares soldiers to lead others in battle.
Upwards of 90 female volunteers made it though the easier infantry course for enlisted personnel, but the Corps had to wave a requirement to perform three pull-ups because more than half of the women couldn't do it. And the Army conducted a survey in which more than 90 percent of women indicated they did not want to serve in combat.
Donnelly cites a study unveiled by the UK's Ministry of Defence this past December that laid bare the problems inherent in female participation in combat operations. Though it may not have been the goal of its authors, the 29-page Review Paper makes a convincing case against co-ed combat, and explains what actually happens when a military force "close[s] with and kill[s] the enemy."
Ground close combat (GCC) involves “the requirement to deploy on foot over difficult terrain, carrying substantial weight, to engage in close quarter fighting, recuperate in the field and then do the same again repeatedly over an extended period.” The report states that:
The nature of conflict is immutable; GCC will remain an intense, visceral and unavoidably physical activity [involving] violent death, injury, all-pervading concussive noise, horror, fear, blood and high levels of emotion... Combat exposes inadequacies and applies manifold stresses [that]... are likely to occur repeatedly throughout combat operations and require high levels of both mental and physical endurance.
Experts in Great Britain studied what bearing the mixing of the sexes on the battlefield had on 21 factors that affect combat effectiveness. Eleven of those factors were thought to have "negative" effects on combat effectiveness and of those only three “cannot be mitigated by changes to structure or training.” These three unisex categories were “Survivability & Lethality, Deployability, and Morbidity.” (Donnelly describes the latter as "vulnerability to injury or illness.")
The report notes that “[W]omen have smaller hearts, about 30% less muscle, and a slighter skeleton with wider pelvic bones resulting in less explosive power and upper body strength.” These differences in physiology “disadvantage women by 20 to 40%; so for the same output women have to work harder than men.”
“Output,” Donnelly explains, refers to “survivability and lethality,” or as she puts it, "staying alive and killing the enemy." Shortcomings in strength and endurance are likely to lead to “early onset of fatigue [and] a distinct cohort with lower survivability in combat... Similar research points to a reduced lethality rate; in that combat marksmanship degrades as a result of fatigue when the combat load increases in proportion to body weight and strength.”
Women are hit disproportionately with injuries, the report says. “[T]he rate of trauma and overuse lower limb MSK (musculoskeletal injury) remains two-fold higher... and the rate of hip and pelvic stress fractures is ten-fold higher in women.”
"Some female athletes can outrun men," Donnelly adds, "but not with 83 pound combat march loads on their backs."
The risk of musculoskeletal injury shoots up in the first 12 months after a woman gives birth and in the more intensive combat roles “potential chronic risks may include irreversible bone fragility and infertility,” the report states. Although female “physical elites” may be strong, they remain “more susceptible to acute short term injury than men.”
Should we be sending all these women to die or get horribly maimed for the sake of equality? And how many other soldiers of either sex will be killed or crippled because a female recruit wasn't up to the task?
Some may say that this is the price of the feminist-driven enforced equality of the sexes. There are no doubt some men (and women) who will say there is no problem. Women campaigned for decades for equality and now they're getting it so they should stop complaining. Besides, women, unlike men still aren't required by law to register with the Selective Service.
But these objections miss what's really important here.
What we should be concerned about is whether forcing women into combat is good for America, not about effectuating someone's political ideology.
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LIKE Frontpagemag.com on Facebook and Subscribe to Jamie Glazov Productions.A Bronx-based drug ring that ran an “on-call cocaine delivery service” to the Wall Street area was busted in a multimillion-dollar trafficking scheme, law enforcement said Monday.
The crew of at least 16 people allegedly smuggled coke, heroin and the synthetic opioid fentanyl from Florida to New York City, where dealers sold it on the street — and also delivered it to professionals in the fields of real estate and advertising, according to the NYPD, Bronx District Attorney’s Office and other authorities.
Officials seized a total of 12 kilograms of fentanyl, 6 kilograms of heroin, 3 kilograms of cocaine and some crack cocaine — along with more than $175,000 in drug money, according to law-enforcement sources.
“This transnational drug trafficking crew made the Bronx an epicenter of fentanyl distribution,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge James Hunt.
In a dramatic drug bust on Nov. 7, one alleged dealer, Jonas Turbi Molina, jumped from the second-story window of his Manhattan hotel room while carrying more than $30,000 in cash. He was later collared, according to the law-enforcement sources.
Authorities then seized 10 kilograms of fentanyl and 2 kilograms of heroin, the sources said.
“This investigation helped shut down a multi-state narcotics operation that dealt in cocaine, heroin and deadly fentanyl … a call-in drug delivery service,” said NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill.
The DEA, New York State Police and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations contributed to the investigation.
The alleged drug traffickers include Braulio Diaz, 46, of Miami, Fla., Jonas Antonio Turbi-Molina, 39, of The Bronx,Victor Jose Gonzalez, 52, of The Bronx, Fernelis Beltre-Espinosa, 51, of The Bronx, NY, Ronald Brid-Calvo, 49, of Hialeah, Fla., Hairo Contreras, 31, of The Bronx and others.
H/T: NY PostMission Reports
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Japan schedules launch of innovative Epsilon rocket
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: November 5, 2012
Japan is scheduled to launch its first Epsilon solid-fueled rocket next year, deploying a planetary telescope in orbit while demonstrating new low-cost rocket assembly and control techniques, the Japanese space agency announced last week.
Artist's concept of the Epsilon rocket. Credit: JAXA
The three-stage rocket will launch from the Uchinoura Space Center on the south shore of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands. The Epsilon program is designed to cut in half the cost of Japanese small satellite launches. Japan's M-5 rocket, which launched seven times before retiring in 2006, cost $94 million per flight. Each Epsilon launch is pegged to cost $47 million, according to Yasuhiro Morita, the rocket's program manager at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported last week the first launch of an Epsilon rocket is scheduled for August or September of 2013. Engineers designed the Epsilon rocket with a simplified control system, and the vehicle's own computers will autonomously monitor the status of its systems during a countdown. Only a handful of engineers with laptop computers are required on the launch control team, according to JAXA. The Epsilon is also designed to launch after only seven days of assembly on the launch pad, reducing labor and overhead costs. The M-5 rocket, which the Epsilon will replace, took several weeks of processing and dozens of controllers for each mission. JAXA has worked on the Epsilon rocket since 2007, and the development is expected to cost 20.5 billion yen, or about $255 million, Morita told Spaceflight Now. Workers are modifying the M-5 launch pad at Uchinoura to accommodate the Epsilon rocket. JAXA is installing a 30-foot-high pedestal and a new flame trench underneath the oceanfront complex, according to Morita. The 78-foot, 100-ton booster can lift up to 2,600 pounds into low Earth orbit. The Epsilon's first stage is based on the H-2A rocket's strap-on booster, while the second and third stages will use heritage solid-fueled motors from the M-5's upper stages. IHI Aerospace Co. is the Epsilon rocket's prime contractor. The company builds the H-2A solid rocket boosters and previously held the lead contract for the M-5 rocket. Epsilon's first launch will orbit the SPRINT-A satellite with a small telescope to observe Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. The approximately 700-pound spacecraft will carry an extreme ultraviolet spectrometer to study the interaction between planetary atmospheres and the solar wind. The second Epsilon flight in 2015 will launch Japan's Energization and Radiation in Geospace, or ERG, satellite, Morita said. According to Morita, officials have not selected a payload for the third Epsilon launch in 2016.The Numbered Treaties (or Post-Confederation Treaties) are a series of eleven treaties signed between the First Nations, one of three groups of indigenous peoples in Canada, and the reigning monarch of Canada (Victoria, Edward VII or George V) from 1871 to 1921.[1] These agreements were created to allow the Government of Canada to pursue settlement and resource extraction in the affected regions, which include modern-day Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. These treaties expanded the Dominion of Canada with large tracts of land in exchange for promises made to the indigenous people of the area. These terms were dependent on individual negotiations and so specific terms differed with each treaty.
These treaties came in two waves—Numbers 1 through 7 from 1871 to 1877 and Numbers 8 through 11 from 1899 to 1921. In the first wave, the treaties were key in advancing European settlement across the Prairie regions as well as the development of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the second wave, resource extraction was the main motive for government officials.
Today, these agreements are upheld by the Government of Canada, administered by Canadian Aboriginal law and overseen by the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. However, the Numbered Treaties are criticized and are a leading issue within the fight for First Nation rights. The 1982 Constitution Act gave protection of First Nations and treaty rights under Section 35. It states, "Aboriginal and treaty rights are hereby recognized and affirmed".[2] This phrase however was never fully defined. As a result, First Nations must attest their rights in court as the case in R v Sparrow.
Through more than a century of interaction, First Nations view the Numbered Treaties as sacred. As an expression of this association, First Nations in Canada and members of the federal government will regularly meet to celebrate milestone anniversaries, exchange ceremonial and symbolic gifts, and discuss treaty issues. Treaty Days are celebrated in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.
Background [ edit ]
The relationship between The Canadian Crown and Indigenous peoples stretches back to the first contact between European colonialists and North American Indigenous peoples. Over centuries of interaction, treaties were established concerning the interaction between the monarch and Indigenous peoples. Both the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the British North American Act of 1867 (Constitution Act, 1867) established guidelines that would be later used to create the numbered treaties.
The Royal Proclamation occurred in 1763, and is considered to be the foundation of treaty-making in Canada. This proclamation established a line between the Appalachian Mountains from Nova Scotia and the southern region of Georgia, and prevented settlement beyond that specific area by white colonists.[3] The proclamation also established protocols that needed to be acknowledged by the governing authority in regards to purchasing land from First Nations Peoples in North America and later Canada.[4] The Royal Proclamation was created as a result of the assertion of British jurisdiction over First Nation territory. While the British laid claim over First Nation territory, uprisings from Pontiac, the Three Fire Confederacy, and other First Nations Peoples resulted in a period of violence between the two peoples as the British attempted to maintain their claim and the Indigenous peoples fought to dislodge British troops from their land. As a result of these uprisings, the intention of the Royal Proclamation was to prevent future disputes.[5] The Royal Proclamation stated that the only authoritative government that was able to purchase land from First Nations People was the British Crown. One of the stipulations of this agreement was that First Nations People were to be informed and attend the public assembly regarding the purchase of lands.[6]
When the British North American Act was created, a division of power was established between the Dominion Government and its provinces that separated First Nation Peoples and settlers. The federal government retained responsibility for providing health care, education, property rights and creating other laws that would affect the First Nations people.[7][8] Following the establishment of the British North America Acts in 1867, the Dominion Government of Canada replaced the British Crown as the leading authority, and gained control of 19th century First Nations land transfers.[9]
Both the Royal Proclamation and the British North America Acts impacted the procedures of governmental and First Nations People negotiations. They set the stage for future negotiations that would occur, including the numbered treaties that would begin in 1871 with Treaty 1.
Call for treaties [ edit ]
Negotiation of the Number Treaties began in 1871. The first seven affected those living on the plains, while the remaining were negotiated at a later time between 1899 and 1921 and concerned those living further north. Each treaty delineates a tract of land which was thought to be the traditional territory of the First Nations signing that particular treaty.[10] For Canada it was a necessary step before settlement and development could occur further westward. No two treaties were alike, as they were dependent upon specific geographic and social conditions within the territory being addressed.[11]
Government [ edit ]
After confederation, the newly formed Dominion of Canada looked to expand its borders from sea to sea. There was a fear amongst the population that rapid expansion from the United States would leave the country cornered with limited arable land, lack of opportunity for economic growth, and resource extraction.[12] To the west of Ontario was Rupert's Land, fur trading territory operated by the Hudson's Bay Company since 1670, which contained several trading post and some small settlements, such as the Red River Colony.[13] During the first session of Parliament many called for the annexation of the territory and letters were sent to the British Monarchy suggesting that "it would promote the prosperity of the Canadian people, and conduce to the advantage of the whole Empire if the Dominion of Canada... were extended westward to the shore of the Pacific Ocean."[14] In the following years, negotiations took place to acquire full control of the region with the creation of the Rupert's Land Act of 1868 and the North-Western Territory Transfer Act of 1870.[15] Even though the government acquired the land from the Hudson's Bay Company, they failed to have full control and use of the land; this transfer solely provided sovereignty over the area.
One of the conditions in order to ensure British Columbia would join the confederation at the time was the expansion of the Canadian Pacific Railway into its territory in order to connect it to the rest of the nation.[16] This major infrastructure project would have to go through the interior of the newly acquired land and through First Nation territory. Canadian law, as set out in the Royal Proclamation, recognized that the First Nations who inhabited these lands prior to European contact had title to the land. In order to satisfy British Columbia's request and the growing need for land by eastern settlers and new immigrants, treaties would have to be created with the First Nation people in the interior.
Similarly, the later treaties of the turn of the century were not conducted until the land was useful for government purposes. When gold was discovered in the Klondike in the 1890s Treaty 8 was established in the hopes of quelling tensions and conflicts between First Nations of the northern reaches and miners and traders.[17] Despite the fact that First Nations people of the Mackenzie River Valley were in economic need well before the 1920s, it was not until an abundance of oil was found that treaties needed to be implemented.[18] The Government of Canada lobbied for treaties in the north only when potential development could be supported in the region. For political and economic reasoning, the Government of Canada hastily put treaties into place without regards to First Nation well-being.[19]
First Nations [ edit ]
With Treaties 1–7, there was some resistance from members of the First Nations to the treaty process and growing anxiety that it would allow a flood of settlers, but many saw it as a way to secure much needed assistance.[20] The First Nations at this time were suffering due to the changing dynamics of the west including disease, famine, and conflict.[21] First Nations people were being decimated by disease, specifically smallpox, and tuberculosis which had catastrophic ramifications for several groups. Tsuu T'ina for example were decimated by Old World disease. Their population fell from several thousand to only 300 to 400 remaining within the 1800s.[22] They began to suffer from famine due to the near extinction of the buffalo. Active participation in selling pemmican and hide in the fur trade, in addition to hunting for personal sustenance, meant that those living on the plains lacked a vital food source to maintain their livelihood. They were eager to receive food aid and other assistance from the government, which they believed would be offered following the implementation of treaties.[23] Some First Nation groups also sought to ensure some form of education would be provided to them through the implementation of the treaties. Education was crucial to the First Nations because their cultural way of life was diminishing around them quite rapidly. They believed that the promise of education would not only help curb the loss of culture but also ensure their children's future success in a new developed West.[24][25] In the northern regions of this untreatied land, the First Nations were suffering from similar issues, but had to continue to lobby the Canadian government for years before treaties were negotiated. A focus on materials needed for survival was placed when they did finally occur.[26]
Creation of treaties [ edit ]
Language [ edit ]
Unlike previous treaties, which included both First Nations and European tradition, the numbered treaties were conducted in a purely British diplomatic manner. First Nations were given translators, either of European or Métis descent, who were to translate what was being said during the discussions. What can be seen here is a significant difference between the written documents used by government officials of the time, and the oral traditions used by the First Nations communities throughout the negotiation process. This reality is proven through diaries like those of the Indian commissioner, Duncan Campbell Scott, who wrote a detailed account of negotiating Treaty 9 through Treaty 11.[27] There are also claims from First Nations people that Alexander Morris failed to mention the surrender clause in the treaty text at the negotiations for Treaty 6, leading to miscommunication between the two groups.[28] Evidence can also be found amongst the few written documents of the time by First Nations chiefs; during Treaty 3, Chief Powasson took detailed notes during the negotiations, which shows the differences in understanding of what was being offered during the talks because of the language barrier.[29]
The use of specific wording during the negotiations and within the treaties are also points of contention. The language used by the commissioners during the numbered treaties negotiations addressed First Nations tradition by giving them entitlement of children and the Crown was identified as Queen Mother.[30] When the commissioner recognized First Nations peoples as children and the Crown as Queen Mother it ensured the First Nations people were to always to be protected from danger by their parents and enjoy their freedom.[30] As the numbered treaties negotiations came to an end, the language use was significant to First Nations people. To seal the numbered treaties references to the natural world like, "You will always be cared for, all the time, as long as the sun walks"[31] was used to appeal to the First Nations people.
List of Numbered Treaties [ edit ]
In the table below is information about each numbered treaty including its signing date, its location, the major signers, those affected, and a brief summary of what each group received following the agreement.[32][33]
Differing perspectives [ edit ]
Government [ edit ]
The Crown's intentions were based upon expansion and transition. The treaties allowed the fur trading territory to house a new settler society. As stated in the written terms of the numbered treaties, the Crown desired "peace and goodwill" between First Nations and Her Majesty.[34] In the view of the Crown, treaties were the agreement to trade First Nations territory for "bounty and benevolence". This language makes the First Nations wards of the state and under the government's protection.[34] With these agreements, not only could the Dominion of Canada expand west and northward, but also First Nations could make the transition into a new economy.[35] No longer would First Nations be dependent on a nomadic lifestyle, but rather begin to adapt and integrate into a western settlement society through farming and other entrepreneurial means. To treaty makers, the treaties were essentially a beneficial commercial exchange of both land and identity.
First Nations [ edit ]
Originally, First Nations people felt the treaties had the potential to satisfy the needs of their communities and foster mutual respect and understanding between themselves, the Crown, and all people of Canada.[36] Throughout the signing of the treaties, First Nations believed that their agreement was everlasting, and had many reasons for believing so. For example, during the signing of Treaty 6, a pipe ceremony was conducted before the signing stipulating that nothing but the truth was to be spoken during negotiations.[37]
Effects and violations of the treaties [ edit ]
Many First Nations groups felt the numbered treaties signed by the Dominion Government and their First Nations chiefs between 1877 and 1921 were rushed and disorganized, limiting to the Indigenous way of life and ultimately had poor results due to unfulfilled promises.[38] Because of the treaties, Canada was seen as an oppressive colonizer at this time, most prominently because the government was more concerned with changing the various First Nations groups, rather than negotiating and collaborating with them.[39] Some of the most prominent effects of the numbered treaties for First Nations groups included limited funds for education, supplies (such as fishing net twine) and minimal allocation of land as First Nations reserves. Upon signing the treaties, Canada obtained control of most aspects of society, especially in schooling, resource extraction, land use and implementation of laws for various social issues (such as alcohol policies).
The Dominion Government also violated many of the treaty terms; in restructuring and mandating education through the creation of residential schools, the government breached the treaty agreements around the question of education.[40] Many First Nations were allocated less reserve lands than they were supposed to according to the Treaty, which resulted in many indigenous land claims based on treaty rights entitlements.[41] Also, First Nations felt the agreements from the numbered treaties were dishonoured when their traditional forms of governance were removed and they became "wards of the state", and when Indian agents began to control the sale of their seeds and livestock.[28] Further restrictions and policies were put in place that controlled First Nations' way of life beyond the original stipulations that were outlined in the numbered treaties.
The American Indian Movement of the 1960s interpreted the treaties as being invalid because:
coerced, accordingly not an agreement between equal partners [42]
breached many times in their history by the government, [43] notably by the residential school system and resource extraction
notably by the residential school system and resource extraction not reached by agreement with the lawful hereditary chiefs, and especially without the involvement of women who by tradition often had final authority
Legacy [ edit ]
In 1981, all provinces other than Quebec agreed to a constitutional amendment, which included a reiteration of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Canada as established by former treaties (Chapter 35). Subsequent attempts (Meech Lake Accord, Charlottetown Accord) to try to appease the government of Quebec with certain constitutional provisions, such as the recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society" failed in part due to First Nations opposition. Many aboriginal leaders saw this renegotiation as an opportune time to enshrine the increased rights and powers and recognition that they had been campaigning for since the process of patriating the Canadian constitution began in the 1970s. |
, but one of the bigger groups that turned out last election in Nevada were Mormons (25 percent of the electorate), most of whom voted for Romney. Political scientists I talked to said that that number is probably going to be way lower this year. People are split, Mormons included, and there’s just less enthusiasm for spending your Tuesday night at a caucus. Nevada still doesn’t have the pride that Iowa has about its caucuses — they’re a new beast!
micah: Even if LDS turnout is a bit lower, they could still prove decisive. Which way do you think they’ll go? Do we have any idea?
clare.malone: I think the LDS vote is very much split and there are good arguments for Ted Cruz or Rubio. And yes, some Mormons will vote for Trump. Rubio has more of the sheen of a traditional conservative, which, in general, the Mormon community has liked in the past. And Rubio’s immigration record is actually a boon, given that Mormons are more liberal on that issue than most Republicans (they spend a lot of time abroad in their missions, which is a factor that comes into play).
On the Cruz side of things, his Constitutional conservative thing plays well, given that it’s a theological tenet of Mormonism that the Constitution is divinely inspired. And he’s been trying to pick up some of the Rand/Ron Paul libertarians — also a Mormon contingent in that ideological aisle.
So, I think it’s going to be an interesting little slice of the pie to watch tonight.
natesilver: Nevada might be a pretty good state for either Rubio or Cruz if not for the fact that Trump literally has his name in lights on a building there. And there are certain parochial interests in Nevada. In Morning Consult’s polling of all 50 states, Trump’s top two states were Nevada and New Jersey. Guess what they have in common? (Although, to be fair, there’s no gambling at the Trump hotel.)
micah: What explains that, though? Is that just name recognition? Or are people like, “Well, that Trump hotel is top-notch … he should be president!”?
clare.malone: Nevada is coming off a huge housing crisis, and I think a lot of people are ready to receive that Trump message of “throw the bastards out, overhaul the system.” And he’s also, might I say, a little Vegas himself? So it might be a bit cultural.
harry: How is there no gambling at Trump’s hotel? Here’s what I know: Turnout in 2012 was just over 30,000. Turnout in 2008 was around 45k. Those were both on Saturdays. This is a Tuesday night.
clare.malone: What’s on TV on Tuesday night? That could be key. Shit, guys, “NCIS” is on. Ballgame over.
micah: So what are the stakes? This feels a little low stakes to me, tbh, but is that just because Nevada is hard for the East Coast media to cover — there’s little polling and results won’t come until midnight Eastern time at the EARLIEST — so they’re downplaying the contest?
harry: I think if Trump wins, the train continues. If Trump loses, the media will cover it big time. The reason? It’s the same as always: The media wants a contest. Plus, it’ll show Trump has a weakness in caucuses and potentially out West in general.
natesilver: If Nevada had its act together and held a primary, the stakes would be higher.
micah: Nate, you’re really coming off as anti-Nevada.
natesilver: I love Nevada! I think Nevadans should have the opportunity to vote in a primary. But the caucus is a hard event for the media to cover, and also hard for it to set expectations between the lack of polling and the low turnout.
micah: “Reno 911!” is an all-time great show.
clare.malone: What if Rubio finishes a strong second (whatever that means), that’s good, no?
harry: Well, Rubio wants to get to a one-on-one against Trump ASAP. So anything that helps him do that is helpful.
clare.malone: Keeps the people who have been endorsing him over the last few days happy. My inbox has been, I would say, 40 percent press releases from the Rubio campaign telling me which congressman believes in Marcomentum.
natesilver: Rubio finishing ahead of Cruz would be not unimportant. If you’re filling in Cruz’s map, then other than the South, the next place you might expect him to do well is in Western caucus states: libertarian-ish, low turnout. If he finishes third in a Southern state, then finishes third in Nevada, the map looks even tougher for him than before.
clare.malone: Cruz had Glenn Beck out here stumping for him — bringing in the big guns. I think Rubio seems pretty confident. He’s out of the state already, I believe. On to Minnesota and Michigan.
harry: Cruz’s map is essentially Reagan’s from 1976. Win in the West and the South. But it’s unclear — after South Carolina and recent polling — that he can do either.
harry: Can we talk about John Kasich for a second here?
clare.malone: Always. He’s in the South this week!
harry: He’s not in Nevada.
clare.malone: Nope.
harry: How is he running a national campaign?
clare.malone: He’s in Mississippi and Georgia, I believe.
harry: He didn’t run in Iowa. He’s not running in Nevada. He sorta campaigned in South Carolina.
clare.malone: I think he’s running for VP. Which to me, means you need to stay in for a while.
natesilver: I want to pick apart one more thing on Rubio, though. Rubio actually spent a fair amount of time in Nevada earlier in the campaign. He’s got a lot of state legislator endorsements.
clare.malone: The lt. governor of the state is Rubio’s campaign chair. That helps.
harry: And he has the endorsement of Dean Heller, the Republican senator from that state.
natesilver: At some point, there was talk about how Nevada could be Rubio’s first victory. When did that stop? Did his campaign conduct a bunch of polling and conclude “oops, Trump”? Or are they doing a really, really good job of lowering expectations?
micah: Yeah, I think it would be pretty easy to argue that if Rubio doesn’t do well in Nevada, maybe even win, it’s a sign of something wrong. One thing we know for sure: The Rubio campaign has maybe done the most amazing job of managing expectations in the history of U.S. presidential elections.
natesilver: Ehh, I’m not sure about that, Micah.
micah: Nate, the Republican Party elite is consolidating around Rubio and he hasn’t won a single state — or even come particularly close!
natesilver: Usually the party consolidates around a candidate during the invisible primary before voters have weighed in at all. Basically, Rubio just won the invisible primary after the visible primary started. Which is, uh … a little different.
micah: But I don’t think that happens if expectations weren’t managed as they have been.
natesilver: Well, Rubio miserably underperformed expectations in New Hampshire. And the party stuck with him then.
micah: But the race didn’t start with New Hampshire. If Rubio’s third-place finish in Iowa wasn’t perceived as such a boon …
natesilver: If “the party” had been reading FiveThirtyEight, they’d have gotten behind Rubio in 2013!
harry: The only candidate besides Rubio left in the race that most party elites would even think of getting behind is Kasich, and Kasich isn’t really running a national campaign. That’s why after Jeb Bush left we are seeing the consolidation.
Bush was holding these guys back.
micah: For sure, but I think that consolidation behind Rubio is the result of two main factors: 1. Every other candidate sucks (from the GOP elite’s POV), and 2. Expectations spin by the Rubio folks. It was just all well executed.
clare.malone: Maybe it’s less expectations and more practicality masquerading as expectations?
micah: Yeah, maybe it’s both.
clare.malone: Because to me, the Rubio campaign’s strongest argument behind the scenes is, “Hey, our guy will look like a relatively normal Joe to the general electorate. You cannot say the same for Cruz, despite all his resources, and you, Mr. fill-in-the-blank-congressman, just need to make a decision now of practicality.” Rubio is the “love the one you’re with” candidate.
micah: Alright, let’s get back to Kasich before we wrap. Let’s posit for a second that he’s not running to be Veep. Does he have any path to the nomination? Or would he be in Nevada if he had a path?
clare.malone: I’m not sure he has a path, but he would need to do well in Ohio and Michigan.
harry: He’s trailing Trump in a Quinnipiac poll out this morning by 5 percentage points in Ohio, and his supporters are far less likely to say their mind is made up.
natesilver: It’s hard to think Kasich has any path at the nomination. He’s running in the “establishment lane,” too, but he has very little establishment support. No endorsements of any kind since January. No endorsements by someone outside of Ohio since September.
micah: Penultimate question: Kasich’s message (“let’s all come together”) is basically the opposite of Trump’s, so if you don’t like Trump’s message, you probably think having Kasich on the national stage is good for the country. But Kasich also pulls support more from Rubio than from Trump, so the longer Kasich remains in the race the more of a problem he becomes for Rubio. So if you’re anti-Trump, do you want Kasich in the race and on the debate stage to offer a different vision of what the GOP should be? Or do you want him gone?
clare.malone: Honestly, who outside of the people of New Hampshire and us know what John Kasich’s message is? I think he’s a bit of a nonentity in many ways, nationally.
harry: Call me ruthless, but you want Kasich out now if you don’t like Trump. Look, I understand the Kasich frustration. Here’s a guy who has been in politics pretty much all of his life. He’s offering a different message. At the end of the day, though, you got to know when to fold. And Kasich has no infrastructure and not that much money.
natesilver: Yeah, this is an easy question. If you want to stop Trump, you want Kasich out.
micah: Final question: Besides the topline result, what one thing will you be watching for in Nevada tonight?
clare.malone: Turnout, I guess, to see if there’s any surprise organizing that was going on. But I mean, I might be watching “NCIS,” so not sure I’ll check in on this whole presidential election thing.
natesilver: I’ll be watching for how badly the Nevada GOP bungles the vote counting. Otherwise, yeah, this is a topline-result kind of contest. There will be entrance polling, but with such a small turnout in a quirky state, I’m not sure how many inferences it will allow us to make.
micah: Take us home, Harry.
harry: I’ll be watching to see if Rubio finishes ahead of Cruz again. If that happens, the movement to crown Rubio as the anti-Trump will move even faster.
Listen to the latest episode of the FiveThirtyEight Elections podcast.Jules Yap*, the owner and operator of Ikeahackers.net–a site you might visit if you were looking to build an Ikea lamp into an Ikea headboard, or transform an Ikea table into an entertainment stand–has posted a letter to her readers, explaining that, months ago, Ikea sent a cease and desist letter to the site, requesting the URL be voluntarily transferred to the company and threatening further legal action should she not comply.
I was a just crazy fan. In hindsight, a naive one, too.
“Long story short, after much negotiation between their agent and my lawyer, I am allowed to keep the domain name IKEAhackers.net only on the condition that it is non-commercial, meaning no advertising whatsoever,” she explains in the letter.
The matter at hand is an intellectual property dispute. “Ikea” is trademarked. As the United States Patent and Trademark Office explains, “A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.” Yap is openly advertising her business with Ikea’s trademark.
Her letter continues:
I agreed to that demand. Because the name IKEAhackers is very dear to me and I am soooo reluctant to give it up. I love this site’s community and what we have accomplished in the last 8 years. Secondly, I don’t have deep enough pockets to fight a mammoth company in court…. …IKEAhackers.net was set up in 2006 and truly not with the intent to exploit their mark. I was a just crazy fan. In retrospect, a naive one too. It is not an excuse but that was just how it was when I registered IKEAhackers. Over the last 8 years the site has grown so much that I could not juggle the demands of a full time job and managing IKEAhackers. It also costs quite a bit to run a site this large. Since IKEA® does not pay me a cent, I turned to advertising to support myself and this site. Now by June 23rd, I would need to take down the ads, not earn any income and still advance their brand on this site. Wonderful!
Yap’s letter explains that she is planning on migrating the existing site–with ads–to a new Ikea-less domain. Yes, Yap is actively using Ikea’s trademark in her business. But you have to wonder, is it ever a good decision to take legal action against an ardent fanbase? Does a site rallying Ikea modders called “SwedishModernFurnitureHackers.net” really serve the Ikea brand better?
We’ve reached out to both Ikea and Yap for further comment.Image copyright Middlesboro Police Department Image caption Police arrested Mr Martin for violating a city law
Kentucky police have arrested a man dressed as a clown lurking in a wooded area amid a wave of clown reports in at least six US states.
Jonathan Martin, 20, was charged with wearing a mask in a public place and disorderly conduct in Middlesboro.
He was found at about 0100 EST (0600 GMT) on Friday in "full clown costume" and mask crouching among trees by an apartment complex, according to police.
Recent reports of clowns trying to lure children into woods have sparked alarm.
Police have warned individuals against dressing up in clown costumes, adding it could lead to criminal charges.
"Dressing as a clown and driving, walking or standing in public can create a dangerous situation for you and others," police in nearby Barbourville, Kentucky, said in a statement online.
"While dressing up is not, in and of itself against the law, doing so in public and thereby creating an unnecessary sense of alarm is illegal."
Why are clowns scary?
Alleged clown encounters have been reported in recent weeks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky.
Image copyright Bell County Detention Center Image caption A police photo showed Mr Martin in his clown costume
But the recent wave of creepy clown sightings has also led to a string of false reports to both police and on social media.
Police in Annapolis, Maryland, recently found reports of students being scared by clowns on the way to school to be untrue.
A 24-year-old man was charged with making false reports in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after he told police a clown knocked on his window.
Meanwhile, an 11-year-old girl was arrested in Athens, Georgia, for bringing a knife to school because she was scared by social media reports that clowns were attacking children.
Mr Martin's arrest comes as Kentucky residents have reported sightings of a clown matching the description of his costume.
A photo posted on Facebook on Wednesday showed a clown in Waco, Kentucky, dressed in a similar black-and-white costume.25 Feb 2014 By: Greg Molnar
I often get the question from new rubyist "How should I test my model validations in Rails?". A simple example is when we have a Post model with two required fields:
# app/models/post.rb class Post < ActiveRecord :: Base validates_presence_of :title, :body end
You could write a test like this:
# test/models/post_test.rb require 'test_helper' class PostTest < ActiveSupport :: TestCase test "should not save post without title or body" do post = Post. new assert_not post. save post. title = 'Test' assert_not post. save post. body = 'Test body' assert post. save end end
But this test is already too long and what if you have a lot more required fields? To get around this it is better to test if the validation errors are correct:
# test/models/post_test.rb test "should have the necessary required validators" do post = Post. new assert_not post. valid? assert_equal [ :title, :body ], post. errors. keys end
Now we cover the existence of the validators with a lot shorter and simpler test. We can use the same approach to test ther validation rules like numericality :
# app/models/post.rb class Post < ActiveRecord :: Base validates_presence_of :title, :body validates :score, numericality : true, allow_blank : true end
# test/models/post_test.rb test "should have numeric score" do post = Post. new ( title : 'test', body : 'test body', score : 'test' ) assert_not post. valid? assert_equal [ "is not a number" ], post. errors. messages [ :score ] endWhen learning Spanish –or any other new language, for that matter– we always encounter words that will not necessarily come up in a regular dictionary. Nowadays, having an understanding of the language’s slang can be the difference between speaking a language and speaking like a native.
Now, as mentioned before, slang can be tricky, since it really depends on the country and yes, we know there are a lot of Spanish speaking countries and each country has its own slang.
But don’t be afraid! We’ll help you one step at a time. Here we’ll be dedicating ourselves to Dominican Slang.
Dominicans tend to be relaxed and easy going, and that is also reflected on the way they speak. At the same time, they talk really fast, so if there’s a way to say a word or convey a meaning in an easier, faster manner, Dominicans will do it.
Because of this, Dominican slang is very broad, you could have an entire dictionary filled with unique Dominican slang words and curses. Sometimes it changes depending on the region or town, but here we’ve put together this little list of the most commonly used slang to help you out.
The phrases in this post were voiced by a Dominican woman.
1. Qué lo qué
Nobody really knows where this one came from as is doesn’t really make sense, but when a Dominican asks you “qué lo qué” they just want to know “What’s up”! This is the perfect example of one of those phrases that were made up to avoid using “Long phrases” such as the following: “¿Cómo estás?” or “¿Cómo va todo?”
Examples:
“¡Hey, Juan, ¿qué lo qué?”
“Hey, Juan, what’s up?”
You can respond,
“Nada aquí chica, pasando el rato.”
“Not much girl, hanging around.”
You’ll hear “Qué lo qué” used a few times in Gritty Spanish Original. Here is a very short clip from the beginning of episode #15 (Bodega Chat) of Gritty Spanish Original, you’ll hear the character joyfully greet a friend/customer as he enters his store…
Do you hear the Dominican music playing in the scene? Little details like that is one of the MANY great things that makes Gritty Spanish so unique and engaging!
If you want to really take your Spanish to another level, be sure to sign up for free episodes after reading the article.
2. Chin
This word is an interesting one as it has indigenous origins. It’s assumed that it was part of the language of the native inhabitants of the island from before the colonization. “Un chin” means “A little” or “a bit”.
You can have a “Chin” of this or a “chin” of that. It might seem weird since in English, “chin” has nothing to do with proportions… unless you want to say you have a big chin. But that’s just part of the charm of learning a language.
Examples:
“Sólo me serví un chin de comida, ya que no tengo mucha hambre”
“I’m just having a little food, I’m not too hungry”
“Estoy un poco atrasada con mi trabajo, así que me quedaré un chin más tarde hoy.”
“I’m kind of behind schedule with my job, so I’ll be staying a little bit longer today”.
3. Vaina
This one is widely used in many Central American and Caribbean countries, and Dominican use it a lot. Vaina basically means “Thing” or “stuff”, however anything can be a “vaina”. It might be used when referring to something –and sometimes someone—you don’t like, or a person that annoys you.
It’s sometimes used when talking about something complicated or problematic. You’ll hear a healthy amount of this slang word being used in Gritty Spanish, especially Parte II, Subscribe to our mailing list and download some free episodes!
Examples:
“¡Qué vaina! Ahora voy a tener que levantarme más temprano que de costumbre.”
“Damn it! From now on, I have to wake up earlier than usual.”
“Luisa, por favor búscame la vaina que está encima de la otra vaina.”
“Luisa, please get me the thing that’s on top of the other thing.”
“Sí. Escuché que él y su hermana han estado presos como cuatro veces ya. Esa gente son una vaina.”
“Yes, I heard he and her sister have been in jail like four times already. They’re problematic people.”
4. Concho
Public transportation is a little different in the Dominican Republic. Although you will find subway and buses, there’s also the “conchos” which are basically public taxis. They’re old sedan cars, however they carry up to 6 people without including the driver.
They precisely use old cars, like 70’s and 80’s models, because their interior is bigger than your typical, modern sedan. It’s still far from comfortable, people just cram themselves in there. If you don’t like strangers to be that close, you can just pay for 2 or take a regular taxi.
This is where “motoconchos” comes from, they are just motorcycle taxi used for public transport…
Examples:
“Para llegar a tu casa, debes coger un concho que vaya derecho.”
“In order to get to your house, you should take a “public taxi” which goes all the way straight.”
5. Guagua
Speaking about public transportation, Dominicans call buses “guaguas”. Guaguas are also a little bit more different than a regular bus, as they stop just anywhere, not only at some designated stops.
You can literally board a guagua anywhere on any main avenue, and although conchos are the same way, guaguas are faster and also have longer routes. Because of them going very fast, they’re also sometimes referred to as “voladoras”(flyers).
Examples:
“Si vas a Santiago, deberías irte en guagua y no en tu carro, así ahorras combustible.”
“If you are going to Santiago, you should take a bus rather than using your car, so, you can save money on gas.”
“En horas pico, las guaguas suelen ser más cómoda que los conchos, ya que hay más espacios en los asientos.”
“At peak hours, buses are better than public taxis because there are more space among the passengers.”
6. Jeva/Jevo
Jeva and Jevo in feminine and masculine respectively, mean “girl” and “boy”. It’s an informal, but not disrespectful way to refer to someone.
Examples:
“Ese jevo cree que me va a engañar.”
“That boy thinks he’s gonna fool me.”
“Esa mujer tiene cuarenta años pero parece una jevita por su forma de pensar, ¡qué inmadura!”
“That lady is forty years old but she acts as a little girl, so immature!”
7. Tripear
Conjugated “tripeando” can mean joking around, making fun of someone, the colloquial verb “tripear” has so many meanings and it can be used in so many different instances.
Most of them related to playing around or fooling someone, in a harmless way. It could be translated as “pulling someone’s leg”. At the same time, “tripear” can also be used to describe something you like.
When something “te tripea” it means you like it. It is also used when referring to people in a romantic or sexual way. If Carlos “no te tripea”, you’re not interested in him that way.
Examples:
“Yo estaba tripeándolo cuando le dije que me iba del país. ¿Cómo voy yo a irme del país sin siquiera tener pasaporte?”
“I was joking around when I told him that I was going to travel to another country. How can I leave the country if I don’t even have a passport?”
“La verdad es que esa oferta no me tripea para nada, cuando vienes a ver, te sale más caro.”
“The truth is I don’t like that offer at all, it might even end up costing you more than it was supposed.”
8. Colmado
Colmados are basically convenience stores. What most Latinos call “bodegas”, Dominicans call “colmados”.
However in the DR, most colmados, if not all, have delivery service. So if you weren’t able to go the supermarket or just don’t want to, but need something small, like a bottle of salt or some plantains, you can just call the Colmado and have it delivered.
Like convenience stores, they’re normally really close to your home, and that’s why they can afford to deliver to you without costing them much.
Examples:
“Ve al colmado y compra pan y queso para la cena”.
“Go to the convenience store and buy bread and cheese for dinner.”
“Llama al colmado para que traigan dos cervezas, un botellón de agua, y cambio para 500 pesos.”
“Call the convenience store so the bring 2 beers, 5 gallons of water, and change for 500 pesos.”
9. Grillo
Although it’s also used when talking about the insect, “cricket”. “Grillo” is also used to talk about a man or woman who is considered ugly.
Example:
“¡Bárbaro! ¡Mira qué grillo esa tipa! La verdad es que me da pena”
“Bro! Look at her, she so ugly! I really feel sorry for her.”
10. Quillao/Quillá
When you’re super mad about something, then you might say you are “quillao” or “quillá”. You can also be “quillao” with someone. At the same time people can “tener un quille”, which literally means “having a mad”or “having anger” and that doesn’t really make sense in English. So it can be translated as being pissed or mad as well.
Examples:
“¡Yo tengo un quille! No pasé el examen y ahora tengo que repetir la materia.”
“I’m so mad! I failed the test and now I have to take the class again.”
“El ‘tá quillao conmigo porque no le presté el dinero. Yo lo conozco, no me lo va a pagaría de regreso.”
“He’s mad at me because I didn’t lend him money. I know him, he wouldn’t pay me back.”
The Dark Side Of Dominican Slang: Cursing!
Dominican curse words are equally as important to know.
If you love this article, be sure to click here to check our article on Dominican curse words where we focus on some pretty insulting curse words.
In Conclusion
As you may have noticed, aside from words and phrases, Dominicans have a lot of made up verbs, which are conjugated depending on the pronoun used as any other verb recognized by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy).
It might be the case in some countries, but using slang for Dominicans does not mean the person lack education. Slang is widely used by most Dominicans and accepted as every day, informal language. Surely, if you decide on using some slang when talking to a Dominican, they will probably appreciate it and perhaps help you learn some more!
Isn’t learning real Spanish fun? Do you want to learn some real Spanish? Please make sure to click here to learn more!The physics of why cats are always able to land on their feet has been understood for some time now -- it's called an aerial righting reflex -- but that doesn't lessen the splendor of being able to watch those reflexes in action through high-speed video.
Destin, an engineer from Alabama who is behind the series of YouTube videos called Smarter Every Day, got his hands on a Phantom Miro M320S high-speed camera and a cat named Gigi to show viewers the physics behind a cat being able to right itself.
Destin explains how a cat can rotate into position and then stop its rotation to land comfortably. It's trickier than you'd think.
That's where Gigi comes in.
Destin drops the cat from several feet above the ground onto a platform below. The camera shows Gigi arch her back, dividing her body into two sections that rotate away from one another, as Destin explains just what's happening physically.
Of course, Destin isn't the first to show a capture a cat's movements in slow motion.
An old National Geographic video uses photographic footage to explain why a cat's anatomy makes it adept to surviving falls.
The video also notes that cats that fall from higher distances are often in better shape than those that have fallen from shorter ones, because they have more time to reach free-fall, relax their bodies and align themselves.
But cats have a natural advantage in the air, at least compared to humans. A BBC article from earlier this year explains that cats don't weigh much in comparison to their surface area, which means that they reach terminal velocity at slower speeds than a human would. A typical cat might hit terminal velocity at 60 mph, while an adult human would fall about twice as quickly.The Navy Gets Its First Female SEAL Candidate
Enlarge this image toggle caption MC1 Michael Russell/U.S. Navy MC1 Michael Russell/U.S. Navy
The Navy says it has its first female candidates for two elite special operations jobs previously closed to women — including a prospective SEAL.
One woman is in the pipeline to be a SEAL officer, and another is on the path to becoming a special warfare combatant crewman. The news was first reported by Military.com, an independent website. The Navy declined to identify the candidates, citing security considerations.
The announcement comes more than 18 months after the Pentagon declared that women can now serve in front-line combat positions.
"They are the first candidates that have made it this far in the process," Lt. Cmdr. Mark Walton, spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command, told the Two-Way.
Whoever these unnamed trailblazers are, the path ahead for them won't be easy. To become a SEAL or SWCC, they'll need to make it through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S, which is designed to be extremely physically and mentally demanding.
Few candidates who undertake the training emerge as SEALs or special boat operators. The enlisted SEAL attrition rate is 73 to 75 percent, according to the Navy, while the SWCC attrition rate is 63 percent.
The SEAL officer program has a higher rate of success: 65 percent of candidates make it through. The officer program isn't easier, though — the Navy attributes the differing success rates to a larger number of candidates in the enlisted program.
Female candidates for these jobs will have to complete the same training that men do, without any allowances for differing average physical capabilities.
What makes the training so difficult?
"It's different for everyone," Walton said. "It could be the physical stuff, it could be mental, it could be medical. There could be a lot of different reasons."
While the two candidates are now closer to these elite Navy positions than a woman has ever been, it may be a while before one of them finally gets the job.
"It would be premature to speculate as to when we will see the first woman SEAL or SWCC graduate," Walton told NPR. "It may take months and potentially years."
Female candidates aren't the only change to come to the Navy's elite operations. Walton confirmed that SWCC now includes one transgender person.
And if the two women in the Navy's special operations pipeline are successful, we may not get much detail.
"If you announce who they are, that removes the point of them becoming a special operator," said Walton. "I guess we'll see what we do... when we get there."'Knightriders' Blu-ray Announced
George A. Romero's action adventure flick is revving its engines for Blu-ray in July.
In an early announcement to retailers, Shout Factory is preparing 'Knightriders' for Blu-ray on July 30.
'Knightriders' is the story of a troupe of motorcyclists who are members of a traveling Renaissance Faire. They move from town to town, staging jousting tournaments with the combatants in suits of armor, wielding lances, battle-axes, maces and broadswords. The spectacle of this magnificent pageant soon garners national attention, much to the dismay of the current king of this Camelot. A conflict arises as they try to maintain their fairy tale existence in a world fraught with corruption. Can they hold on to their Camelot state of mind?
Specs and supplements have yet to be revealed, but suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $19.97.
You can find the latest specs for 'Knightriders' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under July 30.
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.Photographs of internal memos informing McDonald’s managers and crew members about the procedures for accepting Samsung Pay and Android Pay may hint toward the latter mobile payment option launching in the U.S. very soon – some reports have even suggested tomorrow, Aug. 26.
“This month, customers will be able to start using Samsung and Android mobile devices to pay for their orders, Samsung Pay begins August 21 and Android Pay begins August 26. Service procedures are the same as with Apple Pay,” read one of the notifications reportedly sent out to McDonald’s staff, as reported by Android Police.
An additional photo on Android Police’s site, which was originally taken by a reddit user named BlackMartian, further supports that McDonald’s is distributing the memo to multiple stores.
Android Police’s spottings, along with the provided photos, shows participating Android Pay partners will also receive decals for point-of-sale terminals (POS) to inform customers of the mobile payment options, Mashable reported yesterday.
But there is already one factual error in the leaked staff memos. Samsung Pay, Samsung’s own mobile payment system, did not launch on Aug. 21. The payment platform did in fact launch in Korea on Aug. 20, but will not be available in the U.S. until Sept. 28.
Mashable said it is likely McDonald’s internal communication mixed up Samsung Pay’s launch date with that of the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ mobile devices, which did hit the market last week.
Whenever it does actually launch, Android Pay will go head-to-head in the in-store mobile payments battlefield with Apple Pay and Samsung Pay and PayPal.
Google’s mobile wallet option will allow consumers to pay via their mobile device in store using NFC technology. It will be available at the same stores that enable the acceptance of every other mobile payments technology that leverages NFC technology, including Apple Pay. Android Pay will work with any phone that has an NFC chip installed and will run on KitKat operating systems or newer.
Google has yet to announce an official launch date for its mobile payment system which allows users running Android on their smartphones to make purchases.HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — Police are searching for vandals who have attacked three of the colorful fiberglass oxen that are part of the local arts council’s “Stampede” to raise awareness and funds for arts in Hopewell Valley.
On Aug. 7, an unknown perpetrator poured orange paint over the ox that was installed in front of Pennington Quality Market at Route 31 and West Delaware Avenue, township police said in a release today. This ox was sculpted by Gyuri Hollosy, a local artist who works with Grounds for Sculpture.
Then, on Aug. 12, an ox was stolen from its location on Elm Ridge Road and later returned with one foot broken off, police said. The damage to the ox was estimated at $500.
Finally, overnight Sunday the ox being displayed near the intersection of Denow and Van Brunt roads was knocked over, police said.
There are 68 fiberglass oxen around the township and two boroughs as part of the Hopewell Valley Art Council’s program. The oxen are stationed along roads and at farmstands, parks, farms and commercial plazas.
Anyone with information on the vandalism of the oxen is asked to call the police at (609) 737-3100.
Brendan McGrath may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @brendanrmcgrath. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.Disney Channel has renewed Zendaya’s “K.C. Undercover” for a third season, Variety has learned exclusively.
The spy comedy stars Zendaya as K.C. Cooper, a high school math whiz and martial arts expert turned international super spy for a secret government agency, who balances her teenage life with performing undercover missions to save the world.
Along with Zendaya — who will serve as producer on Season 3 — the series stars Kadeem Hardison, Tammy Townsend, Kamil McFadden, Trinitee Stokes |
them even more effective is that they often blend their blitzes with defensive line stunts up front, adding to the confusion for offensive protection schemes.
Shot 5 - Something else that stands out watching #Seahawks this year, much more Stunts up front. T/E gets Avril free for sack on this play pic.twitter.com/GTBjerW5dT — Fran Duffy (@fduffy3) November 18, 2016
This is just your basic "TE Stunt" (T for tackle first, E for end second on the pressure), and it results in a sack for veteran defensive end Cliff Avril. It seems simple enough, as the defensive tackle slants outside to create interference for Avril as he loops inside the offensive guard on his way to the quarterback. The Seahawks had a large amount of success with these early in the season in large part because that was not a part of their DNA in recent years. Now, it’s very common to see TEs, ET Stunts (where the defensive end penetrates before the tackle loops) and TT Stunts (where both tackles work off of each other) in their pressure schemes.
Shot 6 - Many of #Seahawks 29 sacks this year have come on blitzes combined with stunts up front. E/T and T/T stunts pivotal on these two pic.twitter.com/NnLbMZHyyi — Fran Duffy (@fduffy3) November 18, 2016
Here’s an example of two sacks for the Seahawks where you see an extra blitzer come from the second level, but it’s paired with a stunt up front. On the first play against Arizona on third-and-7, linebacker Bobby Wagner comes on a blitz but you get an ET Stunt that also creates penetration up front. Against Buffalo, the Seahawks pair a Cross Dog pressure with a TT Stunt with defensive ends Frank Clark and Damontre Moore for the sack. This is a big part of what Seattle does now in the trenches, and the Eagles' offensive line must be prepared for that part of the scheme.
Shot 7 - The player that must be blocked up front with M. Bennett out? Frank Clark. Wins inside & outside. Relentless pass rusher #Seahawks pic.twitter.com/tq25CaA59Q — Fran Duffy (@fduffy3) November 18, 2016
Like the rest of the Seattle defense, scheme is important, but you cannot forget about their personnel. On both of those pressures above you saw Clark, No. 55, doing damage to opponents. Last year’s second-round pick out of Michigan is incredibly disruptive, and with Bennett on the shelf he is performing at a very high level. Like Bennett, Clark can line up outside at end or inside at tackle, where he is able to win against offensive guards. Everyone on the Eagles' offensive line must be aware of Clark, because he lines up at every technique along Seattle’s defensive front.The loop of Route 66 between Kingman and Seligman is approximately 87 miles long, one of the longest remaining stretches of old Route 66. I was looking forward to this section of the old road, as my research had shown there were quite a few interesting places to stop at along the way. And by the time I got to Seligman five hours later, I was not disappointed.
After a quick bite to eat in Kingman, I headed northeast out of town on Andy Devine Ave (Route 66) and headed for Hackberry. It’s the oldest town along this portion of 66, dating back to 1874. Originally a mining camp, the arrival of the railroad and later of Route 66 kept the place alive. Until, of course, the construction of I-40 killed most of the small business along the road.
Twenty-seven miles after leaving Kingman, I pulled into the parking lot of the Hackberry General Store. This place is like a mecca to Route 66 travelers. It’s definitely a tourist stop, with souvenirs, drinks and food, but it’s also a living piece of Route 66 history. There are artifacts all over the place, signs, tools, machinery and many old cars in varying degrees of preservation. From the pristine 1957 Corvette convertible under the porch, to bits and lumps of what used to be cars out in the weeds. It’s an easy place to spend an hour wandering about the grounds, taking pictures, or just sitting at a picnic table and having an ice cream or soda. I bought a t-shirt!You will be told you have the right to walk away. You will be told the interaction is voluntary. You will be told that you do not have to give any information, and why you are being stopped and asked for it to begin with. You will be provided with a written record of your interaction, given information about the officer, and informed about the police complaints system.
Yasir Naqvi, Ontario’s minister of community safety and correctional services, announced stiff new regulations for street checks that make "it very clear that police officers cannot stop you to collect your personal information simply based on the way you look or the neighbourhood you live in." ( RICHARD J. BRENNAN / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO )
In a move hailed as historic — and overdue — the Ontario government is proposing a strict set of regulations banning all random and arbitrary police stops, and setting limits on how and when police can question and document citizens. “The regulation makes it very clear that police officers cannot stop you to collect your personal information simply based on the way you look or the neighbourhood you live in,” Yasir Naqvi, Ontario’s minister of community safety and correctional services, announced at Queen’s Park on Wednesday. “This is the first rights-based framework surrounding these police interactions in our history.”
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Once passed, the regulations would ban random and arbitrary stops in early 2016. After that, Ontario police could only stop, question and document members of the public if they have a valid policing purpose, defined as “detecting or preventing illegal activities.”
Under those circumstances, police would be forced to provide the reason for the stop and inform the individual of their rights to walk away. There are, however, exemptions where officers would not be required to follow the developed procedures. That includes traffic stops, arrests and detentions, and situations where an officer is investigating a particular offence or working undercover. “I want to make it very clear that the police officer will still have to file a report to his supervisor and will have to outline all those reasons,” Naqvi said. Community activists who have longed decried carding say the proposed changes are a hard-fought recognition of their stories of discrimination and harrassment by police. Anthony Morgan, with the African Canadian Legal Clinic, said the proposed changes have the ability to “significantly diminish” the instances of discriminatory stops.
“What’s positive about the regulations is that this is actually law, so you’re not going to have officers who will be, hopefully, comfortable breaking the law,” said Morgan. A cautious optimism was expressed by many activists and critics, who welcome the sentiment behind the regulations but say they need time to fully scrutinize the regulations.
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“I was happily surprised, as I did not expect it to be so thorough. I think maybe myself and others were expecting a regulation without teeth, and that we would have to keep pushing and pushing,” said Knia Singh, a Toronto resident who is seeking a judicial review of Toronto police’s carding practice. “Some clauses remain vague and there will need to be a public information campaign, and changes will have to be made to the complaints process. But it’s a brave and commendable step,” Singh said. Among the major changes proposed is a mandatory annual report from every police force to the civilian boards that oversee them, breaking down the age, race and gender of every person voluntarily stopped.
Carding
The regulations also call for an explicit clause in the Police Services Act making unjustified carding stops grounds for a misconduct charge — launching an internal police disciplinary hearing. They also propose mandatory and ongoing officer training, with the curriculum developed by a panel of policing, human rights and anti-racism experts. The draft regulations are now subject to a 45-day public consultation process. Then, the province will amend the regulations and provide time for police boards to make necessary changes to policy and procedures. Following that, arbitrary and random stops would be prohibited by March 1. By July 2016, the regulations around voluntary interactions, such as the need to inform individuals they can walk away, would come into effect. Carding is a practice by which officers stop, question and document members of the public who are not suspected of a crime. A series of Toronto Star investigations has shown the practice is disproportionately applied to young black men. The tactic has been criticized as discriminatory — as racial profiling by another name — for years in Toronto, and has come under fire in other cities across Ontario, including Brampton, Mississauga, London and Hamilton. The provincial regulations come after a months-long review of street checks by the provincial government announced last June. Naqvi’s ministry conducted a series of consultations throughout the province for community feedback, including a heated meeting in Toronto in August. “These conversations were difficult. They were emotional. They were moving. And they were necessary to get us where we are today,” said Naqvi. In all, more than a thousand people provided online or written feedback, and the ministry received 34 written submissions from organizations. Naqvi’s office also consulted with several policing organizations. Joe Couto, a spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, said he would not be commenting Wednesday. “Should the OACP wish to comment on anything in the regs released today that we haven’t already done so during the consultation process, we will communicate directly with government,” Couto said. Mark Pugash, spokesperson for the Toronto police, said Chief Mark Saunders and former chief Bill Blair have said that biased or random stops are unacceptable. “When the regulation is complete … that will become part of our procedure, which we’re currently in the process of operationalizing,” Pugash said. Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, stands by carding as a valuable policing tool when it is done properly. “I think (the regulation) is going to turn into a social experiment,” he said. To the former chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, the regulations are a good start, but more work needs to be done. “I think there still remains a need to very clearly define the circumstances and purposes for which a street check and stop will be permitted in the regulation,” said Alok Mukherjee. The Toronto Police Service resisted its board’s calls for stricter limits on carding until former chief Blair suspended the practice earlier this year. Mayor John Tory, who sits on the Toronto police board, initially stood by the practice, but changed his position on carding after facing public outrage. Critics of carding have long said that there need to be strict regulations on how police use the data and how it is stored. Among the concerns highlighted during provincial consultations was that members of the public had no idea how personal information was being used or how long it was being kept. Naqvi said Wednesday that the issue of what will be done with information already collected on individuals through carding still has to be determined. The province will ask police boards to develop their own policies dealing with that information. The province’s expectation is that police will move information already collected into a restricted database accessible only by the chief of police. But while the regulations were praised by some, others were concerned they did not go far enough. “What the province should do is to stop playing word games and abolish all so-called ‘voluntary police-public interactions,’” said Chris Williams, an academic and activist who has been carded in the past. “For on-the-street purposes, the police have the power of investigative detention and, if needed, the power of arrest. Those powers are sufficient and anything more is excessive.” With files from Jacques Gallant and Star staffEToo, an "alternative E3 gaming event" taking place in London, will feature more than 30 game developers, according to a recent press release.
The current roster includes Joe Danger developer Hello Games, Sir, You Are Being Hunted's Big Robot, Capcom, New Star Games and more. Demos of titles such as The Last of Us, Lost Planet 3 and Rain will be playable at the event. EToo will also feature nightly livestreams including interviews, trailers and more.
Sony is listed as the headline sponsor for the event, along with GameStick, PlayJam's upcoming Android console. The event is co-organized by The Guardian's games commissioning editor Keith Stuart, who said EToo started with "sulking on Twitter abut not being able to go to E3."
"Game developer Georg Backer replied and said we should do our own event," Stuart said. "It probably should have ended there, but somehow it didn't. The next thing is, Jimmy Dance, the owner of Loading Bar in Soho, was offering to host it. It was sort of like one of those Hollywood musicals — ‘hey, let's put a show on right here.' But with less dancing."
EToo will coincide with E3 2013, taking place June 10 to June 13. The event is free for all to attend with pre-registration and will take place at the Loading Bar in Soho.The Rock Papers Scissors Collective (RPSC), a volunteer-run communal artist space in Oakland, announced this week that it is losing its lease on the Telegraph Ave. storefront it has called home for the past 11 years. The group must relocate by Aug. 31.
The collective, which hosts gallery shows and other events, as well as workshops and other resources for local artists of all ages, is the last remnant from the original group of founders of the Oakland Art Murmur and First Friday events remaining in uptown Oakland. Both the Murmur and the monthly First Fridays have been credited with revitalizing the city's cultural arts scene.
In a statement released July 10 and signed by the RSPC, it's revealed that the buildings longtime landlord wants to charge market value for the space, which the collective, a non-profit, cannot afford.
"Eleven years ago we could afford market value for the space, but thanks to our success in building a vibrant community in downtown, market rate is now far out of reach," said the statement.
The forced relocation has been on the horizon for the RSPC since February, when it started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise $25,000 for operating costs. Sadly, after a month, the campaign managed to raise just under $10,000.In Ghana, what attracts people to places isn't the [physical] space, it's the event," a friend said to me recently. I was reminded of his words … standing at the triangle-shaped Otublohum Square in Jamestown.
As I watched, bike stuntmen paraded up and down High Street, doing tricks on their bikes while the rapt audience — residents young and old, expats and visitors from throughout Accra who cheered, their eyes glued to the spectacle. This was the third annual Chale Wote street art festival.
The festival is a series of mini events (photography and art exhibitions, street stencil works, graffiti and mural paintings, theatre, dance, and spoken word performances, live music and DJ sets, more music, more dancing, and more spectacles) that is free and open to the public. It happens every year in the historic district of Jamestown in Accra.
According to Accra[dot]Alt, the lead organisation behind the conception of the festival, "Chale Wote" translates to "man, let's go" (taken from Ga, the main language spoken in Jamestown). It also refers to the slippers/flip-flops that people of all ages and backgrounds wear.
Jamestown is a vibrant, culturally dynamic community, but on the whole, a neglected area in terms of local economic development. It's a historic area of Accra, home to an indigenous fishing settlement that continues to supply both local and international demand. It was the seat of the British colonial administration. James Fort and Ussher Fort (former prisons in Jamestown) and the Brazil House are all internationally notable cultural sites found here.
Performers at Ussher Fort - a former prison in the Jamestown district. Photograph: Victoria Okoye
Jamestown has often been labelled a "slum", but it's more than that. It's an area where its residents, on their own and outside the lines of government formal development planning, have played a huge role in the organization, re-organization and use of space. Old buildings (many constructed as early as the late 1800s) have been converted into workshops and storage spaces, former market buildings into homes with living additions. Homes have expanded to encompass familial living structures and commercial spaces. Family homes, which physically represent the familial bonds and networks that hold this society together, are plentiful. In addition, there is wealth, both financial and cultural, in Jamestown.
Jamestown is built up, teeming with people, activity and structures, both permanent and impermanent. As a result of economic dynamics and planning priorities, traditional public spaces (parks, squares, and other types of recreational areas) are few and far between. Social and community activities flood into the open areas that do exist: streets, sidewalks, unused buildings and car parks, for example.
These spaces, in terms of usage, become fluid: streets, roads and (temporary) open spaces become the stages and venues for football games, races, dancing and ceremonies; sidewalks become front row seats for people watching, promenading, and meetings, conversations and impromptu reunions. Importantly, these are democratic, equitable spaces open to everyone – most, if not all, can participate. All can observe. The sidewalks, the roads, they belong to everyone and no one, and so these spaces are less prone to the methods of exclusionthat are routinely practiced in formal parks and spaces in the city.
The public space becomes the convenient spot on the sidewalk under the large tree and its expansive shade, or the local chop bar with its television set to the afternoon football match, where people gather round to watch and cheer. It's even in the middle of the street where residents gather on a lazy evening or the meeting place where an argument or conversation erupts. In a way, this seems to hark back to traditional African urban design and planning considerations: centrally located community spaces and front yard areas of family compounds serve as sites for public gatherings, discussions and meetings, masquerades, ceremonies and community interactions.
The challenge to this multi-functionality, though, is that the public and recreational uses of these spaces are always subject to their dominating intended usage. Mourners can appropriate sidestreets as funeral spaces, for example, but cars still need to get through, especially at essential link roads. Youth can take over car parks and open building spaces for their impromptu football fields, but only when they are free from cars, at the evenings or weekends.
These dynamics present an interesting planning challenge and a creative learning opportunity. In my mind, this is the lesson encapsulated in the festival: when it comes to Jamestown each year, it aligns with how the community uses spaces. Just like how the community shapes its social spaces, festival activities are strung along the street from the Jamestown Lighthouse and Mantse Agbonaa (the palace of the Jamestown Mantse, or chief) to Old Kingsway building.
Action is at the street, on the sidewalk, in buildings and along walls. At the same time, the festival, through artistic commotion, creates the magnet needed for bringing the community and social activity into these shared spaces, and celebrates it.
In addition, this year, the festival organisers succeeded in getting approval from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to pedestrianise a large portion of High Street, enabling activities to safely pour onto the street, be sited on the street, and to remain more connected. So although temporary, this formal approval legitimised these informal public spaces and the spatial dynamic that is at the heart of Jamestown's social organisation.
It's not about the physical space, my friend said, it's about the event. For planners, it's about supporting the existing community activity and vibrancy that takes place in these spaces, where people come together and form their sense of community. So now the question becomes, how can we incorporate this into our vision for the city, and our planning to achieve it?
This article was originally published on UrbanAfrica.netDoctors are treating a Sri Lankan maid who had more than 20 nails hammered into her body in a grisly act of torture allegedly perpetrated by her employer in Saudi Arabia, Sri Lankan Embassy sources told Arab News.
The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has launched an investigation after doctors who are treating the woman at the Kamburipitya Base Hospital in the Matara district of Sri Lanka also reported the nails had been heated up before being drilled into her skin.
The maid, identified as 50-year-old Ariyawathie, returned to Sri Lanka from Saudi Arabia, where she had been trying to escape on her own expense, for treatment after the incident occurred.
“I had to work continuously since I had to do the chores of all the occupants. And when I wanted to take rest due to tiredness, they inserted the nail in my body as a punishment,” Arab News quoted Ariyawathie. “I had to work from dawn to dusk. I hardly slept. They beat me and threatened to kill me and hide my body. They were really devils with no mercy at all."
Dr. H.K.K. Satharasinghe of Kamburupitiya hospital told the Associated Press that X-rays show Ariyawathi has 24 nails and needles in her body, ranging in size from 1-2 inches.
Ariyawathie traveled to Saudi Arabia for work on March 25 after being registered at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
“We have received this complaint from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo, who said the maid has been allegedly tortured by her sponsor,” a senior diplomat from the Sri Lankan mission in Riyadh told Arab News. “We are looking for the sponsor. We were able to track down the Saudi recruitment agent in Riyadh and we will summon the sponsor to discuss this issue."
Click here to read more on this story from Arab News.In Virginia, law enforcement officers have been placing tickets on cars with expired inspection stickers as the cars sat at the shop awaiting inspection. The whole thing was absurd, but luckily, the The Washington Post reports, the nonsense has come to an end.
Last fall, we told you the story of Bruce Redwine, the shop owner who grew tired of officials ticketing his customers’ cars as they awaited inspection. He grew so tired, in fact, that he snatched a ticket out of an officer’s hand, an action for which he was arrested and booked. It was a big mess, but one that hopefully will never happen again thanks to a new bill.
The bill, proposed by state delegate James M. LeMunyon late last year, was signed on Wednesday by governor Terry McAuliffe, and included a clause banning authorities from ticketing vehicles awaiting inspection. Here’s the relevant passage from the bill (emphasis mine):
The following shall be exempt from inspection as required by § 46.2-1157:...12. Motor vehicles, trailers, or semitrailers, after the expiration of a period fixed for the inspection thereof, operated over the most direct route between the place where such vehicle is kept or garaged and an official inspection station or (ii) parked on a highway and that have been submitted for a motor vehicle safety inspection to an official inspection station, for the purpose of having the same inspected pursuant to a prior appointment with such station.
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So finally some common sense driving laws coming out of Virginia, a state known as one of the worst for drivers.
I went to college in the “state for lovers,” and I racked up so many speeding tickets, I am now ineligible for classic car insurance (something that would be nice in Michigan, the state with the highest premiums in the country). Our Patrick George even spent some time behind bars after speeding there.
It’s a tough place to own and enjoy cars, but hey, it looks like this new bill is a step in the right direction.You can purchase a bitcoin for just over $185 at the moment, a price that is down nearly 8 percent in the last hour, and 46.7 percent in the last month. Of course, you can pick any price timeframe you want, but it’s fair to say that bitcoin’s dollar value has had a rough time of it in recent days.
For reference, here’s a one-year price chart (via Blockchain.info):
What is interesting about the current price decline is that it’s happening amid what appears to be record transaction volume. So, the bitcoin network is seeing larger amounts of activity and a dramatically falling price. (Coinbase data mirrors the price, volume divergence.)
If bitcoin is more popular than ever, what is driving the price down? I have seen it speculated that bitcoin mining operations may be forced to quickly sell more of the bitcoin that they mine in order to cover costs, such as electricity. A lower price per coin means that more coins might be sold off to cover nearly fixed infrastructure costs that miners face. More selling, without more buying, leads to lower prices.
For now, bitcoin enthusiasts are responding to the situation with something close to gallows humor. I suppose bitcoin is most interesting to watch when it’s doing something dramatic in either direction when it comes to price.
Usual caveat: The price of bitcoin only has so much impact on the health of bitcoin itself. I don’t think that it is zero: More media attention on a rising price helps raise public awareness of the concept of bitcoin itself, but the work going on now inside of the bitcoin universe is presumably still chugging along. And constituent firms — the Coinbases, Bitpays, and Blockchain’s of the world — remain very well-capitalized, presumably placing them well out of any short-term chop.Palindrome Champ Sees The World Backwards And Forwards
NPR's Robert Siegel talks to Mark Saltveit who is featured in a short documentary about the World Palindrome Championships, A Man, A Plan, A Palindrome. He will compete in the 2017 championship.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Mark Saltveit sees the world backwards and forwards. He's got to. He is a competitive palindromist - that is, he's won a contest creating a sentence that read the same from either end. Mr. Saltveit, what was that sentence?
MARK SALTVEIT: It was, Devil Kay fixes trapeze part, sex if yak lived.
SIEGEL: Now it is true that (laughter) that sentence does read the same backwards and forwards. Depth of meaning there, a little light.
SALTVEIT: It's a little shaky. I actually wrote three palindromes for the competition, and I consider a second one better as a piece of art.
SIEGEL: OK.
SALTVEIT: But it was a crowd vote, and naturally the crowd voted for the sex yak.
SIEGEL: Well, let's hear the one that you think has more content to it.
SALTVEIT: OK, these were written for prompts. So the first prompt that the sex yak was written for was, write a palindrome with an X and a Z in it. And I threw in a Y just to show off. The second prompt was write a palindrome about someone who's famous in the news the last 12 months. So I wrote one about our president. (Reading) I tan. I mull. In a way, Obama, I am a boy - a wan illuminati.
SIEGEL: Several of our listeners will tell us that illuminati is a plural not a singular, but apart from that fact, well done.
SALTVEIT: Thank you.
SIEGEL: That one has a lot more to it than...
SALTVEIT: It's more conversational.
SIEGEL: (Laughter) Depends what kind of conversations you're accustomed to.
SALTVEIT: (Laughter) Yes, absolutely.
SIEGEL: Tell us more about how a palindrome contest actually unfolds. Time limits - judges?
SALTVEIT: This was the first live palindrome contest, and we had 75 minutes to create entirely new palindromes to fit prompts.
SIEGEL: And are you allowed to have any tools with you or...
SALTVEIT: Yeah, we all had notes and dictionaries, of course. You weren't allowed to call a friend for help or - in these days I suppose you could crowdsource it - put it out on the Internet and have your friends all suggest things, but that was not allowed.
SIEGEL: Well, I think the chess players are way ahead of you is what we've learned.
SALTVEIT: (Laughter) Absolutely.
SIEGEL: Now, we learned about you because a filmmaker, Vince Clemente, has a short documentary about the World Palindrome Champion called, "A Man, A Plan, A Palindrome." In fact, he's launched a Kickstarter to get funding to turn it into a feature-length documentary. And in that, you explain how you got started thinking about sentences that make sense in both directions.
SALTVEIT: That's right. When I was a kid, we learned in school about palindromes, which teachers often use to motivate children to play with language. And my family went on these very long camping trips where my brothers and I got extremely bored in the back of the car. My dad, for some reason, thought it was wise to drive 500 miles with three boys between 8 and 10 in the back of a car. And so one of the ways we passed the time was to try to come up with our own palindromes.
SIEGEL: When you're not under the pressure of competition, I gather you still noodle around with words. What's your thought process in creating a palindrome?
SALTVEIT: Good question. Generally when you write a palindrome, you see a word that has at least part of a sentence in it going backwards, like your name, Siegel. When I look at that, immediately I see leg, but then there's an extra E, which is problematic, and then is. So if I push a little farther, I think, OK, well, there's some words that end with L, E, G, E, and then I have is, so that works great. And the first one I came up with was college. If I have Siegel, O, C, then backwards that's college is. And start playing around with it, you have the two L's, which gives you an opportunity to split that and add another word, so mucking around with it, I came up with Siegel loco, no college is.
SIEGEL: (Laughter) Well, I think as they would say in the ice-skating competitions, technical merit, high...
SALTVEIT: (Laughter) Yeah.
SIEGEL:...It is a palindrome. As for artistic - a little low on that side.
SALTVEIT: Well, if I had more time, I would work on - I think the word sacrilege is really the way to go with you. I've got, Siegel, I crash, sacrilege is - that's a very promising start.
SIEGEL: That is promising.
SALTVEIT: But it takes a while to finish off the ends.
SIEGEL: Well, I'm proud to have contributed to so much of your time on this.
SALTVEIT: (Laughter) I'll work on it some more. I'll get you a good one there.
SIEGEL: Mark Saltveit, thanks a lot for talking with us.
SALTVEIT: Thank you very much.
SIEGEL: That's Mark Saltveit who's the World Palindrome Champion, and he's to be featured in the film "A Man, A Plan, A Palindrome," now raising funds through Kickstarter.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
I think, Robert, we're - you and I are going to be sitting here for the rest of the program trying to do some palindromes in our head. I think my friend Mark would have a hard time, though, with my last name. The CK, I think, is just a dealbreaker.
SIEGEL: Oh, cobble something, yes.
BLOCK: Maybe in a foreign language.
SIEGEL: That's right. As Floyd Mayweather would say, KO?
BLOCK: (Laughter).
SIEGEL: OK.
Copyright © 2015 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.Image copyright Renfrewshire Council
Paisley has launched its bid to be UK City of Culture 2021, even though it is actually a large town.
As 19th Century Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli once warned: "Keep your eye on Paisley."
Here are 10 reasons Paisley has made its mark on the culture of Scotland, the UK and the world.
Mhairi Black
After her remarkable victory at the general election, Mhairi Black is indisputably Paisley's most famous daughter at the moment.
The 21-year-old SNP politician became the UK's youngest MP and her first speech in the House of Commons went viral, being watched online more than 10 million times.
In that maiden speech, Mhairi Black referred to the history of her Paisley and Renfrewshire South constituency, pointing to the fact that Scottish national hero William Wallace, who fought against English rule, was born in Elderslie, just outside Paisley and was said to be educated by monks at the town's abbey.
Paolo Nutini
Multi-million selling singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini is the town's most successful current pop star.
In the decade since his first hit single, the 28-year-old has racked up three huge albums and success around the world.
His father runs a fish and chip shop on the town's New Street.
Nutini's talent was spotted when he played an impromptu set at a concert organised for David Sneddon, the Paisley-born winner of the BBC talent show Fame Academy.
Gerard Butler
Hollywood star Gerard Butler hit the big time with 300, a fictionalised retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae.
The Paisley actor has since starred in numerous big budget blockbusters such as Olympus Has Fallen and the Bounty Hunter, with Jennifer Aniston.
He is also the voice of Stoick the Vast, the great chieftain in the How to Train Your Dragon movies.
Archie Gemmill
Image copyright Getty Images
The man who scored Scotland's most-lauded goal was a Paisley buddy, starting his career at the town's football club St Mirren.
He played 43 times for Scotland and scored eight goals, including his fantastic solo effort against the Netherlands in the doomed 1978 campaign.
The following year Gemmill's team Nottingham Forest won the European Cup but he was dropped for the final.
Phyllis Logan
Phyllis Logan has played the housekeeper Mrs Hughes in all six seasons of the blockbuster period drama Downton Abbey.
She was born in Paisley and went to school in nearby Johnstone.
In the 80s she starred with Ian McShane in Lovejoy and appeared in the 1996 Mike Leigh film Secrets & Lies.
Paisley Pattern
Image copyright Renfrewshire Council
It all began with exotically patterned, delicate woollen shawls which were originally from Kashmir but European manufacturers began to produce cheaper versions to meet demand.
From roughly 1800 to 1850, the weavers of the town of Paisley became the foremost producers of these shawls.
Unique additions to their hand-looms and Jacquard looms allowed them to work in five colours when most weavers were producing paisley using only two.
The design became known as the Paisley pattern.
The shawl went out of fashion in the 1870s, but the pattern that had decorated them is still popular around the world today.
Gerry Rafferty
The late singer Gerry Rafferty is best remembered for his classic 1970s hit Baker Street but he also wrote songs about his home town Paisley.
Rafferty grew up on the town's Foxbar estate before bursting on to the folk scene with the Humblebums, whose line-up also included Glaswegian comedian Billy Connolly.
With Stealer's Wheel, Rafferty wrote the huge hit Stuck in the Middle With You before later embarking on a successful solo career.
He also produced numerous hits including The Proclaimers' first single, Letter from America, in 1987.
Rafferty died in 2011 and the town now runs a festival in his honour.
John Byrne
Rafferty was a good friend and contemporary of artist and playwright John Byrne, who grew up in Paisley's Ferguslie Park area.
Byrne wrote the popular BBC TV series Tutti Frutti in 1987, which introduced the world to the talents of Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Richard Wilson.
And in the theatre, Byrne is best known for The Slab Boys Trilogy, which was based on his own experience of the "slab room" of a Paisley carpet manufacturer.
Byrne's list of other achievements is wide and varied, from designing a Beatles album cover to creating the sets for National Theatre productions.
David Tennant
Former Doctor Who star David Tennant moved to Paisley as a child, with his Church of Scotland minister father.
He made his professional acting debut while still at Paisley Grammar and appeared with the agitprop 7:84 Theatre Company.
Tennant also made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt as a transsexual barmaid called Davina.
After his success as the doctor and his appearance in Harry Potter, Tennant has continued to land big roles in shows such as Broadchurch.
The current Doctor Who showrunner and chief writer Steven Moffat, who is also responsible for TV's Sherlock, is also from Paisley.
Kenneth McKellar
Scottish tenor Kenneth McKellar was a mainstay of the BBC's Hogmanay celebration programme and the White Heather Club series in the 1960s.
In 1965, the BBC selected McKellar to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg and he came ninth.
The song A Man Without Love became a hit single and he followed it up with successful albums.
Among his unlikely achievements was writing |
platform, and this focus on AI and on the critical aspects of AI as the next wave of our industry has resulted in a machine-learning team of more than 175 data scientists who have built this amazing Einstein platform."
In other words, Salesforce has spent years and hundreds of millions acqui-hiring.
The company didn't disclose how much it spent on all of those companies, but we know it spent $390 million on RelateIQ. It also spent $32.8 million on MetaMind and $41.6 million combined on PredictionIO and a German consulting company called Your SL.
The company is on an acquisition binge this year in particular, spending more than $4 billion so far.
It has also been slowly, quietly collecting data scientist talent since 2014. It poached a good number of data scientists from LinkedIn that year.
Building a world-class AI team is critically important for Salesforce. Benioff, like many others — including Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — believes that machine learning is the next big wave of innovation in tech.
Soon, large enterprise customers are going to "demand that your software is going to be intelligent, smart. That you are going to have machine learning and deep learning and machine intelligence built in. That it's going to be excellent," Benioff told analysts.
He added that he thinks his tech would even be able to take on IBM's Watson.
"I really believe we are going to have the best artificial-intelligence platform in the industry. We have phenomenal executives, phenomenal minds. The progress so far has been incredible. And I think when you see Einstein, you will see that it is on par and capable to any other AI platform that you have seen, like Watson and others."
Benioff also wants to come out of the gate with AI offerings that are made available both as services that developers can use and build into their apps as well as offered as an "add-on" to the software that Salesforce sells. That's a similar tactic as Google and Microsoft are using to make their AI technologies available.
And that probably means the demand for data scientists won't be slowing for many, many years.CHICAGO (CBS) — Eight people were killed and at least 33 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago between Friday evening and Monday morning, according to Chicago Police.
The weekend’s latest homicide happened about 2:15 a.m. Monday in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, police said.
Police responded to a call of a person shot and found a man lying in a lot in the 3900 block of West Monroe. The man, whose exact age was not known, was shot in the legs, neck and abdomen and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office did not immediately confirm the fatality. Area North detectives are conducting a homicide investigation.
Just after 8 p.m. Sunday, a shooting turned fatal at a vigil for a man who was slain on the same Brainerd neighborhood block a day earlier on the South Side.
An 18-year-old woman was among three people shot in the 8900 block of South Justine, police said. The group was standing outside at the vigil when a grey minivan drove toward them and two people got out and began shooting. They shooters then got back inside the van and drove away. The woman was shot in the head and pronounced dead at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, police said. The medical examiner’s office did not immediately confirm the death. Two boys — 16 and 17 — were also wounded in the shooting and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, authorities said. The 17-year-old was shot in the right arm and was in critical condition. The younger man was shot in the buttocks and his condition had stabilized.
The three had been at a vigil for a 23-year-old man who had been shot outside his home on the block a day earlier, according to Chicago Fire Department Cmdr. Frank Velez. About 5:20 p.m. Saturday, two people walked up to Nahmar T. Holmes outside his home and shot him repeatedly in the torso, authorities said. He died at South Shore Hospital 19 minutes later. Police said that shooting was likely gang-related.
Sunday afternoon in the Hermosa neighborhood on the West Side, 28-year-old Sergio Zaragoza got into an argument with a female in the 1600 block of North Karlov when the argument turned physical, authorities said. During the fight, a male walked up, pulled out a gun and shot Zaragoza in the chest. Zaragoza, who lived a block north of the shooting, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at 3:47 p.m., authorities said. The female was not taken to the hospital. Police said the incident may have been domestic-related.
Earlier Sunday, a 19-year-old man was slain in a Brighton Park neighborhood shooting on the Southwest Side. Salvador Muniz was driving a vehicle north in the 3900 block of South Campbell at 2:35 a.m. when someone inside a vehicle driving south began shooting, striking him multiple times, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Muniz, of the 4300 block of West Washtenaw, died at Mount Sinai at 3:12 a.m.
Late Saturday, a man was shot and killed while driving in the Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side. The 36-year-old was going through an intersection in the 11200 block of South Langley about 11:30 p.m. when another car pulled up and someone inside it shot him multiple times, police said. The man, whose name has not yet been released, was dead at the scene.
A man was killed and another wounded Saturday afternoon in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the Southwest Side. The pair were sitting in a car at 2 p.m. parked in the 3000 block of West 63rd Street when several gunmen walked up and fired at them. Dominice Hallom, a 27-year-old from the 11300 block of South Forest, was shot in the head and torso, and he was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:26 p.m., authorities said. The other man, 26, was shot in the leg, arm, torso and buttocks. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition was stabilized, police said.
The weekend’s first homicide happened about 11:30 p.m. Friday in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood. Officers on patrol near Division and Maplewood witnessed 18-year-old Louis Rodriguez driving around the block and “engaging a group of males” before he was shot, authorities said. Rodriguez, of the 1300 block of North Oakley, died at the scene.
The officers intervened and at least one opened fire, hitting a male, CPD area coordinator Glen Brooks said. The male was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening, Brooks said. No officers were hurt.
The latest nonfatal shooting happened about 4:30 a.m. Monday in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood on the Northwest Side. A 22-year-old man was standing on the sidewalk in the 4100 block of West Belmont when a male fired shots from a dark-colored vehicle nearby, police said. The man was shot in the leg and taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was listed in serious condition.
At least 29 more people were wounded in other shootings across the city between 6 p.m. Friday and 2:30 a.m. Monday.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2016. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)A Social Security judge has collected somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million dollars over the past three years while sitting at home on administrative leave, according to a report that details just how much trouble the agency faces in trying to fire bad employees.
Neither Social Security nor the agency’s inspector general named the administrative law judge, known in governmentspeak as an ALJ, but the ordeal described by investigators and officials could be costing the government — or deserving disabled Americans — tens of millions of dollars in claims.
That is in addition to the money the judge has pocketed while not working.
“No incompetent federal employee deserves this much deference,” said former Sen. Tom Coburn, who led an investigation into Social Security disability fraud. “It informs us that significant change needs to be made. Not only is the ALJ in this case unqualified, he is a legal absconder of American taxpayer dollars.”
ALJs are charged with conducting reviews of Social Security benefits cases and issuing decisions. They approve tens of billions of dollars of awards each year.
But some ALJs appear to be doing little more than rubber-stamping applications, with approval rates as high as 95.7 percent of all cases. Others reject most cases, with one ALJ notching just a 12.7 percent allowance rate, according to the inspector general.
Those numbers are slight improvements from the last time investigators probed the matter in 2012, when the worst performers were one ALJ with a 99.7 percent approval rate and another with an 8.6 percent rate.
The inspector general identified the 12 highest and 12 lowest rates from 2012 and tracked them in the latest report, trying to figure out if any of them had improved by coming more in line with expectations, which average about 55 percent approval.
Seven of the 24 improved and were no longer among the outliers, while nine of the ALJs had left the agency altogether. One was moved from ALJ to senior attorney, and another six were still among the outliers.
And then there was the ALJ the agency has been trying to fire. That judge was first flagged for review in 2010 and had a follow-up review in 2013, and both times was deemed to have problems following the agency’s guidelines for making decisions.
After each review, the judge was allowed to resume work.
A third review in 2014 showed the problems were still happening, and the agency finally took steps to fire the ALJ, including placing the judge on administrative leave. But the ALJ was still fighting the case as of the report, issued late last month.
“An agency cannot unilaterally impose a disciplinary action on an ALJ. The agency can discipline an ALJ only after the Merit Systems Protection Board has determined that ‘good cause’ exists to do so,” said Nicole Tiggemann, a spokeswoman for the agency.
The proceedings can be drawn out, with each side allowed to engage in legal discovery and present evidence in a hearing before a board judge. There is also a provision for an appeal to the full board.
“Only after a final decision is issued may an agency then take disciplinary action against an ALJ. Under the law, throughout the full course of these proceedings, an ALJ continues to receive a salary from an agency until a final decision is issued,” Ms. Tiggemann said.
Social Security ALJs are hired at an average annual salary of about $160,000, according to data on federalpay.org, and can top out above $170,000, meaning that the judge in question has likely collected more than $500,000 during his time on leave.
ALJs play a critical role in deciding who gets benefits. A wrong adverse finding can deny someone their rightful claim, while an erroneous approval costs taxpayers.
One unscrupulous ALJ approved some $550 million in bogus disability claims as part of the scam run by Eric C. Conn.
Conn, a Kentucky lawyer, has pleaded guilty to paying off a network of doctors and psychologists to write fake medical reviews, and then paying the ALJ to rubber-stamp the applications.
Mr. Coburn used his Senate committee assignments in 2013 to shine the spotlight on Conn, who proclaimed himself “Mr. Social Security” and bragged about his success in getting clients approved.
Conn went on the lam early last month, cutting off his GPS ankle bracelet just days before he was to testify against a psychologist he paid for bogus evaluations. A man purporting to be Conn has since told Kentucky media that he has fled the country.
The ALJ he paid, David B. Daugherty, was one of those who notched a 99.7 percent approval rate in 2010. He has pleaded guilty to his role in Conn’s scheme and will be sentenced in August.
The Conn case served as a wake-up call for Social Security, which says it is making progress in getting judges to meet higher standards in their decisions, including cutting down on those who are churning out decisions.
The latest report does back that up. In 2010, most judges issued more than 500 decisions a year. Daugherty alone issued 1,375 decisions that year.
Now, just 26 percent of ALJs issue at least 500 decisions a year.
The agency also says that a high or low approval rate doesn’t mean an ALJ is failing. The agency said when it conducts a review it looks behind the decisions to see what the reasons are, in order to judge whether the judge was right.
The agency is also extraordinarily transparent, posting online a regularly updated tally of decision-making for every ALJ, and studying the data themselves to see what lessons to learn.
“Our efforts have paid off, as the agency has made significant progress in improving the quality of our hearing decisions,” Ms. Tiggemann said.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.San Antonio's top 10 new restaurants that opened in 2015
These 10 restaurants hit the ground running this year, and quickly established themselves as must-visit destinations on San Antonio's culinary scene. These 10 restaurants hit the ground running this year, and quickly established themselves as must-visit destinations on San Antonio's culinary scene. Photo: San Antonio Express-News Photo: San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close San Antonio's top 10 new restaurants that opened in 2015 1 / 27 Back to Gallery
Most years, only a handful of new restaurants rise to a truly noteworthy level, but this was a great year for new culinary experiences.
Some spots were long anticipated and worth the wait, such as a high-profile restaurant at The Pearl and an American-style steakhouse from the owners of the city’s finest Brazilian churrascaria. Others appeared out of a sense of serendipity and surprised with wonderful flavors, such as a kombucha bar that serves great dishes that happen to be vegan and a mezcal bar that offers interior Mexican street foods executed with chef-trained precision.
Check out this list of the Top 10 new restaurants of 2015 above and let us know what you think.
One note: we have not yet had a chance to review Viva Villa in Market Square, Rebelle at the St. Anthony Hotel and Supper in the Hotel Emma at the Pearl. Based on preliminary visits, those spots will merit some recognition.
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Twitter: @etijChanges are coming for 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force,' Adult Swim's longest running series. For one, there's a new name, just as ridiculously arbitrary as the original.
I’ll say it … I like Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
It’s absurd, random and often just plain stupid humor, but it’s also brief at 15 minutes an episode, which means the ridiculous humor doesn’t wear out its welcome. Because the show premiered while I was in high school — and ran through my entire college experience — I was the prime age to “get” the show. I spent plenty of all-nighters in college with my TV set strictly on Adult Swim or the ATHF DVDs.
A spin-off of the original random late-night cartoon Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, Aqua Teen Hunger Force is not about teens, hunger, a force or any kind of water. It’s about giant food who live in New Jersey. And who occasionally deal with overly boastful 8-bit moon monsters. And who often add to their middle-aged neighbor’s death, usually involving explosions. There’s a reason this show’s prime demographics were and are 20-something stoners and 16 year-old stoners … because it makes no sense. That’s probably why I haven’t watched it in the last few years. After 100 episodes, ATHF has become a show I’ve only been able to enjoy in small doses. I mean, if a repeat is on I might watch, but watching it on a regular basis got kind of grating (although to be fair, nothing is a grating as Adult Swim’s Squidbillies, which I can’t stand).
Creators Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro are looking for a change, too, because they’re renaming their show for the eighth season. They brought in ATHF star and Rhodes scholar Meatwad (voiced by Willis) to explain.
It’s pretty ballsy to admit that not only was the pilot of your show rubbish, but also the “subsequent 99 episodes.” The first step is acceptance. So, what used to be Aqua Teen Hunger Force is changing to Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1. There will once again be no sort of “aqua” in the show, but there’s probably not going to be a unit, a patrol or a squad. I can’t confirm the “1” either. I say this because, despite Meatwad promising a move to Seattle and the trio solving mysteries every episode, I actually got to see an upcoming episode.
It wasn’t the premiere episode (which airs this Sunday, May 8 at 11:45 PM EST), but it is one of Willis’ favorite episodes of the new season. In this particular episode, there are a lot of familiar themes, including the violent death of Shake via lasers, the grossly immoral behavior of Carl and New Jersey as the setting. It was actually flat out hilarious, probably one of the funnier episodes I’ve seen from them in the last few years. I’m hoping this name change, even if that’s just what it is, has brought a new energy to the show. I wouldn’t mind them spending the first couple episodes pretending like the gang is going to actually be solving mysteries in Seattle before returning to the absurdity that the show does so well. But if you’re nervous that the show will start taking itself too seriously (or at all seriously), I wouldn’t worry.
Oh, and they’ve released part of the new opening credits and song. Personally, I grew to like the original Schoolly D rap, but this new ditty by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age is fun.
Photo Credit: Cartoon NetworkNEW DELHI: At a time when questions are being raised about India’s non-proliferation credentials, one of world’s leading proponents of the international non-proliferation regime, Canada, has come out openly in support of India saying that the presence of India in the exclusive nuclear club will actually strengthen the Group’s export controls.Ahead of the NSG plenary later this week in Seoul, Canada also said that it was encouraging all NSG members to join in the consensus needed to achieve this objective "at the earliest possible date’’."India's role in international nuclear commerce is bound to keep growing in strength as the size of India's fleet of nuclear power plant, already one of the world`s largest, rapidly increases,’’ Canada’s acting high commissioner Jess Dutton Monday told TOI."As such, we believe India's membership in the NSG will reinforce the international nuclear non-proliferation regime,’’ he added.Dutton’s remarks to TOI came on a day China claimed that the issue of India’s NSG membership wasn’t even on the agenda for the Seoul meeting of the 48-nation Group. Dutton said Canada was working actively to create a consensus for India’s membership."The NSG stands to benefit from the active participation of Indian technical specialists in helping the Group strengthen the international control of nuclear goods and technologies and help strengthen domestic controls on nuclear exports,’’ said Dutton, adding that India was ready to become an active member of NSG.Canada entered into a civil nuclear agreement with India based on the 2008 clean waiver to India by the NSG for nuclear trade despite New Delhi not having signed NPT. Canada is now a significant source of uranium for India. Unlike in the case with a few other members of the Group who had supported India in 2008, Canada’s support to India and its acknowledgement of India’s non-proliferation credentials remain unwavering despite it regarding NPT as the mainstay of its policy to promote disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy."Given its nuclear non-proliferation credentials, we believe India has demonstrated that it is ready to become an active and constructive member of the NSG. We strongly encourage all NSG members to join in the consensus needed to achieve this objective, at the earliest possible date,’’ said Dutton.Canada’s voice carries a lot of weight with many other members of NSG who regularly profess commitment to NPT as the cornerstone of their disarmament and non-proliferation policies. Canada was also one of the 7 original members of NSG which itself was formed in 1975 as a reaction to India’s nuclear testing the previous year. The plutonium which India used for its 1974 nuclear test was sourced from a reactor supplied by Canada.Canada is also an important member of the Vienna Group of Ten, a group of 10 "like-minded’’ countries who work together on issues related to NPT and all of which are members of NSG. At least 3 members of this Group – New Zealand, Austria and Ireland – are said to have reservations about allowing India as a non NPT signatory into the NSG. In the NSG meeting though in Vienna earlier this month, some of these countries were said to have relented a bit as they sought a process for inclusion of non-NPT states and not a one-time exception for any country.Dutton said Canada had been a strong supporter of Indian membership in the NSG for many years and had been actively engaged in efforts to create the consensus required to allow India to join the Group. "We welcomed India`s recent application for membership, as well as its formal adherence to the NSG Guidelines in mid-May of this year," he said.MIKHAIL ZABRODSKY, the broad-shouldered commander of Ukraine’s airborne troops, came of age in the Soviet Union. After the Soviet collapse he even served in the Russian army. When he moved home to Ukraine he stayed in touch. “We were all friends,” he says, shaking his head. When Russia turned its guns on Ukraine last year, Mr Zabrodsky “couldn’t believe it.” He was not alone.
Ties between the two countries, forged over more than a millennium, are deep. Russia and Ukraine both trace their lineage to a Slavic prince, St Vladimir (or Volodymyr), who appears on both countries’ banknotes. For centuries, tsarist Russia claimed Ukraine as an extension, calling the territory “Little Russia”. Under the Soviet Union, the narrative shifted to one of brotherhood, with the Communists presenting Russia and Ukraine as parts of an inseparable Slavic family. When Khrushchev as Soviet leader gave Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, he was marking the 300th anniversary of the Pereyeslav Rada, a compact joining Cossack-ruled territory in Ukraine to the Russian empire. In 1982 a silver titanium “Arch of Friendship” in honour of “the reunification of Ukraine and Russia” was erected on a hilltop outside Kiev overlooking the Dnieper river.
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Even after Ukraine voted for independence in 1991, bilateral relations remained mostly cordial. But by annexing Crimea and waging war in Ukraine’s south-east, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has made an enemy of erstwhile brothers. In the past 18 months, a psychological shift has seen public opinion in Ukraine turn sharply against Russia. In September 2013, just before the Maidan revolution, 88% of Ukrainians felt “positively” about Russia, says the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. By May 2015, that number had fallen to 30% (it would be a lot lower if it excluded people in the rebel-held south-east). As Mr Zabrodsky concludes, “the brotherhood is over.” That will hamper the Kremlin’s efforts to pull Ukraine back into Russia’s orbit, which it managed after the 2004 Orange revolution. Mr Putin still speaks of Russians and Ukrainians as “one people”, but Ukrainians don’t see it that way.
The changing mood manifests itself on Ukraine’s streets. There is a movement to boycott Russian goods: markers noting “Russian products” dot Ukrainian supermarket shelves. A sign in Kiev’s Museum of Mikhail Bulgakov (a Kiev-born writer who wrote in Russian) tells visitors who “support the military occupation of Ukraine” that they are not welcome. Not far from the Friendship Arch, vendors who once sold Soviet kitsch now tout patriotic Ukrainian wares and anti-Russian souvenirs. “The selection has changed with the people’s tastes,” says Artyom Shumilov, who sells varieties of toilet paper plastered with Mr Putin’s face at his stall in Kiev’s Andreevsky Descent.
The longer the war drags on, the more entrenched opinion becomes. Olexander Scherba, a Ukrainian diplomat, eschewed the Maidan protests, calling himself “a Eurosceptic and Russophile” on his Facebook page in late 2013. “I was ready to forgive Russia a lot,” says Mr Scherba, now Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria. “But now it’s absolutely clear: they are an enemy.” Even many who made allowances over Crimea have begun to see Russia differently. And in the last three months of 2014, the share of eastern Ukrainians who viewed Russia positively fell from 83% to 51%.
Polling by the International Republican Institute finds a majority of Ukrainians in government-controlled territory favouring membership of the European Union, whereas only 13% want to join Russia’s customs union. Ukraine’s government has begun building a wall along its border with Russia, a symbolic gesture attuned to the country’s mood. Support for Ukrainian independence has never been higher. “Putin has done more to unite Ukraine than anyone else,” says an official in Ukraine’s presidential administration.
Yet some fret that this may not last. Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, warns against a “revanche of pro-Moscow political forces” in forthcoming local elections. Regional divides are deep: despite the war, many in the south-east are sympathetic to Russia. Practical economic concerns make cutting ties with Russia impossible. A failure to deliver on the promises of the Maidan could leave Ukrainians disenchanted. But though patience with Ukraine’s new leaders may wear thin, a return to Russia’s embrace is unlikely. “We were stabbed in the back by our own people,” says Vladimir Paniotto, director of the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. “Once people you know have suffered, restoring relations becomes very complicated.”Image copyright Google Image caption Michael Pitts had been dining with his wife at The Grapevine restaurant in Odiham when he choked on the steak
An 84-year-old man died after choking on a piece of ribeye steak while celebrating his 57th wedding anniversary, an inquest heard.
Michael Pitts was dining with wife, Joan, 78, at The Grapevine restaurant in Odiham, Hampshire, on 16 June, when the meat became lodged in his throat.
Restaurant staff and paramedics tried to resuscitate him but he later died in hospital.
Coroner Andrew Bradley recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.
'Bit chewy'
He added a post-mortem examination showed the cause of death was asphyxia contributed to by heart disease and old age.
Mrs Pitts told the Basingstoke inquest her husband had complained the steak was a bit chewy but when asked by the waiter if he wanted it changed, he said that it was "probably just the cow".
"It was his sense of humour," she added.
She continued: "I just saw him coughing and I thought he had something which catches.
"I told him to have a glass of water, and with that his arms went down and he just fell backwards into his chair."
Blocked airways
Staff at the restaurant attempted to resuscitate Mr Pitts and put him in the recovery position until paramedics arrived, the inquest heard.
After about 40 minutes the medical team found his airways were blocked and extracted a piece of steak from his throat. He later died in hospital.
Mrs Pitts said everyone "worked extremely hard" but added no-one initially realised food was stuck.
Restaurant manager Sumin Lohani described the death as "very sad", adding: "It should have been the best memory to celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary at my restaurant."
Mr Bradley said: "It was a celebration that went wrong, it could not go any more wrong than that."We all know Microsoft was the biggest player in the mobile OS arena for a long time, not because WinMo was the best, but because it was a lonely business in the past. With more and more cellphone makers turning to the free Android OS from Google, all that is changing. The New York Times and FT.com, had each an interesting article on that matter.
With about a dozen Android phones announced this year along, and maybe dozens more coming next year, Google, it would seem, is about to get so far ahead of Microsoft. We know that Motorola has dropped WinMo from its entire line to switch to Android. And even Palm – a long time WinMo supporter – has dumped the Redmond OS in favor of their new webOS.
Add to the mix the poor satisfaction rating among the WinMo customers, and it doesn’t look good at all for the Redmond giant. With 32 carriers in 26 countries, Android is becoming a big player in the cellphone arena, and it has been out in the market only for a year, so the future for the relatively young OS looks bright.
Lets not forget though, that the Microsoft OS still has many corporate fans, so I would not say WinMo is dead, but with the rest of the players updating their systems faster and more efficiently, Microsoft needs to watch out. What do you think about this situation? Don’t forget to let us know in the comments area.“It was because of the park,” said Will Zeckendorf, who with his brother paid $60 million for the Parkside Evangeline Residence, built in 1927. “We wanted to find a special address. Giving a park key to each buyer seemed like a nice closing gift.”
The good-will gift is worth far more than its $350 cost. “Being able to say that the apartments come with a free key to the park is certainly an enticement,” Arthur Zeckendorf added.
Samuel B. Ruggles, the urban visionary who in 1831 deeded two acres of his property to be used as an ornamental park surrounded and maintained by a residential neighborhood of discreetly proportioned mansions, would definitely not be unhappy with this development. It was always his intention that Gramercy Park’s exclusivity would help protect it from the ravages of time, progress and interlopers.
The park has been fenced since the mid-1830s, and locked since 1844, the same year its trustees held their first formal meeting at the home of James W. Gerard at No. 17 Gramercy. Unlike several heirloom mansions still owned by the original families, his residence was demolished in 1938.
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The neighborhood was recognized as a historic district in 1966; also in 1966, properties on the east, west and south sides of the park were designated as landmarks. Lexington Avenue, named by Mr. Ruggles, terminates at Gramercy Park North (East 21st Street); Irving Place, which he also named, begins below Gramercy Park South (East 20th Street).
So unless you are among the fortunate few to rent or own property directly on Gramercy Park; are a member in very good standing of the National Arts Club, the Players club, the Brotherhood Synagogue, or Calvary-St. George’s Church; or can splurge on a stay at the aggressively hip Gramercy Park Hotel, these coveted keys and the verdant two-acre jewel box they unlock are off limits to you, period. No exceptions are made. (Key-holders can be accompanied by as many as five guests.)
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The locks and keys are changed every year, and the four gates are, for further safekeeping, self-locking: the key is required for exiting as well as entering.
“In a way it’s kind of a priceless amenity,” said Maurice Mann, the landlord who restored 36 Gramercy Park East, “because everyone is so enamored with the park, and owning a key still holds a certain amount of bragging rights and prestige. Not everybody can have one, so it’s like, if there’s something I can’t have, I want it.”
Of the 383 keys manufactured for park users in 2012, 126 are building keys managed by doormen or concierges and signed out by residents. The other 257 are so-called “personal” keys: for $350 a year, a condo or co-op owner disinclined to borrow a key from the doorman can buy his or her very own key. For the 16 buyers at 18 Gramercy Park South, the Zeckendorfs will pick up the tab for the first year.
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Mr. Mann confirmed a similar marketing strategy already in place at 36 Gramercy Park East, a 1908 Gothic confection where the actor John Barrymore once lived and a golden key is now the logo on the building’s Web site. After a $7 million restoration, 60 units went on the market in 2010 with the enhancement of a park key paid for by the sponsor, Mann Realty, for two years.
“These keys, frankly, are not cheap,” Mr. Mann said. “But our thinking was, if someone is willing to spend millions on an apartment, let’s give them a key to the park.”
The gift key is accompanied by a personalized key chain. “We included a brass plate with the buyer’s name on it, which cost another $125,” he said. “But people seem to love them.”
The evidently popular amenity (36 Gramercy is nearly sold out and owned now by its residents, not Mr. Mann) affords unlimited park access, except of course after dusk, when the park is technically closed. It’s a rule, and as of 2003, when the Gramercy Park Trustees drafted a formal, legal and binding list of dos and (mostly) don’ts, the rules are as golden as the keys used to be back in Mr. Ruggles’s day.
No dogs, no alcohol, no smoking, no bicycling, no hardball, no lawn furniture, no Frisbees, and definitely no feeding of any of the birds and squirrels that possess the discerning taste to have taken up residence in this rarefied haven. Birdseed and peanuts draw rats, and much like trespassers and litterers and groups of more than six persons, rats are not tolerated.
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Wedding party photo sessions used to be, but not anymore: too many intoxicated wedding guests, often from parties catered by the hotel or the National Arts Club, overstayed their welcome. Too many begonias in the park’s four formal flower beds were trampled by revelers.
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“The hotel’s whole marketing campaign was access to Gramercy Park,” complained Arlene Harrison, a park trustee who also heads the formidable Gramercy Park Block Association, which has 2,000 members and has pledged to uphold the preservation, philanthropic tradition and quality of life of the neighborhood.
Ms. Harrison, the unofficial mayor/gendarme of Gramercy, wears her park key around her wrist on a coiled rubber bracelet that resembles a traditional telephone cord. It’s the ultimate in unfashionable accessories, flexible and indestructible; anyone with the audacity to try and steal her key would probably end up taking her arm along with it.
Manufactured especially for the Gramercy Park shareholders by Medeco, the key is distinguished by an interesting intangible: It is virtually impossible to duplicate.
A blond whippet of a woman with a metabolism permanently stuck in fifth gear, Ms. Harrison has championed the practice of key control since becoming a park trustee in 2002. A crackdown commenced.
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“Up until 10 years ago, keys were showing up all over town,” she said. “The doorman at 201 East 21st had keys, and so did 130 East 18th. Then there were squabbles with owners of some nearby town houses who claimed the park key had been in their families for more than a century.”
There was a period when keys were rented out, and in the 1980s they were bestowed on civic-minded neighbors as a reward.
“We even found out about a locksmith in Europe who was duplicating keys,” Ms. Harrison said. Not anymore. That’s the beauty of yearly lock changes.
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One hundred and fifty years ago, the first keys to the two-acre park, an iffy parcel of swampland that gained its real estate cachet after it was filled in, landscaped and enclosed by a six-foot-high wrought-iron fence, were actually made of solid gold.
Nowadays they are made from a commonplace nickel alloy, but that is the extent of their mundanity. Were Ms. Harrison to lose her personal key and request a replacement, she would have to play by the voluminous Gramercy Park rule book she was instrumental in writing and charge herself $1,000. Lose it twice, and the replacement fee doubles.
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An elected trustee a decade into her lifetime term, Ms. Harrison has never lost her key. “And really,” she said, “the only time we’ve really enforced the replacement fee was with the hotel, because guests kept pilfering keys as souvenirs, even after the hotel tried to discourage it by attaching a big brass ring to them.”
Ms. Harrison, who in 1971 moved with her family into a sprawling parkfront apartment at 34 Gramercy Park East acquired for $68,000, and the park’s full-time caretaker, Amando Flores, keep a list of all key-holders and the code number on each key. Anybody who sneaks into the park is subject to interrogation and ejection.
“For the most part, the only people Amando and I don’t know are from the Gramercy Park Hotel,” said Ms. Harrison, who downsized to a two-bedroom with city views in 1985. “But our biggest loophole has been closed: the hotel doesn’t lend out keys anymore.” Guests are escorted into, and retrieved from, the park by members of the hotel staff.
Maialino, the Danny Meyer restaurant at the hotel, is a de facto city hall for Ms. Harrison and her neighbors; park business is discussed every morning over breakfast.
“Being |
post office and a few thrift stores. If you need to do major grocery shopping or have specific needs, we recommend stocking up before heading south.
Dog Friendly: The campground is dog friendly but there is a lot of broken glass and rusty cans on the ground. River enjoyed playing in the sand and laying in the sun.
Entertainment: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is 20 miles away and well worth a trip. We camped at Darby Well Road with a group of friends and enjoyed socializing and hosting outdoor movie night.
UPDATE: We’ve begun work on a new music project! In April we’ll enter the recording studio to capture an album inspired by life on the road. If you’ve found our blogs informative or inspirational, please give this a look. We need your help to complete the album.
LINK: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1231395569/drivin-and-vibin-songs-from-the-road-full-length-a?ref=er04tp
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Like this: Like Loading...COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Police in Ohio's capital are searching for a man who's been pilfering plumbing from stores, hospitals and restaurants.
Dubbed the Bathroom Bandit, Columbus police say he enters various local establishments, visits the men's restroom, disconnects the plumbing and leaves with the stolen parts in his backpack.
A police department spokeswoman says the businesses won't only have to replace the parts, but hire a plumber to repair the man's toilet tinkering. She said his crimes may be unusual, but they're still felonies.
The thief has struck a Kmart, several restaurants and the Mount Carmel West Hospital, all on the city's west side.
He is described as a white male between 40 and 50 years old, 5'7" to 5'11" and 180 to 200 pounds. He's been seen driving a black Honda Accord.Poland will hold a presidential election on 10 May. Aleks Szczerbiak assesses the main contenders, noting that despite a shaky start to his campaign, the incumbent President Bronisław Komorowski remains a firm favourite to win. Nevertheless, the fact that he is projecting himself as a non-partisan candidate will limit the political momentum afforded to his party, Civic Platform, ahead of parliamentary elections later in the year.
Last month the starting gun was fired on the Polish presidential election campaign. The vote is due to be held on 10 May with a second round run-off two weeks later if no candidate obtains more than 50 per cent of the votes. The President retains some significant powers, including the right to initiate legislation, refer bills to the Constitutional Tribunal, nominate a number of key state officials, and, perhaps most significantly, a suspensive veto that requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority to over-turn. However, the President’s competencies are much less significant than those of, say, his French counterpart, and real executive power lies with the Prime Minister.
The presidential poll should, therefore, be seen as a precursor to the parliamentary elections scheduled for October which will determine the shape of the Polish political scene for several years to come. Opinion polls currently show the two main parties – the ruling centrist Civic Platform (PO), led by prime minister Ewa Kopacz, which has been in office since 2007, and the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party led by Jarosław Kaczyński, which was in government between 2005-7 – running neck-and-neck.
The Civic Platform-backed incumbent, Bronisław Komorowski, is extremely popular and is odds-on favourite to secure re-election, possibly even in the first round. Polls conducted by the CBOS agency last month found that he enjoyed a 75 per cent approval rating, easily the highest of any Polish politician, and that 71 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the way that he was performing his presidential duties.
The choice of election date – which was determined by the Civic Platform-backed speaker of the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of the Polish parliament – is also felt to be advantageous to Mr Komorowski. In addition to the fact that there are a number of important national commemorations at the beginning of May, the presidential poll will take place two days after Poland hosts a high profile remembrance service to mark the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in which the President will take centre stage (this is also the last day on which election campaigning is allowed).
As well as building support and influence in the media, Komorowski’s political strategy has been based on projecting himself (opposition parties argue, disingenuously) as a non-partisan ‘President of all Poles’. Poles prefer their President to at least give the impression of being above the day-to-day political fray and, from the outset, Komorowski tried to project an image of his presidency as being based on co-operation and dialogue.
In setting out his bid for re-election, he thus presented himself as a non-partisan ‘civic’ candidate with a broad political and social base of support. The fact that he has tried to subtly distance himself from the ruling party was encouraged, no doubt, by the fact that many Poles have grown tired of a government in its eighth year in office. But it also limits the political momentum that Civic Platform might derive from his victory. Moreover, given that he enters the campaign with such high expectations, failure to secure a first round victory, or at least a decisive second round win with more than 60 per cent of the votes, will be seen as a disappointment and could also detract from the positive impact of his re-election for Civic Platform’s prospects.
Andrzej Duda lays down the gauntlet
Komorowski’s main rival is Law and Justice candidate Andrzej Duda, a well-respected 42-year-old lawyer and MEP, but relatively unknown and untested in such a high profile contest. Mr Kaczyński decided not to stand this time, feeling that he was unlikely to repeat his relatively good result in the previous election when he lost narrowly, securing 47 per cent in a second round run-off. However, having been criticised initially as ‘worthy but dull’, Duda started to develop some traction last month following a barnstorming speech at the high-profile US-style convention launching his campaign.
Projecting himself as a young and energetic challenger, he promised to be an active President who would improve social dialogue, and made a specific pledge to try and reserve the government’s extremely unpopular pension reforms which raised the retirement age to 67. At the same time, in order to consolidate his base of support among Law and Justice core voters, Duda said that he would model himself on President Lech Kaczyński, Jarosław’s twin brother, whose term of office ended abruptly when he died in the 2010 Smolensk air crash and who is an iconic figure on the Polish right.
This contrasted starkly with Komorowski’s ponderous and anaemic campaign launch held on the previous day at a Civic Platform party council meeting, where he gave the impression that the election was a foregone conclusion. As a consequence, having initially shown support for Komorowski at around 50-55 per cent compared with 15-20 per cent for Duda, for the first time a number of polls suggested that a second round run-off was a serious possibility. Duda’s strategic objective is thus to increase his support to around the 30 per cent level currently enjoyed by Law and Justice in the polls which, if the other candidates can also peel away enough of the President’s support, should ensure that he goes head-to-head with Komorowski in the second round.
The chances of a second round were increased by the decision at the end of January by the agrarian Polish Peasant Party (PSL), Civic Platform’s junior governing coalition partner, to stand its own candidate. Presidential elections have always been difficult for the party as this is the poll in which its supporters are least likely to vote – in the last two contests its candidates secured less than 2 per cent of the vote. Party strategists were, not surprisingly, extremely concerned that a poor presidential election result would damage morale in the run up to the parliamentary poll and some even favoured supporting Komorowski instead of standing their own candidate.
However, in the event the party decided that it was too risky to absent itself from an electoral process that will dominate the political scene for the next couple of months. Consequently, it nominated Adam Jarubas, the party’s articulate and up-and-coming 40-year-old deputy leader, who is nevertheless little known outside of his home province of Świętokrzyskie where he has been regional assembly leader since 2006; his poll ratings are currently in the 1-3 per cent range.
A weak challenge from the left
Much will also depend on the vote share obtained by left-wing candidates. The main grouping on the Polish left is currently the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), the once-powerful communist successor party that governed Poland from 1993-97 and 2001-5, but which has been in the doldrums since its support collapsed in the 2005 parliamentary election and is now struggling for its future survival.
Knowing that they faced almost-certain defeat, the Alliance struggled to find a high profile, party-aligned figure willing to contest this election. Party leader Leszek Miller – a wily political operator who, in his heyday during an earlier stint as Democratic Left Alliance leader, served as prime minister from 2001-2004 – ruled himself out, knowing that a poor result would weaken his already precarious grip on the leadership.
In the event, in January the party selected a political unknown, 35-year-old historian and TV personality Magdalena Ogórek, as its candidate. Ms Ogórek lacks any real political experience and her programmatic statements include controversial policies such as a pledge to re-write Polish law from scratch. Her candidacy has generated huge media interest, but much of it is due to her striking appearance and controversial private and family life. However, while she lacks appeal with the Alliance’s traditional core constituency of older voters linked to the previous communist regime, she has tried instead to position herself as an anti-establishment candidate who can articulate the concerns of alienated Polish youth.
Nonetheless, she has drawn much derision for her refusal to answer questions in press conferences and media interviews, and it will be difficult for her to remain a credible candidate if she keeps this up for the rest of the campaign. At the moment, most polls put her in third place, but with only around 5 per cent of the vote – and if she does not secure at least 10 per cent Mr Miller could well face a leadership challenge.
Another presidential challenger on the centre-left is Janusz Palikot, a controversial and flamboyant businessman whose anti-clerical liberal Palikot Movement (RP) came from nowhere to finish third in the most recent 2011 parliamentary election with just over 10 per cent of the vote. However, in spite of re-branding itself as a more economically and socially liberal centrist grouping now called ‘Your Movement’ (TR), his party saw its support slump and most of its parliamentary caucus defect.
Although Mr Palikot is running an energetic campaign, he is only registering around 2-3 per cent in the polls and unless he can think of a way of once-again radically re-inventing himself, he appears to be finished as a major actor on the Polish political scene. Moreover, two former members of his parliamentary caucus also announced that they would be contesting the election: Anna Grodzka, Poland’s first trans-sexual parliamentarian who will be the candidate of the miniscule Green party (Zieloni); and veteran feminist campaigner Wanda Nowicka who is supported by the small Labour Union (UP).
The big challenge for minor party candidates such as these is to collect the 100,000 signatures required for their names to appear on the presidential ballot paper. One who is likely to cross this threshold easily is the economically libertarian and socially conservative MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a veteran eccentric of the Polish political scene whose radically Eurosceptic Congress of the New Right (KPN) party came a surprise fourth in last May’s European Parliament election with 7.2 per cent of the vote. However, Korwin-Mikke will struggle to repeat this success after he was deposed as party leader at the beginning of the year and forced to set up his own grouping. An alternative candidate who could emerge as the ‘dark horse’ of the election is charismatic, union-backed rock singer and social activist Paweł Kukiz.
Komorowski: still the odds-on favourite?
The presidential election is proving more difficult for Komorowski than Civic Platform strategists originally anticipated. Duda has got off to a good start and the prospects of a second round run-off now look much more likely, especially as there are several minor candidates who could peel support away from the incumbent. Moreover, even if he does not win, Duda may still give Komorowski a fright and establish himself as a rising star of the Polish right.
However, while the Law and Justice candidate has developed some momentum he is still polling below the levels of support achieved by his party. With the situation in neighbouring Ukraine so unstable and security issues remaining high on the political agenda, Komorowski’s experience may also count in his favour and encourage voters to play safe. Paradoxically, a tightening of the presidential race may also help to mobilise his more passive supporters who could otherwise think the election outcome is a foregone conclusion.
Although Komorowski clearly needs to change gear and realise that the kind of passive, almost non-political, approach that works well for an incumbent President does not always succeed in an election campaign, his approval ratings are so high that, barring some major and unforeseeable political game-changer, he still remains the odds-on favourite to win.
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Note: A version of this article originally appeared at Aleks Szczerbiak’s personal blog. The article gives the views of the author, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics. Featured image credit: Arkadiusz Sikorski (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
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About the author
Aleks Szczerbiak – University of Sussex
Aleks Szczerbiak is Professor of Politics and Contemporary European Studies at the University of Sussex. He is author of Poland Within the European Union? New Awkward Partner or New Heart of Europe? (Routledge, 2012) and blogs regularly about developments on the Polish political scene at http://polishpoliticsblog.wordpress.com/A Bush administration proposal aimed at protecting health-care workers who object to abortion, and to birth-control methods they consider tantamount to abortion, has escalated a bitter debate over the balance between religious freedom and patients' rights.
The Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing a draft regulation that would deny federal funding to any hospital, clinic, health plan or other entity that does not accommodate employees who want to opt out of participating in care that runs counter to their personal convictions, including providing birth-control pills, IUDs and the Plan B emergency contraceptive.
Conservative groups, abortion opponents and some members of Congress are welcoming the initiative as necessary to safeguard doctors, nurses and other health workers who, they say, are increasingly facing discrimination because of their beliefs or are being coerced into delivering services they find repugnant.
But the draft proposal has sparked intense criticism by family planning advocates, women's health activists, and members of Congress who say the regulation would create overwhelming obstacles for women seeking abortions and birth control.
There is also deep concern that the rule could have far-reaching, but less obvious, implications. Because of its wide scope and because it would -- apparently for the first time -- define abortion in a federal regulation as anything that affects a fertilized egg, the regulation could raise questions about a broad spectrum of scientific research and care, critics say.
"The breadth of this is potentially immense," said Robyn S. Shapiro, a bioethicist and lawyer at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "Is this going to result in a kind of blessed censorship of a whole host of areas of medical care and research?"
Critics charge that the proposal is the latest example of the administration politicizing science to advance ideological goals.
"They are manipulating the system by manipulating the definition of the word 'abortion,' " said Susan F. Wood, a professor at George Washington University who resigned from the Food and Drug Administration over the delays in approving the nonprescription sale of Plan B. "It's another example of this administration's disregard for science and medicine in how agencies make decisions."
The proposal is outlined in a 39-page draft regulation that has been circulated among several HHS agencies. The FDA has not objected, but several officials at the National Institutes of Health said that the agency had expressed serious concerns.
"This is causing a lot of distress," said one NIH researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. "It's a redefinition of abortion that does not match any of the current medical definitions. It's ideologically based and not based on science and could interfere with the development of many new therapies to treat diseases."
Since a copy of the document leaked earlier this month, outside advocates and scientists have voiced growing alarm that the regulation could inhibit research in areas including stem cells, infertility and even such unrelated fields as cancer.
Dozens of members of Congress have sent letters of protest to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, as have scores of major medical and health groups that say their supporters have sent Congress, the White House and HHS thousands of letters protesting the proposal.For half a millennium, Russian foreign policy has been characterized by soaring ambitions that have exceeded the country’s capabilities. Beginning with the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century, Russia managed to expand at an average rate of 50 square miles per day for hundreds of years, eventually covering one-sixth of the earth’s landmass. By 1900, it was the world’s fourth- or fifth-largest industrial power and the largest agricultural producer in Europe. But its per capita GDP reached only 20 percent of the United Kingdom’s and 40 percent of Germany’s. Imperial Russia’s average life span at birth was just 30 years—higher than British India’s (23) but the same as Qing China’s and far below the United Kingdom’s (52), Japan’s (51), and Germany’s (49). Russian literacy in the early twentieth century remained below 33 percent—lower than that of Great Britain in the eighteenth century. These comparisons were all well known by the Russian political establishment, because its members traveled to Europe frequently and measured their country against the world’s leaders (something that is true today, as well).
History records three fleeting moments of remarkable Russian ascendancy: Peter the Great’s victory over Charles XII and a declining Sweden in the early 1700s, which implanted Russian power on the Baltic Sea and in Europe; Alexander I’s victory over a wildly overstretched Napoleon in the second decade of the nineteenth century, which brought Russia to Paris as an arbiter of great-power affairs; and Stalin’s victory over the maniacal gambler Adolf Hitler in the 1940s, which gained Russia Berlin, a satellite empire in Eastern Europe, and a central role shaping the global postwar order.
These high-water marks aside, however, Russia has almost always been a relatively weak great power. It lost the Crimean War of 1853–56, a defeat that ended the post-Napoleonic glow and forced a belated emancipation of the serfs. It lost the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5, the first defeat of a European country by an Asian oneforeach supports iteration over three different kinds of values:
Arrays
Normal objects
Traversable objects
In the following, I will try to explain precisely how iteration works in different cases. By far the simplest case is Traversable objects, as for these foreach is essentially only syntax sugar for code along these lines:
foreach ($it as $k => $v) { /*... */ } /* translates to: */ if ($it instanceof IteratorAggregate) { $it = $it->getIterator(); } for ($it->rewind(); $it->valid(); $it->next()) { $v = $it->current(); $k = $it->key(); /*... */ }
For internal classes, actual method calls are avoided by using an internal API that essentially just mirrors the Iterator interface on the C level.
Iteration of arrays and plain objects is significantly more complicated. First of all, it should be noted that in PHP "arrays" are really ordered dictionaries and they will be traversed according to this order (which matches the insertion order as long as you didn't use something like sort ). This is opposed to iterating by the natural order of the keys (how lists in other languages often work) or having no defined order at all (how dictionaries in other languages often work).
The same also applies to objects, as the object properties can be seen as another (ordered) dictionary mapping property names to their values, plus some visibility handling. In the majority of cases, the object properties are not actually stored in this rather inefficient way. However, if you start iterating over an object, the packed representation that is normally used will be converted to a real dictionary. At that point, iteration of plain objects becomes very similar to iteration of arrays (which is why I'm not discussing plain-object iteration much in here).
So far, so good. Iterating over a dictionary can't be too hard, right? The problems begin when you realize that an array/object can change during iteration. There are multiple ways this can happen:
If you iterate by reference using foreach ($arr as &$v) then $arr is turned into a reference and you can change it during iteration.
then is turned into a reference and you can change it during iteration. In PHP 5 the same applies even if you iterate by value, but the array was a reference beforehand: $ref =& $arr; foreach ($ref as $v)
Objects have by-handle passing semantics, which for most practical purposes means that they behave like references. So objects can always be changed during iteration.
The problem with allowing modifications during iteration is the case where the element you are currently on is removed. Say you use a pointer to keep track of which array element you are currently at. If this element is now freed, you are left with a dangling pointer (usually resulting in a segfault).
There are different ways of solving this issue. PHP 5 and PHP 7 differ significantly in this regard and I'll describe both behaviors in the following. The summary is that PHP 5's approach was rather dumb and lead to all kinds of weird edge-case issues, while PHP 7's more involved approach results in more predictable and consistent behavior.
As a last preliminary, it should be noted that PHP uses reference counting and copy-on-write to manage memory. This means that if you "copy" a value, you actually just reuse the old value and increment its reference count (refcount). Only once you perform some kind of modification a real copy (called a "duplication") will be done. See You're being lied to for a more extensive introduction on this topic.
PHP 5
Internal array pointer and HashPointer
Arrays in PHP 5 have one dedicated "internal array pointer" (IAP), which properly supports modifications: Whenever an element is removed, there will be a check whether the IAP points to this element. If it does, it is advanced to the next element instead.
While foreach does make use of the IAP, there is an additional complication: There is only one IAP, but one array can be part of multiple foreach loops:
// Using by-ref iteration here to make sure that it's really // the same array in both loops and not a copy foreach ($arr as &$v1) { foreach ($arr as &$v) { //... } }
To support two simultaneous loops with only one internal array pointer, foreach performs the following schenanigans: Before the loop body is executed, foreach will back up a pointer to the current element and its hash into a per-foreach HashPointer. After the loop body runs, the IAP will be set back to this element if it still exists. If however the element has been removed, we'll just use wherever the IAP is currently at. This scheme mostly-kinda-sort of works, but there's a lot of weird behavior you can get out of it, some of which I'll demonstrate below.
Array duplication
The IAP is a visible feature of an array (exposed through the current family of functions), as such changes to the IAP count as modifications under copy-on-write semantics. This, unfortunately, means that foreach is in many cases forced to duplicate the array it is iterating over. The precise conditions are:
The array is not a reference (is_ref=0). If it's a reference, then changes to it are supposed to propagate, so it should not be duplicated. The array has refcount>1. If refcount is 1, then the array is not shared and we're free to modify it directly.
If the array is not duplicated (is_ref=0, refcount=1), then only its refcount will be incremented (*). Additionally, if foreach by reference is used, then the (potentially duplicated) array will be turned into a reference.
Consider this code as an example where duplication occurs:
function iterate($arr) { foreach ($arr as $v) {} } $outerArr = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]; iterate($outerArr);
Here, $arr will be duplicated to prevent IAP changes on $arr from leaking to $outerArr. In terms of the conditions above, the array is not a reference (is_ref=0) and is used in two places (refcount=2). This requirement is unfortunate and an artifact of the suboptimal implementation (there is no concern of modification during iteration here, so we don't really need to use the IAP in the first place).
(*) Incrementing the refcount here sounds innocuous, but violates copy-on-write (COW) semantics: This means that we are going to modify the IAP of a refcount=2 array, while COW dictates that modifications can only be performed on refcount=1 values. This violation results in user-visible behavior change (while a COW is normally transparent) because the IAP change on the iterated array will be observable -- but only until the first non-IAP modification on the array. Instead, the three "valid" options would have been a) to always duplicate, b) to not increment the refcount and thus allowing the iterated array to be arbitrarily modified in the loop or c) don't use the IAP at all (the PHP 7 solution).
Position advancement order
There is one last implementation detail that you have to be aware of to properly understand the code samples below. The "normal" way of looping through some data structure would look something like this in pseudocode:
reset(arr); while (get_current_data(arr, &data) == SUCCESS) { code(); move_forward(arr); }
However foreach, being a rather special snowflake, chooses to do things slightly differently:
reset(arr); while (get_current_data(arr, &data) == SUCCESS) { move_forward(arr); code(); }
Namely, the array pointer is already moved forward before the loop body runs. This means that while the loop body is working on element $i, the IAP is already at element $i+1. This is the reason why code samples showing modification during iteration will always unset the next element, rather than the current one.
Examples: Your test cases
The three aspects described above should provide you with a mostly complete impression of the idiosyncrasies of the foreach implementation and we can move on to discuss some examples.
The behavior of your test cases is simple to explain at this point:
In test cases 1 and 2 $array starts off with refcount=1, so it will not be duplicated by foreach: Only the refcount is incremented. When the loop body subsequently modifies the array (which has refcount=2 at that point), the duplication will occur at that point. Foreach will continue working on an unmodified copy of $array.
In test case 3, once again the array is not duplicated, thus foreach will be modifying the IAP of the $array variable. At the end of the iteration, the IAP is NULL (meaning iteration has done), which each indicates by returning false.
In test cases 4 and 5 both each and reset are by-reference functions. The $array has a refcount=2 when it is passed to them, so it has to be duplicated. As such foreach will be working on a separate array again.
Examples: Effects of current in foreach
A good way to show the various duplication behaviors is to observe the behavior of the current() function inside a foreach loop. Consider this example:
foreach ($array as $val) { var_dump(current($array)); } /* Output: 2 2 2 2 2 */
Here you should know that current() is a by-ref function (actually: prefer-ref), even though it does not modify the array. It has to be in order to play nice with all the other functions like next which are all by-ref. By-reference passing implies that the array has to be separated and thus $array and the foreach-array will be different. The reason you get 2 instead of 1 is also mentioned above: foreach advances the array pointer before running the user code, not after. So even though the code is at the first element, foreach already advanced the pointer to the second.
Now lets try a small modification:
$ref = &$array; foreach ($array as $val) { var_dump(current($array)); } /* Output: 2 3 4 5 false */
Here we have the is_ref=1 case, so the array is not copied (just like above). But now that it is a reference, the array no longer has to be duplicated when passing to the by-ref current() function. Thus current() and foreach work on the same array. You still see the off-by-one behavior though, due to the way foreach advances the pointer.
You get the same behavior when doing by-ref iteration:
foreach ($array as &$val) { var_dump(current($array)); } /* Output: 2 3 4 5 false */
Here the important part is that foreach will make $array an is_ref=1 when it is iterated by reference, so basically you have the same situation as above.
Another small variation, this time we'll assign the array to another variable:
$foo = $array; foreach ($array as $val) { var_dump(current($array)); } /* Output: 1 1 1 1 1 */
Here the refcount of the $array is 2 when the loop is started, so for once we actually have to do the duplication upfront. Thus $array and the array used by foreach will be completely separate from the outset. That's why you get the position of the IAP wherever it was before the loop (in this case it was at the first position).
Examples: Modification during iteration
Trying to account for modifications during iteration is where all our foreach troubles originated, so it serves to consider some examples for this case.
Consider these nested loops over the same array (where by-ref iteration is used to make sure it really is the same one):
foreach ($array as &$v1) { foreach ($array as &$v2) { if ($v1 == 1 && $v2 == 1) { unset($array[1]); } echo "($v1, $v2)
"; } } // Output: (1, 1) (1, 3) (1, 4) (1, 5)
The expected part here is that (1, 2) is missing from the output because element 1 was removed. What's probably unexpected is that the outer loop stops after the first element. Why is that?
The reason behind this is the nested-loop hack described above: Before the loop body runs, the current IAP position and hash is backed up into a HashPointer. After the loop body it will be restored, but only if the element still exists, otherwise the current IAP position (whatever it may be) is used instead. In the example above this is exactly the case: The current element of the outer loop has been removed, so it will use the IAP, which has already been marked as finished by the inner loop!
Another consequence of the HashPointer backup+restore mechanism is that changes to the IAP though reset() etc. usually do not impact foreach. For example, the following code executes as if the reset() were not present at all:
$array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; foreach ($array as &$value) { var_dump($value); reset($array); } // output: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The reason is that, while reset() temporarily modifies the IAP, it will be restored to the current foreach element after the loop body. To force reset() to make an effect on the loop, you have to additionally remove the current element, so that the backup/restore mechanism fails:
$array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; $ref =& $array; foreach ($array as $value) { var_dump($value); unset($array[1]); reset($array); } // output: 1, 1, 3, 4, 5
But, those examples are still sane. The real fun starts if you remember that the HashPointer restore uses a pointer to the element and its hash to determine whether it still exists. But: Hashes have collisions, and pointers can be reused! This means that, with a careful choice of array keys, we can make foreach believe that an element that has been removed still exists, so it will jump directly to it. An example:
$array = ['EzEz' => 1, 'EzFY' => 2, 'FYEz' => 3]; $ref =& $array; foreach ($array as $value) { unset($array['EzFY']); $array['FYFY'] = 4; reset($array); var_dump($value); } // output: 1, 4
Here we should normally expect the output 1, 1, 3, 4 according to the previous rules. How what happens is that 'FYFY' has the same hash as the removed element 'EzFY', and the allocator happens to reuse the same memory location to store the element. So foreach ends up directly jumping to the newly inserted element, thus short-cutting the loop.
Substituting the iterated entity during the loop
One last odd case that I'd like to mention, it is that PHP allows you to substitute the iterated entity during the loop. So you can start iterating on one array and then replace it with another array halfway through. Or start iterating on an array and then replace it with an object:
$arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; $obj = (object) [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; $ref =& $arr; foreach ($ref as $val) { echo "$val
"; if ($val == 3) { $ref = $obj; } } /* Output: 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 */
As you can see in this case PHP will just start iterating the other entity from the start once the substitution has happened.
PHP 7
Hashtable iterators
If you still remember, the main problem with array iteration was how to handle removal of elements mid-iteration. PHP 5 used a single internal array pointer (IAP) for this purpose, which was somewhat suboptimal, as one array pointer had to be stretched to support multiple simultaneous foreach loops and interaction with reset() etc. on top of that.
PHP 7 uses a different approach, namely, it supports creating an arbitrary amount of external, safe hashtable iterators. These iterators have to be registered in the array, from which point on they have the same semantics as the IAP: If an array element is removed, all hashtable iterators pointing to that element will be advanced to the next element.
This means that foreach will no longer use the IAP at all. The foreach loop will be absolutely no effect on the results of current() etc. and its own behavior will never be influenced by functions like reset() etc.
Array duplication
Another important change between PHP 5 and PHP 7 relates to array duplication. Now that the IAP is no longer used, by-value array iteration will only do a refcount increment (instead of duplication the array) in all cases. If the array is modified during the foreach loop, at that point a duplication will occur (according to copy-on-write) and foreach will keep working on the old array.
In most cases, this change is transparent and has no other effect than better performance. However, there is one occasion where it results in different behavior, namely the case where the array was a reference beforehand:
$array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; $ref = &$array; foreach ($array as $val) { var_dump($val); $array[2] = 0; } /* Old output: 1, 2, 0, 4, 5 */ /* New output: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 */
Previously by-value iteration of reference-arrays was special cases. In this case, no duplication occurred, so all modifications of the array during iteration would be reflected by the loop. In PHP 7 this special case is gone: A by-value iteration of an array will always keep working on the original elements, disregarding any modifications during the loop.
This, of course, does not apply to by-reference iteration. If you iterate by-reference all modifications will be reflected by the loop. Interestingly, the same is true for by-value iteration of plain objects:
$obj = new stdClass; $obj->foo = 1; $obj->bar = 2; foreach ($obj as $val) { var_dump($val); $obj->bar = 42; } /* Old and new output: 1, 42 */
This reflects the by-handle semantics of objects (i.e. they behave reference-like even in by-value contexts).
Examples
Let's consider a few examples, starting with your test cases:
Test cases 1 and 2 retain the same output: By-value array iteration always keep working on the original elements. (In this case, even refcounting and duplication behavior is exactly the same between PHP 5 and PHP 7).
Test case 3 changes: Foreach no longer uses the IAP, so each() is not affected by the loop. It will have the same output before and after.
Test cases 4 and 5 stay the same: each() and reset() will duplicate |
immigration laws. It is shocking that any court would be complicit in this.
Judicial Watch Sues Health and Human Services over Planned Parenthood Records
President Bush instituted polices that may have saved the lives of many unborn babies. One of his first official acts as President in 2001 was to reinstitute a policy denying federal funding to international groups that provide abortions. He opposed taxpayer funding for most stem cell research. And he signed a bill which outlawed the barbaric practice of partial birth abortion.
So would you be surprised if I told you that the Bush administration, under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services, has provided billions of dollars to the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood?
That’s why we decided to find out everything we could about the Bush administration’s funding of Planned Parenthood, including what restrictions, if any, have been placed on how this money is spent. On August 14, 2008, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Health and Human Services. When HHS stonewalled, we filed a lawsuit. (Check it out here.)
Here’s what we’re after:
* All records concerning the allocation and distribution of public funds to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (henceforth referred to as Planned Parenthood).
* All records detailing the policies, procedures, and operational practices of Planned Parenthood, including but not limited to records concerning the use of public funds to provide health care or educational services.
* Any and all records pertaining to the Department of Health and Human Service’s decision to provide funding to Planned Parenthood, including but not limited to records detailing the use of government money, and/or any conditions or stipulations regarding the use of said money.
Incredibly, the Bush administration provides approximately $300 million in annual taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood through Title X (Ten), a program run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Now, pro-abortion advocates and defenders of the Title X policy say that the funds are not to be used directly for abortion-related services, that there is a “strict wall of separation” between funds for “family planning” and funds for “abortion.” There is some doubt as to whether or not this is true, which is one reason we filed our FOIA request. Even if you accept this argument at face value, this is a distinction without a difference. Certainly every dollar allocated by the federal government to Planned Parenthood for so-called “family planning” services frees up another dollar to be used by Planned Parenthood to provide abortions.
As President Elect Obama is a fanatic supporter of abortion rights and, among other acts, pledges to reverse the prohibition on taxpayer money for organizations that promote abortion abroad, the issue of taxpayer funding of abortion could reach fever pitch over the next year.
Tom Fitton is President of Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan educational foundation that fights government corruption. Visit www.judicialwatch.org for more information on Judicial Watch’s legal campaigns and programs.With the arrival of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver earlier this year, suddenly political satire is big, really big.
Each week, Jon Stewart, the absurdist Stephen Colbert and Oliver go head-to-head to decide the king of comedic cable news.
In recent years, nightly news satire has become the dominant force in late night television, with Comedy Central heroes Stewart and Colbert trouncing the old guard of David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, as well as the Jimmies – Kimmel and Fallon.
· The funniest man on TV is laughing at Australia
· Mr ‘Very’ Popular: the USA likes Josh Thomas
· Could Scandinavia become a TV superpower?
Whereas late night talk shows once carried the glamour and mystique of Hollywood, their relevance has been diminished by what has been described as a ‘golden age of political comedy’ ushered in by The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Carrying on in this tradition is Daily Show alumni John Oliver who recently debuted his own Daily Show-style series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
All three programs have managed to combine an engagement with the political news cycle with remaining true to their brand of ridiculous, whimsical humor.
But who among the three carries the most cache. TV critic Patrick James examines each candidate’s bona fides for the title of undisputed king of political satire.
[polldaddy poll=8236841]
Jon Stewart
Age: 51
Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
Education: College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
Comedy pedigree: Stand up comedian
Since taking over from Craig Kilborn in 1999, Jon Stewart has taken The Daily Show from being another celebrity-driven late night program and transformed it into an international powerhouse. He extensively used video footage to point out the hypocrisy US politicians and the absurdity of newscasters who obsessively follow the ’24 hour news cycle’ – with The Daily Show host often seeming to be the only sane voice in hysterical times.
His effectiveness was such Stewart rose to become one of the most influential newscasters in America. The New York Times even ran an article asking the question: “Is Jon Stewart the most trusted man in America?”
Stewart and The Daily Show have achieved this respect through their fearlessness in covering divisive political issues, with common sense, humour and humanity. The enduring success of The Daily Show is a combination of being attuned to the political zeitgeist while remaining very, very funny.
In recent weeks, Stewart lampooned the intense divisiveness in the American media covering the Arab-Israeli conflict, and started a fake crowd funding website to buy CNN in an effort to thwart Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Time Warner. All gold.
Stephen Colbert
Age: 50
Birthplace: Washington DC, USA
Education: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Comedy pedigree: Writer/ actor
As The Daily Show enjoyed increasing popularity, two star ‘reporters’ emerged from the team of correspondents in the late 1990s – Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert (both for a time even shared a segment entitled “Even Stevphen“). Colbert was notorious for his fearless interviewing technique when out filming segments. When Carell went off to conquer Hollywood, Colbert would be rewarded with his own late night program The Colbert Report.
To mark itself as independent from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report went a different satirical route: taking a bizarre interpretation of the host-driven programming that is a feature on Fox News (namely on The O’Reilly Factor).
On his own show, Colbert plays a cocky, abrasive and self-important talk show host who repeatedly interrupts his guests during interviews. As with the shows he satirises, Colbert stays abreast of ‘special interest’ news stories every night for bloviated discussion, seen last week in his coverage of the ‘celebrity spat’ between Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom. As Andy Greenwald of Grantland points out, Colbert’s 10 season run since is “astonishing and unprecedented. Has a single joke ever been stretched across a decade?”
John Oliver
Age: 37
Birthplace: Birmingham, UK
Education: Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
Comedy pedigree: Stand up comedian
Since joining The Daily Show in 2006 as ‘senior British correspondent’ comedian John Oliver steadily rose to be the number one correspondent on The Daily Show team, playing upon the scientific fact that “just about everything is funnier when it’s said in an English accent.”
In 2013 while Stewart was absent for eight weeks, Oliver filled in on hosting duties to great critical acclaim for keeping up Stewart’s “freakishly high standards of satire”. Three months after filling in, HBO announced that it would be giving Oliver his own late night news show: Last Week Tonight, with John Oliver.
The distinguishing feature of Last Week Tonight is that it airs weekly, not nightly, and instead of following the 24 hour news cycle, Oliver chooses one hot button issue every week. The approach appears to have paid off with several videos going viral and exposing the program to an international audience.
So who wins?
In 2015, Colbert will take over hosting duties of The Late Show from David Letterman and will retire his Colbert character for a more ‘straight’ comedic approach. So, the contest now comes down to great friends Stewart and Oliver, both hilarious, both beloved.
While Oliver has scored some important plaudits in the first few months of his new program it’s difficult to foresee what role he will play in the TV landscape in the coming months and years once the novelty of Last Week Tonight wears off and the program attempts to become a staple of the genre. The New Yorker applauded the new show when it first aired, but said it will take some time to see if he can usurp Stewart’s success.
In contrast, Stewart is entrenched in his nightly format and appears to be as essential as ever in the changing US political landscape, described by CBS news anchor Brian Williams as “a necessary branch of Government”.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart remains benchmark for all satirical news programming and casts a long shadow for competitors. Jon Stewart is the undisputed King of TV satire.(CNN) -- A bomb exploded at a Woodburn, Oregon, bank branch early Friday evening, killing a police officer and injuring the town's police chief and a state bomb technician, Oregon State Police said.
A police officer was killed Friday after a bomb exploded inside the West Coast Bank in Woodburn, Oregon.
Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell was listed in critical condition at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Christine Decker.
The name of the slain police officer has not yet been released. There was no immediate word on the bomb tech's identity or condition.
The three were investigating a suspicious device at a West Coast Bank branch when the bomb went off, police said. Police had brought the device inside after it was discovered outside, bank president Bob Sznewajs told CNN.
Sznewajs said that two bank employees who were in another part of the bank when the bomb exploded suffered very minor injuries, one who may have been hit by some flying debris and another who was "bothered by the sound."
"I know that all of our employees are fine," Sznewajs said, adding that none of his employees had been allowed back into the front portion of the building, where the bomb exploded, "so we don't know what it's like in there."
"I heard a loud kaboom," Robert Currie, who was across the street, told CNN affiliate KATU. "Well, I'm a Vietnam veteran and that was no gunshot -- that was definitely a bomb. So I come running outside to see what was going on and the interior lights of the bank are all out. And the next thing, it's just swarming with police cars, two fire trucks and three or four ambulances."
Don't Miss KATU: Explosion rocks bank
Several emergency vehicles surrounded the building, according to news video from the scene, but the exterior of the building did not appear damaged.
Sznewajs said police were called to investigate a suspicious package Friday afternoon. Police gave the all clear, Sznewajs said, but a bank employee saw something in a bush outside the bank, and police were called back.
Sznewajs said he was not at the bank at the time of the incident, but he said his employees told him authorities "scanned it outside, then brought it in."
His employees had left the front of the building by that point, Sznewajs said, and it was not clear why the device was taken into the building.
Sznewajs said there were "four or five" employees in the bank when the incident began and approximately the same number of customers. None were in the front of the bank when the explosion took place.
Earlier Friday, police investigated a bomb threat called into a nearby Wells Fargo Bank branch but found nothing, Wells Fargo spokesman Tom Unger said. The call came in before 10:30 a.m., Unger said, and the branch closed at 2 p.m.
The Wells branch and the West Coast branch are less than 150 feet apart.
Woodburn is in the Willamette Valley about 30 miles south of Portland.
All About OregonNational Geographic magazine writer Jennifer S. Holland shares photos and stories of unlikely animal pairs that share a parent-child relationship from her book, “Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom.”
Mare and Fawn During the first week of June, Bob Muth happened to be looking out the kitchen window and noticed a white-tailed deer giving birth in the barnyard. The coyotes also noticed. And it quickly became clear that they were intent on getting the fawn away from its mother. "I ran out to 'interfere' with nature," but before he could do anything, Bonnie stepped in. Bob watched in awe as Bonnie, a Morgan Quarter horse, got between the coyotes and the fawn, then positioned herself over the fawn to protect it. And to his relief, with Bonnie towering over the tiny animal, the coyotes gave up and moved on. With the danger passed, Bonnie nickered softly and leaned down to lick the newborn as if she herself had just dropped a foal, nudging the baby into a standing position. Bob Muthon •
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — The American Dialect Society selected they for their yearly selection of “word of year” for 2015. From Time magazine:
“[the “word of the year” winner], with this specific definition:
they: gender-neutral singular pronoun for a known person, as a non-binary identifier.”
”... like so many things in 2015, was about gender identity and self-determination. This version of they is the one that a person, transgender or cisgender, can use when they don’t feel like he or she fits quite right. This version of they is the one a person might use to refer to everyone they know just to jolt people into second-guessing some of the assumptions society has long had about gender—about all hims and all hers, about what destiny is really in store for any baby who is proclaimed to be a boy or a girl in the delivery room.”
Ben Zimmer, a sociolinguist who was also involved in the voting process: “You’re getting into issues of transcending the gender binary, they is getting used as a pronoun that people take for themselves to express gender fluidity or transgender identity. That’s relatively new or at least new in the public eye.”
Runner ups for 2015 includes Thanks, Obama and ammosexual. Last year #blacklivesmatter was word of the year.
More on the runner ups and the selection process: http://time.com/4173992/word-of-the-year-2015-they/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter
Watch the award-winning trans film LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ Or get the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332
Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
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Categories: Transgender, Transsexual, TransIf you have an image in your mind of what a domestic abuse victim looks like, it's probably not me. In my 20s, I was extremely outgoing and had a lot of friends. I was a strong woman, a fighter. No, really — I was involved in the martial arts community, and was training to become an MMA competitor. A fit girl with muscles.
And then I met my ex.
I met Dave* through mutual friends. We moved in together almost immediately after meeting, mainly because I just happened to need a roommate and he needed a place to stay. We became really great friends, but it wasn't long before our relationship turned romantic. We just clicked. I saw him as this amazing person who loved the same things that I did.
In the beginning, he was very loving. I was working a lot — I had two jobs in fitness and another at a restaurant — so he would try and take some of the load off of me by helping out around the house. We loved to stay in and cook dinner, and every morning we ate breakfast together (usually oatmeal; we were both really into our health). I wish I could say that routine lasted for years before the abuse started.
It lasted for three weeks. I was in front of a fitness studio that I trained at, talking to a guy who also worked out there. When Dave arrived to meet me, I introduced the two of them, but didn't use the word boyfriend to describe him. He got extremely angry, and after the guy left, he pushed me. I pushed him back, and he smacked me in the face. I don't really remember what he said, but he apologized and I decided to let it go. I'm a nurturer, I like to help people. I felt like staying with him would bring out the good in him. Deep down, I think I knew it would happen again — he had exposed this controlling, temperamental side of his personality, and I knew it wouldn't just go away. But I guess I didn't want to see the abuse for what it really was. I liked him. So I told myself it would just be that one time.
I felt like staying with him would bring out the good in him.
It wasn't. The abuse escalated, and it wasn't just physical. It was emotional and mental, too. Dave knew exactly how to make me feel worthless. We were in a terrible cycle: He would hurt me. Then apologize. I would believe him. Sort of. And then he would hurt me again. It's weird, you almost feel like you're dealing with two entirely different people.
The emotional abuse cut through me in ways that only I could see. But when he hit me in the face or head and left marks, I blamed it on my martial arts training. I didn't tell anyone what I was going through. It felt like no one could possibly understand. I was a trained fighter, someone who defended myself against competitors all the time. How could I explain that I was allowing someone to hurt me? I felt humiliated and ashamed.
Six months into the relationship, I became pregnant.
I know when you find out you're pregnant, you're supposed to be happy. And I was happy, at least, happy to become a mom. But I never thought it was an experience I would share with someone like Dave. I was really at a crossroads and debated leaving him. But he begged me not to go, and I decided to give him one more chance. I wanted so badly to keep our growing family together.
But the abuse continued. And the one chance turned into many.
Once, we got into an argument. I don't even remember what it was about. Here's what I do remember: I could sense that the fight was escalating, so I tried to leave and go for a walk. Dave wouldn't let me go. He picked me up and slammed my body down to the ground. I remember being thankful that I landed on my back and not my belly, so the baby wasn't hurt. Another time, when I was 6 or 7 months pregnant, Dave and I were arguing and I got so scared, I went into our bedroom and locked the door. He punched the door open and it hit me right in the belly. It left marks. There are plenty of other examples I could give of times when he physically abused me or mentally broke me down — but there are so many, it sort of just all blurs together now. I worried about the baby all the time.
Getty
I know what you're thinking: Why would you stay?
My self-esteem was shattered. My spirit was broken. I no longer felt strong in any aspect of my life. By that point, Dave had so much control over me. He didn't want me to have any friends, an opinion of my own, or even a job. I was no longer working because I wasn't "allowed" to. Once, I offered to get a job because we were really struggling financially, but Dave got so angry he kicked a cup of water across the room and accused me of wanting a third party to raise our daughter. I never brought it up again. He created a divide between me and my family by telling me that my sisters hated me, and that they were jealous of me. He never wanted them to come and visit. I felt isolated, alone, and embarrassed that I had allowed Dave to put me in this situation. But I was absolutely terrified to leave him. He was volatile and I didn't know what he was capable of. I feared he could kill me.
When my daughter was born (healthy, thankfully), Dave had a new way to hurt me — through her. And he did. He was horribly manipulative and made me feel like a terrible parent. He would tell me I was a bad mom. Once, he took all of his clothes and disappeared with our daughter. He called me on the phone and told me he had a gun. I didn't know if he was going to use it on himself or me, and I felt helpless and terrified knowing that he was driving around with our daughter in the car while he was in a state like that. Another time, I went to visit my mom in another state without telling him — that was a big deal, because I never did anything without his consent or permission. When I got back, I discovered that he had taken my name off of our lease and given away all of my clothes and belongings.
It was in that moment that I no longer saw what we had as love — it was abuse. You have to reach a point when you decide, I'm not going to let this person do this to me anymore, and I was there. My daughter deserved a healthier way of living, and this was not it. So I started fighting to get my life back.
My family knew what was going on at this point — they figured out that something wasn't right before I could even tell them; on phone calls, my sister could hear the fear in my voice. They knew how badly I wanted to keep my family together, but would voice their concerns about how unhealthy my relationship was. I know they meant well, but I would get angry at them for not accepting Dave.
I was a trained fighter. How could I explain that I was allowing someone to hurt me?
Thankfully, they never turned their backs on me, and they were there for me when I was ready to see my relationship for what it was. My mom would pay for me and my daughter to stay at hotels, but my ex would find out where I was staying and would stalk and threaten me. He would say, "Don't think everything's going to be OK when you come back." He was in denial that I would actually leave him for good. He would trash me on social media and spread gossip about me. He would tell people I was homeless, and that I was a terrible parent.
I started using every resource I had to move forward and away from him. I called a crisis hot line, and after a few days of waiting for a bed to open up, I ended up at a domestic violence shelter. I was so grateful. I was staying in a hotel at the time, and I only had enough money to stay for one more night. With a safe place to stay and people who were advocating for me, I also got a protection order. That's when I first started to feel safe again.
Nothing was fixed overnight. I suffered through the abuse for years, so there was a lot to deal with, like custody issues and emotional baggage. I didn't trust anyone for a long time, and I lived on edge, constantly worrying about where Dave could show up. I still have to deal with him when it comes to custody visits, but we never see each other — we communicate through court-appointed supervisors.
My daughter and I have a nice apartment in a safe neighborhood. I'm working again — as a personal trainer and as a server at a sports bar. I volunteer at the local domestic violence center teaching self-defense classes to women who have been abused. I feel strong again.
If you, or someone you know, are in an abusive situation, call The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or visit their website.
*Names have been changed for privacy.
Follow Redbook on Facebook.If Canadians ever needed proof that narrow politicking interferes with sensible consumer choice, they need look no further than the byzantine “reforms” on the sale of beer, wine and spirits proposed by Ontario, and one restrictive “reform” recently enacted in British Columbia.
Some background: In Ontario, the provincial government-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) ran 639 government stores as of 2014. And the province has long protected a near-monopoly on beer sales with an exclusive arrangement with The Beer Store, which has 448 outlets.
By volume, Ontario’s LCBO stores sell 85 per cent of all wine in the province with the rest mainly sold by wineries and private wine stores.
The Beer Store accounts for 70.4 per cent of all beer sales while the LCBO’s share is 22.5 per cent. Between them, by volume, the private and government chains account for 93 per cent of all beer sales (according to 2012 figures, the latest available).
Some have called for the privatization of government liquor stores in Ontario, and for opening up the beer sector to more retail competition.
In response, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne mused about allowing a limited selection of beer and wine into grocery stores.
Meanwhile, in B.C., in response to a 2013 government-commissioned panel, the government changed its policy to allow beer and wine to be sold in grocery stores as of April 1.
On the surface, both the Ontario’s premier’s speculative thoughts and B.C.’s policy change look positive for consumers. But both are a mirage.
Ontario’s premier has said privatization of her province’s 639 government liquor stores won’t happen. In B.C., the provincial government will retain its 196 government-owned liquor stores. It also won’t grant new private liquor store licences; it will merely allow existing licences to be bought and sold while retaining the moratorium on new licences.
The Ontario and B.C. approaches guarantee their anti-competition models will continue. That means the anti-consumer status quo will be fiercely defended by government employee unions who represent staff in government liquor stores and who like their guaranteed piece of the market. Meanwhile, behind a government-granted moat, private store liquor store owners in both provinces (and Ontario’s The Beer Store) will continue to benefit from and defend that protected turf.
Are there better models? Sure, from Europe to the United States to South America, most places allow grocery and corner stores to sell beer, wine and spirits. And in Canada, the closest thing to full-out competition exists in Alberta.
Here’s Alberta history on the file and why it serves competition, choice and thus consumers.
First, Alberta privatized its last government liquor store 21 years ago.
Second, Alberta also privatized the wholesale side of the business. That meant private liquor stores no longer had to buy product, wholesale, from a government that also owned liquor stores that were competing with those same private retailers.
Alberta’s privatization of warehousing and distribution also meant that public servants no longer decided what products could enter the province. Instead, for the last 21 years, such decisions have been up to entrepreneurs who risk their own money betting on the preferences of Alberta consumers. As a result, product selection in Alberta rose from 2,200 varieties of beer, wine and spirits pre-privatization to more than 20,000 now.
Third, Alberta allowed (and still allows) new entrants into the marketplace, spurring robust competition. Pre-privatization, in 1993, there were 208 government liquor stores and 65 private liquor stores in the province. As of 2015, Albertans can choose between 1,558 private types of liquor stores, rural grocery stores allowed to sell such beverages, and other liquor retailers (such as delivery services).
Liquor policies in Ontario and B.C. continue to foster duopolies, where existing government and private-sector interests oppose new entrants and full competition in the market. Unlike Alberta, chatter about choice in both Ontario and B.C. has yet to be followed up by substantive, pro-competition, consumer-friendly policy.
Mark Milke is a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute.Android-x86 Project Releases Stable Version of Android 6.0
If you are someone who runs Android on your laptop or desktop, you may have heard of the Android-x86 project. For those who haven’t, the Android-x86 program is an initiative by volunteer developers to port over and run Android onto desktops and laptops running on AMD or Intel processors.
After pushing out Android 6.0 Marshmallow in June and the second Release Candidate a month ago, the Android-x86 project has pushed out the the first stable release of Android 6.0 to the public. This release build is based on the Marshmallow MR2 release (6.0.1_r66) from AOSP, along with all security patches.
Here’s a look at the key features for this release, which are in addition to the features found on the RC2 release:
Update kernel to 4.4.20 with more patches from AOSP.
Update Mesa (Graphics Library) to 12.0.2.
Preliminary HDMI audio support.
Add F2FS support.
Change trackpad cursor from circle to normal mouse pointer (back-ported from Android N).
Improve suspend/resume issues caused by wifi drivers.
The stable release can be found on the official website, with images for both 32-bit and 64-bit processors. These images can be booted from both BIOS and UEFI firmware. You can also load the images to create bootable USB sticks.
There are a few known issues to the release. Specifically, the Skylake GPU’s may have render issues on the built-in browser app. Also, the suspend and resume functions do not work on some devices, so your mileage may vary.
If you are looking to get Android onto a desktop system, Android-86 presents a good starting choice amongst others. And now you get the goodness of Marshmallow in a stable format and updated security patches too.
What are your thoughts on this stable build from the Android-x86 project? Have you tried out the release? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!AUGUST 30--In a new variation on the “brick in a box” scam, a South Carolina woman who thought she purchased an iPad from two men in a McDonald’s parking lot discovered yesterday that the purported tablet was actually “a piece of wood painted black with an Apple logo.”
According to a Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office report, Ashley McDowell, 22, told deputies that she was approached by two black males who claimed to have purchased iPads in bulk and were selling them for $300 apiece. After McDowell explained that she only had $180, the duo agreed to sell her the device at a cut rate.
But when McDowell drove home and opened the FedEx box containing the iPad, she instead discovered the wood with the Apple logo. The “screen”--which was framed with black tape--included replicas of iPad icons for Safari, mail, photos, and an iPod. It also had what cops described as a “Best Buy sales ticket.”
The phony iPad is pictured above in police evidence photos (click to enlarge).
Usually, “brick in a box” scammers don’t concern themselves with creating a replica of the item they are peddling (beyond trying to make sure that it approximates the weight of the authentic object).
Deputies have dusted the phony iPad for fingerprints. McDowell told probers that the swindlers were driving “a white Impala with no rims and no tint.” One of the men, she noted, “had a gold tooth.” (1 page)At the start of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775, the population of the American colonies was approximately 1.5 million. Of these at least 300,000 were black slaves, mainly in the south. [1]
On November 14, 1775, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore and Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, issued a proclamation offering freedom to slaves who would leave their masters and join the British side. That proclamation declared, in part, “all indentured Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His MAJESTY’S Troops as soon as may be.” [2]
By 1776 the Dunmore Proclamation became general British policy throughout the colonies, and in 1779 Sir Henry Clinton, who was a top British General, issued the Philipsburg Proclamation expanding Dunmore’s Proclamation to include any rebel slave who could escape, ready to serve for the British or not, anywhere in the colonies.
Although only an estimated 800 slaves immediately joined the British in Virginia as a result of the Dunmore Proclamation, eventually as many as 30,000 slaves throughout the colonies did so and worked as soldiers, laborers, pilots, cooks, and musicians for the British.
In the final battle of the War, the Battle of Yorktown, in October 1781, the British were defeated, and British General Cornwallis surrendered and thereby abandoned hundreds of black soldiers to the Americans for a return to slavery.
By the winter of the next year (1782), it had become clear that the British would soon have to evacuate the American colonies. At the time thousands of Loyalists were in the British-held strongholds of New York, Charleston, and Savannah. All Loyalists knew that staying in the new country invited retaliation against them by the victorious Americans, and as a result many left the colonies.
The Black Loyalists were at the even greater risk of being returned to slavery and subjected to cruel punishment for having escaped. Indeed, the terms of the Treaty of Paris ending the War required the British to return the former slaves to their owners.
When those treaty terms became widely known in the colonies, many white slave-owners and their agents from the southern states went to New York City to kidnap and seize their former slaves in anticipation of the signing of the treaty. In addition, the British abandoned some of the Black Loyalists to the Americans or sold them in the West Indies or traded them for White Loyalist prisoners.
When the War formally ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, the British were nearing the end of their seven-year occupation of New York City (then only the southern end of Manhattan). Thereafter, over the next three months, the British evacuated more than 29,000 military personnel, Loyalists and liberated slaves from the City although the Treaty of Paris required the British to return the slaves to their owners.
Among those evacuees were 3,000 former black slaves or Black Loyalists who were listed in “The Book of Negroes.” [3]
The Black Loyalists on the List of Negroes were taken to British-controlled Nova Scotia where they formed the first free settlements of free Africans outside Africa. Despite British promises of freedom and land, they soon were subjected to racial discrimination and even slavery and to very difficult conditions.
By the 1790’s the Black Loyalists had given up hope of fair treatment in Nova Scotia. They were ready to leave for a new promised land, and soon their opportunity arrived in the form of the Sierra Leone Company, eager to recruit Black Christians for their new colony on the west coast of Africa. Many of the Black Loyalists decided that an uncertain future in Africa was better than certain misery in Nova Scotia.
In January 1792,15 ships with over 1,100 Black Loyalists left Nova Scotia. When they arrived in what is now Sierra Leone in March of that year, they met conditions that were not better than what they had left.
Today the descendants of the Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia are an important ethnic group in Sierra Leone and still meet and dominate certain churches.
Conclusion
As a white U.S. citizen in 2013, I confess that I did not know any of this history until I had read the Lawrence Hill novel about The Book of Negroes and did research for this and the earlier post referencing the novel.
For the African slaves in the colonies in 1775, the Dunmore Proclamation must have seemed like the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to escape the horrors of slavery. Yet it required great courage for anyone in those circumstances to attempt to, and actually, escape slavery in the hope that they would be free people. I give thanks for their courage and for their descendants’ creation of a Canadian society to honor their ancestors’ courage and history.
At the same time, once must also acknowledge that the estimated 30,000 Black Loyalists were only roughly 10% of the black slaves in the colonies at the time. The other 270,000 black slaves did not have the courage to try to escape or for whatever reasons had decided to cast their lot with the rebelling colonists. Some even fought for the colonists in the War. It would be interesting to know more about them.
————————————
1 This post is based upon secondary sources, primarily upon the superb “Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People.” I encourage comments correcting any errors in this post or amplifying on the history of the Black Loyalists.
2 In response the next month (December 1775) the Virginia legislature passed a law that prescribed death for “all negro or other slaves, conspiring to rebel or make insurrection” against their owners while offering pardon to those who ”return in safety to their duty.”
3 “The Book of Negroes” was mentioned in a prior post along with the novel of the same name by Canadian novelist Lawrence Hill. A subsequent post will discuss recent comments about the novel by Hill along with some of his biographical information.The U.S. Senate approved a version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization bill would extend protections and programs to same-sex couples, indigenous tribes and undocumented immigrants.
The bill—enacted in 1994 to provide grant money for police departments and agencies to aid victims and prosecute domestic violence offenders—has received bipartisan support every time it has needed reauthorization. Even though the bill has several Republican sponsors, all eight GOP senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against the bill when the committee considered it in February.
Republicans led an effort to replace the original VAWA reauthorization bill with a substitute bill that would have eliminated all protections for LGBT victims of domestic abuse. That bill was defeated today by a vote of 63-37. The Senate then approved the original VAWA reauthorization bill with LGBT protections 68-31.
VAWA would extend the power of state-recognized Native American tribes “over all persons” in the special circumstance of domestic violence on reservations, allowing them to open and operate rape crisis centers with grant money from the measure.
For undocumented immigrants, visas would be extended to those who experience domestic violence if they meet all the requirements in the bill.
The bill would also provide funding for programs that serve those in |
a new or improved feature. While similar to the Rare Technical Issue, this issue escalates when your goals differ from the developer's. Some developers may see a feature request as a path to increased customer satisfaction, but others may decide that the feature isn't widely needed or that it will require too much testing and would therefore not be profitable. Free software gives you the option to make the improvements you need without the drama of an abusive user-developer relationship.
Nobody wants to be feel helpless, to have increased stress, or have their freedom taken away. I care about free software because I value not just my own time and independence but that of my friends, family and customers. If you feel the same, try a 100% free software operating system, try a replacement for your billing software, or communicate with your proprietary software vendor about why they don't publish their software under a free software license. You have a choice.
Download as PDF, Discussion on RedditGnasty Gnorc was never taken seriously throughout his life. After all, it's not easy being ugly in a land filled with beautiful jewels and majestic dragons. So he started to dabble in magic, hoping to learn something that would make those dragons pay. He found it. Gnasty developed the perfect spell to cast over the peaceful land, turning all of those snooty dragons into crystal statues.
He even managed to transform some of the jewels into soldiers that would do his bidding! The magic wasn't perfect, however: Gnasty somehow missed a young dragon named Spyro. Now Spyro, along with his dragonfly companion Sparx, must embark on a quest to free his friends from captivity.
Take to the skies as a little purple dragon in this 3D action-adventure game by the developers of Disruptor. Spyro and dragonfly Sparx must travel to different worlds in order to end Gnasty's nefarious plans. Thirty free-roaming levels await players of all ages, and special treasure rounds will put their flying skills to the test. In total, there are 80 dragons to free, 10,000 pieces of treasure to find, and 12 mysterious Dragon Eggs to collect.
If so, you'll be able to traverse the following six areas: Artisans World, where you'll begin the game, is a world filled with rolling green hills, huge castles and several pillars to glide on; Peace Keepers offers desert-like terrain, enormous canyons and steep cliffs; Magic Crafters surrounds you with ice-capped mountains and sky platforms to leap from; Beast Makers consists of murky swamps, treetops and villages; Dream Weavers contains dark tunnels, haunted towers and bubbling lava; and Gnasty's World, your final destination, is where you'll be able to finally settle the score.
Spyro the Dragon also supports the Dual Shock Analog Controller so you can feel every hit, gallop and jump during your adventure. As the dragon, you'll be able to perform eight different moves: run, walk, glide, charge, roll, breathe fire, jump and fly. Players can also grab either the Fireball or Super Flame power-up to really make their enemies "feel the burn."
Music was composed by former Police band member Stewart Copeland and Spyro's speech is performed by Carlos Alazraqui, the voice behind Taco Bell's 1998 Chihuahua commercials. Many secrets and hidden areas are waiting to be discovered, but don't get too distracted -- your friends need you!The first clouds we’ve seen in a while are rolling in, and there have even been a couple drops of rain that have fallen from the sky. So instead of writing this while lying in the hammock, I’m sitting in the old rocking chair on the front porch. I can see the four-wheeler, the wood pile, and the lawn chairs that I’ve been too lazy to put away.
The grass is turning green except for the area where I almost always park. That grass is dead and carries the color of dried wheat. Other than that, the colors are coming out, and the rain we’re about to (hopefully) get will only make them brighter.
A coworker commented to me that the colors of spring are just as nice as the colors of fall, but no one seems to care or notice. Sitting here looking out over the upper field and on to the slopes of the hill out back, I can see his point. Everyone comes to the Adirondacks to enjoy the fall foliage. They don’t know exactly when it’ll be, so they watch the news and try to time it right to hit the peak color season in early October or so.
But right now there is a bounty of color that, when you take the time to notice it, is really pretty. Beyond the grass of the yard, the apple trees are starting to show a dull lime green as the tiny leaves emerge. The little poplars are glowing, and the maples are covered in deep red flowers. The white birch bark stands out against the dark balsam needles and even the brown of the trees that aren’t blooming adds to the ambiance.
Right now, I can see the colors. My eyes aren’t being bothered by allergies, as mornings are usually when I suffer the worst. I’m hoping that we get this rain and it washes some of the pollen out of the air. My car, which is normally a nice dark green is now a pale disgusting green with streaks down the sides from where the washer fluid flows when I cleaned my windshield. It’s odd having to clean it of the dead bugs that are starting to splatter their yellow guts on my glass.
Just now, I heard the first few drops of rain on the tin roof of the porch. We desperately need some rain, as it’s been almost two weeks since we got any precipitation. In fact, the last time anything other than pollen fell from the sky, it was snow. The little stream that runs behind my cabin is dry in most spots, and the seeds I started for the garden could use a little natural precipitation.
It’s amazing to me that after complaining about the amount of snow we got this year, I am now anxious for some rain. The last two weeks have been nice but hot and dry. There have been a few forest fires, and I hope that this summer is not a replay of last year. But as it stands now, we’ve had a pleasant transition from winter to spring, and even though I got my first black fly bite of the year, I’m happy at the changing of the seasons.
There’s more birds around including lots of grouse and turkey. I was woken up by a big tom turkey walking through the yard this morning. He was calling loudly, looking for love. I got up early and snuck out onto the porch to watch him walk through. It’s turkey season, and if I was a hunter, I could have gotten this guy with no problem at all. Lucky for him I’m not, but I did enjoy listening to him and watching him walk from the left trail through the lower field and down the driveway. His bright red waddle was swinging side to side as he tramped around, and to me, it was just one more color to add to the palate of spring.A year ago, we introduced Google Photos with one mission: To be a home for all your photos and videos, organized and brought to life, so that you can share and save what matters.Now 200 million of you are using Google Photos each month. We’ve delivered more than 1.6 billion animations, collages and movies, among other things. You’ve collectively freed up 13.7 petabytes of storage on your devices—it would take 424 years to swipe through that many photos! We’ve also applied 2 trillion labels, and 24 billion of those have been for... selfies.
To celebrate our first birthday, we’ve gathered a few of the team's favorite tips and updates we’ve made in the past year, so you can keep all that good stuff going...
1. To fly through Google Photos on the web at photos.google.com, press Shift-? to see a list of keyboard shortcuts.New Delhi: In the eight years he has been on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tweeted as many as 16,722 times. One of those tweets – in which he expressed his condolences over the loss of life in the stampede at Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road station – has now been deleted but the reasons for this remain unclear.
While the cause of the accident that killed at least 22 people and wounded 36 on Friday is being investigated by the authorities, witnesses say the stampede took place after a cloudburst caught commuters off guard, leading to a huge buildup on the station’s pedestrian overbridge that was too narrow to accommodate the surging crowd.
“My deepest condolences to all those who have lost their lives due to the stampede in Mumbai. Prayers with those who are injured,” Modi had tweeted.
Apart from the poor draftsmanship – condolences are offered to the families of deceased persons and not to the dead themselves – the prime minister was slammed on Twitter for focussing on vanity projects like the bullet train and the Rs 3,600 crore-statue of Maratha ruler Shivaji. Sample these replies which Modi’s ‘condolence’ tweet elicited:
My Maharashtrian taxi driver has a msg for the govt, don’t spend crores on Shivaji statue Instead provide better infrastructure #Mumbai — Rohit Khilnani (@rohitkhilnani) September 29, 2017
Mumbai City needs is basic infrastructure not a giant Shivaji Statue at Cost of Rs 3,600 of Taxpayers. No appeasement politics #elphinstone — Manoj Kumar Sahu (@ManojSahuG) September 29, 2017
But govt’s priority is fancy bullet trains at the cost of lives of millions who commute in ordinary trains for their livelihood. Not safety. https://t.co/hvN6gPT9EL — Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) September 29, 2017
Not enough to merely express regret! Firm action must and accountability to be fixed! https://t.co/LR810EimLC — Saurabh Bhat (@SaurabhVBhat) September 29, 2017
We only condemn & give condolences but what about the lives of the people who lost for no reason. Instead of improving old infrastructure. https://t.co/pv8Rx7g5cd — DigiMonk (@_hyderali) September 29, 2017
@narendramodi no more false promises please. Pay some attention to public safety. Please! https://t.co/Vqi8xmr6fq — Nikhil Nair (@Nicky4Nair) September 29, 2017
Replying to an RTI question filed in 2015, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had claimed that Modi himself tweets and posts content on his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts. Presumably this means that he himself deletes content, which is why no one in the government or the BJP is able to say exactly why he got rid of condolences message.
It appears that Modi deleted his tweet sometime Saturday morning as it was last ‘quoted’ by Twitter user @DhirajDev at 9:39am on September 30, 2017.
Around the same time the newly-appointed railways minister Piyush Goyal was heading a meeting of top rail officials in Mumbai, after which he announced a slew of safety-related measures and blamed the UPA government for the accident.
Sharing decisions taken today in a high-level meeting on Railways Safety in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/8IQ1d9iKpF — Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) September 30, 2017
“I am not giving an excuse, but problems in Indian Railways aren’t one or two years old, they were accumulated over years and were given to us in 2014 as inheritance,” Goyal told the media.
The Wire sent queries to Amit Malviya, BJP IT Cell head, Frank Noronha, principal spokesperson of the government and principal director general of Press Information Bureau, and Jagdish Thakkar, public relations officer (PRO) in the PMO, for comment.
While Thakkar and Malviya did not respond, Noronha said he was unaware of the reason why the prime minister had deleted his tweet and said he would get back on Monday. This story will be updated with any official response as and when The Wire receives one.
Two days after the tragedy, the BJP governments at the Centre and state continue to face flak for ignoring frantic warnings about the unsafe bridge by journalists and Mumbaikars:
While me, @rajtoday, @Santosh_Andhale & @KailashBabarET kept on yelling yabout a disaster awaiting at Parel bridge, 3-died in stampede today pic.twitter.com/XAWkCD6NgS — Varun Singh (@singhvarun) September 29, 2017
#parel bridge might fall with overload or there mayb a stampede.Time for the authorities 2 act.@Dev_Fadnavis @Central_Railway @RailMinIndia — Srideep Datta (@srideepdatta) January 25, 2017
The Indian Railways replied to some of the tweets but in a templated response, which promised action.
Boomlive.in assembled a number of tweets that show how the public sought to make the railways aware of the fact that the Elphinstone-Parel overbridge was a ticking time bomb:
Meanwhile, Twitter also saw a lot of counter-propaganda seeking to assign blame for the tragic incident to anyone but the current government. One Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha spokesperson, Amrita Bhinder, blamed the victims, while the pro-BJP film director Vivek Agnihotri blamed the siphoning of “Bofors money … to Italy”:
Tragic stampede in Mumbai was preventable if only Bofors money wasn’t siphoned off to Italy. https://t.co/VZA8vMJx0T — Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) September 30, 2017
Stampede at Elphinstone railway station leaves 60 injured, 22 dead Stampede? People should take responsibility too! https://t.co/4IiV2vNrEu — Amrita Bhinder (@amritabhinder) September 29, 2017
For whatever it’s worth, the Modi government did fix something about the over-crowded Elphinstone Road station recently. It renamed the station ‘Prabhadevi’ to get rid of its ‘colonial’ name. The station was earlier named after Lord Elphinstone, the governor of Bombay Presidency from 1853 to 1860.-->
Zimperium zLabs tritt heute mit einer weniger erfreulichen Nachricht an die Öffentlichkeit. Eine weitere Lücke, Stagefright 2.0 getauft, im Android-System betrifft über 1 Milliarde Geräte.
-->
Die kritische Lücke liegt wieder in der Verarbeitung von Mediendateien, daher ordnet man sie namentlich der bereits bekannten Stagefright-Lücke zu. Sowohl die libutils-Bibliothek, als auch wieder libstagefright sind angreifbar. Wie bei der bekannten Stagefright-Lücke, kann auch diesmal wieder durch manipulierte Mediendateien im.mp3- oder.mp4-Format Schadcode auf die Android-Geräte geschleust werden.
Die Lücke in der libutils-Bibliothek betrifft praktisch alle seit 2008 veröffentlichten Android-Geräte, was über eine Milliarde sein sollen. Smartphones und Tablets mit Android 5.0 (oder höher) sind allerdings nur betroffen, wenn auch die zweite gefundene Lücke in libstagefright ausgenutzt wird.
Die Forscher weisen auf mögliche Angriffswege hin, über die Mediendateien mit präparierten Metadaten eingeschleust werden. Am wahrscheinlichsten erfolgt der Angriff über den Webbrowser per manipulierter Website. Weiterhin sind Medienplayer fremder Hersteller gefährdet, zudem könnte es in offenen WLAN-Netzwerken zu Man-in-the-Middle-Angriffen kommen.
Zimperium hat die Lücke bereits am 15. August an Google gemeldet. Nexus-Geräte dürften beim nächsten Patchday einen Fix erhalten. Weiterhin hat Google seinen Partnern am 10. September Patches zur Verfügung gestellt. Hier bleibt nun abzuwarten, wann diese an die Nutzer weitergereicht werden.Comics have long been a male-dominated field, but they have never been exclusively male. Female creators have been around since the beginning, as writers, artists, editors, even owners of comic book publishers. Women are still growing in prominence in today's market, though they're still in the minority. We wanted an area independent of any other wiki or database to really focus on women's contributions to comics. In addition, we recognize that not all creators are "notable" by the Other Wiki's standards, and this is a place where they can be included regardless.
Everything involving female creators and comics, from all over the world and throughout history. Every creative role—writers, pencillers, inkers, colorists, letterers, and editors; every comics form—comic books/graphic novels, manga, newspaper strips, webcomics. It all belongs here. Also, this wiki is trans and non-binary inclusive, regardless of a creator's gender assignment at birth. While the general goal is to showcase people who, at any point in their life, have been subject to a lack of perceived-male privilege, we're not out to police anybody's identity. If you think you belong on this wiki, then you do.
Everything. Add pages about your favorite creators. Record the history of women in comic books, comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, or manga. Make a page about women comics creators from your country. Visit the Stubs category and see which articles need help. Consult the Grand Comics Database, Lambiek Comiclopedia, Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, ComicBookDB, and the Women Who Draw database for ideas and research. Please check out the rules and style guide before you get started.
First of all, welcome! We wouldn't be here without you! Since this wiki is an ongoing process you may or may not yet have a page on here. While we do not have any set policy on people adding or editing their own page, we do ask that if you do, please be reasonably objective. The Internet offers many places where shameless self-promotion is encouraged or even the point, but this isn't meant to be one of them. Just be aware that over-the-top self-promotion may be removed and multiple offenses may result in your account/IP getting banned. If you don't think you can be objective, and you can't get someone else to do it for you, you can fill out this form. (All fields except Professional Name and Notable Works are optional, so don't feel obligated or daunted by all the questions.)Calcio Storico, A.K.A. Calcio in Costume and Calcio Fiorentino is a historical sport that runs deep in the Florentine blood line. It’s played annually in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence.
Read why this soccer/rugby/boxing match isn’t really my favorite Florentine event and let me know what you think!
Calcio Storico in Florence
History of Calcio Storico
Calcio Storico—calcio, meaning soccer for the fellow Americans—feels more like a rugby death match that began in the 16th Century. Some even say it started as far back as 59 A.D.
The rules were established in 1580 which allowed a team of 27 to play with their hands and feet. Two opposing teams have 50 minutes to throw the ball over the goal in order to win.
The sport died off and was resurrected in 1930 when organized sports came into play—pun intended. The teams are split between neighborhoods, so make sure you’re on the right side of the arena when you go!
Santa Croce are the Azzurri, blues.
Santa Maria Novella are the Rossi, reds.
Santo Spirito are the Bianchi, whites.
San Giovanni are the Verdi, greens.
Calcio Storico June 2014
June 14th — Azzurri VS Bianchi at 17:00
June 15th — Rossi VS Verdi at 17:00
June 24th — Finals at 17:00
Tickets are € 21 – 52 and you can buy them online, which I highly recommended, or at the hectic ticket booth in Piazza Santa Croce before the game.
The winning team wins a Chianina. It’s the oldest breed of cattle dating back 2,200 years. It’s large, white, flavorful and typical of Tuscany.
My personal take
I’ve been in the Santa Croce bleachers twice during this crazy event. The first time was in 2002 as a student. I remember enjoying it and not thinking much of it, just that it was something I should see.
Then again in 2012 when Nicco and I took our Moms, oh my!
My Mom has seen it all, but she really didn’t need to have witnessed men beating the shit out of each other and knocking each other out. Seriously, I saw two men get knocked out and just drop to the ground.
Calcio Storico seems more like ultimate fighting than soccer. At times you can’t tell where the ball is because the teams disperse and start fighting. I don’t really hate it—to each their own—I just don’t ever need to see it again. Twice is plenty, wouldn’t you agree?
*Find Calcio Storico on Facebook.
Loved this post? Then please share it and pin those pics!The ticketless Ireland fan who blagged his way onto the Estonia bench for 4-0 win
This is an incredible story.
Meet Conor Cunningham, a Republic of Ireland fan who travelled to Tallinn for the first leg of the Euro 2012 play-off with Estonia last Friday night.
The part-time fitness instructor did not have a ticket for the match and refused to pay the ridiculous prices being quoted by Estonian touts.
Cunningham went to the stadium before the match and spotted an open doorway:Â “It was a corridor and a dead end. But I did see a bag of footballs and, when I picked them up, spotted an Estonian tracksuit underneath them.”
He then proceeded to put the tracksuit on over his jeans and Ireland shirt!
Cunningham continues: “I didn’t know what to do, to be honest, so I thought I’d better go into the Estonian dug-out. No one said anything to me and then I realised I was sitting beside their manager (Tarmo Ruutli). It was about 10 or 15 minutes into the match when a UEFA official got suspicious of me. He came over and, after talking to me, told me I had to move.”
After the UEFA official made him move from the Estonia dugout, the 27-year-old then moved into the stands for the rest of the game and celebrated with the delirious Irish players on the pitch.
This did though cause plenty of suspicion as an Estonian team official became suspicious as to why someone in an Estonian tracksuit was celebrating with Robbie Keane, Shay Given and co.
Cunningham added “I was so excited I decided to post a lot of the stuff on YouTube. I still can’t believe what happened, it’s one of the most amazing experiences of my life.” Videos below:
An RTE News report into Conor Cunningham’s exploits.
Conor Cunningham explains on Today FM how he blagged his way onto the Estonia bench.
Conor Cunningham sitting on the Estonia bench.
Conor Cunningham videos Keane & Andrews post-match interviews.
Conor Cunningham celebrating with the Irish players!Here’s the real-life model from the Cyberpunk 2077 teaser
There’s a lot of hype for CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077, an open-world dystopian sci-fi RPG. The recently released teaser trailer that was produced by Platige Image has already been viewed over 6 million times. It’s a very good week for fans of the highly anticipated game, as they’re treated with behind-the-scenes details of the teaser and a video featuring the creator of the pen-and-paper Cyberpunk game, Mike Pondsmith, talking about the cyberpunk world and why he trusts CD Projekt RED to make the game.
“Cyberpunk isn’t about saving humanity, it’s about saving yourself.” – Mike Pondsmith
And if the psycho (the cybernetic woman) featured in the teaser trailer has you wondering if she’s based on a real-life model, then the answer is yes. Check out the concept art, photos of the models on the set, final renders, and more below.
Oh, and if you had a keen eye, you probably notice a hidden message in the teaser. CD Projekt RED is going to announce something big on February 5th, so stay tuned.
For more production stills, check them out at Behance.Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.
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It’s been a week since Google released its first ever YouTube app for the iPhone and iPad. It’s now the top free app in iTunes and may be a harbinger of what will happen with the expected Google Maps app.
YouTube Loses Default Status
It may sound odd to some that YouTube is new to Apple’s iOS devices as an app, but that’s because it hasn’t needed to be until now. With iOS 6, which will be installed on the iPhone 5 and available as an upgrade for many older versions of the iPhone and iPad, YouTube is no longer a default application.
When news that YouTube was being dropped became clear in August, some saw it as a problem for Google. I, along with some others, figured it would be an opportunity. As I wrote back then:
It seems pretty likely that Google will release its own YouTube app when iOS 6 comes out. If so, that might actually benefit Google, rather than the dropping of Apple’s own YouTube app being a big casualty for Google, as I’ve seen some write. Currently, Google has built up no audience with the YouTube app since that app is technically Apple’s YouTube app. Yes, being the default is nice. But you also don’t “own” that audience in the way you do with your own App Store-listed app. Going forward, Google will start owning the YouTube app audience, assuming it releases its own YouTube app, as can be expected. When that happens, Apple can’t yank that audienceout from under Google’s feet again. In addition, it’s extremely likely that YouTube will rise to be one of the most downloaded apps.
YouTube Gains New #1 Status
Since then, that’s exactly what happened. Google released its own YouTube app last week. This week, it’s now at the top of the iTunes free apps chart:
Will Google Maps Be Next?
That leads to Google Maps. Apple is shifting over to having the default Maps app be powered by its own data and that from partners. Google, the previous partner, is out.
As the first full reviews of the iPhone 5 are appearing, and several of them voice disappointment in Apple’s new Maps. In particular, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg’s review isn’t glowing:
The biggest drawback I found is the new Maps app. Apple has replaced Google Maps with a new maps app of its own. This app has one huge advantage over the iPhone version of Google Maps—it now offers free, voice-prompted, turn-by-turn navigation. Google had made this available on its Android phones, but not the iPhone. Apple’s navigation worked very well, with clear directions displayed as large green highway signs. But the app is in other ways a step backward from the familiar Google app. For instance, while Apple’s maps feature a 3-D “Flyover” view of some central cities, they lack Google’s very useful ground-level photographic street views. And they also lack public-transit routing. Apple will instead link you to third-party transit apps. Also, while I found Apple’s maps accurate, they tend to default to a more zoomed-in view than Google’s, making them look emptier until you zoom out.
It’s unlikely that many iPhone lovers will abandon getting a new iPhone just because of the Maps app doesn’t seem as good as when it was powered by Google. Nor are existing iPhone and iPad users — who will get the new Maps as part of the iOS 6 upgrade — likely to rebel. That’s especially because they could shift to the Google Maps app.
There is no Google Maps app in iTunes yet, but it’s expected. Google has certainly been doing everything it can to pump up the idea it has great mapping data, including a special event all about its maps in June and opening up more about how much effort it puts into map building.
A Google Maps app probably won’t offer turn-by-turn GPS navigation, as happens with Android phones. That will likely remain an edge for Apple’s new Map app. But for those iOS users missing the old maps they’re used to for other things, such as local searches powered by Google, a Google Maps app will offer them an alternative.
If plenty really do prefer Google, we’ll know shortly. In about a week or two, Google Maps will either be a top app in the iTunes app store, as is YouTube now, or not.
Postscript: I’ve heard back from Google about its own app. The answer is no answer. It’s not saying. For more, see our follow-up story, As Google Maps Disappears In iOS 6, Google Remains Cagey About Releasing Its Own App
Related ArticlesREPORTING FROM SEOUL -– More environmental damage has likely occurred at Japan’s stricken nuclear reactor after more than 45 tons of highly radioactive water leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi power station this weekend, with some of the water possibly reaching the nearby Pacific Ocean, the utility that operates the plant said.
The leak counteracts assurances that the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, has largely controlled damage at the coastal nuclear plant, located about 220 miles northeast of Tokyo, which it plans to bring to a total shutdown by year's end.
On March 11, the 1970s-era plant was hit by a massive earthquake-triggered tsunami that knocked out its cooling system, eventually leading to several reactor-core meltdowns. The catastrophe, which experts have called the largest single release of radioactivity into the ocean, has threatened fisheries in the region and caused the evacuation of 80,000 residents near the facility.
Since March, utility engineers have attempted to cool the ailing plant's reactors by flooding them with water, which becomes contaminated with radioactivity in the process.
Tepco installed a new circulatory cooling system in September, with filters that decontaminate and recycle the cooling water. However, the company acknowledges that some water has already leaked into the ocean and that thousands of tons more remains in the flooded basements of the plant's reactor buildings.
According to a statement on the utility’s website, workers discovered Sunday morning that radioactive water was pooling in a runoff container near one of those purification devices.
The system was shut down and the leak apparently ceased, but workers later found highly radioactive water leaking from cracks in the container’s concrete wall into a gutter that leads to the ocean.
Employees stemmed the leak with sandbags.
The newspaper Asahi Shimbun quoted Tepco officials as saying that as much as 220 tons of water may now have leaked from the damaged facility since the disaster struck nearly nine months ago.
The water from Sunday's leak was measured at 16,000 becquerels per liter of cesium-134, and 29,000 becquerels per liter of cesium-137, the utility said. Those numbers are 270 times and 322 times higher, respectively, than government safety limits, experts say.
Both substances are readily absorbed by living tissue and can greatly increase the risk of developing cancer.
In another development, Japanese media quoted an interim report, released by Tepco last week, that captures the desperation workers faced when the Fukushima Daiichi plant was struck by the tsunami in March.
"I felt I could do nothing. Other operators appeared anxious, and said, 'When we cannot control [the reactors] and are helpless, is there any point in us staying here?' " the chief of the reactors' central control room is quoted as saying in the utility's internal investigation report released Friday. "So, I bowed my head and asked them to stay."
Another worker interviewed by officials was part of an effort to vent the containment vessels around the nuclear cores to prevent an explosion.
"I heard some big weird popping sounds... and when I tried to start working... my black rubber boots melted [because of the heat]," he said.
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-- John M. Glionna“If you look over the entire … last 66 million years, the only event that we know of … that has a massive carbon release and happens over a relatively short period of time is the PETM. We actually have to go back to relatively old periods. Because in the more recent past, we don’t see anything [even remotely] comparable to what humans are currently doing.” Richard Zeebe of the University of Hawaii in a recent paper published in Nature.
*****
(Annual human carbon emissions are about 150 times that of all the volcanoes on the Earth, 10 times faster than a hothouse extinction that occurred 55.8 million years ago. Image source: La Rosa Rossa.)
Let’s be very clear. The human fossil fuel emission is outrageous and unprecedented on geological timescales. An insult the Earth has likely never seen before. For the pace at which we are emitting carbon into the atmosphere is just flat out insane. We’ve known this for some time because the best of science can’t find any time in all of Earth’s geological history that produces a rate of atmospheric carbon accumulation equal to the one that’s happening now.
However, a new study recently published in Nature now sheds more light on this rather difficult and scary topic. But in order to find an event that is even remotely comparable to the current human greenhouse gas emission, scientists had to look far back into deep time. All the way back through a period when the last of the Dinosaurs were dying off about 55-66 million years ago.
During this time we find evidence of the most recent Hothouse Mass Extinction Event in the geological record. We call this event the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM because it’s an extreme period of rapid warming that occurred at the boundary between these two periods of Earth History about 55.8 million years ago.
The PETM Hothouse Extinction
The PETM was pretty amazingly bad. It set off a mass extinction in the oceans which wiped out half of all shellfish through the varied impacts of anoxia, acidification and coral bleaching. Its heat forcing was enough to completely reverse ocean circulation and set up a stratified ocean state. Peatlands and forests went up in mass conflagrations. Terrible insect plagues swept the globe. The related extreme surface temperatures forced a mass poleward migration and widespread genetic alteration of mammals which were eventually reduced to dwarfism.
(Earlier studies estimated PETM emissions rates in the range of 1.7 billion tons of carbon per year. A new Nature study finds PETM emissions to be even lower at 1.1 billion tons of carbon per year. This compares to a current human emission of 10 billion tons of carbon per year. A rate of emission that could jump to as high as 25 billion tons of carbon per year by mid Century unless fossil fuel use is curtailed. It’s worth noting that the ‘slow but steady’ PETM emissions above represent one of the most rapid periods of warming in Earth’s geological history. Image source: Climate Crocks.)
It was a rough and wrenching time of change and difficulty for pretty much all of life on Earth. But what the new study finds and confirms is that the rate of atmospheric carbon accumulation during that extinction period, though enough to cause seriously dramatic climate shifts, was much, much slower than what we see now.
A Human Hothouse Extinction Would be Far Worse
On average, over the PETM extinction event, rates of atmospheric carbon accumulation were found to be in the range of about 1.1 billion tons per year. By comparison, human carbon emissions during 2014 were about ten times this level at around 10 billion tons of hothouse gas hitting the atmosphere. As such, the new study finds that the velocity of the human carbon emission exceeds that of the Paleocene-Eocene hothouse extinction event by an order of magnitude (x10).
Study authors found that the large carbon emission occurred over the course of about 4,000 years. This spike in atmospheric carbon coincided with an approximate 5 degree Celsius spike in global temperatures in the 4,000 to 12,000 year time period. This implies a rate of warming of at most around 0.12 degrees Celsius every 100 years (or as little as 0.04 degrees Celsius per Century). Other estimates put the rate of PETM warming at around 0.025 C per Century. Expected human warming between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius this Century is therefore about 10 to more than 200 times faster than during the PETM extinction event given the best available current scientific evidence.
Such high rates of atmospheric carbon accumulation and related global heating risk generating an event that is outside of any geological context that scientists might use to predict the human warming event’s severity.
“It means we don’t have a really good analog in the past for the massive amount of carbon we’re releasing,” Zeebe said to National Geographic. “Even if we look at the PETM and say the transition to a warmer climate may have been relatively smooth, there’s no guarantee for the future.”
In other words, if you’re adding carbon to the atmosphere at a rate ten times faster than during one of the most remarkable warming events in Earth’s History, then the pace of wrenching geophysical changes and the extinction pressure on organisms is going to be far, far greater. Something that is certainly worse than the PETM and that may even exceed the terrible losses seen during the Permian Mass Extinction if we don’t get a handle on our fossil fuel emissions soon.
Links:
Anthropogenic Carbon Release Unprecedented in Last 66 |
had been involved in money-laundering. Yet the claim, which Mr Schembri denies, was not investigated, the paper said.
Does any of this matter beyond little Malta? If Mr Mifsud Bonnici is right, it does: whichever party is in office, the island could be used by dubious interests as a private back door into the EU.WASHINGTON – Sean Spicer had two messages on Monday for conservatives worried that President Trump plans to sign a spending bill that doesn’t crack down on sanctuary cities, defund Planned Parenthood or provide money to build the border wall.
One message was a call for patience, but the other was an adamant promise.
“Make no mistake, the wall is going to be built,” the White House press secretary boldly declared.
The president has made that very clear, he added for emphasis.
What about a timetable – was building the wall no longer an emergency?
“The president wants it done as quick as possible,” assured Spicer. He cautioned there was still much prep work to be done, as the Department of Homeland Security reviewed the projected costs and evaluated potential technologies.
Spicer was asked specifically by John Roberts of Fox News: “What do you say to conservatives who feel like they didn’t get a whole lot out of the spending bill?”
“There was no money for the wall, no cuts to sanctuary cities, funding for Planned Parenthood was maintained … what do you say to those conservatives?”
Spicer counseled patience but also painted the stop-gap spending bill, needed to keep the government funded through September, as actually a victory.
The mainstream media have portrayed the spending bill as a huge loss for Trump, as typified by a Washington Post story headlined, “Eight ways Trump got rolled in his first budget negotiation.”
The White House spokesman sought to assure conservatives that wasn’t that the case, saying, “I think the president got a lot out of this bill. Specifically, $21 million to help rebuild the military,” and $1.5 billion for border security, which he called significant.
But the prime reason this was a victory?
Spicer portrayed everything the White House got as an unexpected bonus that cost it nothing in return. That was because, he explained, this was 2017 budget money, not 2018. And, under normal conditions, a new president would have no say at all in forming the budget for his first year in office. President Trump only had the opportunity because the previous administration and Congress had left funding the government as unfinished business.
“This is something, most presidents would have walked into office and that would have been done. Because the last Congress didn’t do this under President Obama, we have an opportunity to get some of the president’s priorities infused into the last five months of 2017. That’s a big step forward.”
Spicer then vowed Trump will continue to fight for conservative goals in the 2018 budget: “When the fiscal year starts at the end of September, we will have an opportunity to really infuse the president’s priorities.”
He added, “The 2018 budget will address those things, but this is a down payment on border security and his ability to rebuild the military, and repealing and replacing Obamacare will address a lot of the other health-care issues.”
Still, the question remains, if Republicans were not able to get conservative priorities inserted into a spending bill in May, how will they be able to get them into a budget bill in September?
The president will have until then to convince conservatives he can use the art of the deal to bring Congress around.FILE PHOTO - A police officer keeps watch in front of the U.S. Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, U.S. on October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque//File Photo
By Ann Saphir and Lindsay Dunsmuir
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve, which has struggled to stoke inflation since the financial crisis and up until now raised rates less frequently than it and markets expected, may be about to hit the accelerator on rate hikes.
On Wednesday, the U.S. central bank is almost universally expected to raise its benchmark interest rates, a move that just a few weeks ago was viewed by the markets as unlikely.
And with inflation showing signs of perking up, Fed policymakers may signal there could be more than the three rate rises they have forecast for this year.
"They do not have as much room to be patient as they did before," said Tim Duy, an economics professor at the University of Oregon, who expects Fed policymakers to lift their rate forecasts this week.
Policymakers have their eyes on achieving full employment and 2-percent inflation. The faster the economy approaches those goals, Duy said, the quicker the Fed will want to tighten policy to avoid getting behind the curve.
"That's an acceleration in the dots," he said, referring to forecasts published by the Fed that show policymakers' individual rate-hike forecasts as dots on a chart.
The economy already appears closer to its goals than the Fed had expected in December, the last time it released forecasts. The jobless rate, at 4.7 percent, is below what policymakers see as the long-run norm, and inflation, at 1.7 percent, is already in the range they had expected by year end.
THE LONG-WISHED FOR RETURN OF INFLATION
As Fed policymakers prepare to raise rates this week for the second time in three months, the inflation terrain they face looks steeper than it has been since the financial crisis when one of the central bank's policy aims was to generate inflation.
There are signs of more inflation globally, the dollar is pushing down less on U.S. prices, domestic inflation expectations have picked up and Friday's closely watched monthly jobs report showed wages rising 2.8 percent year-on-year in February, with payrolls rising a sturdy 235,000.
The Fed's preferred inflation measure, the so-called core PCE price index, recorded its biggest monthly increase in five years in January and was up 1.7 percent year-on-year after a similar gain in December.
Most Fed policymakers say such data gives them increasing confidence that inflation will eventually reach the Fed's goal after years of undershooting.
Inflation in the euro zone jumped to a four-year high of 2.0 percent in January, above the European Central Bank's target rate of just below 2 percent.
Oil prices have also moved higher, with the price of Brent crude oil [LC0c1] up about 30 percent from January 2016.
The 5-year forward inflation expectation rate, a market gauge tracked by the Fed, currently stands at 2.14 percent, up from 1.60 percent one year ago.
And the 10-year TIPS breakeven rate, another measure of inflation expectations tracked by the Fed, last month reached its highest levels since September 2014.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen said earlier this month she doesn't believe the Fed is behind the curve on inflation.
To inflation hawks like Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, the Fed is already in danger of falling behind. But even centrist policymakers like the San Francisco Fed's John Williams see receding risks of persistently too-low inflation and the potential need for swifter rate hikes.
"The inflation risks are pretty clearly tilted to the upside," said Eric Stein, a portfolio manager for Eaton Vance in Boston.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Lindsay Dunsmuir; Additional reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by David Chance and Andrea Ricci)Former NBA player Tim Hardaway continues to show the power of redemption. The man who in 2007 famously said "I hate gay people" last week was the first person to sign a petition for a ballot initiative to allow same-sex marriage in Florida.
"If you're married you're married - you should see your significant other in the hospital, make choices for your significant other if you need to make those choices," Hardaway said Wednesday night as he showed his support for the effort that would legalize gay marriage in Florida, according to Channel 6 in Miami.
Hardway has been making amends for the past six years since his anti-gay comments in the wake of John Amaechi coming out. He said his gay cousins and relatives sat down with him and had heartfelt talks. After his remarks caused a furor, "Hardaway took classes at YES Institute, a South Miami-based suicide prevention group that focuses on LGBT youth. He raised money four years ago in South Beach for The Trevor Project, a national suicide hotline for gay youth." Two years ago, Hardaway went to El Paso, Texas, to help local politicians threatened with recall after supporting domestic partner benefits. The man has truly changed.
View more videos at: http://nbcmiami.com.Getty Images
So much for continuity in Cleveland.
A year after Browns coach Hue Jackson embraced defensive coordinator at his 3-4 defense, the Browns will implement a 4-3 system under Gregg Williams. For that reason alone, the decision to ditch Horton for Williams makes little sense.
“I know what it looks like and I know what it feels like for everybody here,” Jackson told reporters on Sunday. “‘Here are the Browns again changing out.’ But it is not about that. I am going to say it again, it is about trying to be the best we can be everywhere. I get what it feels like to everybody and I respect that, but at the same time, I think everybody would be disappointed in me if I did not as the leader make tough decisions that I think are going to get us to where we want to go to. It goes both ways so you are kind of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I do not worry about that. I am worried about getting this organization, this football team and this coaching staff as good as I can get it, and I think that is my charge.”
Still, moving from a 3-4 to a 4-3 is no small project, especially not for a team that is making a big deal out of not changing anything. More (and different) defensive lineman are needed. Fewer (and different) linebackers are needed. Sure, some outside linebackers in a 3-4 can become defensive ends in a 4-3, and some inside linebackers in a 3-4 can become outside linebackers in a 4-3 and some defensive ends in a 3-4 can become defensive tackles in a 4-3. But it’s hardly smooth, and it’s never easy.
If the Browns were going to dump Horton, why not replace him with a 3-4 defensive coordinator? (A fairly good one is available in Denver.)
Making the move even more confusing is Williams’ Bountygate baggage, which extends beyond the scandal that undermined the 2009 playoff run in New Orleans to the cartoonish “kill the head” comments from the night before a Saints-49ers divisional round game in early 2012. Regarded as damaged goods after serving a one-year suspension (and testifying against players as part of the league’s effort to enforce suspensions that former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue eventually scrapped), Williams eventually found work with his longtime friend Jeff Fisher.
Now Williams becomes the defensive coordinator in Cleveland, as if his pattern of misconduct (which possibly traced to every prior stop as a defensive coordinator and head coach) never even happened.
Given where the Browns currently are and where they hope to eventually be, either dynamic would seem odd. Combining the two into one fell swoop for a franchise supposedly obsessed with consistency makes no sense.
“At the end of the day, the whole buck stops with me,” Jackson said Sunday. But the thing is he’s staying and Horton is going.
If nothing else, the move shows that Jackson realizes that another 1-15 season will result in a franchise supposedly obsessed with continuity making even more changes. The real question is whether Williams, whose defense didn’t do much to keep Fisher from getting fired, will make a difference.Co-Authors: Amit Serper and Alex Frazer
Last week we discussed why the Hacking Team leak is a game-changing event for cyber security, providing a brief overview of the tools the team used and distributed to their clients and the rather sophisticated tactics they deployed in order to sustain long-term operations. This week, we’ll be focusing on their actual attack process, from the infection workflow to their RCS agent operation, and the different infection processes that they utilized.
The first thing to examine within Hacking Team’s attack process is how the infection server operates. View this flowchart for a visual of the process.
The server first runs the visitor to the infected domain through a Mod_rewrite regular expression rule on the Apache httpd server to match the six character campaign ID to the appropriate exploit kit and payload in the predesignated ID directory /var/www/files/<campaignID>. If the campaign ID doesn’t match, the server automatically redirects the visitor to a 404 error. If it does, the script moves to step two.
In step two, the script checks the hit counter for that campaign to ensure it equals zero - meaning that no one has been infected by the campaign yet. It also reviews the expiration date of that particular campaign. From what we have seen, all of Hacking Team’s campaigns were standardized with a one week expiration date from the time of campaign creation.
If both the hit counter and expiration validate, the script then checks the user agent of the victim’s browser against the Browscap PHP library on the server to ensure it meets the campaign requirements, eg. Windows 7, Chrome build 43.0.2357.130.
One interesting function of the infection server was Hacking Team’s xp_filter.py Python script, which would check the victim’s system to determine if they were running Windows XP or not and run a non-XP-based exploit, or just serve a fake SWF file, empty.swf.
The script then “echoes” the content of the news payload into STDOUT, which is a hacky way that the script uses to send the payload through the webserver and from there to the victim. This is the base64 encoded and AES encrypted payload we referenced in our previous article, which contains the RCS agent and the team’s privilege escalation exploit. The shellcode executes the privilege escalation exploit first to gain NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM privileges, then executes the agent.exe for the RCS client. Trend Micro has an excellent write-up on the privilege escalation exploit.
As a reminder: “News” is Hacking Team’s jargon for the exploit payload, “customers” means targets, “article” refers to the browser and Windows version of the victim.
In addition to the Windows-based infection server, Hacking Team was also running an Android-based strategy, which utilized similar tactics but didn’t use the Flash exploit.
As a side note, we are rather proud that the Cybereason platform was able to immediately detect the privilege escalation exploit out-of-the-box on our first test in our lab.
The payload delivery process is actually impressively sophisticated, and while some may argue that the tools and exploits they were utilizing were not, their actual workflow was particularly creative. In addition, the sheer variety of delivery methods provide customers with a significantly amplified ability to gain access to their intended target(s).
Once the target(s) is infected, this is when the RCS agent goes to work. There were a vast array of modules the agent would load, depending on what Hacking Team’s customer requested, from recording webcam images, Skype calls or keystrokes to tracking financial transactions (including bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies) or pinpointing the target’s geographic position. Not to mention the mobile capabilities, such as sending invisible SMS messages that leveraged exploits in the phone’s SMS stack, thus executing Hacking Team’s agent on the phone that allowed the attackers to turn the microphone on, providing a live audio stream from the target’s phone. We will cover this more in a future write-up. The actual activities of the client and the information they sought are far less interesting than the varied attack strategy that Hacking Team used.
The above is, of course, only a single attack process. Hacking Team provided a variety of solutions depending on what their customer needed, including variations better suited for nation-state level attacks. One example of this was the use of a network injector, a particularly nasty tool that would be plugged into an upstream or ISP backbone. Once active, the network injector would be able to identify the target(s) based on a customer defined rule set and wait for the victim to visit a specific URL, such as YouTube.com. Then, it would automatically redirect the victim to the team’s infection server instead. This resulted in the “the page you requested is being loaded” redirect screen.
Another strategy, which could be used in conjunction with the network injector, was a tool called Melter. This allowed the customer to silently “melt” the RCS agent into the binary of other, benign software. While not new, when combined with the network injector, this allowed campaigns to target software downloads and ensure that the target(s) installed the client’s RCS agent alongside the piece of software they were intending to get.
Of course, all of these strategies, on their own, are vulnerable to discovery, which is why Hacking Team also built an Anonymizer tool, which would randomize the attacker IP for each campaign in order to mask both the source and target(s) of the attack. The Anonymizer was Hacking Team’s own “private anonymization cloud” solution. This offered the ability for each customer to deploy their own virtual private servers (VPSs) that could be chained together for a anonymous proxy chain in order to eliminate tracing of the public-facing collectors run by each customer. This is accomplished by passing the victim’s collected data through several anonymizing machines to the collector node which then passed the data back to the master node (C&C server).
Below are a few examples of documentation on the Anonymizer tool, pulled directly from Hacking Team’s RCS 9.6 System Administrator Manual:
Of course, we want to stress once again that all of this source code is accessible by anyone now, so these capabilities have entered the wild, freely usable by any hackers, whether they are experts or novices. These exploitation abilities, combined with the the various reports on BGP hijacking attacks by Hacking Team (1, 2) have theoretically allowed them to make everyone on the internet pass through their systems and become infected.
Stay tuned for even more analysis from our Labs, and continued exploration of the Hacking Team leak.
You can follow Amit and Alex on Twitter at @0xAmit and @awfrazer.Google knows what you watch, what you search, and even with whom you're friends. The availability of all this information raises an important question: Where does Google CEO Eric Schmidt stand on the issue of online privacy?
Schmidt has previously said, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
In a more recent interview with CNBC conducted at the Techonomy conference earlier this month, Schmidt offered an additional look at his views on online privacy and anonymity.
Speaking on a panel at the event, Schmidt argued that anonymity on the Internet is dangerous. "In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you," he said.
Schmidt took the stance that governments may eventually put an end to anonymity. "We need a [verified] name service for people," he said. "Governments will demand it."
He expanded on his thoughts in a separate interview.
"Privacy is incredibly important," he said, adding, "Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity. It's very important that Google and everyone else respects people's privacy. People have a right to privacy; it's natural; it's normal. It's the right way to do things."
However, there should be limits, he said: "[I]f you are trying to commit a terrible, evil crime, it's not obvious that you should be able to do so with complete anonymity. There are no systems in our society which allow you to do that. Judges insist on unmasking who the perpetrator was. So absolute anonymity could lead to some very difficult decisions for our governments and our society as a whole and I don't think we want that either."
He additionally noted, "People aren't ready for the technology revolution that's going to happen to them."
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Google has been struggling and "soul searching" to answer the question: "How far should it go in profiting from its crown jewels--the vast trove of data it possesses about people's activities?" A leaked vision statement reveals the company is grappling with what it should do with the data it has about its users.
What do you think of Schmidt's comments? Are they worrisome? Reassuring? Do you agree or disagree and why? Tell us in the comments below.
(via NetworkWorld)
WATCH:Is it time for Nat Fyfe to replace Matthew Pavlich as Fremantle captain? Ross Lyon says the Dockers are considering it
MATTHEW Pavlich's days as Fremantle captain could be numbered with David Mundy and Nat Fyfe among the leading candidates to take over, coach Ross Lyon says.
The Dockers have not made a captaincy change since 2007 with Pavlich leading the club on 187 occasions, including the 2013 Grand Final.
Running machine wins Freo time trial again
Only six players, Stephen Kernahan (226 with Carlton), Dick Reynolds (224 with Essendon), Ted Whitten (212 with Footscray), Michael Voss (210 with the Brisbane Lions), Nick Riewoldt (199 with St Kilda) and John Nicholls (188 with Carlton) have captained more games in VFL/AFL history.
But Pavlich, who turns 34 later this month, strongly considered retirement at the end of last season before making a decision in late October to play another season.
Lyon told 3AW on Thursday night that now might be the right time to make a change
"There's no doubt it's on the radar," Lyon said.
"Pav will be thinking about it. The group will make the decision. We've got a couple of big influences outside of Pav, David Mundy in particular and Nat Fyfe.
"Matthew is probably (at a stage) where we're going to be managing his load, so he'll have some challenges.
"But I think the next emerging influences really catch up with Pav.
"It's clearly an opportune time to look at handing over the baton. But will that happen? The players will talk."
The Dockers could turn to David Mundy's sure hands as a new captain. Picture: AFL Media
Leadership consultant Ray McLean will visit the Dockers in January and the players will hold an annual vote on the leadership group and the captain, with each player voting on their top five choices.
Fyfe was added to the leadership group last season alongside Pavlich, Mundy, Aaron Sandilands, Luke McPharlin and Lee Spurr.
McPharlin retired at the end of the season and has just taken up a role as an assistant coach with his old WAFL club East Fremantle.
Lyon also spoke candidly about his desire to give troubled new recruits Harley Bennell and Shane Yarran a second chance at Fremantle.
Bennell was recruited from Gold Coast via a trade and said a dinner with Lyon's family had been a key factor in him choosing Fremantle. He also met with Fremantle pair Michael Johnson and Michael Walters.
Lyon said Bennell deserved a second chance but the former Sun would need to make some adjustments.
"He'll need to make some changes," Lyon said.
"He knows that.
"He's trying to have a different value system for himself around how he prepares and be a role model and try and deliver on that and get some self-esteem on that, as opposed to going out and being with his mates and measuring himself on that.
"We think if he can make those shifts, like Michael Walters did, we could have a very good young player on our hands."
Lyon said Yarran had put together a compelling case for the Dockers to draft him with pick No.61 in the NAB AFL Draft, not just through his football where he dominated for Subiaco over two seasons in the WAFL, but also in rebuilding his life after he was released from a lengthy stint in prison.
"He's done some significant hard yards," Lyon said.
"He'd been catching the train an hour-and-a-half to training and back, working as a plumber's apprentice full-time, has got a young baby and was performing.
"So there was a real consistency outside of his football. If he had not done any of that and (the recruiters) brought him to me, I would've been able to say no. But he's put a strong case that he was trying to build his life and someone said to me you always give someone a second chance, but never a third."Today’s post is excerpted from a must-read essay by Charles Spurgeon for all involved in pastoral ministry. The entire essay, entitled ‘The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear’ can be read here. In this section, Spurgeon focuses on how pastors should respond to the opinions and remarks of their congregants toward their preaching. He writes:
To opinions and remarks about yourself turn also as a general rule the blind eye and the deaf ear. Public men must expect public criticism, and as the public cannot be regarded as infallible, public men may expect to be criticized in a way which is neither fair nor pleasant. To all honest and just remarks we are bound to give due measure of heed, but to the bitter verdict of prejudice, the frivolous faultfinding of men of fashion, the stupid utterances of the ignorant, and the fierce denunciations of opponents, we may very safely turn a deaf ear.
We cannot expect those to approve of us whom we condemn by our testimony against their favourite sins; their commendation would show that we had missed our mark. We naturally look to be approved of by our own people, the members of our churches, and the adherents of our congregations, and when they make observations which show that they are not very great admirers, we may be tempted to discouragement if not to anger: herein lies a snare.
When I was about to leave my village charge for London, one of the old men prayed that I might be “delivered from the bleating of the sheep.” For the life of me I could not imagine what he meant, but the riddle is plain now, and I have learned to offer the prayer myself. Too much consideration of what is said by our people, whether it be in praise or in depreciation, is not good for us. If we dwell on high with “that great Shepherd of the sheep” we shall care little for all the confused bleatings around us, but if we become “carnal, and walk as men,” we shall have little rest if we listen to this, that, and the other which every poor sheep may bleat about us.
Perhaps it is quite true that you were uncommonly dull last Sabbath morning, but there was no need that Mrs. Clack should come and tell you that Deacon Jones thought so. It is more than probable that having been out in the country all the previous week, your preaching was very like milk and water, but there can be no necessity for your going round among the people to discover whether they noticed it or not. Is it not enough that your conscience is uneasy upon the point? Endeavour to improve for the future, but do not want to hear all that every Jack, Tom, and Mary may have to say about it.
On the other hand, you were on the high horse in your last sermon, and finished with quite a flourish of trumpets, and you feel considerable anxiety to know what impression you produced.
Repress your curiosity: it will do you no good to enquire. If the people should happen to agree with your verdict, it will only feed your pitiful vanity, and if they think otherwise your fishing for their praise will injure you in their esteem. In any case it is all about yourself, and this is a poor theme to be anxious about; play the man, and do not demean yourself by seeking compliments like little children when dressed in new clothes, who say, “See my pretty frock.” Have you not by this time discovered that flattery is as injurious as it is pleasant? It softens the mind and makes you more sensitive to slander. In proportion as praise pleases you, censure will pain you. Besides, it is a crime to be taken off from your great object of glorifying the Lord Jesus by petty considerations as to your little self, and, if there were no other reason, this ought to weigh much with you.
Pride is a deadly sin, and will grow without your borrowing the parish water-cart to quicken it. Forget expressions which feed your vanity, and if you find yourself relishing the unwholesome morsels, confess the sins with deep humiliation.
Payson showed that he was strong in the Lord when he wrote to his mother, “You must not, certainly, my dear mother, say one word which even looks like an intimation that you think me advancing ingrace. I cannot bear it. All the people here, whether friends or enemies, conspire to ruin me. Satan and my own heart, of course, will lend a hand; and if you join, too, I fear all the cold water which Christ can throw upon my pride will not prevent its breaking out into a destructive flame. As certainly as anybody flatters and caresses me my heavenly Father has to whip me: and an unspeakable mercy it is that he condescends to do it. I can, it is true, easily muster a hundred reasons why I should not be proud, but pride will not mind reason, nor anything else but a good drubbing. Even at this moment I feel it tingling in my fingers’ ends, and seeking to guide my pen.”
Knowing something myself of those secret whippings which our good Father administers to his servants when he sees them unduly exalted, I heartily add my own solemn warnings against your pampering the flesh by listening to the praises of the kindest friends you have. They are injudicious, and you must beware of them.
A sensible friend who will unsparingly criticize you from week to week will be a far greater blessing to you than a thousand undiscriminating admirers if you have sense enough to bear his treatment, and grace enough to be thankful for it.
When I was preaching at the Surrey Gardens, an unknown censor of great ability used to send me a weekly list of my mispronunciations and other slips of speech. He never signed his name, and that was my only cause of complaint against him, for he left me in a debt which I could not acknowledge. I take this opportunity of confessing my obligations to him, for with genial temper, and an evident desire to benefit me, he marked down most relentlessly everything which he supposed me to have said incorrectly.
Concerning some of these corrections, he was in error himself, but for the most part he was right, and his remarks enabled me to perceive and avoid many mistakes. I looked for his weekly memoranda with much interest, and I trust I am all the better for them. If I had repeated a sentence two or three Sundays before, he would say, “See same expression in such a sermon,” mentioning number and page. He remarked on one occasion that I too often quoted the line, “Nothing in my hands I bring,” and, he added, “we are sufficiently informed of the vacuity of your hands.” He demanded my authority for calling a man “covechus”; and so on.
Possibly some young men might have been discouraged, if not irritated, by such severe criticisms, but they would have been very foolish, for in resenting such correction they would have been throwing away a valuable aid to progress. No money can purchase outspoken honest judgment, and when we can get it for nothing let us utilize it to the fullest extent. The worst of it is that of those who offer their judgments few are qualified to form them, and we shall be pestered with foolish, impertinent remarks, unless we turn to them all the blind eye and the deaf ear.
To read more of Spurgeon’s essay, click here.Officer Brian Barker (Edwardsville Police Department)
An Edwardsville, Illinois police officer was arrested on charges of having burglarized homes and businesses while on duty and in uniform, the Belleville News-Democrat reports.
Officer Brian Barker, a 19-year veteran, was arrested after being accused of entering Reality Salon and Spa and removing money from the cash register while on duty. When the Edwardsville Police Chief Jay Keeven discovered that the suspect was one of his officers, he turned the investigation over to the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.
“It isn’t that I don’t have faith in my investigators, but for the public trust, it’s best to have an independent agency investigate your agency,” Keeven said.
Officer Barker is also accused of stealing money and weapons from a private residence, as well as a number of Edwardsville businesses, including Afsanehs Alterations, Edible Arrangements, Edison’s Entertainment, Extreme Vapor, Headstrong Hair, The Little Gym, and Pedegos.
“We put all this trust, faith and power in police officers, but with that comes gigantic stresses,” Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons told the New-Democrat. “When they breach that trust, it’s so much worse. The magnitude of this breach of public trust necessitates a very harsh penalty, and we will be seeking prison time.”
“It’s really sad to see someone who’s supposed to be the good guy go wrong. But the measure of character of leadership is what they do when it happens,” he added. “In this case, [the Edwardsville Police Department] absolutely did the right thing.”
Officer Barker stands accused of 10 counts of burglary, one count of residential burglary, and one counted of aggravated possession of stolen firearms.Freak! Malaysian Fisherman Reels in Shark with 'Webbed Feet'
PENANG, Malaysia -- Has anyone ever seen a baby shark with webbed feet? A worker of the Malaysian Fisheries Development Board (LKIM) in Batu Maung, Penang, made this unusual find when she was given the 1.7kg fish by a fisherman at the jetty recently.
Mary Looi, 48, said she only realised the shark was different when she wanted to cook tomyam fish for lunch for her family.
“It was only when I was about to cut the shark the day after I received it that I found two webbed feet sticking out from the lower part of the body.
“The shark is one-metre long,” she said.
Looi said she dared not cook the fish after consulting her husband Gooi Man Kaw, 57, who told her that according to Chinese belief, eating fish with unusual features could bring disaster or ill luck.
“Immediately, I returned the fish to the fisherman that night at about 10pm.
“He threw it back into the sea,” said Looi.
Looi, who has been working at LKIM for 10 years, said this was the first time she had stumbled upon such an unusual find.
When contacted, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Muka Head marine research station head Prof Dr Zulfigar Yasin said this is the first time he had heard of fish with legs found in the Malaysian waters.
“There is a possibility that the fish could have swum from other waters into Malaysian waters.
“As far as I am concerned, fish species with legs or bony fins can only be discovered in the waters of North Sulawesi in Indonesia or South Africa,” he said.
Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of UnderwaterTimes.com, its staff or its advertisers.The latest news from the Green Party's Youth Caucus!
The Green Party of the United States has officially endorsed the Forward on Climate rally in DC on February 17th- less than a week away! The rally is sponsored by 350.org, the Sierra Club and others to demonstrate opposition to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. This multi-million dollar 1,700 mile pipeline would connect the tar sands in Alberta, Canada to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. It would pose a threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, a water source for millions of Americans. The tar sands oil fields are also the second largest pool of extractable carbon on the Earth and extracting them will be absolutely detrimental to the environment. Will you be attending the rally? We're expecting over 20,000 people to be there and hope that hundreds of those present will be Greens! Let us know if you'll be attending, wear your green, and take pictures to send to us!
2013 Candidates Let us know! We are compiling a list of any Green 35 years old and younger that is currently running for any office- school board, library board, city council, whatever! We'd like to be able to share and promote their races through our website, Facebook, and Twitter. Share this request with other Greens!
New Website! We are building a new website! We need your help. What would you like to see on the website? What resources and tools do you think will be helpful? We're looking for materials! Have you used a brochure, flyer or other handout to promote the Green Party in your area? Share it with us! Do you have the skill to make handouts? Let us know! We want to build an organizing toolkit for our members to use to start, build, and/or promote a Green chapter. Do you have website building skills? We need help with that, too! These are great and simple ways to get involved! Are YOU running for office this year? Do you know a young Green in your area that is?We are compiling a list of any Green 35 years old and younger that is currently running for any office- school board, library board, city council, whatever! We'd like to be able to share and promote their races through our website, Facebook, and Twitter. Share this request with other Greens! The Green Party of the United States has officially endorsed the Forward on Climate rally in DC on February 17th- less than a week away! The rally is sponsored by 350.org, the Sierra Club and others to demonstrate opposition to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. This multi-million dollar 1,700 mile pipeline would connect the tar sands in Alberta, Canada to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. It would pose a threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, a water source for millions of Americans. The tar sands oil fields are also the second largest pool of extractable carbon on the Earth and extracting them will be absolutely detrimental to the environment.We're expecting over 20,000 people to be there and hope that hundreds of those present will be! Let us know if you'll be attending, wear your green, and take pictures to send to us! Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend The Steering Committee has agreed to change the name of the GPUS Youth Caucus to "Young Greens of the United States". We're still the Youth Caucus, just with a more recognized name. There are Young Greens all over the world- Kenya, Australia, Germany, Canada, and more. There's even an organization called the Global Young Greens and we're a part of it. So why not have the |
Ktari (left) who were executed by the Islamic State in Libya this past week
Is the attention on Charlie Hebdo really about the assault on free speech? Not necessarily. One day after the 10 white journalists were tragically murdered at Charlie Hebdo and became martyrs for "free speech," two Tunisian journalists, Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari, were beheaded by Islamic State militants in Libya and received almost no coverage for their sacrifice.
Additionally, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that more than half of the journalists killed in 2014 were Muslim, even though the international media dialogue of the past year focused almost exclusively on the Islamic State's beheadings of white Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as the deaths of other white journalists like Camille Lepage.
"More than half of 61 journalists killed in 2014 were Muslims, many working in conflict-affected countries such as Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Somalia," writes Rafia Zakaria for Al Jazeera America. "But few have received the recognition or commemoration accorded to Western journalists or a handful who worked for Western media outlets."
If this were solely a question of who is fighting to defend "free speech," then international media would be honoring the sacrifices of the scores more non-Western and Muslim journalists who have died in the line of duty.
Most victims of terrorism are Muslim and non-Western, but we rarely pay them as much attention. A conservative estimate by the Combating Terrorism Center at New York's Military Academy at West Point found that between 2006 and 2008, non-Westerners made up about 98% of al Qaida's victims. A majority of those victims were Muslim.
An additional report this past year from the Institute for Economics and Peace's Vision of Humanity Project found that global deaths due to terrorism have spiked over the last decade. They were concentrated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria: all non-Western countries with large Muslim populations.
The report also explicitly linked the rise in terrorist attacks in these countries to the U.S.-led war on terror, but the media continues to explicitly omit or gloss over these victims of terrorism (unless their stories can be used to fuel Islamophobia).
Le JDM Lassana Bathily, the Malian Muslim hero of the Jewish supermarket hostage crisis
The media still offers a skewed depiction of Muslims. For example, the media narrative about the French attacks gave short shrift to Ahmed Merabet, the 42-year-old Algerian Muslim security guard for Charlie Hebdo who was also killed, and focused instead on many of the white journalists and editors who died. Moreover, the international media at times explicitly omitted the Muslim identity of Malian Muslim Lassana Bathily, who saved customers during the siege of a Jewish kosher supermarket, while reiterating that the terrorists were "Islamists." When other outlets focused on this distinction, they treated it as a shocking revelation: A Muslim wanted to save Jews! How novel!
This is in stark contrast to the media narratives about Islam that do dominate international headlines. Western media fixated coverage last year on Malala Yousafzai, a young Muslim female activist from Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban on her way to school. Many media outlets used her story to advance one-sided narratives about Islam, the oppression of Muslim women and Pakistan more broadly, while glossing over her critiques of the U.S. drone program, which did not fit these narratives.
Twitter @FLOTUS First Lady Michelle Obama holding a "#BringBackOurGirls" sign
So what does this have to do with Nigeria? Boko Haram made international headlines in 2014 for kidnapping 276 girls from a school in Chibok in Borno State. Nigerian activists launched the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag campaign, demanding accountability from the Nigerian government.
But after two weeks of little-to-no coverage, international journalists suddenly swept in and began to describe Boko Haram as Nigeria's "Taliban," focusing the story on Islamic fundamentalists' war on the education of women rather than the structural and bureaucratic shortcomings of the Nigerian government.
The real story about Boko Haram and the Chibok girls could not have been further from the truth. Firstly, the Chibok girls, like the Boko Haram militants, are Muslim, and although the Taliban and Boko Haram are both terrorist groups that invoke "Islamist" rhetoric, the history of Boko Haram could not be more different than that of the Taliban. Moreover, Boko Haram regularly targets boys in its attacks, but this was also left out of the story.
The West and its media misconstrued the narrative and appropriated the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag as a "war on women" to justify an expanded Western military presence in the region. Months later, and despite dozens of troops from the U.S., France, Canada, Israel and the U.K. being deployed to region, none of the girls have been rescued by the military to date. If the global reaction to this weekend's slaughter is any indication, we've simply moved on from Nigeria's ongoing battle against militants in favor of more tantalizing topics.
AFP/Getty Images Image still from a Boko Haram video featuring their leader, Abubakar Shekau
Why it matters. Reports about non-Western victims of terrorism are typically restricted unless they can serve a particular agenda, and we saw that again this past week with the media's ominous silence around Boko Haram's massacre of thousands of victims in Borno State. There are no neat narratives surrounding this "Islamic war on women," and no Westerners were killed. It was simply terrorist violence on an unprecedented scale perpetrated against Nigerians, many of whom were Muslim.
We are still not sure of the full scale of the violence in Baga and neighboring towns just yet, but what we do know is staggering. Baga, a town of 10,000, is now "virtually non-existent" according to Musa Alhaji Bukar, a senior government official from the region. Hundreds of corpses are rotting and litter the streets. Entire towns and villages have been burnt down, and thousands of people have had to flee into Lake Chad where they face hunger, dehydration and attacks from wild animals while they await rescue on unstable sand bars. This is one of the worst terrorist attacks in history, and Boko Haram followed up on it by making a 10-year-old girl blow herself up in a market in Maiduguri this Saturday, killing at least 10 more people.
Peter Dejong/AP Image from France's #JeSuisCharlie March on Sunday, January 11, 2015
Just as people are now standing in solidarity with the French and decrying the terrorist violence that tragically took 17 lives, we must also stand in solidarity with Nigerians and decry Boko Haram's slaughter of 2,000. The lives of Muslim and non-Western victims of terrorism also matter, even if the mainstream media's omission of these stories may indicate otherwise.Last month I had the pleasure of attending the quadrennial Three Societies conference – a joint meeting hosted alternately by the US-based History of Science Society, the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science and the British Society for the History of Science. This year the HSS were hosting in Philadelphia.
As the HSS's website states, it is "the oldest such society", having been founded in 1924 as a means of supporting the history of science journal, Isis, itself first published in 1913. This was the very earliest dawn of history of science as an independent and professional discipline.
The scientific past as a topic of interest has, of course, a much longer history – one we could trace right back to the earliest biographies of figures that we would now identify as "scientific" – but it is a little-known fact that there was an earlier HSS – the Historical Science Society – nearly 80 years earlier than the American one. The first HSS, founded in 1840, was also focused on publication, in this case being close to the model of the Camden Society, founded in 1838, or the Hakluyt Society, founded in 1846, for the publication of manuscripts or rare texts in scholarly editions.
This period, when printing was becoming cheaper and literacy rates and leisure time were increasing, saw the first great push in the business making primary sources more widely available. It was, arguably, akin to the 21st-century explosion in digital archives of printed and manuscript material. It provided new opportunities and new audiences for those with expert knowledge and access to key archives.
This period also, not coincidentally, saw a push in the history of science – with the publication of William Whewell's History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences being the most ambitious example. The Historical Society of Science could have been the signal of a bright new dawn in the field, one solidly based on knowledge of the primary sources. Significant antiquarian and scientific figures gave the enterprise their blessing (George Peacock, Augustus De Morgan, Francis Baily and Baden Powell all joined, bringing the membership up to a mximum of 179). And yet, unlike the Camden and Haklyut Societies, this HSS barely lasted three years, although it nominally existed until 1846.
Was the problem an intrinsic lack of interest in the minutiae of Letters Illustrative of the Progress of Science in England from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of Charles the Second and Popular Treatises on Science Written During the Middle Ages (the only two publications produced under the auspices of the Society)? Possibly so, especially as Halliwell's antiquarian approach did not suit key figures who might have supported his enterprise: Whewell was interested in grand synthesis, not archival minutiae; De Morgan felt there was insufficient rigour and knowledge brought to the analysis.
However, the kiss of death was the scandal that hit its founder, James Orchard Halliwell. Better known now as a Shakespeare scholar, Halliwell had risen to notice at Trinity College, Cambridge, where Whewell was Master and Peacock his mathematics tutor. He was something of a prodigy, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1839, before he was even 19.
Halliwell's precipitous climb to the upper tiers of the British scientific elite was ended when he was accused of stealing manuscripts from Trinity College and, as a result, was banned from entering the Reading Room of the British Museum (later the British Library). The episode was described in the 1890 Dictionary of National Biography:
Several manuscripts from his Cambridge collection were purchased about 1843 by the trustees of the British Museum from Rodd, the bookseller, to whom Halliwell had sold them in 1840. In 1844 it was discovered that many of these manuscripts had previously belonged to the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, and had been missing from that library for five or six years. That the manuscripts were abstracted from Trinity College admitted of no doubt, and Whewell, the master of Trinity College, demanded their restoration at the hands of the trustees of the British Museum. Sir Henry Ellis, the chief librarian of the Museum, began an investigation, and on 10 Feb. 1845 issued an order forbidding Halliwell to enter the Museum until the suspicions attaching to him were removed. After many threats of actions at law on the part of all the persons interested, the matter dropped; the manuscripts remained at the Museum; but the order excluding Halliwell from the Museum was not rescinded. Halliwell asserted in a privately printed pamphlet (1845) that he had bought the suspected manuscripts at a shop in London, and his defence proved satisfactory to his friends.
De Morgan was one of those who forgave him, but it seems unlikely that Whewell or Ellis, both of whom had supported his admittance to the Royal Society, did. While Halliwell continued a career in the study and publication of manuscripts, this venture in historical scientific publication was doomed to failure.
It is eminently likely that Halliwell did "release" the manuscripts from Trinity. It is interesting how, very occasionally, those with a passion for such rarities have a sense of possession that slips over the line of legality. Another such case of this period, and within the same circles, was Guglielmo Libri – a mathematician named "books" who turned to history and, in the course of inspecting libraries and researching his History of Mathematical Sciences in Italy, stole thousands of unique items.
Security, cataloguing and digitisation all make theft much more difficult, and identification much easier, than in the early 19th century. It is unlikely that these genuinely gifted scholars would have been so tempted had they been sitting in Trinity College Library or the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana today. Although, as with plagiarising or faking results in science, such things do occasionally – still – happen.Seems like everywhere we look, we see rising nostalgia for the Clinton Era. Perhaps that’s nowhere more evident than in the sudden burst of popular support for Hillary Clinton, who will step down as Secretary of State within the next few weeks.
A new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News show 57 percent of respondents would favorably view a presidential bid from the former First Lady and Senator. Even a few Republicans have Clinton nostalgia, with 23 percent supportive of a potential Hillary Clinton candidacy, if not for a Clinton victory.
We’re also seeing Clinton nostalgia in a more concrete sense as we barrel towards the fiscal cliff, which both parties set up in two previous rounds of negotiations over spending and tax policies. Hearkening back to gauzy memories of prosperity in the late 1990s, Democrats have argued in the last few months that a return to Clinton-era tax rates won’t hurt the economy.
That isn’t exactly a new argument, but it is one that Democrats have used more frequently as Republicans argue that tax hikes will damage the currently stagnant economy and already-anemic job creation. Bill Clinton raised taxes and the economy grew in the late 1990s – so why not do the same thing again?
RELATED: Will the Ghosts of Clinton Past Solve the Fiscal Cliff Crisis?
That argument ignores a lot of the context in both the current economy and the economy of the 1990s. As we approached the middle of the decade, the Internet’s economic potential began to explode – and investment followed, and the economy leaped into high gear. So much capital flowed into this brand-new market that the trend became irrational, producing the dot-com bubble that popped as Clinton was leaving office.
This produced the recession of 2000-1, which became exacerbated by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Bush-era tax rates reversed the recession and produced solid economic growth for more than three years, as well as increases in federal income-tax revenue and decreases in the federal deficit, as this chart from Investors Business Daily based on White House data demonstrates:
The Bush tax cuts get the blame from Democrats and the media for our current deficit problem, but that’s clearly not the problem. While the economy grew, so did revenues. What stopped the economy from growing? The explosion of the housing bubble in 2007-8, combined with the crisis it caused for financial institutions that had heavily invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds that helped to inflate it, crashed the economy and threw millions out of work.
That bubble also started in the Clinton era, albeit with plenty of assistance from Republicans who wanted to be seen as promoting home ownership and fairness. Congress under control of both parties gave Fannie and Freddie carte blanche to create mortgage-backed securities on bad loans in order to fund this bubble. When housing prices inevitably snapped, after a ten-year holiday from their traditional linkage to the rate of inflation, vast sums of imaginary wealth disappeared nearly overnight.
In other words, the prosperity of the Clinton years was in significant part a fiction based on irrational market behavior, boosted in one instance by significant distortion introduced by government policy. That’s also true for a good part of the Bush-era prosperity, as the irrational housing valuations lured homeowners into the habit of treating their homes as ATMs to cash out on rapidly-rising equity, which crashed out in 2008.
But the deficit crisis didn’t come from a reduction in federal income-tax revenue from George Bush’s tax policies, as we can see above. As far as relating it today, we have no new emerging market on the scale of the Internet on which to count for future economic growth, at least not at the moment, to balance out the constrictive impact of seizing more capital through tax hikes.
RELATED: Defense Cuts Could Mean Layoffs and Chaos
Nor is that the only bit of ill-informed Clinton nostalgia of late. On NBC’s Meet the Press last Sunday, the roundtable argued that Clinton balanced the budget mainly on defense cuts. Cato’s Steve Hanke says Clinton did have the largest reduction in federal spending in the past 60 years as measured in percentage of GDP, but the reduction came primarily from domestic cuts – not defense.
In his eight years as President, Clinton reduced federal spending to 18.2 percent of GDP from 22.1 percent, thanks in large part to a Republican-controlled Congress that forced the issue. Defense spending as a portion of GDP declined by 1.8 points, but non-defense spending dropped by 2.2 points. Clinton and the Republicans in Congress cut spending on domestic discretionary programs as well as entitlement spending through welfare reform.
What followed afterward is instructive to the real problem of our current trillion-dollar trajectory of deficit spending. George Bush increased federal spending as a share of GDP by 2.6 points in two terms, and it wasn’t just spent on defense; the increase was split evenly between defense and non-defense spending, a remarkable statistic considering the two wars waged in those eight years.
Barack Obama managed to hike it 3.5 points in just one term, with 3.2 points going to non-defense spending. Under Obama, federal spending now exceeds 25 percent of GDP, and his has been the biggest increase of any of his predecessors over the last 60 years – even for two-term Presidents.
The real debate over deficits isn’t over whether to go back to Clinton-era tax rates. It’s how to get back to Clinton-era spending levels, and then create a tax system that will adequately fund it. The 18.2 percent level of federal spending is one piece of Clinton-era nostalgia worth recalling – as well as the bipartisanship that eventually produced it.French police investigating the murder of a British family at an Alpine beauty spot have issued a sketch of a man seen near the scene.
The motorcyclist, described as bearded and wearing a full-face helmet, was spotted by two witnesses above the parking area at the top of a narrow country road near the village of Chevaline where Saad al-Hilli, his wife, Iqbal, and mother-in-law, Suhaila, were gunned down on 5 September last year.
The victims were shot in the head. A French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, who detectives believe stumbled upon the scene, was also killed.
French investigators, who suspect the family may have been targeted by a professional hitman, have known of the bearded motorcyclist since the beginning of the inquiry. They say he was wearing an unusual helmet, produced by the company GPA, of which only 8,000 were made.
However, searches at the homes of known owners of similar helmets and monitoring of internet sales sites such as eBay have yielded no information.
Prosecutor Eric Maillaud, who is overseeing the inquiry, told French journalists on Monday: "It's always useful to see if anyone might recognise the motorcyclist because he could have seen something that might interest us."
A second motorcyclist was reportedly seen in the area after the killings, but did not appear to be fleeing the scene, he added.
Saad al-Hilli, 50, his 47-year-old wife and her mother, 74, were on holiday in the area, near Annecy, when they were killed.
The couple's elder daughter, Zainab, then aged seven, was pistol-whipped by the attacker and left for dead with serious head injuries. Her sister, Zeena, four, cowered under the skirt of her dead mother in the rear of the family's BMW estate car for eight hours before she was found by police.
Detectives are still hunting a BMW X5, a dark-coloured, four-wheel drive vehicle, spotted in the area. The car stood out as it was a right-hand drive, but investigators say they are not yet linking the car and the motorcycle.
A French hotline has been opened on 0800 002 950.
The photofit shows a man with a moustache and beard wearing a black or dark coloured helmet that is unusual because it has a lateral opening at chin level. Police said they were appealing for "anyone who recognises the man" to call them.
Detectives had held back on issuing a portrait of the man they want to speak to, hoping to be able to trace him through his relatively rare helmet.
The man was seen by members of the National Forests Office (ONF) near where the bodies of the murdered al-Hilli family members were discovered by a British cyclist only moments after they had been killed. "What is more interesting then the photofit itself is the type of helmet," Lt Col Benoît Vinnemann, the gendarme heading the investigation, said.
Police said the helmet was produced in Italy by French specialist company GPA - based in the south of France - and was a "ISR type", unusual because it has a hinged opening at chin level to allow the wearer to hold a conversation without removing their helmet. Only 8,000 models in black or a dark colour were made by the company.
"This man was riding along the Combe d'Ire at Doussard - Chevaline between 3.15pm and 3.40pm on 5 September 2012. The only helmet on the market that matches the description we have is the ISR-type GPA helmet," police said in a statement on Monday. Despite checking with distributors, police have been unable to trace the owner.
More than a year after the assassinations, police are still unable to establish whether the al-Hillis were killed as a result of a family dispute over an inheritance, over the family's Iraq connections, as a result of industrial espionage or by a lone gunman unconnected to the victims.St. Joseph County has a new SWAT vehicle, and it's aimed at protecting people in the event of an active shooter situation.
The Metro SWAT team received a U.S. military MRAP vehicle.
That stands for "Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected."
It will make its debut to the public in the Mishawaka Memorial Day Parade on Monday.
The brand new vehicle is valued at $733,000, but St. Joseph County received it at no cost from the U.S. government. When delivered, the vehicle only had eight miles on the odometer.
They were being used for our military overseas, but when it was no longer needed, the U.S. government started giving them to police departments.
Local police say its primary police function will be as a rescue vehicle for potential victims and to protect officers in dangerous situations.
From a Mishawaka Police Department press release:
St. Joseph County Metro S.W.A.T. Team has been selected to receive a donated United States Military M.R.A.P. vehicle valued at $733,000.
The M.R.A.P. has been delivered as scheduled to make a debut in the Mishawaka Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 26, 2014. There will be a press conference on Friday, May 23, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. in front of the Mishawaka Police Department 200 N. church Street where the media will get their first look at the new M.R.A.P.
The acronym M.R.A.P stands for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle. The vehicle itself was produced by BAE systems in Sealy Texas at a cost of $733,000 for the United States Military.
The vehicle was designed for a multitude of uses such as convoy troop transport, ambulance service, and so on. It has 85% commonality with standard trucks and is easily serviced. This was one of the determining factors why it was selected by the United States Marine Corps.
In 2010 the U.S. Military contracted BAE Systems to upgrade the M.R.A.P. During the course of the upgrades the need was reduced overseas and the military halted the production and did not receive further shipments.
On December 2011 the M.R.A.P. was the last vehicle convoy out of the eight year war in Iraq. In October of 2013 the federal government began offering the M.R.A.P. to local law enforcement.
The St. Joseph County Metro S.W.A.T. Team, comprising of officers from the Mishawaka and St. Joseph Co. Police Department, entered into the federal program and was selected as one of the departments nationwide to receive one of the upgraded M.R.A.P.’s.
The $733,000 vehicle was donated to our community by the U.S. Government. Our vehicle is not a refurbished hand me down. Mishawaka received shipment direct from the factory. The vehicle had only eight miles on it at the time of delivery.
The vehicle’s primary police function will be that of a rescue vehicle. The M.R.A.P is well suited for safe transport of innocent victims from an active shooter situation that may occur in our schools, workplace, or many retail sites. Direct delivery of emergency medical personal to a violent ongoing situation is a great asset to our community. The M.R.A.P will also be used to protect officers and bring a safe resolution to armed situations that may arise in our community.'Captain America' #1 Again as the Marvel Cinematic Universe Tops $10 Billion Worldwide
May 15, 2016
Disney occupies the top two spots at the box office for a second straight weekend as Captain America: Civil War and The Jungle Book had repeat performances at #1 and #2 respectively. The weekend's new wide releases, Money Monster and The Darkness, both performed above expectations and, in limited release, A24's The Lobster scored the best specialty opening of the year.
Repeating at number one, Disney and Marvel's Captain America: Civil War brought in an estimated $72.5 million, enough to make it one of the top ten second weekend results of all-time. The 59% drop is on par with last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron and if it continues on this trajectory it will be looking at a domestic cume at or around $430 million. As of now, the domestic total is just shy of $300 million.
Internationally the film continues the push toward becoming the year's first $1 billion earner worldwide as it brought in $84.2 million, bringing the international cume to $645 million and the global total to $940.89 million. The film's performance also pushes the cumulative, worldwide total for the thirteen films that currently make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe to over $10 billion with Civil War ranking fourth on the worldwide list (seventh domestically) among all films in the MCU.
Finishing second, Disney's The Jungle Book brought in an estimated $17.7 million, pushing the film's cume over $310 million. This is the second Disney release in 2016 to top $300 million domestically after Zootopia and they'll soon be joined by Civil War.
The Jungle Book also continues to find success internationally as it brought in another $15.2 million overseas bringing its international cume to $516.3 million and its global total to $828 million. Disney now holds three of the top five spots on both the worldwide and domestic charts for 2016. Of those three, The Jungle Book is the only one that has not yet opened in all international markets as it still has yet to be released in Korea and Japan.
The first newcomer on the chart is TriStar's Money Monster, which opened in third with an estimated $15 million. Expectations heading into the weekend were muted, especially for a film headlined by George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and, while the film technically over-performed, star power such as this used to be a much bigger draw.
As for the film's trajectory, looking at the filmography for the two actors, should Money Monster perform similar to Clooney's Monuments Men it would end up with a domestic run around $50 million. However, a run in a range closer to Roberts' Larry Crowne or Duplicity, seems more likely. Both opened around $13 million with Duplicity having slightly longer legs and, by comparison to Money Monster, offer a range of $35-45 million for the film's domestic run.
In addition to its domestic gross, Money Monster brought in $4.7 million internationally. The film rolled out in 14 overseas markets this weekend, which included two majors—France and Italy—and it will expand to Brazil, Germany and the UK at the end of May and Australia and Russia during the first weekend in June.
Finishing in fourth was BH Tilt's The Darkness, which brought in an estimated $5.18 million, just a hair over the studio's expectation. The micro-budgeted feature opened in 1,755 theaters and took advantage of targeted digital marketing to bring in the core demographic. The move appears to have worked, though how it holds on next weekend will tell us a bit more about these targeted releases.
The Darkness scored a "C" CinemaScore from opening day audiences and holds a 0% rating at RottenTomatoes. Last year BH Tilt scored a good opening for Eli Roth's The Green Inferno, but it wasn't able to hold on to much of its audience as it quickly plummeted 62.7% in its second weekend. Will The Darkness suffer a similar fate?
Rounding out the weekend top five is Mother's Day, which skyrocketed last weekend thanks to its holiday timing, but fell off a cliff this weekend. Nosediving over 70%, the film brought in an estimated $3.25 million this weekend.
The weekend's top "per theater" performer was A24's release of The Lobster, which brought in an estimated $188,095 from four theaters for a solid, $47,024 per theater average, the best we've seen this year when it comes to specialty releases. The film will expand further next weekend before going wide on May 27.
Performing well just behind The Lobster was Roadside's release of the Amazon Studios feature Love & Friendship, which brought in an estimated $132,750 from four theaters for a $33,188 per theater average.
Moving overseas, ahead of its domestic release next weekend, Sony's The Angry Birds Movie landed in 74 markets this weekend and brought in $43 million. The film's international performance was led by $5.7 million in Russia followed by the UK ($3.0m), Germany ($2.9m), Mexico ($2.9m), Brazil ($2.7m), Spain ($2.1m), Australia ($2.0m), France ($1.9m), Peru ($1.4m) and Argentina ($1.4m). On top of its domestic release next weekend it will arrive in South Korea (5/19) and China (5/20).
Also already open overseas ahead of its domestic release next weekend is Universal's Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, which began playing internationally last weekend and has brought in $19.7 million from 34 territories so far.
The third wide release opening domestically next weekend is The Nice Guys starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Meanwhile, overseas markets will begin watching X-Men: Apocalypse as the film is hitting international markets (except for China and Japan) one week before it arrives in theaters domestically.
For a complete look at this weekend's estimates click here and we'll have weekend actuals for you on Monday afternoon.
Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo and author Brad Brevet at @bradbrevet.Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE leads 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 by 4 points in New Jersey, a state that hasn't voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988.
Monmouth University's poll has Clinton at 38 percent support when pitted head-to-head against Trump, who receives 34 percent, with 15 percent of those polled saying they were undecided. An additional 11 percent said they would vote for another candidate despite the pollster not giving them that option.
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Patrick Murray, the Monmouth University Polling Institute director, predicted that many of those undecided voters would head toward Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.
“Blue Jersey doesn’t appear quite so blue at this stage of the campaign, but we should keep in mind that neither major party candidate has fully locked in the support of their partisan bases," said
"When and if that happens, the benefit should accrue more to Clinton than to Trump simply because Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state."
When including third-party candidates by name, Clinton has a 6-point lead over Trump, 37 percent to 31 percent. Fourteen percent are undecided, and 15 percent said they would vote for either a third-party like Libertarian Gary Johnson or the Green Party's Jill Stein, or another unnamed candidate.
That lead is in line with recent polling from the Garden State over the past two months.
Clinton's lead stems from strong support among female and young voters, while Trump holds the advantage among male voters.
The poll also found that neither candidate would benefit much from making Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) or Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) their running mate.
More than 40 percent said picking Christie would make them less likely to vote for Trump, and almost half said the choice wouldn't change their minds either way.
As far as Booker, two-thirds said Clinton putting him on the ticket wouldn't matter, with 18 percent viewing the idea as positive and 13 percent viewing it as a negative.
Monmouth's poll included 703 registered voters in New Jersey, with a margin of error of 3.7 points.Evidence of Haqqani network found in Afghanistan
The killing of a key Haqqani network commander in a recent US forces’ airstrike in Afghanistan, has endorsed Pakistani authorities’ claim that Sirajuddin Haqqani network had shifted to Afghanistan long time ago.
In these airstrikes conducted recently by United States’ forces in central Logar, about 30 people including civilians and Taliban militants were killed while another 19 were killed in a predawn air strike by Nato forces in Bakhtabad area of Herat province.
One of these airstrikes was carried out during an operation codenamed “Khanjar” in Baraki district and Pul-i-Alam. United States has claimed that the Taliban were using civilians as human shields in the targeted areas.
The name of the key Haqqani network commander, reportedly killed during the operation in Logar, was Mullah Qand. The identity of the killed commander, Mullah Qand, has been confirmed and it is very much in the knowledge of US authorities that had long been pressing upon Pakistan to take action against Haqqani network “functioning inside Pakistan” (sic) while the latter had been clarifying repeatedly with authenticity that no such network was anymore operative inside Pakistan.
Pakistani forces had rather cleared all the areas of terrorists and destroyed their hideouts and ammunition factories. Even the most difficult terrain of Shawal and Rajgal were cleared by Pakistani armed forces with perseverance and painstaking efforts conducted without break.
The trouble spots now existed only inside Afghanistan and combined efforts with mutual trust were needed to eradicate terrorism from that region. Pakistan’s viewpoint and clarification that no terrorist networks were any more functional inside Pakistan were also endorsed by highly-placed American functionaries who have been visiting the trouble spots inside Pakistan’s tribal region, off and on. These highly-placed figures from the US included some senior officials as well as senators Sheldon, John McCain, Lindsay Olin Graham and Elizabeth Warren.For as long as I can remember I have always been in love with going to the Cinema. When I was younger in a way this was my Virtual Reality. Going to see a movie was a way to escape my daily routine and loose myself in incredible new worlds and immersive stories. Over the years though, the cinema experience lost some of its appeal as newer technologies came about like large screen TV’s and thunderous home theater sound systems. It was however still not the same as having the experience of finding my favorite seat and engrossing myself in the action on a huge screen. Flash forward several years and thanks to Virtual Reality this was now possible from the comfort of my couch. VR cinemas were always one of the selling points of getting an HMD for me. No longer would I have to fight the crowds or be annoyed by the talking of children or the random movie goer kicking the back of my chair.
During the early days of VR there seemed to be several choices for having a VR cinema experience. Some of my earliest moments of true presence were in the now retired RiftMax theater. As the years went on, I saw more VR theater going experience released but none of them really seemed to capture the magic of those original apps. Recently Cmoar VR Cinema was launched on Steam. This is an app I have watched grow from the early days of it’s Kickstarter campaign to becoming one of the highest rated VR Theater choices for the Google Cardboard. After a very good run on the Cardbaord platform, the developers of Cmoar VR Cinema have now also made it available for PC based VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
CMOAR VR CINEMA FEATURES:
Steam VR compatibility
Seat change ability *NEW*
All video formats support (.mp4 /.mkv /.avi /.mov /.ogg / and more!)
Watching Youtube videos (1080p 2D)
Watching Youtube videos (1080p 3D)
180° & 360° video support
PLEX support (only LOCAL)
Full HTC Vive & Vive controller support
Oculus support
VR gamepad support
Full VR menu interface
Dynamic Lighting effect
Transitional realistic sceneries
Possibility to add every movie to Favourites
Multitude of various settings (eg. FOV)
“Last-viewed” option
.srt subtitle support
At first glance it seems similar to most of the other VR cinema apps out right now but under the hood Cmoar has a few nice features such as the integration of YouTube, and YouTube 3D playback. By having these as well as local media and PLEX capabilities it provides more video playbak choices for the user. The 3D is stunning on Cmoar’s big screen and looks better than most real life movie going experiences I have had to date. Cmoar also offers 180 and 360 playback for fully immersive video experiences. The only thing I found a bit lacking were the actual video playback controls which only seemed to offer a simple play, pause and scrolling option. The in theater menu interface however is very well crafted and easy to |
potential and make positive choices about their wellbeing. Education and training are often essential to gaining paid employment, and can provide the pathway to a rewarding career (Endnote 3).
Of the 3 million Australians aged 15-64 years whose highest level of education was a Bachelor degree or higher, 6.4% accessed a PBS subsidised mental health-related medication in 2011.
Of the 3.7 million Australians aged 15-64 years whose highest level of education was Year 11 or below, 14.5% accessed a PBS subsidised mental health-related medication in 2011.
Antidepressants were the most commonly used medication across all levels of educational attainment.
Graph 8: Proportion of Australian population aged 15-64 years accessing PBS subsidised mental health-related prescription medication -- 2011, by Level of Highest Educational Attainment and Drug Type
Paid employment is a major source of economic resources and security for most individuals. It allows people to contribute to their community and it can enhance their skills, social networks and identity (Endnote 3).
Generally, participation in the labour force tends to be lower in the teenage years, before rising in the twenties as people complete their educational qualifications and begin a career. The rate for men tends to stay quite high until they reach their late fifties and into their sixties, when many men retire. For women, the labour force participation rate tends to dip during the peak child-bearing years between ages 25 and 44 years (Endnote 4).
In 2011, of all employed Australians aged 15-64 years, 6.6% accessed subsidised mental health- related medications, compared with 13.3% of all people who were unemployed and 20% of all people who were not in the labour force.
In particular, people aged 35 years and over who were not in the labour force were more likely to access a subsidised PBS mental health-related medication than people who were employed or unemployed.
Graph 9: Proportion of Australian population aged 15-64 years accessing PBS subsidised mental health-related prescription medication - 2011, by Age and Labour Force Status1. Fugazi – Repeater (1990)
Repeater was a record that was meant to be performed. And no band put on a better show then Fugazi. It was their live show that literally drove an underground punk band based on specific ethics and values to almost mainstream success.
2. Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire (1973)
This album was so ahead of its time it's not even funny. It really inspired me to want to make a band like Dillinger. A band that incorporated all of my influences without prejudice or concern for what was popular or typical.
3. Dazzling Killmen – Face of Collapse (1994)
Not many people I know ever heard these guys. But most of the great progressive underground bands of the 90s would not exist if it weren't for them.
4. Alice in Chains – Facelift (1990)
I first heard Alice in Chains when I saw the video for Man in the Box on MTV Headbangers Ball. There was something so soulful about this song. It was heavy blues. At the time I was playing primarily blues guitar so it was really inspiring to see this kind of thing.
5. Deadguy – Fixation on a Co-Worker (1995)
When this record came out, Deadguy were the only band who could truly take what Black Flag had done to the next level. This record was not only a huge inspiration to me musically, but the lyrics really helped me realise that I never want to conform to the norm of society, that I should always look for more and never be complacent.
6. King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
This band represented a time when music truly had no boundaries When this came out it was the equivalent of Calculating Infinity being on pop radio and in the top 10.
7. Today is the Day – Willpower (1994)
I was almost certain that the singer/guitar player Steve Austin was chewing on and swallowing glass while performing when I first hear this record. These guys were obviously indie rock-meets-jazz players making metal. And it was beautiful.
8. Radiohead – OK Computer (1997)
When Radiohead put out this record, music was simply changed forever. If it wasn't for OK Computer there would be zero worth to popular music right now. It influenced absolutely everything that people are hearing in the music of the moment.
9. Neurosis – Times of Grace (1999)
Times of Grace came out the same year as our first full length, Calculating Infinity, and was also on Relapse Records. It was the soundtrack to my life during that time. After making our album I was completely drained and my life would be forever changed. Everytime I hear this record I'm immediately brought back to that time.
10. Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger (1991)
Soundgarden was that band that led me down a rabbit hole of interesting music. Badmotorfinger was directly responsible for the first odd meter riff I ever wrote.
A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE
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Duff McKagan's guide to punkBernie Sanders supporters could prove to be Hillary Clinton’s undoing even if she manages to clinch the Democratic nomination.
The division between the two candidates of the Democratic Party has not been as stark and as wide as it has been over the last few weeks. While Clinton has prematurely started setting her sights on a general election match-up against Republican nominee Donald Trump, the reality within the Democratic camp will not exactly be music to her ears.
According to the New York Post, more than 73,000 Bernie Sanders supporters have signed an online campaign pledging not to vote for Hillary Clinton under any circumstances. The website, WontVoteHillary.com, has outgoing links to innumerable journalistic pieces as well as blog posts, which, in turn, draw attention to Clinton’s bleak record as the former Secretary of State, as well as shed a light on the string of alleged bad decisions that Clinton took during her time as the junior senator from New York.
The pro-Bernie Sanders campaign explains the reasons for not voting for Hillary Clinton in the following way.
“Hillary Clinton may be the DNC darling, but she should not be crowned the presidential nominee without popular consent. We the people cannot allow Clinton to win if we want to see a progressive White House. Clinton”s policies are center-right, she carries too much baggage and she has too many enemies to win the general election.”
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As reported by the Inquisitr earlier this month, more than 100,000 people took to Twitter to express their displeasure with the Democratic front-runner, making #DropOutHillary one of Twitter’s top trends during the week.
The reasons for not voting for Hillary Clinton included voices from across the spectrum. While many voters said that the Clinton history was obstructionist to any progressive agenda, others called out the many times when she had not been “truthful” to her voters, as in 2008, when contesting against the-then senator Barack Obama, Clinton had said that she would lobby against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. However, her emails later showed that she had been a supporter of the deal all that while.
Other reasons, some of which have been raised by Bernie Sanders during the campaign, are Clinton’s alleged efforts to stifle the calls asking her to release her Goldman Sachs speeches, her email controversy, and her long history of being pro-war during her senate years.
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Moreover, the “Bernie or Bust” movement supporters have reiterated time and again that they would not vote for Clinton even if it meant splitting the votes with Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Others have proclaimed that they would stay away from the general election in the event of Bernie Sanders losing out to Hillary Clinton in the race for Democratic nomination, which, considering the present circumstances, appears quite likely.
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As the race for the Democratic nomination enters its final stages, the party and its voters seem more divided than ever. While Bernie Sanders would be hoping that he could pull off a string of wins to force a contested convention in July, Hillary Clinton would hope that some of the disgruntled supporters could switch to her side.
Because if they don’t, Clinton could be in for a difficult time ahead.
[Photos by Joe Raedle and Mark Wilson/Getty Images]0 Metro man accused of stealing from NASA
NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - An Alpharetta businessman faces federal charges that accuse him of defrauding NASA and the National Science Foundation out of tens of thousands of dollars.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik, investigators allege Craig Near “engaged in a scheme to defraud the NASA and NSF by submitting multiple fraudulent contract proposals, and by using government funds paid on awarded contracts for purposes other than those intended” dating back to 2009.
The complaint alleges that Near’s company, Genziko, was awarded $798,845 in three separate phases of a project and was required to submit invoices and other documentation of the work he was supposed to be doing for the agencies.
According to the complaint, among other allegations, Near lied to the agencies and claimed he was employing Georgia Tech professors to work on his project. A university official told investigators the school had no business relationship with Near and that professors were not working on his projects, the complaint said.
Investigators said in the complaint they also could find no evidence that Near was paying any wages to employees during the duration of the awarded contracts.
“Near did not use the government funds as proposed in the budget, instead using them for day-to-day living expenses for himself and his family,” the complaint alleges.
The complaint said funds instead went to: “private school for Near’s children, mortgage payments for Near’s home…entertainment, groceries, and wire transfers to individuals in various African nations.”
Neighbors told Petchenik they saw federal investigators raiding Near’s Compass Point Crossing home last week, removing several boxes of evidence.
“We were surprised,” said neighbor Joe Stacy. “He’s a nice guy. Quiet.”
Stacy said he was skeptical of the allegations.
“He just doesn’t seem like a crook to me,” he said. “He just seems like an honest guy. You never know what’s in a man’s heart, but he seems like an honest guy.”
Near’s attorney, Stephen Power, said his client is out of the country on business.
He sent Petchenik a statement about the allegations:
"Mr. Near understands the allegations contained in the criminal complaint filed on June 18, 2014, and denies all of the charges contained therein. Mr. Near is currently going through a contentious divorce and firmly believes that party who provided the erroneous information leading to the investigation, did so because Mr. Near had been previously awarded temporary physical custody of his children and the final determination of custody was scheduled to be heard in the Family Court Division of the Fulton Superior Court during the three-week trial calendar beginning July 7, 2014.
Mr Near is not exactly sure who made the tip leading to investigation, but the tip wasn’t made until after Mr. Near had left the United States for a lengthy business trip and the entire investigation was conducted without Mr. Near’s knowledge or presence, nor was Mr. Near afforded the opportunity to provide documentation showing that the information leading to the charges was erroneous.
Mr. Near’s bank accounts were seized before he learned that these charges were filed and this has prevented Mr. Near from purchasing return airfare back to Atlanta. Mr. Near and his attorney are currently working with the authorities to effectuate his return home, and Mr. Near looks forward to the opportunity to provide the information to the authorities that he believes will clear both his name and reputation."Ruling on Trans Inmate's Surgery Gets Bipartisan Rebuke
A recent federal court ruling that a transgender inmate is entitled to state-funded gender-reassignment surgery has both of Massachusetts's current U.S. Senate candidates in agreement for once.
Michelle Kosilek is a transgender woman serving a life sentence without parole for killing her wife in 1990. Kosilek has twice sued the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, asserting that the prison is required to provide her with the medically necessary surgery, not just the hormone therapy she has been receiving. In August, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled in Kosilek's favor, saying gender-reassignment surgery is the only way to treat her "serious medical need." It is believed that this ruling is the first where a federal judge has ordered that a state cover the surgical transition of a transgender inmate.
Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, called the ruling "an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars."
Elizabeth Warren, Brown's Democratic challenger who hopes to win the seat formerly occupied by the late senator Edward Kennedy, told a Boston radio station, "I have to say, I don't think it's a good use of taxpayer dollars."
Warren, who has been widely praised as a progressive politician with strong convictions on women's rights, as an ally to the underprivileged, and generally as a liberal superstar, has angered some in the LGBT community with her comments.
Trans activist and blogger Jos Truitt penned an open letter to Warren on Feministing, asking the candidate to get educated on the medical necessity of gender-reassignment surgery for some trans people.
"I frankly don’t understand how a pro-choice politician can think voicing this sort of opinion is OK ever," writes Truitt. "And the only explanation I can find is ignorance or bigotry about trans people. It seems like you think Kosilek’s surgery is unecessary in some way — that it’s cosmetic is a typical uninformed take."
Adding his voice to the fray, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick announced Wednesday that his administration would "review" the case. It is currently unknown whether the Patrick administration will appeal the decision.IMAGINE you’re the closest living relative of a child who just inherited $100 million after her parents died in a car crash. You’re a distant cousin, but if something happened to her, you’d be next in line.
She has juvenile diabetes. So you “adjust” her insulin prescription a bit yourself, doubling the dose. When that doesn’t work, you tell her a different drug works just as well, and when she’s reluctant, you offer her a trip to Disney World.
What would happen if you got caught? You’d probably be convicted of attempted murder and spend several years in prison.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a settlement with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. The company had, among a host of criminal actions, helped publish falsified data in a medical journal, failed to report the dangers of a drug and used “favors” like trips to Jamaica to persuade doctors to use its medications for unapproved — and unproven — purposes on children.
These two fact patterns have a lot in common, except that instead of endangering the life of one child, the company endangered the lives of many, and instead of anyone receiving prison time, the company agreed to pay a fine — which it will no doubt pass on to its customers and shareholders — that is, to us.
This isn’t an exception. Several other pharmaceutical companies, The New York Times reported, have recently agreed to similar settlements.
So why has no one been criminally prosecuted? Why is no one politically accountable?
The same reason no one on Wall Street has been held accountable four years after perpetrating the greatest financial crime on the American people since the events leading up to the Great Depression, a heist that has cost millions of people their homes and their jobs. The same reason no one has been held accountable for pouring 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the BP oil spill. (In April, I spent a week with my family on a beautiful stretch of beach we’d visited many times during the kids’ spring break, except this time I watched as preschoolers made sand castles with sludge-colored sand and wondered about the unknown health effects on their young bodies.)
Bill Marsh/The New York Times
Democrats blame Washington’s inability to get anything done on Republican obstructionism, and in large part they are right. But there’s another part. In March, Senate Democrats couldn’t get the votes they needed in their own caucus to pass a bill that would end billions in subsidies to oil companies. They were lucky the Republicans are so corrupt that all but two of them voted to preserve the subsidies.
It didn’t — and doesn’t — have to be this way. In early 2010 I was approached by a coalition of public interest groups determined to wage a successful campaign to finance clean, fair elections. The policy they advocated was pretty simple. Right now, the first question party officials responsible for recruiting candidates for Congress ask is, “How much money can you raise?” How deeply you share the values of the party is a secondary consideration.
So how can we get away from money-driven candidacies? Let the folks back home decide who gets funding.
The idea behind the Fair Elections bill was that candidates could solicit small donations from people in their state or district — whether up to $100, $250 or $500 — and if they crossed a threshold of support designed to avoid subsidizing fringe candidates, they would receive $4 of public matching funds for every dollar they raised. It wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Ending the oil subsidies the Senate rejected, for example, would provide as much as $4 billion every two years — roughly twice what all Congressional candidates combined spent in the 2010 elections. In effect, the savings in corruption would finance campaigns.
The question was how to talk about it. Voters aren’t interested in “process” issues. They want to know about outcomes. Voters from right to left will tell you, for example, that they overwhelming reject the Supreme Court ’s Citizens United decision to allow unlimited, anonymous money to flood our political system. But getting them worked up about election laws isn’t easy. You have to connect the dots to something that matters to them — like the fact that once-middle-class workers have seen their incomes drop by nearly 8 percent in three years and their wealth disappear by a staggering 40 percent. And you have to make sure they believe that the problem is not, as the right would have it, the extravagant pensions of teachers like my 82-year-old mother (who taught for over 30 years before retiring from the Atlanta city schools), but the actions of bankers and C.E.O.’s who’ve engineered a system that is decimating the middle class.
In studying voters’ responses to a range of messages, we discovered that Americans understand that our government is bought — and they want it back. You just have to speak with them in ways they can hear.
After reading a paragraph that described the Fair Elections bill, voters listened to messages online, moving their cursors, second by second, up if they liked what they were hearing and down if they didn’t. Our best-testing message led the dials steadily upward (producing the findings illustrated in the chart accompanying this article).
The results look like the dial tests viewers often see at the bottom of their television screens during presidential debates, except that they reflect the average of hundreds of people, not just 30 in a studio. What is perhaps most striking and unusual in this kind of message testing is the absence of virtually any differences in the reactions of Republicans, Democrats and independents. “It’s time we return to government of, by and for the people, not government of, bought and paid for by special interests,” the message began, and proceeded to develop that theme. It pointed out that “the job of a Wall Street banker is to get a good return on their investment, and unfortunately, they’ve taken those skills to Washington,” before landing on the idea that “politicians should work for us, not their corporate sponsors.”
That message beat a strong opposition message, 61 percent to 19 percent. And it was only one of several messages that won by extremely large margins.
So why isn’t Fair Elections the law of the land? We had consultants from both political parties on our team. We had the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, John B. Larson, sponsoring the legislation, and a high-ranking member of the Democratic Senate leadership, Richard J. Durbin, sponsoring it in the Senate. And at that time (the summer of 2010), Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House. As I told the Democrats, they could probably save 20 seats in the House if they ran on this issue and a tax on millionaires, which was also wildly popular. But the bill never saw the light of day. (Neither did the millionaire’s tax.)
Precisely why Democrats never ran on or passed the bill is complex. Most members of Congress I’ve spoken with hate the current system, which relegates them to spending half their time like telemarketers begging donors for money. And those who aren’t completely corrupted by a system designed to corrupt even the most decent person often find themselves aware, at some level of consciousness, that what is for sale is their souls, as they compromise the interests of their constituents for the special interests of the few.
But the reality is that incumbents who play by the rules of a campaign-finance system that rewards the rich and well-connected tend to reap the corresponding electoral rewards, whereas those who refuse to play find themselves barraged at election time with millions of dollars in negative ads.
What’s the solution for this kind of constitutional Catch-22, where the people who gain from a broken system are the people who would have to fix it, and those who refuse to play ball tend to find themselves benched?
Probably the best chance we have as citizens genuinely united requires two steps.
First, we have to demand that candidates of both parties for the House and Senate sign a pledge to pass the Fair Elections bill in January 2013. Second, we must insist on a similar pledge from both national and state legislative candidates that they will vote for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and to declare that only voters with beating hearts constitute people for the purposes of elections — even if it takes having stethoscopes at every polling station to make sure no corporation tries to slip in as a person. Voters could then refuse to re-elect candidates who reneged on their pledges, irrespective of party.
Without this issue resolved, nothing else matters. The major difference between Wall Street today and four years ago is that the mergers following the crash made the banks even larger. America’s banks remain too big to fail because their campaign contributions remain too big to ignore. Even when legislators are successful, as they were with Wall Street reform, in imposing some regulatory constraints on an out-of-control industry, opportunities for lobbyists to derail that reform present themselves at every step along the way, from the process in which the two houses of Congress agree on final common language for bills, to the rules the administration writes, or fails to write, to implement the law. Last September, for example, President Obama overruled a unanimous panel of scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency and rejected the clean air standards they proposed, something even Richard Nixon, who created the E.P.A., would have been unlikely to do.
But that was a bygone era, before billion-dollar elections. Legally laundered cash in Washington soils everything it touches and prevents us from solving nearly every problem that we confront today.
The only answer to strength in dollars is strength in numbers.
Drew Westen is a professor of psychology at Emory University and the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”This weekend we learned the tragic news of the suicide of RPS community member SophiaButler. A loved and respected member of RPS’s Planetside 2 group, we know lots of our readers will be deeply feeling her loss.
We want to respond by encouraging people to make a donation to the Albert Kennedy Trust, a charity that provides support for LGBT 16 to 25 year olds who are homeless or living in hostile environments. And we don’t want to lose anyone else, so below are details of places you can seek help if you need support with any issues of depression or suicide.
SophiaButler will be remembered as a force to be reckoned with by many in our PS2 community. Many recall the power of her convictions, and her passion for gaming. Many are broken-hearted at losing a friend they loved. All are united in mourning the avoidable loss of such a young life. A wonderful mix of tributes have been left by those with whom she gamed.
If you would like to respond, please do leave messages below or on the forum thread, and if you’re able, make a donation in her honour to a charity that supports those in situations such as Sophia’s.
The Albert Kennedy Trust describes its mission as: “to ensure that all lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people are able to live in accepting, supportive and caring homes, by providing a range of services to meet the individual needs of those who would otherwise be homeless or living in a hostile environment.” Which is clearly a wonderful thing. If you want to make a donation in Sophia’s name, please do click here for a recurring donation, and here for a one-off. (For organisations or businesses that want to make a larger donation, there’s also The Purple Circle.)
If you need help or support, then in the UK you can call the Samaritans (08457 90 90 90, any time), Mind (0300 123 3393, weekdays, 9am-6pm), or NHS 111 on 111. If you’re under 19, you can also call Childline (0800 11 11).
In the US, there are lots of resources listed here, including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255, any time) and SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline (1-877-726-4727, 8am-8pm EST).
For the rest of the world, this site provides numbers for suicide hotlines around the world. And this site has a comprehensive list of international support numbers. (There’s a weird pop-up box – clicking “okay” didn’t seem to do anything bad to my PC.)
For longer-term help, which is so brilliant a thing to do, you can visit your doctor. If your doctor is shit, or dismissive, ask to see a different doctor. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals.
Our thoughts go out to friends and loved ones of Sophia.
We’re very conscious of concerns regarding the idea that a future suicide might result in a tribute on our website. Nope. If someone else were to do it now, there’d be nothing. Do not.In the age of fake news and the viral spread of inaccurate information on social media, the SSAA viewed dubious reports that a whopping 5000-plus firearms have been seized by dedicated police units in nearly four years with scepticism. Announced by Justice Minister Michael Keenan in March, his press release detailed how the National Anti-Gang Squad (NAGS) had “laid more than 3100 charges nationally and seized more than 5600 illegal firearms” since 2013.
The mainstream media, including News Corp, published the figures verbatim, with headlines praising the Federal Government for “shoot(ing) down bikie guns haul”. While there is no doubt that illegal firearm imports are a real threat to our porous borders, the SSAA endeavoured to find out more details before reporting this news to our members.
Following countless inquiries to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australian Border Force (ABF) and Minister Keenan’s media staff directly, it was finally revealed that the 5600 figure quoted in the Minister’s press release overwhelmingly included firearm parts and frames, not functioning firearms. What’s more, the vast majority, totalling 4785 items, were actually seized in the United States, thanks to the efforts of US-based agencies.
Repeated requests for evidence to prove that the items seized on US soil were bound for Australia were ignored. Details given by the AFP revealed that of the 4785 items, just six were actual firearms (“automatic assault rifles”), with 96 semi-automatic handgun frames, 4547 unmarked 1911 handgun frames and 136 AR-15 receivers - a far cry from the 5600 firearms claimed by the Minister and reported in the press.
In terms of Australian seizures, it was revealed that just 303 items were reportedly found here - but the list of pieces disclosed by the AFP did not include any firearms, just parts. This included an upper and lower frame for one assault rifle, 19 semi-automatic 1911 handgun frames with identical serial numbers, six 1911 semi-automatic assorted parts and 10kg of ammunition.
Disappointingly, none of the agencies, including Minister Keenan’s office, have corrected the record or made any attempt to distinguish between firearms and firearm parts. In fact, the Minister’s media staff declined to provide any details or comment at all, leaving it to the AFP to scrounge around to try and substantiate the misleading claims in the Minister’s very own press release. The SSAA will always correct the record, as we have done following inaccurate reports regarding handguns seized by the ABF and data woes with the Australian Firearms Information Network.
This is the latest in a string of errors from the Federal Justice Minister’s office and key government departments, including the lack of consultation on the National Firearms Agreement review, the various wording mistakes that they were forced to rewrite and now the issuing of a false press release sensationalising the work of our law enforcement agency.
The final twist is that the ‘successful’ NAGS, as Minister Keenan boasts in his press release, appears to be subject to funding cuts. The AFP chief operating officer Andrew Wood revealed in recent Senate Estimates hearings that funding for the NAGS will see “a reduction of $6.3 million” in 2016-17. The SSAA implores the Federal Government to reinstate this funding to ensure law enforcement is adequately equipped to deal with illicit firearms.
While the SSAA applauds our agencies for their attempts to combat the illicit firearms market, we will not hesitate to correct the record when it comes to firearm-related news. The SSAA endeavours to educate the media and politicians about firearms and our recreation through our publication A Journalist’s Guide to Firearms and the Shooting Sports. There is no place for misinformation when it comes to firearms. The SSAA will always deal in facts and evidence, not emotion or sensational claims.$15 Trillion Plan Would Have All of America on Renewable Energy by 2050
A group of scientists has published a plan for the United States to have all of its energy come from renewable sources by 2050, an ambitious goal that carries a $15 trillion price tag.
Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, and his co-authors drew up the plan based on the capability of existing technology that draws energy from wind, water, and solar (WWS).
The plan tailors the composition of renewable energy sources to the individual geography of each state, with an interactive infographic of the distribution available on The Solution Project website.
South Dakota, for example, would get 60 percent of its energy from inland wind energy, whereas Alabama would only get 5 percent from the same source.
Once completed, half of the nation’s energy supply would come from wind, 45 percent from solar, and the remaining from hydro and geothermal sources. It would call for a little under half a percent of the country’s land to be covered with solar panels and wind turbines.
The estimated cost only covers the construction of renewable energy infrastructure to supply the existing energy needs of the entire country, but assumes that energy-consuming technology, such as automobiles, will naturally convert to being fully powered by electricity—not an unreasonable assumption, given that Tesla plans to introduce a $35,000 electric model in 2017.
The upfront costs sound daunting, but Jacobson states that making our energy resources renewable will save us money eventually.
The upfront costs of such an endeavor sound daunting, but Jacobson states that making our energy resources renewable will save us money eventually, in the form of fewer visits to the doctor caused by pollution and the other associated costs of a polluted environment.
“WWS is much cheaper over all. [When you take into account] all the health and climate costs, it costs about 17 cents per kilowatt hour,” Jacobson said in a phone interview. “Fossil fuel costs 30 cents per kilowatt hour, when externality costs are included.”
The plan’s timeline has energy supplies switch to 80 percent renewable by 2030, which is not far off from the goals that some states are preparing to set for themselves: California Gov. Jerry Brown has called for the state to get 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, a goal that could soon be codified into law.
California, a leader in renewable energy, obtained 22 percent of its electricity from non-hydro renewable sources in 2014, of which 5 percent came from solar. In the same year, 13 percent of all electricity in the United States was generated from renewable sources.
In May, Hawaii set an even higher goal for itself, aiming for complete reliance on renewables by 2045.
As of 2015, the federal government has spent an average of $39 billion annually in the last five years on renewable energy, with solar generating 0.6 percent of the nation’s electricity.
Because the projection of costs is based on existing technology, the actual price of the plan would almost certainly be lower, as the cost of solar panels and other elements of a renewable infrastructure continue to plummet.
The plan isn’t especially beholden to the latest advancement in technology either. For instance, Elon Musk generated a great deal of buzz about solar energy earlier this year when he unveiled Tesla’s personal solar battery storage, declaring that his goal was to have the entire world run on solar energy.
For Jacobson, Tesla’s announcement was not a vital breakthrough, as the cheapest form of storage wouldn’t be in batteries but through thermal.
As audacious as the plan might sound, there are already other countries that have established similar goals for themselves. Late last year, Denmark pledged to commit to 100 percent reliance on renewable energy by 2050. Yet in comparison with the United States, it has a much bigger head start: It already gets 40 percent of its energy from renewable sources.Image caption Mars has written to the owners saying the product is not authorised or endorsed
Chocolate manufacturing giant Mars has distanced itself from the famous deep-fried Mars bar by seeking a disclaimer.
The Carron Fish Bar in Stonehaven, in Aberdeenshire, claims to be the birthplace of the recipe almost two decades ago.
Plans to bid for EU protected geographical status were dropped.
Mars has written to the owners saying the product is not authorised or endorsed as it does not fit the company's promotion of healthy living.
A menu disclaimer is being sought, to make people aware deep-frying is not what the company has in mind for its product.
A Mars spokesperson said: "We are really flattered that customers of Carron Fish Bar like our product so much that it has now become a flagship product for the store.
"No application for a protected geographical indication has been filed to date.
"Should an application be filed, unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to support it as deep-frying one of our products would go against our commitment to promoting healthy, active lifestyles."
'Craziest takeaway'
Lorraine Watson from the Carron Fish Bar told BBC Scotland she had written to Mars to say she was happy to put up a "disclaimer" notice in the shop.
Mark Cruickshank, a senior solicitor with Brodies intellectual property department, told BBC Scotland: "I suspect Mars is concerned that the deep-frying of its products is not in line with its policy of promoting a healthy lifestyle and it is keen to take steps to protect its own brand."
He said Mars would have been aware that they should not be "too heavy-handed" and risk a backlash against their product in Scotland.
Mr Cruickshank said: "In the letter they have asked for a disclaimer to be put on the menu and on the fish shop wall.
"It seems that Mrs Watson is happy to do that and it seems the parties have reached a good compromise here."
The deep-fried Mars bar has become synonymous with negative aspects of the Scottish diet since it was first reported in the Daily Record in 1995.
The newspaper called the phenomenon, with its links to Stonehaven, "Scotland's craziest takeaway" and said "sweet-toothed youngsters are ordering their favourite choc bars deep-fried in batter".
By 2004, the reputation of the deep-fried Mars bar had travelled the Atlantic and it was mentioned on the Jay Leno Show in the US.
Later that year, UK medical magazine The Lancet published research from two Glasgow-based public health experts who thought the craze could be an urban myth as they had never met anyone who had eaten one.
They surveyed hundreds of fish and chip shops in Scotland to find out if "the delicacy" was available and if people were actually buying them.
It found 66 shops which sold them, 22% of those who had answered the survey.Right Sector’s ex-leader starts a new political movement and invites his former followers. At least the moderate ones.
Former Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh today announced to initiate a new political movement. The statement was made in a video message. The new project aims “to unite all patriots of Ukraine. Without radicalism typical of peripheral social groups and without liberal empty rhetoric. Building an independent Ukrainian state remains our goal.”
The new movement remains in opposition to the government but rejects its violent replacement. “We do not abandon the revolutionary path, but we categorically reject pseudo-revolutionary activity that threatens the existence of Ukraine as a state and stains the reputation of the patriots.”
The founding congress will take place in February. “Our movement is open to any patriot of Ukraine who shares our values and is supportive of the Right Sector.”
Yarosh left Right Sector in November because of rivalries over the movement’s strategy. His rivals supported a more radical policy against the government. The initiation of the new movement looks like an attempt to take over ‘moderate’ parts of Right Sector and to include new personnel. Since the armed conflict in the East is under relative control, acceptance decreased for some extremist parts of Right Sector who stood in (armed) opposition to the government. In this respect, Yarosh’s new project is a reaction to changing realities or an attempt to transfer political capital into institutional politics.
Translations from Unian, see also Holmov’s comment.
(wf)A horrifying investigation by The Sunday Times has revealed that as many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) with medical practitioners in the U.K., some of who have performed the extremely illegal procedure on girls as young as 10.
If this news hasn't already blinded you with |
also thankful." His fists clenched.
"What?"
"I'm thankful for the time she gave us. I'm glad I have those memories. I'm glad that whenever I smell fresh cookies or wear my cloak I think of mom. I know that I won't ever get to have those cookies again or see her wearing that cloak; I still want to remember her. Because she made me happy."
"How… How do you not get sad?"
"... Close your eyes.
"Do you remember the dance? When you wore the dress? Do you remember the way that her face lit up and she smiled because you were making a fool of yourself, just for her?"
He smiled.
He grimaced.
"Keep thinking about it. You'll be sad, but that's the price you pay for keeping her alive, in your memories. The same way you carry on her legacy through your armor and your blade, you care it on in your soul. Never forget her, never let the pain drive her away. Hold her close Jaune, and don't let go."
He didn't smile.
He didn't grimace.
He was happy, he was sad.
"I get sad. I am sad. A little bit of me is all the time. But it makes me thankful." He opened his eyes. She turned back towards the campfire where Nora and Ren were sitting. "You haven't lost everything Jaune. Maybe someday you can look to the stars for company, but for now, come have some turkey, okay?"
"... Okay."Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway acknowledged the Republican nominee’s latest dip in the polls.
“We are behind,” Conway said on Meet the Press.
Trump has fallen behind rival Hillary Clinton, who is up by double digits in some recent polls. Trump’s dip comes largely from disapproval of his treatment of women and his refusal to say whether he will accept the results of the election.
Conway said the shortfall in polls is due to Clinton’s other advantages over Trump.
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“She has a former president, happens to be her husband, campaigning for her,” she said. “The current president and first lady, vice president—all more popular than she can hope to be. And she’s seen as the incumbent.”
Conway also walked back Trump’s threats from Saturday, when he said he would sue the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. Multiple women over the last month have alleged Trump inappropriately touched or kissed them without consent in events spanning decades. Trump has repeatedly denied the claims.
“He’s just, I think, putting people on notice, that they can’t just falsely accuse them,” Conway said. “He has said, ‘None of this has happened, they’re all fabrications and lies.’”
Write to Mahita Gajanan at [email protected] Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Farook was a county public health employee who attended the party. Police believe he stormed out following a dispute and then returned with Malik to carry out the shooting.
-The suspects, who were shot and killed by police at around 3pm local time after a car chase, have been identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who were in a relationship.
-A man and woman armed with assault style rifles and semi automatic handguns killed 14 people and wounded 17 others, at a holiday party for employees of the San Bernardino public health department. The attack took place at the Inland Regional Center for people with developmental disabilities, at around 11am local time.
05:39 ET: Here's Everything We Know So Far
A man and woman armed with rifles opened fire on Wednesday at a center for the developmentally disabled in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and injuring 17 before being killed in a shootout with police. VICE News is reporting this story as it develops.
Read more
A man and woman armed with rifles opened fire on Wednesday at a center for the developmentally disabled in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and injuring 17 before being killed in a shootout with police. VICE News is reporting this story as it develops.
05:39 ET: Here's Everything We Know So Far
-A man and woman armed with assault style rifles and semi automatic handguns killed 14 people and wounded 17 others, at a holiday party for employees of the San Bernardino public health department. The attack took place at the Inland Regional Center for people with developmental disabilities, at around 11am local time.
-The suspects, who were shot and killed by police at around 3pm local time after a car chase, have been identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who were in a relationship.
-San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Farook was a county public health employee who attended the party. Police believe he stormed out following a dispute and then returned with Malik to carry out the shooting.
-The couple also left several bombs at the scene at various locations, which police detonated safely. Burguan said there "had to be some degree of planning" behind the attack.
-A third person seen fleeing the scene was detained, but police said it was unclear whether that person was involved.
-A family representative said the couple had been married two years, and dropped off their 6-month-old baby daughter with a grandmother before carrying out the attack. They told her they had a doctors appointment.
-Farook's brother-in-law has spoken to media expressing sympathy for the victims and saying he could not understand how his relative could commit such an atrocity.
-The shooting rampage marked the deadliest U.S. gun violence since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, in which 27 people, including the gunman, were killed.
-One police officer was wounded in the shootout with the suspects. His injuries are not life threatening.
04:45 ET:
The executive director of the Los Angeles office of advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations, Hussam Ayloush, told press the couple had dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with a grandmother just before the rampage. They reportedly told her they had a doctor's appointment.
03:55 ET:
Authorities have named the two attackers suspected of carrying out the shootings before being killed themselves as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, described as possibly married or engaged. The couple are believed to be the only shooters, and while the motive remained unclear, San Bernadino police chief Jarrod Burguan said terrorism had not been ruled out.
People gathered last night in an impromptu vigil for the victims near the scene.
Impromptu vigil forms near the scene of today's horrific #SanBernardino shootings. pic.twitter.com/hZl9EuAa6H
— Tom (T.J.) Wait (@CBSLATom) December 3, 2015
12:05pm ET:
Farhad Khan, the brother-in-law of Syed Farook, just spoke briefly at a press conference hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"I just cannot express at how sad I am for what happened today," he said. "I have no idea why he would do that, why he would do something like this."
Khan is the husband of Farook's sister. He declined to offer any details about Farook or his family.
"The reason I'm here is to talk to the victims and to express for my family how sad we are about what happened," he said.
Other Muslim leaders present at the event also spoke out against the mass shooting
"We unequivocally condemn the horrific act that that happened today," said Hussam Ayloush, the director of the CAIR's Los Angeles office. "We stand in solidarity with fellow Americans as we offer our heartfelt prayers and condolences to the injured and the families of those who have been killed. We stand in solidarity in repudiating any possible ideology or mindset that led to this horrific act."
Muzammil Siddiqi, the chairman of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, similarly condemned the shootings.
"I want to condemn this action of violence," he said. "Human life is precious, we respect and honor the human life. We would like to see our law enforcement take a full investigation to find out the motives and the people behind it, and they will be brought to justice.
"Please do not implicate Islam and Muslims," Siddiqi added. "Whoever has done that, our faith is against that. Our faith is against this kind of behavior."
11:30pm ET: One Suspect Identified
Police have not yet the identified suspects in the shooting, but multiple media outlets are naming one of them as Syed Farook. NBC News was first to run the name, citing "multiple sources from multiple agencies." The name is linked to the address in Redlands where police tracked the SUV that was involved in the shootout earlier this afternoon.
According to Reuters, a person named Syed Farook was listed on county documents as an employee of the San Bernardino County Environmental Health Department. Staff members from that department were gathered on Wednesday for the party at the Inland Regional Center where the shooters opened fire.
The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement on Wednesday night that said it will a hold a news conference later in the evening with leaders of the Muslim community to condemn the shooting spree and "to offer condolences to the loved ones of those killed or injured and to respond to the naming of one of the suspects."
The organization said a relative of one of the suspects named by the media — presumably Farook — will take part in the news conference.
"We condemn this horrific and revolting attack and offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed or injured," CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in the press release. "The Muslim community stands shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Americans in repudiating any twisted mindset that would claim to justify such sickening acts of violence."
8:57pm ET: Updates From The Latest Police Press Conference
-Two suspects — a man and a woman — are confirmed dead. They were armed with "assault-style rifles" and dressed in "dark, tactical gear." The relationship between the two suspects is unclear. Their names and ages have not been released.
-Police followed up on tips that led them to a residence in the nearby city of Redlands. They spotted a vehicle leaving, which led to a chase and the shootout where the suspects were killed.
-A third man who was seen running from the scene of the shootout was taken into custody. "We do not know the extent of his involvement, if any," San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said.
-Police are not sure about a motive. Burguan said one person left a holiday gathering of the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health after a dispute, but it's unclear if that person returned with an accomplice and began shooting.
-Dave Bowdich, the assistant director of the FBI field office in Los Angeles, said it's too early to say whether the incident qualifies as terrorism. "I'm still not willing to say we know that for sure," he said. "We are definitely making some movements that it's a possibility, but we don't know that yet. We're not willing to go down that road yet."
8:29pm ET:
The FBI has reportedly taken the lead in the investigation in San Bernardino:
Ca shooting: FBI stepping into leadership role in San Bernardino investigation after suspect(s) allegedly threw pipe bombs or IEDs from SUV
— Rick Serrano (@RickSerranoLAT)December 3, 2015
8:17pm ET:
A spokesperson for the Loma Linda Medical Center says they have five adult patients from today's shootings. Two are in critical but stable condition, two are in fair condition, and one is still being assessed.
The hospital received a bomb threat at around 2:30pm local time and was put on lockdown, but the threat was deemed not credible.
8:00pm ET: Here's Everything We Know So Far
-At least 14 people are dead and 17 others are wounded. As many as three shooters armed with long guns opened fire at a social services facility in San Bernardino, California at around 11am local time.
-Two suspects in a black SUV were shot and apparently killed at around 3pm local time after a car chase. One other suspect is still believed to be on the loose.
-One police officer was wounded in a shootout with the two suspects. His injuries are not life threatening
-The gunman reportedly opened fire on a holiday gathering of San Bernardino county employees. The Los Angeles Times cited a a senior federal official who is monitoring the case as saying that investigators believe one of the shooters left the party after getting into an argument and returned with one or two armed companions.
-The San Bernardino County Department of Public Health confirmed that several of its employees were inside the Inland Regional Center when gunmen opened fire. It's been confirmed that the department was renting out a conference area at the facility for a banquet when the attack took place.
7:48pm ET:
A reporter in a local TV news helicopter hovering above the scene of the police shootout that occurred nearly an hour ago says two bodies remain on the ground. It appears that both of the suspects are dead.
7:37pm ET:
Police are asking people in neighborhood near shootout to remain indoors while search for possible third suspect continues:
We are asking that all people in the SB area south of San Bernardino Ave east of Mt. View stay in their homes w/doors locked & secure
— SB County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff)December 3, 2015
7:15pm ET:
Police surrounded a house about a mile away from where the shootout with the SUV occurred and searched it with guns drawn. They now appear to be going door-to-door in the neighborhood, possibly in search of the third suspect.
Screen grab via ABC 7
7:11pm ET:
San Bernardino police say one officer was injured in a shootout with two possible suspects. He has been hospitalized and his injuries are not believed to be life threatening.
Two suspects were hit in the shootout with the dark SUV, but it's unclear if they were killed or taken into custody. Police said it's possible that one suspect is still on the loose. "It's a very active, fluid situation, we don't have a lot of answers yet," police spokeswoman Sgt. Vicki Cervantes said during the latest press conference.
"I believe there are two [suspects] being dealt with, if there were originally three suspects there's still possibly one outstanding," Cervantes said.
6:51pm ET:
Heavily armed SWAT police officers have used an armored vehicle and a pole to pull a second body out of the back seat of the SUV.
6:40pm ET:
Police continue to surround an SUV in San Bernardino. One person — not a police officer — is on the ground in a pool of blood with a rifle nearby. It's not known if there are other people in the SUV.
Screen grab via ABC 7
6:25pm ET:
A San Bernardino police spokesperson says there is a police situation in San Bernardino, but did not say whether it is related to the shooting at the Inland Regional Center.
Swat Teams have arrived to the scene with armored vehicles, and have surrounded the black SUV.
There is an active scene unfolding in San Bernardino. Preliminary info is a suspect is down, officers are ok. Not confirmed if related.
— SB County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff)December 2, 2015
6:18pm ET:
Television images show police surrounding a man laying on the ground with a large pool of blood nearby and what appears to be a rifle laying a few feet away. A black SUV with dozens of bullet holes is stopped near the man, with its window open.
Screen grab via ABC 7
Screen grab via ABC 7
5:33pm ET:
Marybeth Field, the president and CEO of the Inland Regional Center, said that she had been in contact with employees at the center who told her that the shooting occurred during a banquet for the Department of Public Health in a conference area, according to the Associated Press.
5:04pm ET:
The gunmen "came prepared to do what they did as if they were on a mission," San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan sayid. He said the assailants carrying rifles, but he said he didn't know exactly what kind. They have not been apprehended. Schools, county, and city facilities, including hospitals, have been locked down.
5:02pm ET:
Assistant Director of the FBI's LA field office David Bowditch says he doesn't know if this is a terrorist incident or not.
4:56pm ET:
The San Bernardino law enforcement press conference has begun.
Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said "two to three" assailants entered the Inland Regional Center at 11am and began shooting. The center employs hundreds of employees, and at least some of the victims were attending a work gathering, possibly a holiday party or lunch.
At least 14 people are dead and 14 injured. The numbers could go up.
"They are preliminary numbers," Burguan said, adding that the Suspects fled in a dark-colored SUV. He said police don't know who the shooters are, nor what their motives were.
4:37pm ET:
The San Bernardino Sheriff's department says it will hold a press conference around 5pm ET.
Presidential candidates continue to weigh in on the shooting.
Horrifying news out of — Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley)December 2, 2015
California shooting looks very bad. Good luck to law enforcement and God bless. This is when our police are so appreciated!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)December 2, 2015
4:25pm ET:
Employees of the Inland Regional Center have been evacuated from the scene of the shooting in yellow buses.
Loma Linda University Medical Center has confirmed it has received at least four people to its trauma center. Spokeswoman Briana Pastorino told the AP she did not know the condition of the patients and said the hospital was expecting at least three more people.
4:14pm ET:
Hillary Clinton has commented on the shooting:
I refuse to accept this as normal. We must take action to stop gun violence now. -H — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton)December 2, 2015
4:09pm ET:
Police have confirmed "multiple casualties, including fatalities" in the shooting. Sgt. Vicki Cervantes of the San Bernardino Police Department said she could not confirm numbers at this time as the scene is still active. It's not clear if the gunmen, who may be one of possibly three, is still inside the building. Authorities have asked local media not to show the area where they are operating. TV images show police continuing to lead people out of the building, more than an hour after the first reports of the shooting emerged.
3:55pm ET:
The building where shooting has broken out at the center reportedly houses at least 25 employees as well as a library and conference center, Marybeth Feild The president and CEO of the Inland Regional Center, told the Associated Press. Field said the "incident is in the conference area," which is being rented by an unknown outside group.
3:45pm ET:
The White House says President Barack Obama has been briefed on the latest shooting in San Bernardino by his homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco. Earlier on Tuesday, the president said Congress must act to ensure that people who are "deranged" or have "violent tendencies" cannot get their hands on weapons to inflict mass murder.
"We don't yet know what the motives of the shooters are but what we do know is that there are steps we can take to make Americans safer," Obama said in an interview with CBS News. "We should never think that this is just something that just happens in the ordinary course of events because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries."
Obama said the frequency and number of mass shootings in the US "has no parallel anywhere else in the world."
Active Shooter: Possible 3 gunman, possible total 20 Victims with possible 12 deceased. Pray for San Bernadino!???????? —? KING SULLIVAN? (@timsullivan23)December 2, 2015
The latest mass shooting come less than a week after a gunman opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs the day after the Thanksgiving holiday. One policeman and two civilians died in that shooting.
3:41pm ET:
The father of another witness, Terry Petit, says his daughter text him saying: "People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office."
Petit read the text to reporters outside the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, where several law enforcement agencies are currently converged.
On an average day, doctors at the regional center would be evaluating toddlers whose parents have concerns and case workers meeting with developmentally disabled adults. Nancy Lungren, spokeswoman for the California Department of Developmental Services said that the San Bernardino facility is one of the state's largest and busiest. The center currently serves about 30,000 clients a year.
3:25pm ET:
Television images show dozens of police and law enforcement vehicles parked outside the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
Marcos Aguilera told a local ABC affiliate that his wife was in the building when the shooter entered the office next to her and opened fire.
"They locked themselves in her office," he said. "They've seen bodies on the floor."
Aguilera's wife was unharmed, but she reportedly saw authorities carrying people out of the building on stretchers, he said.
3:20pm ET:
WATCH LIVE: Coverage of shooting in San Bernardino, California — NBC News (@NBCNews)December 2, 2015
3:07pm ET:
The shooting in San Bernardino occurred at the Inland Regional Center, one of 21 facilities serving people with developmental disabilities run by the state, said Nancy Lungren, spokeswoman for the California Department of Developmental Services. The center is located in an office park surrounded by a parking lot, near a golf course. Television images showed people walking out of the facility with their hands up. Local TV news stations said police told them that there could possibly be one to three shooters still at large.
A spokeswoman with the San Bernardino Sheriff's Office told VICE News it is assisting San Bernardino police at the scene. The SBPD said it received the first call at 10:59am of multiple shots fired.
2:45pm ET:
San Bernardino police say there are as many as three suspects involved in a shooting involving multiple victims.
The San Bernardino Fire Department issued a tweet at 11:14am saying its units were dispatched to an incident involving 20 people at the 1300 block of S. Waterman.
SBFD units responding to reports of 20 victim shooting incident in 1300 block of S. Waterman. SBPD is working to clear the scene.
— San Bernardino Fire (@SBCityFire)December 2, 2015
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department told people to stay away from the area.
Hard Closure at Orange Show Rd/ Waterman and Park Center Circle in San Bernardino. AVOID THE AREA POLICE ACTIVITY!
— SB County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff)December 2, 2015
A spokeswoman from nearby Loma Linda Medical Center said the hospital was expecting patients momentarily.
"We're all kind of on standby right now – it could be any minute," spokeswoman Briana Pastorino told Reuters.
Here is a map of the area.
ACTIVE SHOOTER:Area of Orange Show Rd/ Waterman Ave near Park Center, & surrounding area remains VERY ACTIVE. AVOID! — SB County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff)December 2, 2015
This is a breaking news story and new information will be added as it becomes available. Please refresh this page for more updates.There's a "things that go bump in the night" theme with this week's special offers marking the broadcast of new Doctor Who on television...
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These offers all end at mid-day (UK time) on Monday 8th May. And talking of discounted chills, don't forget to also check out the Dark Shadows offers in place this weekend...WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama warned Russia on Friday that its bombing campaign against Syrian rebels will suck Moscow into a “quagmire,” after a third straight day of air raids in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
At a White House news conference, Obama frequently assailed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he accused of acting out of a position of weakness to defend a crumbling, authoritarian ally.
Friday prayers were canceled in insurgent-held areas of Syria’s Homs province hit by Russian warplanes this week, with residents concerned that mosques could be targeted, according to one person from the area.
Putin’s decision to launch strikes on Syria marks a dramatic escalation of foreign involvement in a more than four-year-old civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake.
It also gives fuel to domestic critics of Obama who say his unwillingness to act on Syria has allowed Moscow to stage its biggest show of force in the Middle East in decades.
But the U.S. president warned that Russia and Iran, Assad’s main backer in the Muslim world, have isolated the majority of Syrians and angered their Sunni Muslim neighbors.
“An attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire and it won’t work,” Obama said.
The Syria campaign is the first time Moscow has sent forces into combat beyond the frontiers of the former Soviet Union since the USSR’s disastrous Afghanistan campaign of the 1980s, a bold move by Putin to extend Russia’s influence beyond its neighborhood.
It comes at a low point in Russia’s relations with the West, a year after the United States and EU imposed financial sanctions on Moscow for annexing territory from Ukraine.
Obama on Friday offered to work with Russia to bring peace to Syria, but he took several digs at Putin, with whom he has a frosty relationship. A meeting between the two at the United Nations this week seems to have done little to produce a thaw.
“Mr. Putin had to go into Syria not out of strength, but out of weakness because his client Mr. Assad was crumbling and it was insufficient for him to send arms and money,” Obama said.
He played down international support for Moscow’s strategy, saying it paled in comparison to the number of countries backing U.S. air raids on Islamic State.
The U.S. president has been deeply reluctant to use more military force in Syria, after America’s experience of long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama also hit back at critics who say his Syria strategy of bombing Islamic State and supporting moderate rebels is failing.
“I hear people offering up half-baked ideas as if they are solutions or trying to downplay the challenges involved in the situation. What I’d like to see people ask is, specifically, precisely, what exactly would you do and how would you fund it and how would you sustain it? And typically, what you get is a bunch of mumbo jumbo,” he said.
BOMBING INSURGENTS
Russia bombed Syria for a third day in a row on Friday, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups rather than the Islamic State fighters it said it was targeting and drawing an increasingly angry response from the West.
The U.S.-led coalition that is waging its own air war against Islamic State called on the Russians to halt strikes on targets other than Islamic State.
Smoke rises after what activists said were Russian airstrikes in the southern countryside of Idlib, Syria October 2, 2015. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
In Syria, Islamic State is one of many groups of insurgents fighting against Assad. Washington and its Western and regional allies say Russia is using it as a pretext to bomb other groups that oppose Assad. Some of these groups have received training and weapons from Assad’s foreign enemies, including the United States.
Also on Friday, Putin held frosty talks with France’s Francois Hollande in Paris, the Russian leader’s first meeting with a Western leader since launching the strikes two days after he gave an address to the United Nations making the case to back Assad.
Warplanes were seen flying high above an area of Syria’s Homs province where Friday prayers were canceled. The area is held by anti-Assad rebels, but has no significant presence of Islamic State fighters.
“The streets are almost completely empty and there is an unannounced curfew,” said a resident, speaking from the town of Rastan which was hit in the first day of Russian air strikes.
Islamic State also canceled prayers in areas it controls, according to activists from its de facto capital Raqqa.
A Russian air strike on Thursday destroyed a mosque in the town of Jisr al-Shughour, captured from government forces by an alliance of Islamist insurgents earlier this year, activists said.
Western countries and Russia say they have a common enemy in Islamic State. But they also have very different allies and opposing views of how to resolve a war that has killed at least 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million from their homes.
Washington and its allies oppose both Islamic State and Assad, blaming him for attacks on civilians that have radicalized the opposition and insisting that he has no place in a post-war settlement.
Lebanese sources have told Reuters that hundreds of Iranian troops have also arrived in recent days in Syria to participate in a major ground offensive alongside government troops and their Lebanese and Iraqi Shi’ite militia allies.
Syria’s foreign minister said the U.S.-led coalition’s campaign against Islamic State was bound to fail.
Slideshow (8 Images)
“Air strikes are useless unless they are conducted in cooperation with the Syrian army, the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism,” Walid al-Moualem said in a speech to United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Moscow said on Friday its latest strikes had hit 12 Islamic State targets, but most of the areas it described were in western and northern parts of the country, while Islamic State is mostly present in the east.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its Sukhoi-34, Sukhoi-24M and Sukhoi-25 warplanes had flown 18 sorties hitting targets that included a command post and a communications center in the province of Aleppo, a militant field camp in Idlib and a command post in Hama.
A Defence Ministry official, Igor Konashenkov, later told Russian news agencies the Air Force had conducted 14 flights in Syria on Friday and made six strikes against Islamic State targets. The ministry was not immediately available to comment on the apparent discrepancy with the earlier figures.Vladimir Putin is Time magazine's Person of the Year, but the darkest Republican dark horse makes it on the list as a "Person Who Mattered," right up there with Britney Spears and Billiam the YouTube Snowman.
Booed by Republicans for his isolationist foreign policy views and anathema to Democrats for his anti-government philosophy, the Texas congressman was proudly out of step with both political parties. But marching to his own drummer, the grandfatherly libertarian found himself leading an online parade. Millions of dollars poured into his quixotic presidential campaign, raising an inevitable question: What's next for this free-thinking and strangely compelling grassroots crusader?
Paul's never been in higher demand than he's been this month. John Stossel's multi-part too-hot-for-TV interview continues here:
If North Korea invades South Korea, we should just leave it alone? Sure, but it's not going to happen. South Korea's about 10 times more powerful than North Korea. If China invaded Taiwan? That's a border war, and they should deal with it. If Canada invades Montana? I think that might be a little bit different. Montana probably could take care of it, but we'd probably help them out from Washington if that happened. That's a role for the federal government? Oh, sure.
Montana could probably take care of it. Spoken like a guy who wants to take the Feb. 5 Montana primary.
UPDATE: Looking over the list again I see that Paul and new Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are the only Republicans who made it. That sounds about right: None of the other GOP candidates have really "mattered." All but one of them will lose the primary, and that guy is odds-on favorite to lose the general election. And this really is the first time since... I don't know, 1856, that there hasn't been a GOP frontrunner by December. The race has been distinguished by the rise and implosion, at various points, of basically every candidate except Paul. Hawks are doubtless miffed that Erik Prince and Robert Gates got nods but St. Petraeus of Baghdad did not.
UPDATE II: Always click through! On the main page only the top two runners-up for POTY were listed: Al Gore and J.K. Rowling. David Petraeus was third, and he gets a little profile.When Rankin Paynter learned that the Kmart in his Kentucky town was closing, he decided to buy everything that remained on the store's shelves -- and give it all away.
Four cash registers and six-and-a-half hours after his shopping spree began, the benevolent businessman walked away with $200,000 worth of inventory and gave it all over to Clark County Community Services, a nonprofit that helps families in Winchester, Ky., facing crisis situations, WLEX reports.
"It's time to give back," the "Summer Santa" told the news source.
Judy Crowe of Clark County Community Services was blown away by Paynter's generosity and told WLEX that it was the single largest donation her organization has ever received. She also said that this is the first year her organization will have enough coats, hats and gloves to provide all the children it serves during the winter.
Know an inspiring person you'd like to nominate to be a Greatest Person of the Day? Click on the yellow submission bar at the top of the page.
Click through our slideshow below to read more inspiring stories of "Secret Santas" who helped out those in need.
SLIDESHOW:Not to be confused with Henry Hugh Gordon Stoker
Frank Owen Stoker (29 May 1867 – 8 January 1939) was an Irish tennis and rugby union player.[2][3] He is the only rugby international to have won Wimbledon.[2]
Stoker was Irish tennis champion (doubles) in 1890, 1891 and 1893 - 1895. In 1890 and 1893 he and Joshua Pim won the doubles in Wimbledon.[2] He was ranked world No. 7 for 1892 by Karoly Mazak.[4] He was a member of Landsdowne Lawn Tennis Club.[5]
He played five times for Ireland in rugby union between 1886-91.[2][3] Stoker was a Forward, he played four matches in the Home Nations Championships, and one against the touring New Zealand Natives side.
Stoker trained as a Dental Surgeon and qualified from the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland holding a LDS (Licence in Dental Surgery). He lived in Westland Row, Dublin and married Margaret(Rita) in 1900, they had daughters May, Norma, Joan and Ruth.
Grand Slam finals [ edit ]
Doubles (2 titles) [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Cotton, Fran (Ed.) (1984) The Book of Rugby Disasters & Bizarre Records (Compiled by Chris Rhys. London. Century Publishing. ISBN 0-7126-0911-3 )Internet Censorship Bills Won't Help Catch Sex Traffickers
from the and-might-make-it-harder dept
In the most illuminating part of last week's House subcommittee hearing on the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865), Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent Russ Winkler explained how he uses online platforms—particularly Backpage—to fight online sex trafficking. Winkler painted a fascinating picture of agents on his team posing as johns, gaining trust with traffickers, and apprehending them. His testimony demonstrated how, with proper training and resources, law enforcement officers can navigate the online platforms where sex work takes place to find and stop traffickers, especially those trafficking children.
It was a rare moment of clarity in the debate over FOSTA and its sibling bill, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA, S. 1693). Since these bills were introduced, there's been little discussion of how law enforcement officers use the online platforms that the bills would threaten and how SESTA and FOSTA would make it more difficult for law enforcement to do its work. Winkler made it crystal clear how heavily his work relies on online platforms: "We've conducted operations and investigations involving numerous perpetrators and victims. The one constant we encounter in our investigations is use of online platforms like Backpage.com by buyers and sellers of underage sex."
There are some differences between SESTA and FOSTA, but their impact on the Internet would be the same. A website or other online platform could be liable under both civil and criminal law, at both the state and federal levels, for the sex trafficking activities of its users. Since it can be very difficult to determine whether a given posting online is in aid of sex trafficking, the bills would almost certainly force websites to become significantly more restrictive in what sorts of content they allow. Many victims of trafficking would likely be pushed off the Internet entirely, as well as sex workers who weren't being trafficked.
Winkler didn't show much interest in the idea of targeting online intermediaries—and neither did fellow witness Derri Smith of End Slavery Tennessee. Understandably, their focus isn't on holding Internet companies liable for user-generated content; it's on prosecuting the traffickers themselves and getting trafficking victims out of horrific situations.
When Rep. Marsha Blackburn asked both Tennessee panelists what they need to successfully fight trafficking, neither panelist mentioned proposals like SESTA and FOSTA at all. They discussed more important measures aimed at finding and stopping traffickers and supporting survivors. Winkler referenced changes in state law "to make it more punishable for both buyers and |
.co/X9j3MPrjpX — Dominique Jones (@DominiqueJones5) July 1, 2016
It's hard to feel too bad for NFL players making hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. But it's not hard to see why they might feel some type of way about making hundreds of thousands of dollars while mediocre NBA players are now making tens of millions.Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
This is God’s work. Or at the very least, the work of a Grand Maester. Joeltronics made this very useful graph that shows which episode of Game of Thrones the TV show corresponds to which chapter and which book in the A Song of Ice and Fire books (aka the Game of Thrones books). That way you know what’s been shown when and what’s been omitted in the story.
If you were a book reader originally, you see what the TV show misses. If you were a TV show watcher first, you get to see where the series stands in relation to the books. If you’re neither, well what’s wrong with you.
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You can also check out the more interactive version of the graph here.
(For the graphs below, click the magnifying glass to embiggen and then open that image in a new tab to zoom in)
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You can find a chronological version of the graph below (A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, book 4 and 5 in the series happen in the same timeframe with different characters in each book):While mathematically still alive, the Phoenix Suns can safely start looking to next season, as the 109-97 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder has the Suns a full four games back with just eight to play. The proverbial fat lady has sung, so it’s time to look back at what went wrong this season — I’ve broken it down into three main categories.
CONSISTENCY
This has been an issue in my eyes all season, in a couple of different areas. First, bench consistency has been brutal. Minute distribution and defined roles have been nearly non-existent in coach Jeff Hornacek‘s gameplan this season. I’ve argued back and forth with other writers on this one, but my opinion is that players need to know what their role is and the coach needs to give that player an opportunity to play.
We can call this the “Gerald Green” rule. Earlier in the year, Green was getting pretty consistent minutes alongside Isaiah Thomas as the first two scorers off the bench. Then, Green got a mysterious DNP-CD on January 30th against the Bulls and since then his minute distribution looks more like this:
In my eyes, one of the most dangerous things you can do to a player like Green is cause him to look over his shoulder. Coach Hornacek has been using his bench players based on matchups and “feel.” He’s also been quick to pull guys who aren’t performing well, which sounds normal in theory, but in practice it causes guys to play tighter and force the issue, fearing they’ll be benched after their next miss.
Since that benching, Green has been a healthy scratch six more times. In the 19 games he’s appeared in since then, he’s averaging 6.5 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists with a shooting line of.358/.236/.625. For some contrast, in the first 19 games of the season (when he was playing more consistently), he averaged 14.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists with a shooting line of.432/.373/.881.
This inconsistency isn’t unique to the rotations, either. Guys like Eric Bledsoe and Markieff Morris have been all over the board for the better part of the season. The 6-foot-10 Morris is capable of pulling down 8-9 rebounds per game and has done just that over his last six (8.2 per game), but his previous nine he averaged just 4.6. Bledsoe has been the best player on the team, but he’s not exempt here either.
To be fair, Eric’s been burning the candle at both ends. He’s expected to be the main playmaker on offense and he’s often guarding the ball handler on defense. When he’s at his best, he’s crashing the glass hard and sprinting 90 feet the other way. He’s averaging 36.6 minutes per game in March with 17.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game, but he’s also shooting just 43.5 percent and is turning the ball over 4.4 times.
Consistency in rotations is part of that, because Eric hasn’t been able to get the rest he needs and he looks exhausted out there. Again, let’s be fair — Brandon Knight has been hurt and Archie Goodwin hasn’t been great, so Hornacek has gone back to the Bledsoe well early and often. It’s not like he has too many options.
CHEMISTRY
I wrote earlier in the year how the Suns seemed to finally be getting closer as a team. Instead of 15 individuals showing up to work, doing their duties and then going home, it looked on and off the court that they were enjoying being together. Bledsoe and Goran Dragic were smiling and embracing, they were joking in the lockerroom and it felt like a much more jovial atmosphere. Then, the bomb dropped.
Nobody saw it coming, but apparently behind closed doors there was a lot of tension. Isaiah Thomas came out and talked about how it wasn’t him doing the complaining and how he was just going out, doing his job, being as professional as he could be.
I. Thomas on reportedly complaining about playing time, "The guy that complained, you seen it in the media. I didn't say anything." #Suns — Jeffrey Sanders (@JeSanders11) February 24, 2015
So, instead of dealing with one or the other, the Suns sent both Dragic and Thomas away in separate deals — a real head-scratcher if I’ve ever seen one. They went from a surplus in point guards to a gaping hole of a deficit that ultimately cost them the chance to make the playoffs this season.
The Suns sugarcoated the deals as looking into the future, trying to bring in guys who could compete for championships instead of just pushing to sneak into the playoffs. They traded away their most consistent, affable player and their best fourth-quarter closer for upside and risk. So far, it’s looking like the degenerate gambler who put all their money on red, when we all know what the best play is:
Since trading Dragic away, the Suns are just 9-11, they’re shooting just 30 percent from the 3-point line (29th in the NBA) and are averaging just 97.9 points. For the season, the Suns are just 6-21 when scoring under 100 points. When trailing heading to the fourth quarter, they’re just 8-26. That chemistry and familiarity among teammates is something that crops up late in games, when players need to understand and trust each other. Phoenix just doesn’t have that right now.
Blowing a 20-point lead last night against the Thunder wasn’t the first time it’s happened and probably won’t be the last. In close games, Phoenix has the least wins and the most losses of anyone in the conference, going just 3-10 in games decided by three points or less. In the NBA, you need an offensive superstar or strong team play to win those games — Phoenix has neither.
COACHING
Who’s most likely to take the blame? If an axe were to fall, I’d guess it would fall on Hornacek (though I think he deserves another season, after all the turmoil from this one). The fact is, watching Hornacek all year has me a bit confused. You’d think he’d have his team’s ear, as a guy with pretty impressive playing credentials. Instead, he’s consistently frustrated on the sidelines, urging his team to do something they’re obviously not doing.
Here’s what happened when Hornacek challenged Marcus Morris, after picking up a technical for arguing with referees. Now, this is the extreme — but I can tell you from watching closely that it’s not uncommon to see guys barking back at Hornacek throughout the game.
Watch a veteran coach like Gregg Popovich and see how often his players do that to him. I don’t want to hear “they’re just passionate” or anything like that. It’s a blatant sign of disrespect — and that disrespect is bred by how coach Hornacek allows his players to act. The old adage “you teach people how they can treat you” applies here, and Hornacek has allowed this to go on too long.
The frustration seems to be centered around a common theme — miscommunication. Plays aren’t being run the way Hornacek wants them to be. Defenders aren’t making the proper rotations. Players are losing focus and are giving points away due to being mentally exhausted. When we look at all the problems this team has faced, it’s a bit of a miracle that they’re still over.500.
After last season’s 48-34 finish and this season’s 40-42 win pace, things can still be on the upswing in Phoenix. Bledsoe, Knight, Markieff Morris and Alex Len give the Suns four solid starters for years to come. T.J. Warren and Archie Goodwin have come a long way since the beginning of the season. P.J. Tucker and Brandan Wright have filled their roles nicely. From here, it’s about growth as a team.
The talent is there — they just need some quality control. Coach Hornacek needs to lay down the law and ensure his messages are clear, concise and with purpose. The players need to stay focused and sharp, and they will with more consistency in their games. An offseason together gives the team a chance to grow as teammates. This may go down as a lost season that started with great promise, but there’s always next year.Just Google “atmospheric river” and – BAM! – the doom and gloom is in your face:
“Atmospheric river will blast California with heavy rain and snow ‘measured in feet”!
“Risk of significant California flooding”!
“California will be pummeled”!
So what is this big bad “river” in the sky that the meteorologists and their media waterboys keep screaming will be upon us starting this weekend? And must they really make it look as if the sky were, well, falling?
News reports are warning us to brace for both flood-worthy rainfall and a ton of snow in the Sierras. In fact, the wet times have already begun as Winter Storm Helena dumped the first round of heavy mountain snow and rainfall on much of the Western United States.
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Now comes ”the river.” Starting on Saturday and continuing through Monday, the forecasters are telling us, an atmospheric river will deliver even heavier rainfall and rising snow levels, possibly triggering floods that the National Weather Service says could be the greatest we’ve seen in these parts since December 2005.
For most of us, “atmospheric river” seems to be a weather term that came out of nowhere this year and is suddenly on everyone’s lips (and in their hashtags). Look, for instance, at what Daniel Swain of the California Weather Blog just tweeted:
Pretty amazing animation of water vapor transport associated with major #AtmosphericRiver event this week. #CAwx https://t.co/Pw6YTFMB8K pic.twitter.com/ZIMtQNfJai — Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) January 4, 2017
We could not have asked for a clearer picture of what an atmospheric river LOOKS like. But what in the heck is it?
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In Sierra Nevada, some ski resorts report record February snowfall We called meteorologist Brian Mejia with the National Weather Service in Monterey to help us sort it all out:
Q So is the term ‘’atmospheric river’’ a new one for you guys like it is for us laymen?
A It’s not new, I can tell you that. I’m not sure how long we’ve been using it; a couple of decades probably. But it’s something we learn in school and it’s a common phrase in meteorology.
Reading this on your iPhone or iPad? Check out our new Apple News app channel here and click the + at the top of the page to save to your Apple News favorites.
Q So what’s it mean?
A Typically, you hear the term more on the West Coast because we get these low-pressure systems that transport moisture and water vapor. And if they get deep enough they put out a plume, like plumes of clouds, and we’re now looking at just such a moisture plume being carried out by the storm system and into the heart of California.
Q So it really is a river in the air?
A Yes. The one we’re expecting this weekend is coming from a system that’s kind of just sitting there well off in the central Pacific and it just throws out this plume of moisture, typically from west to east or southwest to northeast. We use the river metaphor because the plume flows like a river and you can see its outline if you loop it in satellite images, being transported by the wind. That’s what’s coming to California this weekend, and it’s bigger than the river that came through earlier this week.
Q So this river will dump a lot of itself on the state?
A We won’t know until it arrives, but we’re looking at trending toward a very, very wet weekend. And it’ll affect the entire state in some way. Southern California won’t get as much rain as the central and northern parts, but there’s definitely the possibility of flooding.
Q Is the Pineapple Express, and I don’t mean the movie, such a river?
A It’s very similar. The Express is a type of atmospheric river, named that because you can see the plume coming from Hawaii into California.
Q How wide can these rivers get?
A They come in different shapes and sizes; some are more narrow bands of moisture, some are pretty thick. This one looks like it’s going to be pretty deep and very wide, which is why most of California will be impacted. We’re talking hundreds of miles wide, so at least half the state will fall within this area of transported moisture.
Q Do you yourself hear more and more people using the term ‘’atmospheric river’’?
A I do. And we’re actually trying to use it a lot in our social-media posts and our interviews because the media loves to use terms that people can understand. And the river is a good term because people can almost see that river in the sky and relate to it.
And what might this river look like once it dumps everything it’s got down upon all us?
Well, have a look:
Credit: NOAAPolitical analysts (including The Fix) spend a good bit of time these days talking about important voter groups -- Latino voters and female voters, in particular.
But all of the focus on these groups has obfuscated one fact: Mitt Romney is performing very, very well among white voters. And in fact, most recent polls show him winning the white vote by more than any GOP presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan.
Some recent national polls have shown Romney losing the Latino vote by upwards of 40 or 50 points -- a result that, if it came to pass, would significantly hurt the GOP's chances of winning the White House, given the rapid growth in the Latino population.
But even if Romney sustains a huge loss on the Latino vote, he could very well offset that (and much more) by out-performing his Republican predecessors when it comes to white voters, which are still about seven times as much of the electorate as Latinos. Indeed, it's not unreasonable to think that Romney could win 60 percent or more of white voters this year.
The most recent national polls from four pollsters -- Gallup, Monmouth University, Fox News and the Pew Research Center -- all show Romney winning the white vote by more than 20 points. That's something no GOP presidential candidate has done since Reagan's landslide 1984 reelection win.
(The most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, we should note, shows him winning whites by just 11 percent.)
In 2008, white voters made up nearly three-fourths of the vote, while Latinos comprised 9 percent. Let's say that, in the election on Nov. 6, there is a surge in the Latino vote (up to 11 percent of the electorate) and a coinciding drop in the white vote (down to 72 percent).
Given how small the Latino vote remains, the difference between losing it by 36 points -- as John McCain did in 2008 -- and losing it by 45 points -- a worst-case scenario for Romney -- amounts to about a 1 percent overall shift in the national race.
Meanwhile, if Romney won the white vote by 22 percent -- a 10-point improvement over McCain -- that would gain him 7 percent of the national vote over McCain and essentially even out the national popular vote.
None of this is to say, of course, that the Latino vote isn't important. It's a fast-growing part of the electorate and one that Republicans are going to have to start competing better for in the very near future -- and preferably, for them, this year.
And as the Latino vote grows, the white vote becomes less and less of the electorate.
But as far as the 2012 election goes, Romney's strength among white voters could very well offset his and the Republican Party's continued struggles among minorities, and be good enough to win Romney the presidency.
GOP closes early vote deficit in Iowa: Early vote numbers continue to trickle in in Iowa -- the only major swing state that currently has in-person early voting and party registration numbers -- and they're looking better for Republicans.
While Iowa Democrats were voting almost three times as often as Republicans early this month, the GOP has steadily closed the gap. At present, 50 percent of ballots cast are from Democrats and 30 percent are from Republicans.
The GOP lost early voting 47 percent to 29 percent in Iowa in 2008 and lost the state by nine points. So they'll want to continue closing that gap. But they're headed in the right direction right now.
Meanwhile, the GOP is also gaining on absentee ballots in Florida (in-person early voting hasn't begun there), though its current five-point edge is still shy of its 16 percentage point win on absentees in 2008.
Fixbits:
Vice President Biden says Romney was "sketchy" at Tuesday's debate.
Tagg Romney says Obama calling his father a liar made him want to "take a swing at him."
A Chicago Tribune report says Obama will hold his election night party at McCormick Place in Chicago.
Nearly two in five women say abortion is their No. 1 issue in this election.
A top aide to Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) says he will run for his fourth full term in 2014.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) endorses his former Democratic colleague, ex-senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.).
Must-reads:
"The Four Ls and Four States: What's Next in the Obama-Romney Duel" -- Major Garrett, National Journal
"George Allen shows a more cautious, humbler side" -- Marc Fisher, Washington Post
"As Governor, Romney’s Eagerness to Hire Women Faded" -- Michael Wines, New York Times
"Romney’s first step into political arena, vs. Ted Kennedy in 1994, was a cautious one" -- Jason Horowitz, Washington PostHans Eduard Suess (December 16, 1909 – September 20, 1993)[1] was an Austrian born American physical chemist and nuclear physicist. He was a grandson of the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess.
Career [ edit ]
Suess earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Vienna in 1935 under the supervision of Philipp Gross[2]. During World War II, he was part of a team of German scientists studying nuclear power and was advisor to the production of heavy water in a Norwegian plant (see Operation Gunnerside).
After the war, he collaborated on the shell model of the atomic nucleus with future (1963) Nobel Prize winner Hans Jensen.[3]
In 1950, Suess emigrated to the United States. He did research in the field of cosmochemistry, investigating the abundance of certain elements in meteorites with Harold Urey (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1934) at the University of Chicago. In 1955, Suess was recruited for the faculty of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and in 1958 he became one of the four founding faculty members of the University of California, San Diego. He remained at UCSD as Professor until 1977 and as Emeritus Professor thereafter.[3] He established a laboratory at UCSD for carbon-14 determinations, where he trained students including Ellen R.M. Druffel,[4] now the Fred Kavli Professor of Earth System Science at University of California, Irvine.[5]
Suess's most recent research was focused on the distribution of carbon-14 and tritium in the oceans and atmosphere. On basis of radiocarbon analyses of annual growth-rings of trees he contributed to
the calibration of the radiocarbon dating scale, and
the study of the magnitude of the dilution of atmospheric radiocarbon by carbon dioxide from fossil fuels burned since the industrial revolution. This dilution is known as the Suess effect (see articles about the anthropogenic greenhouse effect).
The mineral suessite, a Fe, Ni-silicide in Enstatit-Chondrites, is named after him.[6]
Death [ edit ]
On September 20, 1993, Suess died in a La Jolla retirement home.[7]
Name confusion [ edit ]
Suess was frequently confused—by the US Postal Service among others—with a contemporary, the famed children's writer Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), when both men resided in La Jolla, California. The two names have been posthumously linked as well: both men's personal papers are housed in the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego.[8]
Notes [ edit ]These partisans have not been hiding; they are only drawn into the public realm when fear is evoked. It is this same anxiety that’s emerged in Oklahoma because of the new Advanced Placement U.S. History guidelines. In a later interview, Califano captured the root of that anxiety: "Many, many of our young people get their view of history from films and television," he said. "It’s important for people who make movies that claim to be historically accurate to be accurate." When the established memory of figures and events from the past is challenged, both the defenders and opponents of that memory will fight to influence the young.
The passion and urgency with which these battles are fought reflect the misguided way history is taught in schools. Currently, most students learn history as a set narrative—a process that reinforces the mistaken idea that the past can be synthesized into a single, standardized chronicle of several hundred pages. This teaching pretends that there is a uniform collective story, which is akin to saying everyone remembers events the same. Yet, history is anything but agreeable. It is not a collection of facts deemed to be "official" by scholars on high. It is a collection of historians exchanging different, often conflicting analyses. And rather than vainly seeking to transcend the inevitable clash of memories, American students would be better served by descending into the bog of conflict and learning the many "histories" that compose the American national story.
Califano is explicitly worried that future Americans will remember Lyndon B. Johnson differently than he does. Oklahoma state Representative Dan Fisher, a Republican, appears worried that future Americans will have a different understanding of their country’s past than he does, too. Fisher recently introduced a bill that would have defunded AP U.S. History in the state, claiming that the College Board, which runs the AP program, published a revised framework that harps on "what is bad about America" and fails to teach "American exceptionalism." (The controversial effort garnered a good deal of criticism, and Fisher has since backtracked on the legislation.) The memories of Fisher, Califano, Courtney, and Wilson have clashed with the memories of others.
Perhaps Fisher offers the nation an opportunity to divorce, once and for all, memory from history. History may be an attempt to memorialize and preserve the past, but it is not memory; memories can serve as primary sources, but they do not stand alone as history. A history is essentially a collection of memories, analyzed and reduced into meaningful conclusions—but that collection depends on the memories chosen.
Memories make for a risky foundation: As events recede further into the past, the facts are distorted or augmented by entirely new details—something the NBC news anchor Brian Williams learned to devastating effect. An individual who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge probably remembers the events in Selma differently than someone who helped Johnson advance legislation in Washington. Both people construct unique memories while informing perfectly valid histories. Just as there is a plurality of memories, so, too, is there a plurality of histories.Growth and success have allowed Timōtheus Brothers Brewery to expand further leading to the recent addition of a three-barrel all electric system with a glycol chiller. With this chiller, the brewers are now able to manipulate the temperature of their fermenting beers, giving them better control over their final product. This larger system will also yield higher volumes – meaning an increase in quality and batch size; a welcome blessing for beer drinkers everywhere.
Timōtheus Brothers Brewery is currently retailing 22 oz. bottles at Bunn Gourmet, County Market, Friar Tuck, HyVee, and West of Wise Winery with tap service available at Boones Saloon, HyVee/Market Grill, Westwood’s Lodge and Arlington’s in Springfield, Fire and Ale in Sherman, Danenberger Family Vineyards in New Berlin, Spirited Republic in Lincoln and Sheedy Shores Winery in Loami. Their beer is also available at Friar Tuck and Hyvee in Bloomington and Darlings Dine and Draft in Peoria Heights.
The brothers hope to open a tasting room shortly, which will offer free tastings with bottles, growlers, and kegs to go – a departure from typical bar type tasting rooms. We can’t wait to see what other surprises they have to offer.
Here is a complete list of Timōtheus Brothers Brewery offerings:
Sunset Blonde
Sunset Blonde is an All-American ale with impeccable quality. The ale yeast contributes a complex fruity flavor and bread-like aroma. This beer has a light malty flavor with a pleasant touch of citrus, giving it a unique and refreshing quality. 5.1% ABV. Pairs well with pizza, red meat, and poultry.
Red Knight
This is a hybrid wheat beer with a blended a combination of red and white wheat to enhance your tasting pleasure. As a twist, the brothers have added a pilsner malt to finish it off. This, with their choice of hops, makes it a full flavored malty experience. 5.4% ABV. Pairs well with pizza, red meat, poultry, and fish.
Summer Ale
Even though summer is officially over, that doesn’t mean that our taste buds know that. This clean beer has a refreshing taste of citrus and sunshine. Lightly hopped for all to enjoy. 4.8% ABV. Pairs well with pizza, burgers, and hors d'oeuvres.
Scotty O’Jays
This is a take on an American Irish Red Ale. The brothers have blended an American yeast with Irish style malts to create an amazing red ale. The full flavored malty smooth finish all the way to the last drop matches the deep, rich, red color. 5.7% ABV. Pairs well with red meats and spicy foods.
Veteran Brat
This beer is not over the top hoppy and by no means weak on the palate. This pale ale is a great tasting beer that leaves you asking for more. The beer is named after the brothers’ father who was a veteran, which makes them ‘military brats’. 5.2% ABV. Pairs well with spicy foods, fish, pork, and red meat.
Arm Breaker
What a name for a session IPA. With an over the top aroma of centennial hops and clean crisp hoppy flavor, this is a great full-bodied beer without the higher alcohol content. Your mouth will surely be asking for another. 5.3 % ABV. Pairs well pork, salads, and spicy foods.Obamanomics in Action: Worst Labor Force Participation Rate Since 1977
Obamanomics in action–
The Obama economy added only 142,000 jobs in September – much lower than expected.
The US labor participation rate is the lowest it’s been since October 1977.
** After the worst recovery since World War II the US economy is moving towards recession.
CNS News reported:
A record 94,610,000 Americans were not in the American labor force last month — an increase of 579,000 from August — and the labor force participation rate reached its lowest point in 38 years, with 62.4 percent of the U.S. population either holding a job or actively seeking one. In other disappointing news, the economy added only 142,000 jobs in September, well below economists’ expectations, but the unemployment rate remained at 5.1 percent, where it was in August… …In September, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population, consisting of all people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 251,325,000. Of those, 156,715,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one. The 156,715,000 who participated in the labor force equaled only 62.4 percent of the 251,325,000 civilian noninstitutional population. The last time the labor force participation was as low as 62.4 percent was in October 1977.From an anonymous trader/investor:
CNBC Video Clip Denying Existence of Plunge Protection Team (aka President’s Working Group on Financial Markets:
The link below contains the CNBC video clip and GATA discussion wherein the CNBC crew are AMAZED to learn about market intervention by the PPT of the S&P futures or that such a group and its activities even exists. MSM at its best in trying to suppress the truth.
CNBC VIDEO PPT
Well, well, well … it’s early morning and a guest on CNBC’s Squawk Box blurted out in vociferous fashion about how The Working Group on Financial Markets, or the Plunge Protection Team, has been active in the S&P futures markets … most notably on October 10 and 24. He mentioned that late market action in which the S&P rose 100 points from low to high for no apparent reason, and that the US Government was in no mood to let the markets close for the weekend(s) in a near state of panic.
The guest, Scott Nations, President of Fortress Trading, refused to back down. Bet you won’t be seeing him back anytime soon.
>This wiki page is outdated
This page on ARM Chromebook support is fairly out of date. Someone interested in helping support ARM Chromebooks would be appreciated. Please reach out to the ARM team on list or IRC.
ARM Chromebooks
There's currently a number of ARM (currently all are ARMv7) based Chromebooks base on a few specific SoCs.
They are:
Samsung Exynos:
Snow (Exynos 5240)
Peach-pit CB2 (Exynos 5800, 1080p, microSD)
Peach-pi CB2 (Exynos 5420)
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-chromebook-2
NVIDIA Tegra K1:
Acer nyan-big (1080p HD version, and non-HD variant)
HP nyan-blaze (discontinued)
Rockchips:
Asus flip
Asus c201p - (RK3288 - 2GiB / 4GiB memory - 16GB eMMC - microSD slot - Mali T764 - 1366 x 768 - 3.14 factory kernel)
Preparing Fedora
Start by downloading your Fedora, here we use the XFCE variant, but you can choose another at the download site:
http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/23/Images/armhfp/
$ cd /var/tmp $ wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/23/Images/armhfp/Fedora-Xfce-armhfp-23-10-sda.raw.xz $ unxz -v Fedora-Xfce-armhfp-23-10-sda.raw.xz
Next you mount the raw disk image, and extract the rootfs. (Note the loop devices in the output)
$ sudo kpartx -av /var/tmp/Fedora-Xfce-armhfp-23-10-sda.raw $ sudo dd if=/dev/mapper/loop0p3 of=/var/tmp/Fedora-23-Xfce-rootfs.ext4 conv=fsync status=progress $ sudo kpartx -d /var/tmp/Fedora-Xfce-armhfp-23-10-sda.raw
At this point you may optionally shrink ext4 rootfs. (It will be expanded in a later step)
$ sudo e2fsck -f /var/tmp/Fedora-23-Xfce-rootfs.ext4 $ sudo resize2fs -fM /var/tmp/Fedora-23-Xfce-rootfs.ext4
Label the rootfs, and apply a new UUID
$ UUID=$(uuidgen) $ sudo tune2fs -U "$UUID" -L "ROOTFS" /var/tmp/Fedora-23-Xfce-rootfs.ext4
Create the partitions (Note: You may want to change the size of boot and swap partitions.)
$ truncate --size=7GiB /var/tmp/chromebook-xfce.raw $ sgdisk -a 8192 -n 1:0:+24M -t 1:7F00 -c 1:"KERN-A" -A 1:=:0x011F000000000000 \ -n 2:0:+24M -t 2:7F00 -c 2:"KERN-B" -A 2:=:0x011A000000000000 \ -n 3:0:+1G -t 3:8300 -c 3:"BOOT" \ -n 4:0:+1G -t 4:8200 -c 4:"SWAP" \ -n 5:0:0 -t 5:8300 -c 5:"ROOTFS" /var/tmp/chromebook-xfce.raw
Write the Xfce rootfs to the partition.
$ sudo kpartx -avg /var/tmp/chromebook-xfce.raw $ sudo dd if=/var/tmp/Fedora-23-Xfce-rootfs.ext4 of=/dev/mapper/loop0p5 bs=2M conv=fsync status=progress $ sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/mapper/loop0p5 $ sudo resize2fs -f /dev/mapper/loop0p5
Setup the swap device
$ UUID_SWAP=$(uuidgen) $ sudo mkswap -U "$UUID_SWAP" -L 'SWAP' /dev/mapper/loop0p4
Setup the Fedora boot partition
$ UUID_BOOT=$(uuidgen) $ sudo mkfs.ext4 -m0 -U "$UUID_BOOT" -L 'BOOT' /dev/mapper/loop0p3
Mount the filesystems
$ sudo mount /dev/mapper/loop0p5 /mnt $ sudo mount /dev/mapper/loop0p3 /mnt/boot
Configure the filesystem table
su -c "cat <<-EOF > /mnt/etc/fstab UUID=$UUID / ext4 defaults 1 1 UUID=$UUID_SWAP swap swap defaults 0 0 UUID=$UUID_BOOT /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 EOF"
Optionally chroot into the mounted rootfs. You may want to make configuration changes, or install packages. (Note: this requires you be operating from an ARMv7 system already) You should also remove x from the /etc/passwd file for the root user, that will allow us to fall into emergency shell if required.
$ sudo chroot /mnt bash # dnf download vboot-utils # vim /etc/passwd # exit
Dis-mount the filesystems and teardown the loop device
$ sudo umount --recursive /mnt $ sudo kpartx -dvg /var/tmp/chromebook-xfce.raw
Write the Fedora image to your SDcard (Note: for example purpose the fictional sdcard device is "/dev/sdz", and it will most certainly be different for you)
$ sudo dd if=/var/tmp/chromebook-xfce.raw of=/dev/sdz bs=2M conv=fsync $ sudo partprobe /dev/sdz
Move the GPT backup header to the end of storage, expand the ROOTFS partition, and grow the rootfs within.
$ sudo sgdisk -a8192 -e -d5 -n5:0:0 -t5:8300 -c5:'ROOTFS' -p /dev/sdz $ sudo e2fsck -f /dev/sdz5 $ sudo resize2fs /dev/sdz5
From within ChromeOS
Enable developer mode by simultaneously pressing 'POWER + REFRESH + ESC'
In the boot recovery screen press 'CTRL + D'
After an arbitrary amount of time passes you will reboot into developer mode
To boot into ChromeOS, Press 'CTRL + D' (or wait 30 seconds)
[Optionally, wait for ChromeOS to update it's kernel before proceeding.]
Once you have login to ChromeOS, open the terminal by pressing 'CTRL + ALT + T'
From the terminal, get root by typing'shell' and then'sudo -i'
Insert the prepared Fedora sdcard into the chromebook.
Re-pack the ChromeOS kernel
# cd /media/removable/BOOT/ # dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p2 of=/tmp/kern-a.blob conv=fsync # eval $(blkid -o export /dev/mmcblk1p5) # cat <<-EOF > /media/removable/ |
told her that the wheat crop was doing very well. The wealth that built mansion houses between 1780 and 1850 did not come from agricultural production alone, but with income derived from the sale of lands outside of Albemarle (as the Marks’ family did), shrewd investments in stores, canals, turnpikes and railroads, and perhaps the loan of money to neighbors at exorbitant rates of interest. (Moore, p. 18, 33)
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a number of planters initiated agricultural reforms on land depleted by tobacco production, poor farming methods and erosion. Planters grew wheat instead of tobacco, and applied plaster and clover to improve the soil. The Albemarle Agricultural Society, founded in 1817, promoted agricultural innovations and education. They sponsored the first county fair and provided leadership and influence on a national level through the nation’s first agricultural journal, The American Farmer. One of the key players in beginning the agricultural society was William Douglas Meriwether of “Clover Fields.” (PEC, pp.16-17) Farming at “Locust Hill” would have followed the new agricultural protocols and the crops would have been changed to mostly grains.
Until Meriwether Lewis reached the age of majority, his guardians managed the estate at “Locust Hill.” After the death of his step-father, John Marks, Meriwether became head of the family at the age of eighteen, and took over the day-to-day running of the plantation. He, no doubt, benefited from advice from older relatives and, of course, he had an overseer to manage the field hands and supervise the planting and harvesting of crops. When the call went out from President Washington for more troops to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, Meriwether joined the Virginia militia. “He felt secure in the thought that his mother was capable of attending the affairs of “Locust Hill,” thus relieving him of the estate management he found so irksome.” (Saindon, p. 106) Lucy, as a young girl, would have received training in the skills needed to manage the household of such a plantation from her mother. The mistress was expected to be the first to rise and the last to go to retire; she carried the keys to the larder and delegated the tasks of the day for the slaves and the children. They saw to both the family and the slave families for minor medical problems. (Meriwether, 73) Lucy, being an intelligent and observant woman, probably learned the running of a plantation beyond the house from watching and assisting her husbands.
After Meriwether’s stint with the militia he joined the regular army in 1795; became President Jefferson’s private secretary in 1801, followed by his appointment to lead the northwest expedition in 1804. Thus, Lucy assumed the duties of a full time planter, a position which lasted until her death in 1837. Once her daughter Jane and her husband, Edmund, returned to Locust Hill, Lucy would have had help. Her son Reuben returned to Albemarle County in 1820 and began farming on an adjacent estate.
We know that Lucy became a Methodist and we assume she converted when she was living in Georgia. By the time she returned to Virginia in 1792, the first Methodist church, Mt. Moriah, had been built in the White Hall section of Albemarle County, less than seven miles from “Locust Hill.” Mt. Moriah may have been the church Lucy and her family attended, at least until she gave land closer to home for the building of Shiloh Church. Albemarle Methodists were known for the evangelizing of slaves and they assumed the mantle of the Quakers in opposing slavery.
We do not know Lucy’s thoughts on slavery and abolition. She was a woman of her time and culture. For many southerners, the success of their plantations and their wealth was dependent on their slaves. Freeing their work force would have been economically ruinous. We do know that Lucy treated her slaves humanely and felt protective of them. Evidence of this exists in her will: she bequeathed certain slaves to her daughter with the caveat that she “keep and maintain all the old and valuable slaves that may be on the plantation at her death so long as they may live.” From a 1778 letter written to her by a slave called Uncle Paul, we can guess that she taught some of her slaves to read and write. “Uncle Paul” reported that he was doing well, but there is no indication of whether he had been hired out, or sold a new master or was free.
We also know that at her death, Lucy owned 47 slaves. In 1803, acting as the executrix of John Marks’ estate, she sold “two negroes, a woman named Caty and her child, Lewis, to Reuben for £100.” Growing crops that were less labor intensive than tobacco created the need for fewer slaves to work on farmers’ lands and therefore, some slaves were rented out to those who needed additional help. In 1821, a receipt indicates that Lucy hired out a “boy” for a year at the rate of $1,822 plus $45 “to return said boy well clothed.”
Finally, in 1842, five years after Lucy’s own death, her daughter Jane Lewis Anderson died. For the benefit of the legatees of her will, there was a valuation and division of Negroes. There were seventeen persons in all; seven adults and ten children, all of which had been inherited from her mother in 1838. Some slaves were purchased by Jane’s son, Dr. Meriwether Lewis Anderson, and others by neighbors and relatives. (Special Collections, UVA, Library: see “Documents” section of this web site)
A major financial crisis hit the United States in the 1820’s and had a negative effect on the profitability of agricultural products. We know that Reuben suffered financial problems as there are several letters from people to whom he owed money. (Special Collections, UVA Library) In one instance, he transferred ownership of some slaves to settle a debt. Another letter asked him to honor two debts of $980 each. It is probable that Lucy, her daughter Jane and Jane’s children, living together at “Locust Hill” had the same worries. Perhaps this is when Lucy decided to press for the seven-and-a-half years pay due to the widows of Revolutionary War officers. Her claim was based on her marriage to Lt. William Lewis but it was unsuccessful, even when her heirs pressed the case in the U. S. House of Representatives in 1842.
Lucy’s Will
Lucy remained active in her doctoring into her eighties. Perhaps like Thomas Jefferson, she believed that the habit of exercise preserved health because, according to family accounts, even in old age, she continued to ride on horseback around the countryside visiting the sick, both slave and free. (Jefferson continued his daily rides up to three weeks before his death.) Her good health not withstanding, Lucy was a realist, so four months after her eightieth birthday, on June 23, 1832, she wrote and signed a last will and testament. To her only surviving son Reuben, she bequeathed an additional few acres adjoining the land she had previously given him and on which he resided at” Valley Point.” She also left him “my Negro man named Jack” and a third part of her stock of horses.
To Jane she left “all the balance of my land at Locust Hill….containing the houses, orchards, gardens…all my household and kitchen furniture. The stock of all kinds, all my plantation tools and farming utensils including wagons, carts, carriages, etc. Also my Negro Woman Betsy and her six children…my Negro boy Richard otherwise called Dick and also Negro boy William with this understanding that my daughter Jane Anderson do keep and maintain all the old and valuable slaves that may on the plantation at my death so long as they may live, also two thirds of my stock of horses and my patent leves [sic] watch.
To her youngest daughter, Mary Garland Marks Moore who lived in Alabama with her family, Lucy left “my Negro woman Unity and her six children…. also the sum of five hundred dollars to be paid twelve months after my death.” Perhaps there was conflict between Mary and her half-siblings Jane and Reuben because Lucy added:
I give the above legacy with this express understanding and provision to my executors. Whereas Col. John Marks, my late husband, made provision in his last will among other things that two female slaves should be purchased for the benefit of his two infant children of whom Mary G. Moore is the survivor and whereas but one female slave was ever purchased by me who with her future increase has gone to the benefit of my daughter Mary G. Moore and whereas also my said late husband left some military certificates as they were called which they may think not properly accounted for now my will and desire is that harmony should be preserved and all litigation avoided if possible. To this end I request my executors to withhold the above legacy and every part and parcel thereof from my said daughter Mary G. Moore and her husband William Moore until they accept the same in full of all debts due demands specialties or legacies whatsoever that may be due or owing them from my Estate or from the Estate of their father my late husband [emphasis added by writer].
The will continued:
“In the fourth place, I desire that the balance of my slaves….be equally divided between my son Reuben Lewis and his sister Jane Anderson with the exception of the old ones heretofore provided for. I also desire my books to be equally divided between them in like manner. In the fifth place, I desire my horse Columbia to be sold at my death…and the proceeds applied toward the payment of Five hundred dollars bequeathed to Mary G. Moore…..whatever interest in what is called the Loyal (Land) Company* or may be recovered I desire may be equally divided among my three children.” Lucy Marks (seal)
* Dr. Thomas Walker of “Castle Hill” was also involved with the Loyal Land Company.
Lucy died September 8, 1837, at 85 years of age. We do not know the circumstances of her death but certainly her daughter Jane, who lived with her, would have been present. Perhaps somewhere letters still exist reporting the details of her death to absent family members.
On November 25, 1837, an appraisal of her estate was submitted to the Court of Albemarle County and recorded on 1st of January 1838.
In addition to the slaves mentioned above in the will, the appraisal listed:
7 cows @ $10 each
5 yearlings @ $7 each
2 calves @ $2.50 each
1 yoke oxen @ $40
40 head of sheep @ $2.50
2 sows and 26 shoats - $56
19 killing hogs @ $7 each
100 bushels of corn @ $.35
120 barrels of wheat @ $3.00
62 bushels fodder @$1.60
6 blade stacks @ $3.33
1 top stack tobacco @ $10
In addition to stock and crops, farm equipment, gigg [sic] and harness ($35), and farming utensils, the appraisal lists “1 double house 3000” (sq. ft.?) for $90. Home furnishings included a loom, a bureau, 8 beds, bedsteads and furniture, kitchen utensils and furniture, 1 clock, books ($30), easy chair and 12 Windsor chairs, and 10 split bottomed chairs. Items that were probably silver included: ½ doz. table spoons ($10), 14 teaspoons ($5), 2 tumblers, ½ pint ($10), 1 pair sugar tongs ($1). There were also pewter plates and basins, as well as 1 patent L Silver watch and gold chain ($50) and other sundry items.
Within months after her death, a fire ravaged her home of 65 years and destroyed many of her belongings. Her daughter Jane appears to have begun repairs in December, 1838: There is a receipt for purchases for weatherboarding, planks, flooring, joists, and other building materials bought from one John Rodes. The total came to $93.08, and was paid in full on September 15, 1840.Get the biggest daily 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
By Debbie Johnson
Every Christmas, there is an empty place set at the table of Nadine Fudge and her family.
And every year since 1995, that place has remained empty – a reminder of her heartbreaking search for her missing son, Philip.
Philip, who was then 21, went missing after a Christmas party in Liverpool in 1995. For the last 19 years his mum Nadine, now 70, has never given up – and still lives in hope that, one day, he will finally come home.
She says: “I truly believe, in my heart that he is out there somewhere. That no harm has come to him, and for whatever reason, he hasn’t been in touch. I believe that – I have to. Not a single day goes by that I don’t think about him, but Christmas is especially hard – it’s the time of year he went missing, and for other people, it’s all about being with family. For us, the family isn’t whole, because Philip isn’t here.
“We have a big photo of him up, and the whole family still desperately misses him. I have another son and three daughters, and he has left a gap in all of our lives. My youngest grandson is only eight, and has never even met Philip – he just knows that he went away.
“We save a place for him at the table every year.”
Philip, a qualified baker and chef who was working as a lorry driver, was a member of the Territorial Army. He had driven to Liverpool from his home in Hull for a party at HMS Eaglet, the Royal Naval Reserves unit near the city centre, on December 10. He was seen leaving in a taxi with two girls, and has never been heard from since.
The mystery of his disappearance sparked a five-week long search, with divers and a helicopter scouring 200 miles of coastline. Nadine has also continued her own search, handing out tens of thousands of leaflets and making appeals in the press and on television – all to no avail.
Nadine, who is a councillor and Lord Mayor in Hull, says: “Obviously I’ve thought everything over the years. I’ve wondered if he had a head injury and lost his memory. Wondered why he’s not been in touch. The uncertainty is really what kills us.
“But I do still believe that he is out there. I think when people go missing, for whatever reason, the longer they leave it the harder it becomes for them to come home. They get embarrassed and feel ashamed, and coming back seems like too much of an ordeal. They feel that, as more time passes, they can’t get in touch. I think that’s what has happened with Philip – but I will never rest until I know.”
Nadine has been involved with the national charity Missing People, which she has also supported via her role as Lord Mayor. She says: “Without them, I would have cracked – they have kept me sane.
“They are always there to talk to, when you feel you can’t keep going on about it to friends and family. They really understand.”
Missing People also allows those who have disappeared, or people who know them, to leave messages that will be passed on to their loved ones. The website – www.missingpeople.org.uk – also features other people missing from the Merseyside area.
“On the day Philip went to Liverpool, I had a meeting in the morning to do with my work as a councillor. He was still in bed, so I didn’t even get to say goodbye – and I’ve never spoken to him since. We all take it for granted that we’ll see each other again, but in our case, it never happened.”
She admits that first Christmas without him was ‘awful’.
“But every Christmas since has been bad. If I could send Philip a message, it would be this – just let us know you are well and happy. I don’t care about questioning you, or finding out what happened, I just want to know that you are safe. We love you, and we miss you.
“And if someone out there knows Philip, please get in touch through Missing People. That wouldn’t just make my Christmas – it would make my entire life.”
At the time of his disappearance, Philip Fudge was 21 years old. He is 5ft 10in tall, with blue eyes, and in 1995 was of heavy build and had short fair hair.
As well as this picture of Philip at the time he went missing, Missing People has also issued an image which has been digitally processed to show what he might have looked like in later years.
If Philip wants to get in touch, or if anybody has any information about him, they can call or text 116000, completely confidentially.A few weeks ago I brewed up a bunch of raw beer. Go read about it if you haven’t already. I brewed two different beers of 12 gallons each and split them into two different fermentors per batch. As of now three of those batches have been bottled/kegged and one, fermenting with a wild sacc and brett blend, remains in primary. I’m not totally sure how to approach this so I’m just going type out a bunch of words and see how that goes.
Everything fermented at 75F because I wanted to see what my wild yeasts would do at that temp. Conclusion: I think they’re better fermenting a bit cooler but still made good beer. Sub note: the two spruce beers were fermented with locally harvest strains that were harvested at different times and from different sources (wild grapes last fall, and a plum blossom this spring) but the beers tasted identical, which helps point to this yeast being the dominant strain in the area. Conclusion: build a coolship.
I think they’re better fermenting a bit cooler but still made good beer. After one week all of the beers were very well attenuated with gravities around 1.003 for each batch. Conclusion: I need to mash hotter or use crystal malt or both.
I need to mash hotter or use crystal malt or both. After one week these beers were not ready to drink, in fact I was really concerned about them as they had what I can only describe as a peanut butter flavor to them, the cypress and lemon balm beer being more peanut buttery and the spruce beer being less so. Thankfully this lessened with time (yeast probably cleaned up some) and is completely gone when the beer is cold. I’m wondering if the extra protein in the beer is a contributing factor here? Possibly the non-hop herbs are also a contributing factor. As a counter point my wife did not get any peanut butter flavor from the sample. Conclusion: next time just use hops.
next time just use hops. All of the beers are very malty, which is not a big shock The spruce beers weren’t very sprucey tasting, in retrospect, this should have been obvious before I even brewed it, historical spruce beers were often brewed with spruce essence which was basically just a super strong boiled down (for hours) spruce tea. I added some spruce tips in the keg to add some sprucey flavor to one of the beers. Conclusion: next time add spruce to the strike/sparge or make a spruce essence. For the other non-sprucey spruce beer I juiced 5 pounds of wild harvested blackberries and picked an ounce or so of sage from my yard, added those to the keg and then racked the beer on top to fill it up and put it in the kegerator a few days ago.This has the potential to be very good, though it seems the acid from the juice has caused a lot of the protein in the beer to coagulate and the first few pours have had a lot of curds… The cypress lemon balm beer has a very slight hint of a sort of dirt? flavor that’s followed by a touch of lemon and herbal flavor, though this dirt flavor seems to be going away. I wasn’t expecting any lemon from the lemon balm having brewed with it before and not gotten any. I added some additional cypress in the keg to boost the cypress flavor. Conclusion: lemon balm is a poor brewing herb, stop putting it in beer.
None of the beers have any hint of DMS, half of the malt in the lemon balm and cypress beer was pilsner and still nothing. This is the main argument (that I’ve seen) against raw beer and it is not an issue.
None of the beers were infected. Or if they were the infection hasn’t manifested itself after three weeks.
The beers were not hoppy at all, this was expected, but they are really not hoppy, at all. The spruce beer was supposed to be ~15 IBUs which I know is not a lot but it seems like it may be even less? Or perhaps the extra protein in the beer is also a contributing factor here? I’d like to pick up some Polaris (~20% AA) hops and see how a raw ale with those hops comes out.
I don’t think this is going to completely replace boiled beer for me, but I will definitely keep it in my repertoire as a viable option for making good beer.
Supposedly raw ale does not have as long of a shelf life as boiled beer, this remains to be seen as it’s only been three weeks since they were brewed. I plan on letting the batch with brett go for a couple months in primary so I guess we’ll see how that turns out too.
If you care about clear beer, this is probably not the technique for you.An MLS club with a coaching vacancy has spoken with the Colorado Rapids about the availability of manager Oscar Pareja, but the Rapids have rejected that approach, according to a league source.
While the source didn't specify what team had inquired about Pareja, the Colombian has been linked with the position at FC Dallas ever since Schellas Hyndman resigned just prior to the end of the season. Pareja spent eight seasons as a player with FCD, and another five years there as an assistant under several coaches before taking up the managerial role with Colorado.
The only other club currently looking for a manager is the Vancouver Whitecaps, who chose not to renew the contract of Martin Rennie. The Columbus Crew had also been looking for a head coach, but announced the appointment of Gregg Berhalter earlier on Wednesday.
Pareja just finished up his second season with the Rapids, leading them to the playoffs in 2013 where they fell to the Seattle Sounders 2-0 in the Western Conference play-in game. Pareja has also been lauded for his work in developing young players like Dillon Powers and Deshorn Brown.
The news will come as a blow to FC Dallas, given that Pareja was believed to have been a favorite of FCD executive Dan Hunt. But a source told ESPNFC.com earlier this week that Pareja "wants to finish what he's started" in Colorado. The Rapids' rejection of the approach ensures that Pareja will be manning the sideline for the club when the 2014 season begins in March.subs2srs Usage
Download the latest version from SourceForge.
Table of Contents
Description
subs2srs allows you to create import files for Anki or other Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS) based on your favorite foreign language movies and TV shows to aid in the language learning process.
This utility will parse through subtitle files, extract the dialog and timing information and then use that information to generate audio clips, snapshots and video clips for each line of dialog.
Most popular subtitle formats are supported:
Subrip (.srt)
Advanced Substation Alpha (.ass,.ssa)
VOBSUB (.idx/.sub)
Lyric (.lrc)
Transcriber (.trs)
subs2srs relies on ffmpeg to extract video and thus supports most video codecs (MPEG-4, h.264, XviD, DivX, MPEG-2, etc.) and most video containers (.avi,.mkv,.ogm,.mp4,.flv,.vob, etc.).
With all options enabled, a card will have this information generated for it (assume that it is a Japanese movie):
Textual line of Japanese dialog (taken from the Japanese subtitle file) English translation (taken from the English subtitle file) Audio clip Snapshot Video clip Tag information (for Anki import). Sequence marker (episode #, line #, and timing) Context information (previous and next lines)
Here is an example of an Anki flash card that can be generated with subs2srs:
How to Use subs2srs
For those new to subs2srs, the number of options can seem overwhelming. DON'T PANIC. In most cases you can rely on the default options. When you go through the process a couple of times it will become second nature. In addition, all options are documented in this help file and most options have helpful tooltips.
Obtain any subtitle files and multimedia files that you may need from the TV show or movie that you want to learn from. Click on the Subs1... button and select a subtitle file in the language that you are trying to learn (your target language). Click on the Output... button and select the directory that subs2srs can use to place the files that it generates. (Optional) Click on the Subs2... button and select a subtitle file in your native language. subs2srs will match up this subtitle file with the one that you specified previously in Subs1. (Optional) Click on the Video... button and select a video file. You need the video file in order to generate audio clips, snapshots and video clips for your flash cards. If you want to generate audio clips for your flash cards, check the Generate Audio Clips checkbox. If you want to generate snapshots for your flash cards, check the Generate Snapshots checkbox. If you want to generate video clips for your flash cards, check the Generate Video Clips checkbox. Note: It doesn't usually make sense to check both the Generate Audio Clips and the Generate Video Clips checkboxes. In the Name of deck textbox, enter a name to use when generating various filenames. This is usually the name of the TV show or movie that you will be learning from. Fill out any other option you may need. More information about these options can be found further down in this help file. Here is a screenshot showing an example setup with Snapshots and Video Clips enabled: Click the Preview... button to show a preview of what subs2srs will generate. Make sure that the lines from Subs1 and the lines from Subs2 match up correctly and that the audio precisely matches up with the subtitles. Click the Go! button to begin processing. You will see a progress bar appear. Wait until processing is complete. After subs2srs is finished processing, open the directory that you entered for the Output... option to see the files generated by subs2srs. You should see a.tsv file and a.media folder. You will use these during the Anki import. See Importing Into Anki to learn how to import the subs2srs files into Anki. Anki is Spaced Repetition Software (SRS)/electronic flash card software.
Importing Into Anki
In How to Use subs2srs you should have learned how to use subs2srs to generate a tab-separated-value (.tsv) SRS import file and.media folder.
The following is an example showing how to import the.tsv file and media into Anki 2.x.
Note: To import using legacy Anki 1.x, refer to this guide instead.
First you will need to import the Anki 2.x deck template that comes with subs2srs. Open Anki 2.x. From the menu, click "File | Import...". Navigate to the subs2srs "Anki Deck Template" folder. Open "subs2srs_template_for_anki2.apkg". This will place a deck called "subs2srs_template_for_anki2" in your Decks list. Rename the "subs2srs_template_for_anki2" deck to something more meaningful. To do this, click the gear icon next to the deck, select "rename", and then enter a name. For this example, I will rename the deck to "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo": Now you will need to import the.tsv file that was generated by subs2srs. From the menu, click "File | Import...". Select the.tsv file and click the Open button. Set the Type to "subs2srs". Set the Deck to the deck you just created. (For this example, the deck is named "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo"). Check the "Allow HTML in fields" checkbox. In the "Field mapping" area, map each part of the import file to an Anki field. In the case of this example, the format of the import file is tag, sequence marker, audio, snapshot, expression, and meaning. At this point, the Import dialog should like something like this: Note: The first value in the import file is always the tag and the second value in the import file is always the sequence marker. Click the Import button. You should see an "Importing complete." message. Click the Close button. Now you need to copy the media files to Anki 2.x's media folder. Open your "My Documents" folder, or if your using Windows 7, open the "Documents" folder. Navigate to the "Anki" folder. Navigate to the folder that contains your Anki user profile. Example: "User 1". Navigate to the "collection.media" folder. Copy all of the files from the.media folder that subs2srs generated to the collection.media folder. The following screenshot shows the files copied to the "collection.media" folder for my "User 1" Anki profile: You can now start reviewing your subs2srs Anki deck. The first card is a placeholder card that was included with the template – you may delete it.
How to Use Batch Processing in subs2srs
Batch processing is the execution of multiple tasks without manual intervention. subs2srs batch processing enables the user to do such things as processes multiple episodes of a TV show at once. Contrast this to the method described in the How to Use subs2srs section above where you processed one episode at a time.
subs2srs allows you to perform batch processing through the use of wildcard characters. There are two wildcard characters that you may use:
Wildcard Meaning * Match zero or more characters? Match exactly zero or one character
When working with multiple files, the files will be matched up alphabetically.
As an example of batch processing, say that you have 3 episodes of a TV show. Here is the setup:
The Main Interface
Menu
File | New: Reset all fields to default values.
File | Open...: Restore previous interface state.
File | Save As...: Save current state of the interface.
File | Exit: Exit subs2srs
Tools | Extract Audio from Media...: Show the Extract Audio from Media tool.
Tools | Dueling Subtitles Tool...: Show the Dueling Subtitles tool.
Tools | Subs Re-Timer...: Show the Subs Re-Timer tool.
Tools | MKV Extract Tool...: Show the MKV Extract tool.
Tools | Preferences...: Show the Preferences dialog.
Help | Usage...: Show this file
Help | About...: Display information about subs2srs. Subs1: The subtitle file(s) in the language that you are trying to learn (your target language). For example, the Japanese subtitles for a TV show. The file(s) may be in.srt,.ass,.ssa,.lrc,.trs and/or VOBSUB (.idx/.sub) format. You may also enter a.mkv file which will cause subs2srs to ask you which subtitle track to use: You may use the following wildcards in order to specify multiple files:
* = Match zero or more characters
? = Match exactly zero or one character Example: enter C:\Temp\*.srt to use all.srt files in C:\Temp. Note: When working with multiple files, the files will be matched up alphabetically. Subs1 Encoding/Subtitle Stream: This box will change depending on the type of subfile file that appears in the Subs1 text box. If the subtitle file is text-based (.srt,.ass,.ssa,.lrc,.trs) then the Encoding box will appear and allow you to specify the text encoding of the subtitle file. If the subtitle file is VOBSUB (.idx/.sub) then the Stream box will appear and allow allow you to choose which VOBSUB stream to use. Note: A single VOBSUB (.idx/.sub) can have multiple streams (one for English, one for Japanese, etc.). Because of this, you can use the same subtitle file for Subs1 and Subs2 but choose different streams for each. Output: Directory where the generated files will be placed. The following files and directories will be generated here: /Media directory All audio clips All snapshots All video clips All image text from a VOBSUB
SRS (ex. Anki) input file (a.tsv file - tab separated values) Subs2: The corresponding subtitle file(s) in your native language. For example, the English subtitles for a movie. The file(s) may be in.srt,.ass,.ssa,.lrc,.trs and/or VOBSUB (.idx/.sub) format. This field is optional and you may leave it blank if desired. You may also enter a.mkv file which will cause subs2srs to ask you which subtitle track to use. You may use the following wildcards in order to specify multiple files:
* = Match zero or more characters
? = Match exactly zero or one character Example: enter C:\Temp\*.srt to use all.srt files in C:\Temp. Note 1: When working with multiple files, the files will be matched up alphabetically. Note 2 (important): Subs1 is compared against Subs2 and not the other way around. This means that if a subtitle file from Subs1 contains 300 lines and a subtitle file from Subs2 contains 310 lines, the maximum number of lines that will be processed is 300 (the number of lines from Subs1). Of course, this also means that if a subtitle file from Subs1 contains 310 lines and a subtitle file from Subs2 contains only 300 lines, then 310 lines will be processed and 10 of those lines will be mismatched (subs2srs will attempt to intelligently combine or remove lines to deal with mismatches). Subs2 Encoding/Subtitle Stream: This box will change depending on the type of subfile file that appears in the Subs2 text box. If the subtitle file is text-based (.srt,.ass,.ssa,.lrc,.trs) then the Encoding box will appear and allow you to specify the text encoding of the subtitle file. If the subtitle file is VOBSUB (.idx/.sub) then the Stream box will appear and allow allow you to choose which VOBSUB stream to use. Note: A single VOBSUB (.idx/.sub) can have multiple streams (one for English, one for Japanese, etc.). Because of this, you can use the same subtitle file for Subs1 and Subs2 but choose different streams for each. Video: The video file(s) that correspond to the subtitle file(s). Videos may use any format supported by ffmpeg (.avi,.mkv, etc.). You may use the following wildcards in order to specify multiple files:
* = Match zero or more characters
? = Match exactly zero or one character Example: enter C:\Temp\*.avi to use all.avi files in C:\Temp. Note: When working with multiple files, the files will be matched up alphabetically. Audio Stream: Some videos contain multiple audio streams/tracks. This option allows you to select which audio to use when making audio clips and video clips. Use Timings From: Subtitles contain timing information that determines when they appear and for how long. You may select to use the timing information of Subs1 or Subs2. The timings are used for generating the snapshots, audio clips, and video clips. This option may be useful if one of your subtitles was specifically timed for the specific video source that you are using. Span (h:mm:ss): Only process lines that start within the specified span of time. Span is applied after the time shift is applied. Time Shift: Allows you to independently shift the subtitle timings by the specified number of milliseconds.
This is used for:
1) Syncing the Subs1 and Subs2 timings.
2) Syncing the subtitles to the video.
Example:
If Subs1 and the video are in sync but Subs2 is 3 seconds fast, you can shift Subs2 by -3000 milliseconds to properly sync everything. Advanced Subtitle Options...: Show the Advanced Subtitle Options dialog. Generate Audio Clips: Enable/Disable the generation of audio clips. Source: Select where to get the audio tracks from. You have two options here. You can either have subs2srs automatically extract the audio from the video file(s) at the specified bitrate or you can provide corresponding audio tracks for each subtitle file. That is, one audio track for each episode of a TV show. You may want to provide the audio files when you use subs2srs with songs or audiobooks. You may use the following wildcards in order to specify multiple files:
* = Match zero or more characters
? = Match exactly zero or one character Example: enter C:\Temp\*.mp3 to use all.mp3 files in C:\Temp. Note 1: When working with multiple files, the files will be matched up alphabetically. Note 2: Automatic audio extraction has been successfully tested with audio tracks that are in the following formats: AC3, AAC, VORBIS, and MP3. Make sure that your AC3 file does not have DRM protection. Audio Clip Pad Timings: Pad the start and end times of each line of dialog when generating an audio clip. For example, setting the start pad to 250 means that the audio clip will start 250 milliseconds sooner than it would normally. Setting the end pad to 300 means that the audio clip will end 300 milliseconds later than it would normally. Normalize Audio: Normalize the audio clips. Or in other |
it wouldn’t be used to attack sites the content industry feels are problematic without the pesky issue of due process. Had SOPA been law in 2007, Viacom wouldn’t have had to sue YouTube (and lose). Instead, it could’ve filed the appropriate claims with the Attorney General’s office and had the site de-listed and taken offline.
Michael Fricklas, Viacom’s general counsel, has stated that it’s easy to tell if a site is hosting infringing content and that freedom of speech isn’t automatically protected there. “I don’t think there is a first amendment right to speak on a site that is engaged in pervasive copyright infringement (assuming that there are plenty of places to speak).”
Fricklas’ opinion is laughably out-of-step with everything the Supreme Court has ever ruled on topic of free speech, but SOPA avoids court orders and judicial oversight. Thus far, the sizeable coalition of tech companies, law professors, and politicians from both sides of the aisle has had little luck winning a seat at the table. Of all the groups opposed to SOPA, Google was the only company invited to yesterday’s hearing — and it was on the altar as a sacrifical lamb and object lesson.
E-PARASITE, if it passes, will give Hollywood and the RIAA the legal equivalent of Mjölnir. It’ll destroy any international perception that the US is capable of neutrally administering the internet and spark the wholesale abandonment of US-based DNS providers in favor of international options that are harder to track. There are major powers girding for battle on both sides of the debate, but thus far, the content industry has the rhetorical upper hand.Five new Windows Phone 8 devices have hit the shelves at Vodafone. Here's how to get yours, and why the experts love Microsoft's newest mobile platform...
The wait’s over. Windows Phone 8 has landed at Vodafone, and we’re launching with five slick phones that all offer something different. Want to know what’s what? And how to get yours? Read on.
Windows Phone 8 is the next evolution of Microsoft’s re-imagined mobile platform. It proffers animated Live Tiles and a totally unique look, tonnes of home screen customisation and a raft of new features.
“As of today, our stores will be stocked with all five of our new Windows Phone 8 devices.”
Among them is Rooms, which acts as a way to share your calendar, lists and messages with a specific person or group; Kid’s Corner, which lets young ones use your phone safely; and tightly integrated VoIP capabilities for making video calls on Skype and other similar services.
As of today, our stores will be stocked with all five of our new Windows Phone 8 devices. It’s a range that packs in the best of design and build from both HTC and Nokia, along with the best in software from Microsoft, and they’re available for the below prices…
Nokia Lumia 920
The truly beautiful Lumia 920 is available with no upfront cost on the 24 month Vodafone Red Data plan for £42 a month, which includes unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 2GB of data.
Get it! | Buy your Nokia Lumia 920 here
Nokia Lumia 820
After something slightly smaller? The Lumia 820 is available with no upfront cost on the 24 month Vodafone Red plan for £33 a month, which includes unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 1GB of data.
Get it! | Buy your Nokia Lumia 820 here
Nokia Lumia 620
The yet-more-pocketable Lumia 620 is available with no upfront cost on a 24 month contract for £21 a month, which includes 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 250MB of data.
Get it! | Buy your Nokia Lumia 620 here
Windows Phone 8X by HTC
The svelte Windows Phone 8X by HTC is available with no upfront cost on a 24 month Vodafone Red plan for £33 a month, which includes unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 1GB data.
Get it! | Buy your Windows Phone 8X by HTC here
Windows Phone 8S by HTC
The two-tone 8S is available with no upfront cost on a 24 month contract for £21 a month, which includes 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 250MB of data.
Get it! | Buy your Windows Phone 8S by HTC here
Order yours now
For our full list of Windows Phone 8 price plans, head to vodafone.co.uk/shop
Why the web loves Windows Phone 8
It’s not just us that thinks Windows Phone 8 is worth getting excited about, you know. Far from it: the web writ-large has taken to Microsoft’s revamped mobile platform with gusto. Here are some of our favourite Windows Phone 8 sound bites…
Carly Page | The Inquirer
“It’s hard not to love Windows Phone 8. It’s a vast improvement over the previous version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, and its newly customisable user interface puts IOS and Android to shame.”
David Phelan | T3
“It’s attractive, reliable and fun to use.”
Alun Taylor | The Register
“WinPho 8 is a massive leap forward from version 7.”
Brad McCarty | The Next Web
“…I’d encourage you to give Windows Phone a try. It’s not just decent, it’s incredibly good.”
Mary Branscombe | TechRadar
“This is a delightful, elegant, enticing smartphone OS with a great browser and the best default touch keyboard bar none – and yes, maps that actually work.”
Dieter Bohn and Chris Ziegler | The Verge
“In the course of swiping from screen to screen through Windows Phone 8’s attractive UI, there’s never a hint of lag.”
Windows Phone 8: Hands-on videos
Need a hand deciding which Windows Phone 8 phone is for you? Check out our collection of hands-on videos to see what the Windows Phone army has to offer.“Lead us from the unreal to the Real; Lead us from darkness to Light; Lead us from death to Immortality,” the audience repeated after the speaker. Though they were there to memorialize the Holocaust, their words did not come from the Torah, nor are they found in Christian Bible or the Quran.
The prayer came from the Brahadaranyakopanisad, one of the Upanishads, a series of ancient philosophical works central to Hinduism.
“It’s one of the most sacred texts in Hinduism,” explained Rajan Zed, who led the University of Nevada-Reno’s Holocaust Remembrance Day audience in a recitation of the scripture. Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, participated in the event along with Jewish, Buddhist and Christian clergy. “I chose the text as a way to honor those people who had died and suffered, whose lives were changed forever.”
The major differences between Hinduism and Judaism—two religions with divergent views about theism and sacred images—have come to overshadow the many similarities between the two religions and their accompanying cultures, wrote Barbara Holdrege, a professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Holdrege also authored “Veda and Torah,” in which she notes that both religions are comprised of many sects, have priesthoods, notions of purity and impurity and vast legal codes.
Zed added that Hinduism and Judaism both emphasize family institutions, have dietary laws and designate sacred languages for prayer. These similarities have allowed India’s Jewish community to live in harmony with India’s Hindu community for nearly 2,000 years.
According to Nissim Reuben, program director for Indian-Jewish American relations at the American Jewish Committee’s Asia Pacific Institute, Hindu and Jewish communities in America share mutual successes in academia, business and culture—in addition to religious similarities—which have drawn them closer.
“The Hindu community, particularly Hindus from India or of Indian origin, sees themselves as the new Jews,” Reuben said. “Both Jews and Hindus are dedicated, loyal, and focus on family and education. Indian-American Hindus have the same attachment to their motherland, India, as Jews do to Israel.”
With a strong and well-respected voice in the American life, the Jewish community serves as a model minority group for American Hindus, said Jay Kansara, the associate director of the Hindu American Foundation.
“The Hindu community finds a role model for advocacy, political activism—small in numbers but large in impact,” he said. “As a community in small numbers we would like to voice our opinion and exert strength like the Jewish community.”
Relations between the Hindu and Jewish communities have taken off internationally since 2007, when representatives from the AJC, the Hindu American Foundation, Israel’s chief rabbi and Indian Hindu leaders met in New Delhi for a summit organized by the World Council of Religious Leaders. The conference was aimed at eliminating confusion about the beliefs of the two religions. The original summit was followed by two more in 2008 in Jerusalem and a third in 2011 again in New Delhi.
The increase in relations between the Hindu and Jewish communities has been a boon for commercial ties between Israel and India. In an interview with the Hindustan Times in 2012, Israeli ambassador to India Alon Ushpiz said trade between the two countries had vaulted from $180 million in 1992, the year the two countries officially normalized relations, to about $5 billion in 2011. Reuben said Israel is now India’s second largest supplier of arms. He is working on ways to drum up more business between the two countries.
As partnerships between the two faiths have steadily increased, there has been a surge of interest in interfaith efforts on the grassroots level. Steve Brody was inspired to organize a Hindu-Jewish interfaith event at Adat Shalom synagogue in Bethesda, Md., after speaking with a Hindu friend he knew from the space industry.
The event, titled “A Jewish Hindu Evening of Exploration!” featured a slideshow of images from space accompanied by readings from the Torah and the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s holy scriptures. The reading was followed by a dialogue between Adat Shalom’s Rabbi Sidney Schwarz and Anuttama Das, a religious leader at the Hare Krishna temple in Potomac, Md. The evening was capped off with a performance by Hinjew, alongside Hannah Spiro. Hinjew is a band formed at the University of Virginia that specializes in traditional Indian music.
“The community warmly embraced the idea and had a healthy dose of curiosity,” Brody said. “I was really impressed with openness and kindness of [the] Hindu faith. It was a great experience for me. It was personally rewarding and I was very pleased and humbled by the comments about the value it provided to both Jewish and Hindu participants.”
A few miles away from the congregation at the Indian Embassy, Reuben and the AJC have collaborated with the Indian embassy for an annual Chanukah party every year since 2002. Reuben, an Indian Jew originally from Ahmedabad, India, said in an email that the party grew out of a conversation his father, Benjamin Reuben, had at a 2002 dinner party with India’s then ambassador to the United States Lalit Mansingh. The elder Reuben suggested that a Chanukah party would be a great way to highlight India’s vibrant Jewish heritage. Each year at the event Nissim Reuben recites Chanukah prayers Indian Jewry use in their Chanukah celebrations.
Zed has been collaborating with Jewish leaders in Nevada for years. Daniel Sanchez, a student at the University of Nevada and president of the Interfaith Student Club, said Zed’s participation in the event brought another perspective to the ceremony and more importantly, continued to break down barriers between the two communities. “It reduces the amount of space,” he said.Underneath a local strip club lies long forgotten catacombs. Discovered within these catacombs is the Book of the Dead, which one of the strippers uses to accidentally raise an army of zombies. Now the strippers must take action and re-kill all of the undead if they want to save the world (and keep on stripping)! If you like zombies and big tits, then boy are you in luck because Big Tits Zombie does indead have big tits, as well as zombies. You’d think that there would only be one movie like this, but it actually is sort of it’s own genre at this point. For more mostly naked chicks fighting hordes of brain-eating zombies, check out Oneechanbara: The Movie Stripperland, or the entirely original Strippers vs. WerewolvesIn common with the people of Pakistan, Americans have a rich history of peaceful protest when their government strays from its proper purpose. We remember the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War demonstrations and the millions who turn out on the Mall in Washington for any important issue.
Today, I am writing about another peaceful protest — that of a fellow Pakistani citizen who has had his rights stripped from him, Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Rabbani.
Ahmed’s family originally come from the persecuted Burmese Rohingya; he is a rather humble taxi driver from Karachi, Pakistan. In 2002, he was sold for a bounty to the CIA. They were told he was someone called Hassan Ghul, but he insisted this was a mistake.
In its investigation of the CIA torture program, the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed this, along with Ahmed’s claim that he had been tortured. Indeed, he was tortured “without approval” — as if approving it makes it any better — and held for more than 540 days in CIA custody before being rendered to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He has now waited 15 years in vain for a charge or trial.
Ahmed finally lost patience four years ago and went on a hunger strike as a peaceful protest. This is, I feel sure, the kind of protest that Americans will understand: After all, how else can Ahmed object to 15 years of injustice but by refusing to put anything in his mouth?
Under President Barack Obama, authorities force-fed the hunger strikers, pumping them full of supplements. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this, at least it has kept Ahmed alive. However, in a telephone call with his lawyer at international human rights organization Reprieve, Ahmed has explained how, on Sept. 20, the Trump administration enacted a new policy of not force-feeding hunger strikers. Ahmed and other peaceful strikers would essentially be pushed as close to death as possible in order to try to force them to end the hunger strike, even if it means their organs fail or they die. Ahmed reports that the military are withholding medical care as well.
Perhaps President Trump will tweet that Ahmed brings this on himself: that he went on hunger strike, and if he wants to die, let him. But one might as well say that the civil rights protesters deserved to be beaten by the police because they failed to respect the arbitrary laws of the time. Ahmed is a devout Muslim, and it would run counter to his faith to take his own life. He does not want death, merely justice — and it reflects his understandable desperation for justice that he should have persisted for so long.
The Pakistan government has not spoken up for Ahmed; I feel I have to. I call upon all moderate Americans to remember the small number of people languishing in Guantanamo Bay and insist on respect for the principles that the United States was built on — liberty, justice and freedom for all. It is our duty to ensure that Ahmed is kept healthy and alive until he is returned to his wife and son in Karachi.
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Mario Kart 8 welcomed its first expansion last week, introducing new characters, vehicles, and courses to the acclaimed Wii U racing game. To go deeper into the DLC, we caught up with Mario Kart 8 game director Kosuke Yabuki for an interview. Check out our full chat below, which touches on topics like why Nintendo chose the tracks it did, secret shortcuts, feedback for the game so far, and lots more.
You can buy Mario Kart 8's first DLC expansion today for $8 as an individual download. You can also buy the game's DLC pass for $12, which entitles you to the next expansion and other goodies.
There are a few tracks based on classic Nintendo franchises in this DLC. Can you tell us about why you selected the ones you did? What were the criteria that you were looking at?
"We wanted people to keep playing Mario Kart 8 for a long time, and releasing DLC is a very effective way of achieving this. If we're going to make DLC, we wanted it to be something fresh and special. That's what brought us to the idea to borrow characters, vehicles, and courses from sources outside of the Mario universe.
"We needed to choose themes that, when rearranged for Mario Kart, would allow us to retain the game's balance" -- Yabuki
We needed to choose themes that, when rearranged for Mario Kart, would allow us to retain the game's balance. F-Zero, Excitebike, and The Legend of Zelda all lived up to that standard, and more than that, I figured they would lead to courses with really unique characteristics."
Obviously each track based on specific franchises features the iconography from the series. But have you also tried to instill a specific "feel" based on what game the tracks are focused on? Is Mute City all about speed, for example? Is the Zelda track filled with new paths to explore?
"Mute City has two key elements:'speed' and 'anti-gravity.' You have a winding race course with lots of dash plates, leading to extreme, high-speed races. Some of the dash plates are set up to change position every time you race. The gravity also isn't as heavy as in other courses, leading to longer jumps and a unique kind of floating feeling.
The jumps and dirt patches change in the Excitebike Arena every time you race. There are actually over 200 patterns. Still, I think it's best to not worry too much about it and just enjoy zooming around the course, taking jumps when you can. I think the course lends itself well to new race situations unfolding as you play, something not seen in previous Mario Kart games.
For Hyrule Circuit, we wanted to take the feel of riding Epona across the beautiful Hyrule countryside and bring it into the race. The course quickly changes between plains, castle, town, and trail areas. The castle includes some classic Zelda references, and there are monsters waiting for you in the trails as well."
There are some lovely touches all the way through these new tracks (such as rupees in place of coins in the Zelda track). Can you talk a little about some of the more subtle touches and references within each that fans should look out for? What's your favorite reference?
"My favorite reference is the Master Sword inside Hyrule Castle. There are three switches, and activating all of them opens a path to the Master Sword, giving you access to a shortcut. It's tough for a single racer to open this road up, but when multiple players are in the area, it's a snap to get it open. I think that stretch provides a nice strategic element during online play.
Also, pay attention to the sound in this course. The Hyrule Circuit tune features an assortment of Legend of Zelda themes folded into each other. We also focused on the smaller details, like the Zelda sound effect that plays when you obtain an item."
What's your favorite track out of the new ones in the DLC pack? Why?
"In the end, I have to pick Hyrule Circuit. I myself was part of the Legend of Zelda development team in the past, so I suppose I have a special fondness for the course."
Now that we have Link in the game, can we eventually expect to see a Mario Kart game that has various Nintendo mascots in it (as in Super Smash Bros.)?
"For now, this DLC is unique and special in the way it transcends the boundaries of the Mario Kart franchise. I hope that people around the world enjoy it."
The game has been out for several months now. What have fans been telling you about the game? Are there any tweaks or balances we should expect in the near future?
"For this update, we made just a minor tweak to the way two players deflect when they collide with each other. Up until now, when two players collided, the more lightweight racers would get knocked too far away. That, combined with other overall elements we considered, made us conclude that the lighter racers were at a bit of a disadvantage. If you like Toad or Shy Guy and feel like you can't win at all, go ahead and give them another try after applying the update. Also note that this tweak doesn't have any effect on Time Trials when playing solo."Sunday’s post quoted Eugene Volokh to the effect that on current evidence there is no case, not even close, for Judge Gonzalo Curiel to recuse himself in the Trump University litigation. Now Ken White at Popehat has a short explainer of the issues, noting, inter alia, that Trump can’t “earn” recusal by stepping up his attacks on Judge Curiel. Meanwhile, Alison Frankel at Reuters gives two reasons Trump’s lawyers won’t move for recusal. First, they need to worry about their reputation; second, there’s a real possibility they’d face sanctions if they did file such a motion, given precedents such as the Second Circuit’s 1998 opinion in MacDraw Inc v. CIT Group upholding sanctions issued by then-U.S. District Judge Denny Chin against lawyers who had moved for his recusal based on his Asian ancestry.
Meanwhile, a Legal NewsLine reports that Judge Curiel recently turned down a class action settlement over jeans labeling as providing too little relief to consumers as compared with lawyers and cy pres bystanders. Tweets Adam Schulman of the Center for Class Action Fairness: “Trump’s least favorite judge seems good on class actions to me.”FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots starting left tackle Nate Solder was on the practice field to start Thursday's practice after sitting out Wednesday's session with a concussion.
Wide receiver Aaron Dobson was again not spotted at the start of practice for the second straight day, the team's lone absence. Dobson has been out since suffering a Week 12 foot injury.
It's a good sign for Solder, although if he is not able to play this Sunday, the team may be forced to move veteran Will Svitek into his place on the left side of the line. Svitek has been starting in place of Marcus Cannon at right tackle of late, though Cannon has practiced both days this week (ankle).
If Cannon is unable to play again this Sunday, the team may promote one of their practice squad offensive linemen to the active roster for insurance purposes.
Linebacker Brandon Spikes, who has been dealing with a knee injury, rode the stationary bike during individual position group drills.
The Patriots once again took to their indoor facility for practice as they prepare for heat and humidity down in Miami this Sunday.
The team practiced in helmets and shells.Top 10 Shark Dives You’ve Never Heard Of
You’re a shark photography junkie. There’s a “Honk if you like sharks” sticker on the back of your car. And you’ve probably heard of – if not been to – shark meccas like Tiger Beach, the Galapagos and Guadalupe Island.
But not every shark photography destination has been mapped out and captured by countless underwater image-makers. If you’re looking for a really unique image, try visiting one of these Top 10 Shark Dives You’ve Never Heard Of.
In no particular order…
The Dive: Vertigo
Where: Yap, Micronesia
What You’ll See: Still untouched by waves of tourists, Yap, Micronesia features largely unspoiled reefs. But it’s when the dozens and dozens of sharks show up that it really comes alive. Have your pick of grey reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, and grey reef sharks. Go with Yap Pacific Divers | www.Yap-Pacific.com
Photo Tip: The action continues at the surface after the dive. With the sharks circling the dive boat and a picturesque topside scene, go for the over-under shot.
The Dive: Big Baskers
Where: Cornwall, England
What You’ll See: Basking sharks are a rarity for underwater photographers to encounter, except in this secret spot off of Cornwall, England. Dip into the chilly coastal waters for the chance to encounter one of the largest sharks filter feeding. Go with Charles Hood Charters | www.CharlesHood.com
Photo Tip: With not-so-great visibility and a large subject, leave the strobes at home. You can use the natural light near the surface—just make sure the sun is at your back.
The Dive: Monad Shoal
Where: Philippines
What You’ll See: There’s probably nowhere else in the world where you can witness the unique shape of the thresher shark. Rising up from the abyss, Monad Shoal brings divers within photo distance of this elusive, and shy shark. Go with Evolution Dive Resort | www.Evolution.com.ph
Photo Tip: Because dives are conducted at fairly deep conditions and early in the morning, natural light is scarce. Make sure to boost your ISO as high as possible and adjust your settings before the often-fleeting encounter with the threshers.
The Dive: Kelp Forest Sevengills
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
What You’ll See: South Africa may be famous for the opportunity to get in a cage next to a massive great white, but there’s another rare shark to be photographed in these waters. The prehistoric seven gill shark can be found and photographed at a high success rate in the kelp forests off the coast. Go with Pisces Divers | www.PiscesDivers.co.za
Photo Tip: Kelp forests can be tricky for underwater photography. For starters, make sure your strobes are positioned as far apart as possible, angled outward to avoid any backscatter. Don’t try to swim too quickly to the seven gills, or they may swim away frightened.
The Dive: New England Blues (And Makos Too)
Where: Rhode Island, USA
What You’ll See: Just three hours north of NYC lies one of the most underrated shark photo encounters. Off shore from Rhode Island, photographers can snorkel with the pelagic blue shark and speedy mako sharks. Go with Pelagic Expeditions | www.PelagicExpeditions.com
Photo Tip: Since these sharks are pelagic, the only way to get them in close enough for quality images is through the use of a chum bucket. But once they arrive, you’re best to steer clear of the chum, which will only light up as backscatter in your images.
The Dive: Oceanic White Tips
Where: Cat Island, Bahamas
What You’ll See: Relatively un-photographed until the last five years, the population of oceanic white tip sharks in the waters off of Cat Island Bahamas are becoming quite the celebrities in the underwater community. Go with Epic Diving | www.EpicDiving.com
Photo Tip: Safety is the utmost concern when diving with the quick and smart oceanic white tips. Don’t spend too much time reviewing images, and instead adjust settings on the go.
The Dive: Bagan Whale Shark Dive
Where: Cenderawasih Bay, Indonesia
What You’ll See: There are whale shark dives and then there are whale shark dives. This is the latter. In this secluded bay in Papua, Indonesia, whale sharks feed off the nets of fishing platforms. They come by the dozens and spend time swimming around and suckling at the nets. Go with the MSY Seahorse Liveaboard | www.IndoCruises.com
Photo Tip: This traditional fishing practice has existed for generations and is one worth photographing. Use a large dome port to capture a split shot of the whale shark below and the fisherman above.
The Dive: Wrecks and Raggedtooths
Where: North Carolina, USA
What You’ll See: Why settle for just one great photo subject, when you can have two? Off the coast of North Carolina, USA divers can encounter ragged tooth (or sand tiger) sharks gathering amongst historic wrecks. Go with Olympus Dive Center | www.OlympusDiving.com
Photo Tip: The wrecks are inherently powerful backdrops for the primary shark subject. Be patient and position the shark between you and a notable wreck feature for a truly unique image.
The Dive: Jardines De La Reina Shark Dives
Where: Cuba
What You’ll See: Protected from western travelers for decades, Cuba’s Jardines de la Reina reserve serves up some of the healthiest coral in the Caribbean, along with a plentiful supply of reef sharks. Go with the Avalon Liveaboard | www.CubanDivingCenters.com
Photo Tip: With the high frequency of reef sharks (for a Caribbean location), you can use the opportunity to get a little creative with techniques like rear-sync flash. Slow down your shutter speed to roughly 1/15th of a second to create a motion blur.
The Dive: Prince William Sound
Where: Alaska, USA
What You’ll See: The salmon shark is considered the great white shark of the cold white north. A pelagic species, the salmon shark is rarely photographed unless with the right techniques with the right team. Go with Alaska Sharks | www.AlaskaSharks.com
Photo Tip: Get ready to bundle up for this one. It may be summer, but the water is still near freezing and it can take a while for the salmon sharks to show up. Dry suit and undergarments are recommended.CLOSE The board voted Tuesday night to remove pages from an honors biology textbook because it does not give preference to childbirth or adoption over abortion.
The Gilbert school board voted in favor of making changes to a textbook used in honors biology classes.
A stack of books. (Photo: Getty Images) Story Highlights The honors biology book discusses abstinence, birth control and abortion but not adoption.
The Arizona Department of Education says the book "on its face" does not appear to violate the law.
Board voted 3-2 to direct staff to edit the book.
Gilbert Public Schools will "edit" a high-school honors biology textbook after school-board members agreed that it does not align with state regulations on how abortion is to be presented to public-school students.
Board members, backed by a conservative religious group, voted 3-2 to make the change, arguing that they are complying with a 2-year-old state law that requires public schools to "present childbirth and adoption as preferred options to elective abortion."
Board President Staci Burk said she believes the district is likely the first in Arizona with plans to edit a book under the law.
ALLHANDS: Visions of Sharpies and page ripping in Gilbert
"Since the change in this law was relatively recent, we are likely the first school board to proactively ensure that the legislative intent is being enforced," she said Wednesday.
The book in question, "Campbell Biology: Concepts & Connections (Seventh Edition)," has a chapter that discusses abstinence, birth-control methods, tubal ligations and vasectomies, and drugs that can induce abortion.
Textbooks are selected at the local level in Arizona. No government agency tracks how many districts are using books such as "Campbell Biology."
But the book is considered mainstream. It is available on textbook websites as well general book sites such as barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.
Board members did not give district staff specific instructions on how to change the book. It requested that plans for editing the book be presented at a future meeting.
State Sens. Nancy Barto, Andy Biggs and David Farnsworth attended the meeting. Barto, a champion of the textbook law, urged board members to follow it to the letter.
The board made its decision after listening to a presentation by Natalie Decker, an attorney for Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom, an advocacy group that brought the chapter to board members' attention.
The group has also advocated to keep Arizona's ban on same-sex marriage, which was overturned earlier this month.
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"The (textbook) law is not limited to books in sex-education classes," Decker said. "It applies any time a mention of abortion is included in instruction. This is not an ambiguous law."
Decker did not recommend a way to change the book, but said it could be redacted or have additional information pasted in.
"The cheapest, least disruptive way to solve the problem is to remove the page," said board member Daryl Colvin.
Before the meeting, board members and Superintendent Christina Kishimoto received opinions from the Arizona Department of Education and the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Chris Kotterman, the Education Department deputy associate superintendent for policy development and government relations, said in an e-mail that he reviewed the book at the request of the district and found that it "does not appear on its face to violate the statute.
"In general, the mere mention of a means of medically inducing abortion does not automatically signal a lack of preference for childbirth and adoption... the responsibility lies with the teacher to provide context for the student."
The letter from Alessandra Soler, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, meanwhile, urged the board not to change the book. Doing so would violate students' First Amendment rights, she said.
"Suppressing facts that some people or organizations find disagreeable sets a terrible precedent," she said.
Burk, Colvin and Julie Smith voted for the change. Members Jill Humphreys and Lily Tram voted no.
The vote occurred in a packed gallery. When asked how many audience members were there for a change to the biology textbook, about two-thirds stood up to show support.
Resident Amy Higgins said she has seven children, but all are home-schooled or in private schools because she objected to a video once shown in a Gilbert classroom.
"When parents do not feel good about a curriculum being taught, they look for other options," Higgins said.
Two in the audience voiced objections, including resident Steve Hillman, who said he believes that the Alliance Defending Freedom "preaches a vile message of intolerance."
"This is a group that has no place trying to influence anything in the Gilbert Public Schools district," Hillman said.
A two-year-old Arizona law requires that public school programs "present childbirth and adoption as preferred options to elective abortion."
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/1wGkNbJOrganisations should be more open about their ownership and use of CCTV and ANPR, according to a new draft code of conduct.
A consultation on the planned code of conduct, published on 1 March by the Home Office, says the code provides the opportunity for increasing transparency around camera use, except for those involved in covert investigation, which are covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
"The aim should be to enable any individual wishing to know more about an overt surveillance camera to be able to obtain that information easily and readily, whilst the personal data itself is appropriately safeguarded," it says.
Some local authorities publish the location of CCTV covering public spaces online, and many label their cameras. However, police forces have repeatedly refused to disclose the locations of automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras, a stance that has been backed by the Information Commissioner's Office.
The consultation says the code may offer specific guidance on retention periods for ANPR images. Police forces retain the core data of all vehicles for two years, much longer than the one month retention period for many CCTV systems, or the 12 weeks for which Transport for London retains Oyster journey data.
In general, it says that authorities should consider whether their use of the technology is proportionate, with assessments of the need for camera schemes. This may include whether or not a proposed installation is "part of a developed and integrated strategy," whether there are alternative means of achieving the desired outcomes, a cost-benefit analysis and consultation with partners and the public.
The government is also planning to discuss with manufacturers and users whether it should introduce a British Standard for cameras. This would make it easier to transfer data from such systems and to produce images of sufficient quality to be useable in criminal proceedings.
"CCTV and ANPR systems play a vital role in the prevention and detection of crime. However it is important they are used in a way that does not invade law abiding people's privacy or undermine the public's confidence in them," said crime prevention minister James Brokenshire.
"That's why we are establishing this code and that's why we are asking the public what they think should be in it. Alongside this, we will appoint a new commissioner to monitor the code and ensure it is effective."
The consultation closes on 25 May.
This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.An emergency team of the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corporation (KHNPC) holds a meeting at the company’s Seoul office Wednesday evening after a group of hackers warned of a cyberattack against three nuclear power plants on Thursday. Provided by KHNPC
Suspicions snowballed Thursday that North Korea was behind the recent hacking into South Korea’s nuclear power plants as an investigation traced the cyberattack’s origin to a Chinese city that has long served as a hub for North Korean hackers.An investigation was launched after an unidentified hacking group released online documents detailing blueprints from the nation’s nuclear power plants. The hackers, who call themselves an “antinuclear power group,” hacked into the network of the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corporation (KHNPC) and released the files on five different occasions starting Dec. 15.A joint government investigation team led by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Thursday that the hackers sent emails containing about 300 different types of malware using email accounts of retired KHNPC employees.“The hackers used Internet protocol [IP] addresses from Shenyang, China, and sent thousands of emails to hundreds of workers at the KHNPC on Dec. 9,” said an official from the joint investigation team. “The emails had various titles that were related to the company’s work.”The official said investigators are questioning the retired workers whose email accounts were used in the cyberattacks. They believe the hackers hijacked the accounts to send the malware.The investigation team is analyzing the malware to find out if it spread into the operational networks of the nuclear plants. Some of the malware was designed to destroy hard disks, a tactic used in cyberattacks on media companies and financial institutions in 2013.The investigators suspect that the sender of the emails is the same person or group that released blueprints and other documents of the nuclear plants earlier this month. A prosecution source said the emails were sent using a similar method employed when the nuclear plant documents were posted online by the hacking group.According to the source, the emails were sent from about 20 IP addresses provided by three virtual private network (VPN) companies. A VPN company allows a user to |
. Come at me. #CODWWII".
Looking for clarity on that, we asked Condrey what prompted that tweet.
"I thought I had the liberty to make that claim because we brought Uplink to Advanced Warfare," Condrey laughed.
"I do think Gridiron is more strategic, it’s more competitive, it’s more intuitive.
"It’s based loosely on American Football from the 40s. You have a ball, you can pass it, run it, shoot it. You throw it in you get 3 points, you run it in, you get 7."
*** Take a look at some new Call of Duty WW2 screenshots in the gallery below ***NAME
Acme::DRM - Library providing cryptographic capabilities especially suited for Digital Rights Management. Protects against Pirates. May increase global warming. Note: Not guaranteed to protect against Pirates or increase global warming.
VERSION
Version 0.03
SYNOPSIS
use Acme::DRM qw(secureXOR doubleROT128); my $intellectualProperty = 'One-hit Wonder Music'; # Encrypt your IP to plug the digital hole my $encryptedContent = secureXOR($intellectualProperty); # Invoke the DMCA by encrypting your data, without invoking # additional overhead for decryption at runtime my $protectedContent = doubleROT128($intellectualProperty);
EXPORT
secureXOR doubleROT128
FUNCTIONS
secureXOR
XOR is an extremely convenient method for encrypting a digital media stream. Given any two of the a) original data, b) encryption key, and c) encrypted data, you get the third item. Unfortunately, hackers have compromised the effectiveness of this computationally convenient method. The weakness is the reuse of a single key. The answer is to use a variable key, however, key distribution becomes a difficult proposition. If the key is distributed in the clear, pirates can simply decrypt the digital media stream, and steal your Intellectual Property. Our solution is to use the media itself as the key. This function conveniently takes only the media as a single argument, and automatically XORs the datastream with a copy of itself, rendering the stream almost completely unrecoverable without the key: the media itself. This is virtually hacker-proof, except for one exception: the encrypted datastream is exactly the same length as the original data, but this is almost never probably a weakness. This algorithm does guarantee that your original data will not be recoverable from the encrypted stream without the proper key. Additionally, use of an incorrect key will not provide hackers with any sort of clue that they have guessed an incorrect key.
doubleROT128
This function exists to provide a method by which you can protect your Intellectual Property under the DMCA, without imposing the difficulty of implementing a separate, potentially insecure decryption algorithm in your secure media playback application. Simply pass your digital media to this function, and it will output an encrypted stream, conveniently passed twice internally through a strong ROT-128 encryption algorithm. The resulting encrypted content cannot be legally decrypted by a hacker, since you encrypted it to protect it from hackers and pirates. Further, you can pass the content through this algorithm multiple times for enhanced protection. Decryption can be performed by either passing the encrypted datastream back through this algorithm, or in many cases, the encrypted stream itself can be used by the playback function.
AUTHOR
Brett T. Warden, <[email protected]>
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests to [email protected], or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Acme-DRM. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the lobbyists behind the DMCA and the politicians who bought (or were bought) into the great idea of assigning corporate greed higher value than constitutionally-asserted citizen rights.
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2005-2007 Brett T. Warden, all rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.It’s been a long time coming, but scientists in the US have finally figured out the atomic structure of PRC2, an enzyme complex known to play a crucial role in the development of several types of cancer.
Knowing this, they hope to understand what triggers mutations in the PRC2 gene, which has been linked to the development of lymphoma, leukaemia, and brain tumours, plus a number of congenital diseases that affect a person’s growth. "Our findings bring us one step closer to understanding the chemistry of how PRC2 functions in normal cells and how mutations in the gene cause disease," said one of the team, Xin Liu, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre.
PRC2, or polycomb repressive complex 2, might not sound like much, but it plays a central role in several processes that are key to human ageing, including differentiation, maintaining cell identity and proliferation, and stem-cell plasticity.
It does this by modifying a specific protein inside chromatin - a complex of DNA and proteins that produces chromosomes inside cell nuclei - which helps it to maintain gene-expression patterns that are put in place during early development.
But when the proper functioning of PRC2 is disrupted due to mutations in the PRC2 gene, it can have very serious consequences for a person’s health. "Producing either too much or too little PRC2 enzyme can unexpectedly silence or activate genes, which is not good for the cell," says Liu. "This study revealed how a ‘normal’ level of PRC2 enzyme activity is kept and regulated in cells."
This is exciting, because while scientists understand how PRC2 functions in general, it’s interacting with hundreds, possibly thousands, of proteins in the human body at the same time, so figuring out which ones are malfunctioning and therefore triggering the development of cancer and disease has been practically impossible.
But now, for the first time, Liu and his colleagues have reproduced the 3D atomic structure of PRC2 crystals, using an imaging technique called x-ray crystallography. This means we can finally compare exactly how it behaves in normal and diseased cells, and how its interactions with chromatin and cellular proteins affect human cell growth.
The next step is to apply the findings to research that is already investigating how new drugs could inhibit PRC2 enzyme activity. According to Liu, researchers are looking at the potential of such drugs as a treatment for several types of lymphoma. "Indeed, several clinical trials are currently ongoing to target PRC2, and we believe our work will shed light on these and other studies in drug development by offering insights into how PRC2 works at the atomic level," he said.
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Calls are mounting on the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) to expel a member of its parliamentary party over anti-semitic comments made on Facebook.
Susanne Winter, a member of the right-wing party publicly agreed with comments posted to her Facebook page, alleging a conspiracy of wealthy pro-Israel Jews to destroy the world. The initial comment by Oehlmann Hans- Jörg blamed the “Zionist money Jews” for global problems, “particularly rich Zionist Jews in the USA.”
Winter’s response read, “It is great. You took the words right out of my mouth. There are a lot of things that I am not allowed to write. Therefore I’m even more pleased with courageous, independent people.”
The Facebook exchange has since been deleted, but mounting criticism forced Winter to issue a proceeding statement in which she claimed, “For me anti-Semitic ideas have always been repugnant and I don’t support these ideas... I apologize for letting the statements of this visitor to remain on my page instead of immediately deleting them. Yes, that was a mistake, but every person makes mistakes.”
Winter has been in Parliament since 2008, gaining popularity recently with anti-immigrant sentiment and rhetoric. The FPO has called for a border fence to be built around Austria.
The newest wave of refugees from places like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan has sparked a fervor among European parliaments and citizens. Anti-immigrant, right-wing extremism is rampant, with the Austrian parliament currently proposing a new law aimed at keeping Afghans out of the country.
The law would force refugees from Afghanistan to wait three years to bring family members to Austria, instead of the current one year waiting period. It would also force families to have independent income, health insurance and an apartment before legally being allowed to bring their family.
The UNHCR reports at least 264,000 asylum seekers in 38 European countries in 2014, a 24 percent increase from the previous year. The actual number of refugees is higher.
While Israeli and American news media is perturbed at Winter’s use of anti-semitic tropes--an undeniably racist incident--they continue a semantic tryst regarding the refugee crisis in Europe.
Instead of calling the masses entering Europe refugees, mainstream news media considers them migrants. Let’s not mince words. Calling the refugees migrants suggests these people and families are seeking work primarily. It boldly rejects the fact that the Afghanis, Syrians, Iraqis, Eritreans and Somalis are fleeing war and turmoil in their home countries. They have legal refugee status under international law and are entitled to seek asylum.
Still worse, yet essentially missing from coverage, is the fact that in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq where DAESH has gained a strong foothold to impose their brutality on the people, NATO, with support from the Israeli government, is directly responsible for the destabilization.
Calls for Winter’s resignation came from the major Jewish community in Austria as well as fellow MPs. Winter was a member of the Austria-Israel parliamentary group.
A board member of the group Stefan Schaden told the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, “An Austrian member of parliament in 2015 has just proudly admitted that she has an anti-Semitic world view when she said on Facebook that the expression ‘Zionist money Jews’ is something that could come from her mouth. Further this anti-Semitic expression also shows her hatred for Israel as she explicitly agreed to the notion that Israeli Jews run the world.”
Anti-semitism is abhorrent, it must be said again and again. But so is anti-Arab sentiment, and racism in general, which both the Israeli government and media, as well as the Austrian Freedom Party are guilty of. MP Winter has a right to write and say what she wants, it is the job of the media to contextualize.
While the Jerusalem Post, the Times of Israel, Ynet and other Israeli media decry the blatant racism and hostility shown by Winter against Jews, the assaults on Palestinians continue daily, with little mention in the Israeli press.On November 19, a special meeting was convened by the U.S. Subcommittee on Military Personnel to discuss religious accommodations in the armed services. Testimonies were given by Michael Berry, senior counsel of military affairs of Liberty Institute; Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty; Rabbi Bruce Kahn CAPT, CHC, USN (Ret.); Travis Weber, director of the Center for Religious Liberty Family Research Council; and Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Five witness statements and over ten supporting documents, including testimony submitted by American Humanist Association Executive Director Roy Speckhardt and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers Executive Director Jason Torpy, were submitted to the subcommittee as part of a long-standing struggle concerning Section 533 of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that provided protection for the conscience rights of military chaplains. When President Obama signed the bill in mid-January 2013, he also issued a critical signing statement: “The military already appropriately protects the freedom of conscience of chaplains and service members.” President Obama also gave his assurance that his administration remained “fully committed to continuing the successful implementation of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and to protecting the rights of gay and lesbian service members.”
Military Times reporter Leo Shane III and others noticed that Wednesday’s panel of witnesses leaned heavily towards conservative contributors with the exception of Weinstein, whose organization represents religious minorities and nontheists. Weinstein was later grilled by a member of Congress and subsequently ignored with questions being directed to the remaining four witnesses on the panel. Despite the imbalance, all witnesses spoke to the issue of how they felt their religious liberties were being violated. Stars and Stripes reporter Chris Carroll noted that, at one end of the spectrum, Crews felt that Christians were being discriminated against while Weinstein was concerned that the regulations would allow military superiors the right to proselytize or “witness” to their subordinates. In the middle of the spectrum, Kahn spoke of his concerns that the new regulations would allow for proselytization, thus destroying the cohesion of a military unit, and the doesn’t “counsel by citing the Talmud when I know that people with me have no awareness of or affection for that source.”
Some things were obvious to me during the hearing. First, although the military is clearly diverse with its personnel, the language being used during the hearing was not inclusive. For instance, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) said, “I do not know how we in America can think that we should have control over the conscience of a man of faith, whether they be Jewish, Muslim or Christian,” completely ignoring the khalsa Sikhs or humanists in the audience. The larger concern that came to mind was a moment of misinformation to the panel when Crews claimed that chaplains have been “performing and providing” for all military personnel since 1775. However, it is a fact of history that the U.S. military chaplaincy has been predominantly Protestant Christian since 1775 and only began to diversify away from mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics since 1917 with the inclusion of the first Jewish, Salvation Army, and Orthodox chaplains. Dr. Mark Silk recently wrote that the Chaplain Alliance is not concerned about “the religious liberty of the rank and file,” but that it was formed “lest chaplains’ liberty to oppose the military’s acceptance of openly gay and lesbian personnel be restricted.” After all, Crews has said with bifurcating language: “You can’t have an ‘atheist chaplain’ any more than you can have a ‘tiny giant’ or a ‘poor millionaire.’”
When Religion News Service reporter Chris Stedman interviewed me before an event with the Yale Humanist Community, I mentioned that when policies say that “all are included,” it sends out powerfully confusing messages when these policies are not consistently acted-upon. For instance, what message does it send out to our sailors and soldiers when they read evangelistic messages (or imagine reading the word “manhood” when “humanness” is far more inclusive to women and men) in literature designed to train them on suicide prevention? I want religious freedom, too, and have found it in the words of the founder of the Rhode Island colony, Roger Williams: “All civil states, with their officers of justice, in their respective constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual, or Christian, state and worship.”Exclusive: Rodney Croome, Kerryn Phelps and Ivan Hinton-Teoh blame flaws in the process after forms sent to old postboxes
Prominent LGBTI advocates Rodney Croome, Kerryn Phelps and Ivan Hinton-Teoh have all complained that their marriage law survey forms went to the wrong addresses and have raised fears some Australians will miss out on a vote.
The trio each told Guardian Australia that their forms went to old post office boxes, despite all of them updating or checking their enrolments with the Australian Electoral Commission before the 24 August deadline.
Phelps, the former Australian Medical Association president who appeared in the first Equality Campaign ad, said she was “not calling it a conspiracy” but “indicative of some flaws in the process we always knew would be there”.
High court accepts $122m for same-sex marriage postal survey was 'unforeseen' Read more
Croome, a long-time marriage equality advocate, said despite living in the same place for 26 years and checking his enrolment “just in case”, he discovered his postal survey had been sent “to a postbox I haven’t used for a decade”.
“That postal address wasn’t visible in my online AEC record and I had no idea the AEC would use it as my preferred address,” he said.
“I fear this glitch has the potential to disenfranchise many voters who may not have my very level high of motivation to participate.”
After the deadline for receiving a form to vote on same-sex marriage elapsed on Monday, eligible voters have been encouraged to check their enrolment with the AEC and apply to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for a replacement form online or by phone.
Phelps, a silent elector whose form was mailed by the AEC, discovered the error when her 18-year old daughter’s survey arrived but hers and her wife’s did not.
Phelps said she couldn’t figure out why the forms went to an old post-office box, since AEC communications had previously come to her residential address.
“We haven’t had a post box address for seven years,” she said. “If your survey form has not arrived and you want to vote yes, then check with the AEC because you should have received it.”
Hinton-Teoh, the Just Equal spokesman, said he and his partner Chris had updated their details online but their surveys went to a postbox they hadn’t used for 15 years.
“It is a clear sign that neither the electoral roll nor the update mechanisms the AEC provided were up to the task for this unprecedented and entirely unnecessary process,” he said.
“More than ever, it is clear that this survey result will reflect the motivated and persistent on both sides of this issue, considering the barriers we’ve experienced.”
Hinton-Teoh suggested the ABS should allow all Australians to use an online mechanism made available to Australians currently overseas for voting, rather than the “inefficient and unreliable postal service”.
In September the interim chief executive of Australia Post, Christine Corbett, told a Senate committee inquiry that 99% of all letters arrived on time or one day late but took on notice what proportion failed to arrive at all.
Phelps said that although about one million people had updated their details before the cut-off, her experience was indicative of many people who are “finding their surveys going to old, defunct addresses”.
Guardian Australia has received several reader complaints about forms going to old addresses, post office boxes, and in one case a commercial address registered for the Sydney local council election.
An AEC spokesman said it had provided the ABS with the electoral roll as at 24 August including voters’ residential address (the enrolled address) and “if provided by that person as part of their roll record, their postal address”.
In some cases the errors may have resulted from voters not updating both addresses, but Croome, Phelps and Hinton-Teoh all said they checked that their postal address matched their residential address. The AEC spokesman stressed it is voters’ responsibility to keep their details up to date.
Guardian Australia has also discovered enrolled Australians seeking replacement postal survey forms are being rejected by the ABS website because it cannot “verify” them due to tiny errors in the electoral roll.
Several readers who applied for replacements using the website received automated ABS responses informing them “unfortunately we have not been able to verify your details against the commonwealth electoral roll so cannot process your request at this time”.
An ABS spokesman told Guardian Australia that the online process for requesting a replacement form “looks for exact matches between a person’s electoral roll details and those provided to the ABS”.
He said if the details aren’t verified, people are told to check their details and call the information line, allowing staff to “identify minor discrepancies and support eligible Australians to obtain their survey form”.
Call centre staff ask questions such as alternative names or addresses, and if a person’s identity and enrolment is confirmed they get a replacement form.CLOSE After the recent Las Vegas shooting, the topic of gun control and what needs to be done about it continues to come up. Buzz60
Around 26,000 firearms were turned in during a three-month national gun amnesty that concluded last month in Australia. (Photo: Australian Government)
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is offering to share with the United States her country's two decades of experience with gun law reform that dramatically lowered gun violence deaths.
Australia credits stricter gun control laws enacted after a massacre in Port Arthur in 1996 for a dramatic fall in gun violence.
Bishop was asked on Tuesday if, in light of the Las Vegas massacre, she felt she could raise the issue of U.S. gun laws with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
CLOSE US mourns Vegas massacre victims Video provided by AFP Newslook
"I have no doubt that a debate will be raised again about United States gun laws," the foreign minister told the Sunrise morning show on Australia's Seven Network. "Each state has different laws. What Australia can do is share our experience after the mass killing in Port Arthur back in the late 1990s when 35 people were killed by a lone gunman."
"You will recall that (then-prime minister) John Howard then introduced national gun laws which banned automatic and semi-automatic weapons and included a national buy back scheme," she added. "So we have had this experience. We acted with a legislative response and it will be up to U.S. lawmakers and legislators to deal with this issue."
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop is shown in a file photo taken at a bilateral meeting with Croatian officials at Parliament House in Canberra Aug. 16, 2017. (Photo: LUKAS COCH, EPA)
She delivered a similar message on four morning news programs.
Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten, reflecting bipartisan support over the issue, said Tuesday that he is grateful for Australia's tough gun restrictions.
More: How U.S. compares to rest of world when it comes to gun homicides
More: Americans really like their guns. They own 42% of 650 million civilian firearms worldwide
“Thank God for our gun laws and heaven help anyone who wants to weaken these gun laws because they will have to come through me and the Labor Party,” Shorten told the The Sydney Morning Herald. “There (are) a lot of very good things about America, but we don’t want their gun laws.”
Australia concluded a three-month national gun amnesty last month in which people turned over more than 26,000 unregistered, illegal or unwanted firearms to local authorities without facing a penalty or prosecution, according to the minister of justice.
Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Hoffman of the New South Wales Police speaks to the media at a press conference at their headquarters in Sydney on on Aug. 8, 2017, as guns previously seized from criminals are seen behind him. More than 6,000 guns were surrendered in Australia's most populous state in just one month, police said. (Photo: Peter Parks, AFP/Getty Images)
Outside the amnesty period, possession of an unregistered firearm carries a fine of up to $280,000 in Australian dollars ($220,000 in U.S. currency) and up to 14 years in jail.
Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, who was charged with selling the tough gun laws to regional Australia two decades ago, told Sky News that he could not rule out any future Australian massacre, "but we have had 21 years since Port Arthur without a mass shooting."
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2kpX4QXAmazing Spider-Friends is a twice-monthly column, written by contributor Tyler Barlass, that highlights the rich and complex relationships that Spider-Man has built with just about every character in the Marvel Universe through the years.
18 years after his title was cancelled, the wall-crawler of tomorrow, Spider-Man 2099 made an intriguing (though not necessarily surprising) return to the Marvel Universe in last year’s Superior Spider-Man #17. You might have noticed during your reading of that particular issue, that Spider-Man 2099 alluded to the fact that this wasn’t the first time that the present day Spider-Man met up with the Spider-Man of the future. Way back in 1995, Peter Parker and Miguel O’Hara met for the first time in the aptly titled Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man. With Spidey 2099 seemingly about to play a big role in the upcoming end game of the Superior Spider-Man saga, I figured this would be as good a time as any to take a look at how O’Hara and the original web-head’s fates have intertwined throughout the years.
First introduced in 1993, Spider-Man 2099 was a creation of artist Rick Leonardi and writer Peter David. Between Leonardi’s impressive penciling and stylish costume design and David’s witty and intelligent writing, this was a book that stood out amongst the hordes of other gimmicky concepts that came out of the ‘90s (the 1990’s that is). Miguel O’Hara is introduced as a smart, yet intensely private scientist working for the mega-corporation known as Alchemax. After being blackmailed by Alchemax president Tyler Stone, who tricked him into taking an illegal habit forming drug, Miguel decided to use a genetic altering invention on himself so that he could be free of his new addiction. One of O’Hara’s rivals sabotaged the procedure though by splicing Miguel’s DNA with that of a spider. Much like Peter Parker’s encounter with a radioactive Spider a century prior, Miguel’s gene altering procedure gave him all the powers of an arachnid. Eventually, Miguel used his new powers to take on the greed and corruption that permeated throughout the dystopian future that the Marvel Universe had become.
In the midst of David and Leonardi’s run on Spider-Man 2099, the first ever meeting between the Spider-Man of the regular time line and the Spider-Man of the future took place in a one-shot that came out in 1995. Having mysteriously swapped places, Parker and O’Hara each set out to search for clues while transplanted in time. It’s eventually discovered that Alchemax and another corporation based in modern time were both testing experiments that not only caused the two heroes to travel through time, but it was also poised to wipe out all of the heroes of the heroic age and set into motion the events that would cause the world to resemble that in which O’Hara inherits in 2099. After meeting in a place between time and space, Spider-Man 2099 and regular old Spider-Man travel farther into the future and eventually team-up for the first time when a Hobgoblin from 2211 attacks both heroes. After threatening to erase both Spider-Men from the annals of time with a “ret-con bomb,” this future Hobgoblin is stopped by the Spider-Man of 2211 and somehow both Peter and Miguel are transported back to their original times.
After 46 issues, a change in the editorial and creative teams led to the cancellation of Spider-Man 2099. Though some loose threads would be wrapped up in future stories and Miguel would make some cameo appearances in various Marvel books through the years, the true return of Spider-Man 2099 would not occur until Miguel was again transported into the future to save the life of Tiberius Stone (who turns out to be Miguel O’Hara’s grandfather). Unlike their previous meeting, the pompous Doc Ock, who was now wearing the webs, instigated a fight with his future counterpart. The fight came to an end when Stone used his spider sense jammer to throw Ock off his game (nearly killing little Normie Osborn in the fracas). Eventually though, after realizing that Horizon Labs is destined to be destroyed by the meddling of Stone, Ock and O’Hara put their differences aside to try and save Horizon and the lives of everyone in it. After Ock was unable to stop the impending explosion, O’Hara made a tough decision to save his grandfather (who of course would go on to father Tyler Stone whom heralded in the beginning of the dystopian mega-corp future). Immediately after saving Tiberus, Tyler destroyed the time traveling machine that sent Miguel in to the past, ultimately stranding Spider-Man 2099 in the year 2013.
Leading up to “Goblin Nation” (the current Superior Spider-Man arc that features yet another team-up between Octavius and O’Hara), Miguel has settled into his new life of being stuck in the past. In an effort to watch over his scheming grandfather, Miguel has joined the staff at Alchemax under the alias Michael O’Mara. There are even rumors floating around that Spider-Man 2099 may be getting his own book as well. For a character that spent the better half of the last couple decades in limbo, Spider-Man 2099’s future as a player in the mainstream Marvel Universe is as bright as ever.Plug into the future. Delve new datamines. Discover countless stories spread across the populated worlds… Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming releases of Monster Slayer and Monitor, the newest additions to its Android Fiction line!
A scarred Mars veteran seeks revenge against the corp she feels exploited her and her fellow soldiers. Three friends take a stand against corporate privacy abuses only to find their every move monitored and broadcast… Both Monster Slayer and Monitor blend fast-paced science-fiction with old-school attention to bookmaking. Set in the not-too-distant future described by The Worlds of Android, each of these highly collectible hardcover books adds to the setting with a sixteen-page, full-color insert that features detailed backstory on its story’s characters, locations, and events.
Both novellas will also be available as digital downloads, but the sixteen bonus pages of setting details and backstory will be exclusive to the hardcover editions.
In the future of the Android setting, the world has changed. We have colonized Luna and Mars. Androids walk among us, looking and thinking like human beings. Human beings wear cybernetics that make them more and more machine. Everything is genetically modified (or so it seems). The saying goes, "If you're not g-modded, your parents weren't trying."
_Do our techological advances actually make life better?
Yet even in this brave new age, as humanity continues to tame the impossible, extending its influence further into space and the future, human behavior remains unchanged. Only the stakes have changed—amplified by our access to the solar system and the network.
After all, everything is on the Network. The latest gossip. Your taste in music. Your consumer profile. Your political tendencies. Dirty corporate secrets. Hidden events, hidden lives, all the things you wondered if they were out there… They're on the Network.
Now, with Monster Slayer and Monitor, you can sift through the Network and access the full scoop on some of the Android setting's most compelling people, corps, and stories.
A veteran of the War, Reina can’t stop fighting. Only now, she’s no longer on Mars, and she’s no longer a soldier. Scarred by her time as an Electronic Warfare Service drone operator, Reina has transformed herself into a notorious cybercriminal, and she’s turned her hatred of the Weyland Consortium into a personal crusade. Her goal? Expose the corp’s machinations and exact vigilante justice.
When Reina’s efforts lead her deep into some of Weyland’s most heavily secured servers, she discovers that its geothermal fracking initiative, Project Vulcan, is far more dangerous than the public realizes. But then again, so is the Weyland Consortium. As Reina digs deeper and contacts old allies, she learns firsthand just how far the megacorp will go to protect its secrets.
…With a gesture she brought up the holo-interface and spun through a forest of icons to the GRNDL file.
As the stakes grow higher, the body count rises. Can Reina expose the threat posed by Project Vulcan? And, in the end, will her crusade be worth the cost?
//Written by Android universe co-creator Daniel Lovat Clark, Monster Slayer delves deep into the life and struggles of La Reina Roja, a runner shaped by the War and dedicated to exposing the truth about the Weyland Consortium. The book's multidimensional approach guides readers through the virtual world and the meatspace of New Angeles, offering the most comprehensive exploration of the runner's lifestyle to date.
What good are a console, a couple of contacts, and some military-honed skills against the might of the Weyland Consortium? In addition to its 96 pages of fiction, the hardcover edition of Monster Slayer comes with a sixteen-page full color insert full of setting details pertinent to the story, including backstory on GRNDL, the First Mars Expeditionary Brigade, and the New Angeles underground.
“If you’re playing chess with the enemy, what’s the best move?”
“No idea,” he said. “Clearly.”
“Draw your sidearm and shoot him in the head.”
Three young Breaker Bay grads dream of making a difference in the world—and becoming Network celebrities—away from the desks of their dreary MegaBuy call center jobs. After they recover an NBN executive’s PAD at a protest in Broadcast Square, it seems Lana Rael and her friends, Johnny and Tim, might finally have their chance to discover the truth behind NBN’s saccharine and explosively popular franchise, Sunshine Junction.
But when the aspiring activists stumble into the corporation’s all seeing eye, they find themselves in the limelight—and not in the way they hoped.
…A good neighbor has nothing to hide.
As camdrones begin to follow them through the megacity and broadcast their every move on live threedee, Lana and her friends will have to ask themselves just how much they’re willing to sacrifice to fight the corps. Is making a difference worth risking their privacy, their lifestyle, or their lives?
//Can three young grads and a stolen PAD subvert the public's acceptance of NBN's popular children's program, Sunshine Junction?
Fans of media giant NBN, its colorful programs, and its high-profile characters gain unparalleled access to the megacorp's HQ in Leigh Alexander's Monitor. As the media-focused megacorp responds to the threat posed by a trio of wannabe activists, we learn more about such popular characters as Jackson Howard, Victoria Jenkins, and Dinosaurus.
Meanwhile, as the protagonists have their privacy stripped away, they lose control of their lives. Their actions become increasingly desperate and surprising. As they look for ways to retaliate, will their lives spiral into total anarchy? Will they regain control of the context that defines them? And who is responsible for their suffering? In Monitor, the truth is malleable, and learning how to shape it is paramount.
In addition to its 96 pages of fiction, the hardcover edition of Monitor comes with a sixteen-page full color insert with setting information on activism in the Android future, NBN's Global Adaptive Entertainment, MegaBuy, and the future of marketing.
According to the program description, he was slated to help the Sunshine Junction Friends teach Dinosaurus about cyberbullying.
More Than Fiction
In addition to their stories, the hardcover versions of Monster Slayer and Monitor both contain sixteen pages of bonus, full-color setting details and backstory.
Set in the same style as The Worlds of Android, these bonus inserts introduce new artwork and in-depth looks at issues that provide context for both the associated story and your future adventures in the Android setting.
Worlds of Infinite Possibilities
The Android universe already stretches from Earth to Mars, and it's growing. The possibilities for Android fiction are infinite, and you can soon take your first steps toward full immersion with Monster Slayer and Monitor. Both novellas are scheduled for release late in the first quarter of 2016!If you ask an outsider’s perspective on Canada, when referring to its national sport the immediate response would be Hockey. All things considered, there are also those with the naivety to suggest that most Canadians live in igloos. While the numbers exemplify hockey as the most popular national sport, it isn’t necessarily the most prevalent in terms of participation by Canada’s youth. From a parental perspective the most important aspect is for their kids to be safe and build solid character values through athletics. Look no further than the sport of Tennis.
Over the last two decades Tennis has grown not only from a global perspective, but has become quite popular in Canada. A big reason for its growing popularity has been the emergence of stars such as Milos Raonic, Eugenie Bouchard, and Vasek Pospisi and some mention of Daniel Nestorl. The interest in the sport and the capable athletes Canada has produced speaks volumes to the development program within the nation. To gauge an in depth perspective on the growth of Tennis in Canada, I spoke with Senior Vice President of Tennis Development for Tennis Canada, Hatem Mcdadi. Provided is a slightly edited transcript of the interview.
Q and A with Hatem Mcdadi: Senior Vice President of Development Hatem Mcdadi
Q: What are the responsibilities in terms of your specific role?
A: “Tennis Development which includes: high performance, community, grassroots, coaching, officiating, seniors, wheelchair tennis, provincial partners… Really all aspects from getting rackets in the hands of youngsters and families, and the pathway to the Olympics, the Paralympics, Grand Slams, Davis and Fed Cup, and tennis for life. Basically ensuring Canadians enjoy the sport on all levels.”
Q: Now, you spoke about getting rackets in the hands of youngsters. The sport has grown rapidly within Canada and a big factor of that has been the success of Milos Raonic, and Eugenie Bouchard but what was the turning point when did the growth really take off?
A: “There are a few factors… There’s been a lot of really talented families and committed personal Canadian coaches involved with athletes like Milos, Vasek, and Eugenie, and some of the youngsters coming up now… There’s been very committed provincial tennis associations that work in partnership with Tennis Canada to grow and develop the sport. the globalization of the sport has really helped, and by that I mean, the rivalries between stars; (Rafael) Nadal, and (Roger) Federer, (Novak) Djokovic, and (Andy) Murray, Serena, maria and others etc…. Has grown tennis and provided more exposure to tennis on television, it’s brought with it a higher interest and more fans. And then the Canadian phenomena… Eugenie 2014 finals of Wimbledon, and Milos in 2016, it’s inspired a whole new generation to play and get involved… this is just part of the story of growth. Other factors that are contributing include our changing demographics in Canada. Many (new) Canadians that come from other cultures like Europe, South America, and Asia love tennis. It has really helped the sport…. It’s also really affordable, accessible, and there’s a safety aspect. There’s been a lot of talk, about concussions in contact sports, tennis doesn’t have that. It’s really a sport for life. All of the above said has helped. In addition, ten to eleven years ago was the beginning of something really special.”
Q: What was that?
A: “ The Tennis Canada board approved the opening of the |
/some-simple-evidences-for-an-old-earth/ )
So – – we have one dating method with known, unavoidable problems for dating really old things, giving results which are at variance with a whole battery of other methods which are good at dating really old things. This is why practicing scientists do not regard the C14 results on dinosaur fossils as indicative of their actual dates.
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See README for a description of other research articles on this blog
References
[1] Thomas, B. 2009. Dinosaur Soft Tissue Issue Is Here to Stay. Acts & Facts. 38 (9): 18 http://www.icr.org/article/4827
[2] M. H. Schweitzer, “Blood from Stone”, Scientific American, December, 2010, pg. 62. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/blood-from-stone/
[3] Mary Schweitzer and Tracy Staedter, “The Real Jurassic Park,” Earth (June 1997): 55–57, as cited by Reasons to Believe in: http://www.reasons.org/articles/dinosaur-blood
[4] Mary Higby Schweitzer, John R. Horner Annales de Paléontologie, Volume 85, Issue 3, Pages 179-192 (1999) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753396999800135 (abstract only)
[5] Hai-Lin Wang, Zi-Ying Yan, and Dong-Yan Jin, Reanalysis of Published DNA Sequence Amplified from Cretaceous Dinosaur Egg Fossil, Mol Biol Evol (1997) 14 (5): 589-591. http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/5/589.full.pdf+html
[6] : Schweitzer, et al., “Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus rex”, Science, 307 (2005) 1952. http://www.rpgroup.caltech.edu/~natsirt/stuff/Schweitzer%20Science%202005.pdf
[7] Mary Higby Schweitzer, Zhiyong Suo, Recep Avci,, John M. Asara, Mark A. Allen, Fernando Teran Arce, John R. Horner. “Analyses of Soft Tissue from Tyrannosaurus rex Suggest the Presence of Protein”, Science 13 April 2007: Vol. 316 no. 5822 pp. 277-280. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/316/5822/277.abstract
[8] John M. Asara, Mary H. Schweitzer, Lisa M. Freimark, Matthew Phillips, Lewis C. Cantley, “Protein Sequences from Mastodon and Tyrannosaurus Rex Revealed by Mass Spectrometry”, Science 13 April 2007: Vol. 316 no. 5822 pp. 280-285 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/316/5822/280.short and http://www-nmr.cabm.rutgers.edu/academics/biochem694/reading/Asara_etal_2007.pdf
[9] Kaye, et al., “Dinosaurian Soft Tissues Interpreted as Bacterial Biofilms”, PLoS ONE 3(7): e2808 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0002808
[10] Schweitzer, et al., “Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. Canadensis”, Science 1 May 2009: Vol. 324 no. 5927 pp. 626-631 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/324/5927/626.abstract
(Here is an accessible summary of this Science 2009 article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090430144528.htm )
[11] Schweitzer, et al., Proc. R. Soc. B (2005) 272, 775–784. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royprsb/272/1565/775.full.pdf
[12] Mary Higby Schweitzer, “Soft Tissue Preservation in Terrestrial Mesozoic Vertebrates”, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences Vol. 39: 187-216 (May 2011) http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-earth-040610-133502
[13] Theagarten Lingham-Soliara and Joanna Glabb,” Dehydration: A mechanism for the preservation of fine detail in fossilised soft tissue of ancient terrestrial animals”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Volume 291, Issues 3–4, 15 May 2010, Pages 481–487 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018210001471
[14] James D. San Antonio, Mary H. Schweitzer, Shane T. Jensen, Raghu Kalluri, Michael Buckley, Joseph P. R. O. Orgel. “Dinosaur Peptides Suggest Mechanisms of Protein Survival”, PLoS One 6, no. 6 (2011): e20381 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0020381
[15] Fazale Rana, “Structure of Dinosaur Collagen Unravels the Case for a Young Earth”, Reasons to Believe, August 10, 2011. http://www.reasons.org/articles/structure-of-dinosaur-collagen-unravels-the-case-for-a-young-earth
[16] M. J. Collins, C. M. Nielsen-Marsh, J. Hiller, C. I. Smith And J. P. Roberts, “The Survival Of Organic Matter In Bone: A Review”, Archaeometry 44, 3 (2002) 383–39 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-4754.t01-1-00071/pdf
[17] Peterson JE, Lenczewski ME, Scherer RP (2010) “Influence of Microbial Biofilms on the Preservation of Primary Soft Tissue in Fossil and Extant Archosaurs”. PLoS ONE 5(10): e13334. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0013334
[18] Mary Higby Schweitzer, Wenxia Zheng, Timothy P. Cleland, Marshall Bern. “Molecular analyses of dinosaur osteocytes support the presence of endogenous molecules”. Bone Volume 52, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 414–423. http://www4.ncsu.edu/~lezanno/Research_files/SchweitzerEtAl2012.pdf
[19] Morten E. Allentoft, et al.,”The half-life of DNA in bone: measuring decay kinetics in 158 dated fossils”. Proc. R. Soc. B (2012) 279, 4724–4733. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/279/1748/4724
[20] Matthias Meyer, et al., “A mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de los Huesos”, Nature 505, 403–406. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7483/full/nature12788.html
[21] Schweitzer MH, Zheng W, Cleland TP, Goodwin MB, Boatman E, Theil E, Marcus MA, Fakra SC. “A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues, cells and molecules from deep time”, Proc. R. Soc. B 281: 20132741. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royprsb/281/1775/20132741.full.pdf
[22] Elizabeth M. Boatman, Mark B. Goodwin, Hoi-Ying Holman, Sirine Fakra, Mary H. Schweitzer, Ronald Gronsky and John R. Horner, “Synchrotron Chemical and Structural Analysis of Tyrannosaurus rex Blood Vessels:The Contribution of Collagen Hypercrosslinking to Tissue Longevity”, Microsc. Microanal. 20 (Suppl 3), 2014 http://infrared.als.lbl.gov/Publications/2014/BGHFSGH14/1430.pdf
[23] “Are Birds Really Dinosaurs?”, The University of California Museum of Paleontology. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html
[24] Lee, A. H. and Werning, S. “Sexual maturity in growing dinosaurs does not fit reptilian growth models.” 2007. PNAS 105:2:582-587 http://www.pnas.org/content/105/2/582.full?sid=1a6b4941-c23f-46db-9eda-07ba2b73de0f
[25] “Medullary Bone and the Dinosaur-Bird Link”, https://dinosours.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/medullary-bone-and-the-dinosaur-bird-link/
[26] Helen Fields, “Dinosaur Shocker”. Smithsonian Magazine, May 2006 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur.html?c=y&page=3
[27] Emily Ruppel, “Not So Dry Bones: An interview with Mary Schweitzer”. July 21, 2014. http://biologos.org/blog/not-so-dry-bones-an-interview-with-mary-Schweitzer
[28] Evan Ratliff, “Origin of Species: How a T. Rex Femur Sparked a Scientific Smackdown”,WIRED MAGAZINE: 17.07 http://archive.wired.com/medtech/genetics/magazine/17-07/ff_originofspecies?currentPage=all
[29] Laura Geggel, ” Is It Possible to Clone a Dinosaur?” LiveScience April 28, 2016 http://www.livescience.com/54574-can-we-clone-dinosaurs.html
[30] Further notes on the dating of the tektites and Z-coal just above the Hell Creek formation:
The table of datings for the Z-coal was taken from Table 2 of the article “Radiometric Dating Does Work!” by G. Brent Dalrymple of the U.S. Geological Survey, in RNCSE 20 (3): 14-19, 2000. The link to this article is given in the article, https://ncse.com/library-resource/radiometric-dating-does-work.
Here is Dalrymple’s commentary in that article on these Hell Creek formation samples, and also on tektites found in Haiti:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In addition to shocked quartz grains and high concentrations of iridium, the K-T impact produced tektites, which are small glass spherules that form from rock that is instantaneously melted by a large impact. The KT tektites were ejected into the atmosphere and deposited some distance away. Tektites are easily recognizable and form in no other way, so the discovery of a sedimentary bed (the Beloc Formation) in Haiti
that contained tektites and that, from fossil evidence, coincided with the K-T boundary provided an obvious candidate for dating. Scientists from the US Geological Survey were the first to obtain radiometric ages for the tektites and laboratories in Berkeley, Stanford, Canada, and France soon followed suit. The results from all of the laboratories were remarkably consistent with the measured ages ranging only from 64.4 to 65.1 Ma
(Table 2). Similar tektites were also found in Mexico, and the Berkeley lab found that they were the same age as the Haiti tektites. But the story doesn’t end there.
The K-T boundary is recorded in numerous sedimentary beds around the world. The Z-coal, the Ferris coal, and the Nevis coal in Montana and Saskatchewan all occur immediately above the K-T boundary. Numerous thin beds of volcanic ash occur within these coals just centimeters above the K-T boundary, and some of these ash beds contain minerals that can be dated radiometrically. Ash beds from each of these coals have been dated by 40Ar/39Ar, K-Ar, Rb-Sr, and U-Pb methods in several laboratories in the US and Canada. Since both the ash beds and the tektites occur either at or very near the K-T boundary, as determined by diagnostic fossils, the tektites and the ash beds should be very nearly the same age, and they are (Table 2).
There are several important things to note about these results. First, the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods were defined by geologists in the early 1800s. The boundary between these periods (the K-T boundary) is marked by an abrupt change in fossils found in sedimentary rocks worldwide. Its exact location in the stratigraphic column at any locality has nothing to do with radiometric dating — it is located by careful study of the
fossils and the rocks that contain them, and nothing more. Second, the radiometric age measurements, 187 of them, were made on 3 different minerals and on glass by 3 distinctly different dating methods (K-Ar and 40Ar/39Ar are technical variations that use the same parent-daughter decay scheme), each involving different elements with different half-lives. Furthermore, the dating was done in 6 different laboratories and the materials were collected from 5 different locations in the Western Hemisphere. And yet the results are the same within analytical error. If radiometric dating didn’t work then such beautifully consistent results would not be possible.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Since this 2000 article by Dalrymple is short and written for the layman, it mentions the numbers of measurements and the laboratories which made these measurements, but does not always include the specific references for every data point. However, it is possible to find most of these references on the internet.
For instance, the data in the first row of our table (sanidine, 28 measurements, averaging 64.8 million years) come from his 1993 publication: “40Ar/39Ar age spectra and total-fusion ages of tektites from Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sedimentary rocks in the Beloc Formation, Haiti“, U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2065, by G. Brent Dalrymple, G.A. Izett, L.W. Snee, and J.D. Obradovich.
The link for this publication is https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/b2065. From that link, the full report can be downloaded. It contains reams of numbers on multiple, replicate measurements on tektites from Haiti and also on sanidine crystals isolated from bentonite layers in the Hell Creek Z-coal. Here is a histogram of the dates from all these measurements:
Some 28 independent measurements were made for the Z-coal, and the results show a reasonably tight distribution between about 64 and 66 million years ago, averaging to 64.8 Ma. For the Haitian tektites (a completely different mineral), 52 measurements are shown. These dates group between about 63 and 66 million years ago.
This 1993 Dalrymple USGS report also gives references for the K-Ar, Rb-Sr, and U-Pb dating results shown in our table, e.g. H. Baadsgaard, J. F. Lerbeko, and I. McDougall, “A radiometric age for the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary based upon K-Ar, Rb-Sr, and U-Pb ages of bentonites from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana”. Canadian Journal of Earth Science, v. 25, p.1088-1097.
Another major study of sanidine dating from the Z-coal layers was by C.C. Swisher, L. Dingus, and R. F. Butler, “40Ar/39Ar dating and magnetostratigraphic correlation of the terrestrial Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary and Puercan Mammal Age, Hell Creek – Tullock formations, eastern Montana”, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 1993, 30(9): 1981-1996. The Z-coal dating here was 65.0 million years ago (datings for various sublevels of this coal group are also given). This 1993 Swisher, et al. article references some eleven prior studies on Z-coal sanidine dating which yielded dates between 63.5 and 66.5 million years ago.
In 2013 Renne et al. revisited the dating of the Z-coal layers above the Hell Creek formation ( P. R. Renne, et al., “Time Scales of Critical Events Around the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary”. Science 08 Feb 2013: Vol. 339, pp. 684-687 ). They performed 40Ar/39Ar dating on sanidine from several parts of the Z-coal layers, and again measured an age of about 66 million years. They performed Ar/Ar measurements on K-T boundary layer tektites from Haiti, finding a date of 66 million years there also.
The supplementary material for the Renne, et al. article (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/339/6120/684/DC1 ) also describes the dating of a set of zircons from the Z-coal layers, using the uranium/lead system. Again, a date of 66 million years was measured.
All this shows that multiple, independent measurements, made in different laboratories over the course of decades, give tight, consistent answers for the date of the rock layers immediately above the Hell Creek formation. This is strong confirmation that this date is reliable, and shows there was no arbitrary “cherry picking” of the data here to obtain harmonious results.
[31] Beatrice Demarchi, et al., “Protein sequences bound to mineral surfaces persist into deep time”, eLife 2016;5:e17092. https://elifesciences.org/content/5/e17092
[32] “Fibres and cellular structures preserved in 75-million–year-old dinosaur specimens”, Nature Communications 6, Article number: 7352 (2015)http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8352
[33] https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/preserved-cretaceous-collagen-and-dinosaur-blood-common-clues-catastrophic-past/ “The extraordinarily small size of these cell-like structures should at least raise the possibility that they have been misidentified. Given their remarkably small size, we must at least hold open the possibility that they are not blood cells at all. ”
[34] http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33067582
[35] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/09/75-million-year-old-dinosaur-blood-and-collagen-discovered-in-fossil-fragments
[36] See the discussion on RATE claims by Randy Isaac here: http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/origins/rate-ri.htm with a response by RATE scientists, and Randy’s response, here: http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/origins/rate-pscf.htm
COPYRIGHT SCOTT BUCHANAN 2015 Permission is granted for reproduction for non-commercial use of this text as long as the contents are not altered and attribution is given. The figures are attributed separately.
AdvertisementsLast November, people from Brazil to Turkey to Japan discovered that Google Translate for their language was suddenly more accurate and easier to understand. That’s because we introduced neural machine translation—using deep neural networks to translate entire sentences, rather than just phrases—for eight languages overall. Over the next couple of weeks, these improvements are coming to Google Translate in many more languages, starting right now with Hindi, Russian and Vietnamese.
Neural translation is a lot better than our previous technology, because we translate whole sentences at a time, instead of pieces of a sentence. (Of course there’s lots of machine learning magic powering this under the hood, which you can read about on the Research blog.) This makes for translations that are usually more accurate and sound closer to the way people speak the language. Here’s one example to show how much it’s improved:City Of Light
the dramatization of a 1901 technological revolution
“The generators gleamed black in the sunlight that poured through the long, arched windows of Thomas Sinclair’s cathedral of power.” City of Light author, Lauren Belfer, blends fiction with the facts of a technological revolution and combines it with mysterious murder and romance in a way that has made it one of my favorite novels. In 1901 the city of Buffalo, New York hosted the Pan American Exposition which featured dazzling displays of electric light that certainly had to inspire awe in its visitors. Beyond this visual show was an equally significant development of the mechanical benefits that electricity would offer in terms of reducing manual labor and increasing industrial productivity. Human standards of living would be raised, and all of this promise was being celebrated with great enthusiasm. It was also being noticed - and coveted - by the financial barons of that time who could clearly see the wealth and power it could bring them, and would let little stand in their way. These ingredients were masterfully used by the author, who graciously agreed to answer some of my questions that have been lingering since reading the novel. It’s always interesting to wonder what seed a story started from. Did you choose the emerging power industry as a backdrop for your story or did your interest for a story begin with it? I grew up in Buffalo in the 1960s and 1970s, during an era of economic depression. All my friends and I could talk about was when, and how, we were going to leave the Niagara Frontier. Apart from our families and friends, we didn’t find anything to value in the city or in its history, nor had we been educated about the city’s extraordinary history. Years later, when I happened to be in Buffalo to visit my parents, I wandered into an exhibit at the Buffalo Historical Society. This exhibit was about the city’s glory days in 1901, and it included photographs and other materials relating to the development of hydroelectric power at Niagara Falls. The exhibit hit me with the force of a revelation – I’d never known about Buffalo’s position of prominence at the turn of the last century, or about the astonishing technological advances made at nearby Niagara Falls. That very day, I decided to write a novel about my much-maligned hometown during its brief and remarkable period of national preeminence. The city’s unique position as a recipient of Niagara’s electrical power was crucial to the city’s prosperity in 1901. Thus from the beginning, when I first began to sketch out the plot for "City of Light," I created characters and incidents that involved the power industry, so that I could show how pivotal the industry was in Buffalo’s, and the nation’s, history. The main character of your story was a woman named Louisa Barrett. She was intelligent, and for the most part self-confident, but you also gave her a very vulnerable quality that constantly struggled inside against the dilemmas of a rapidly changing world. Do you imagine our current revolution of information technology causing similar struggles in the people involved in it? Yes, absolutely. As I wrote "City of Light," I was very aware of the comparison between the electrical revolution and the information-technology revolution of our own time. When I write fiction, one of my goals is to portray the effect of changing technology on individual lives. Louisa Barrett is taken aback when she first enters a home which has been electrified. The light has a clarity that she never imagined possible. Soon after, she learns about the new industries being developed at Niagara Falls, industries that are feasible only because of cheap and readily available electricity. As a thinking person, she rightly ponders the benefits as well as the environmental repercussions of these new industries. Nowadays, young people like my teenage son take computer technology for granted, but this is far from the case for older people like, for example, my mom, who after some months of confusion and hesitancy, now uses the internet every day, communicating with friends around the world and researching myriad questions that come up in the course of a day. I also became interested in another element of technological revolution, one which is little recognized: When America was initially electrified, nothing was standardized – for example, a socket or a bulb that worked in one part of New York City might not work ten blocks away. This reminded me of the early days of the computer revolution, when multiple companies were competing with idiosyncratic hardware and software. Nowadays, with the computer industry fairly standardized around Microsoft PCs and Apple Macs (and these two becoming increasingly compatible), it’s hard to remember the "old days" when floppy disks were large and floppy and computers from different manufacturers operated in quite different ways. Similarly, it’s hard to remember that the electrical industry, too, evolved from the idiosyncratic to the standardized, and that the standardization, probably as much as any other factor, allowed for the mass-electrification of the nation. I remember years ago that many computer and internet users protested the dominance of Microsoft especially in the computer industry, but I wonder to what extent the standardization has allowed the technology to integrate itself into our lives in such a compelling way. All too quickly, technological advances turn into the reliable background of our lives, and I have to think that standardization encourages this process. I’m still amazed when I see my son video-chatting with his friends on his Apple Mac -- but of course to him, this ability is very much business-as-usual, nothing special.
available from amazon.com Although it’s a novel there are many historically accurate details in it that show a tremendous amount of research effort. Where did you start looking and where did you find the best answers? As I said earlier, I had the idea for the novel while I was visiting my parents in Buffalo. When I returned home to New York, I wondered how I would be able to begin my research while living far away from Buffalo. I immediately learned, however, that I had no reason to be concerned: the libraries in New York are filled with information about Buffalo and Niagara Falls, and particularly about the development of hydropower at Niagara Falls. The easy availability of research materials brought an important realization: Buffalo and Niagara were so important a hundred years ago that of course New York City libraries came to be filled with information. The electrical breakthroughs at Niagara were being funded by financiers based in New York City, and thousands of people were traveling to Buffalo for the Pan American Exposition. The Niagara Frontier truly was among the most important places in America, and people everywhere, in America and around the world, wanted to know about it. The Niagara Frontier had become the Silicon Valley of its day. The novel took six years to research and write, and during that time I returned to Buffalo for several research trips. In Buffalo, I was able to visit the sites that I was writing about, and this provided an extra measure of verisimilitude. Although many of the places had changed considerably over the years, I was still able to use my imagination to figure out what they must have been like during the time that my characters knew them. The people of Buffalo are unusually open and friendly, and more than once I simply knocked on the door of an old house, explained my research, and found myself welcomed and given a tour as if I were a family friend. As you became involved in the research process did it reveal any elements that gave validity to Mark Twain’s quote; "Truth is stranger than fiction…"? I would approach the issue of truth vs. fiction from a different standpoint: As I did my research, I was surprised over and over by the fact that crucial social and political issues of our day were also important in 1901: women’s rights, the rights of minorities, environmental protection, the personal morality of politicians – all these issues were debated in 1901, much as they are debated today. I found myself in an extremely familiar world, a world in which I felt comfortable and which I felt I understood. The early part of the story involves the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. It wasn’t the first public display of electric lighting, but it certainly was spectacular and historically significant to the electrification of the United States and the world. What did you imagine went through the minds of the thousands of visitors when they first saw the lighting displays at nighttime? Visitors came to the Pan-American Exposition literally from all over the world, and I believe the Pan-Am’s electrical display filled them with awe. Indeed, the Pan-Am’s lighting display was beyond both expectation and imagining for the visitors of 1901. They must have taken this feeling of awe away with them, and yearned to bring the miracle of electricity to their hometowns. The "cathedral of power" described in your story was a hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls. Most people today take electric power for granted and think of hydroelectric generation as very benign, if not environmentally friendly. In your story, however, it becomes a very contentious issue between industrialists and preservationists who fight over the legal and ethical problems of using such a grand natural resource. Did this have a historical basis from your research or did you create it to add additional dimension to the story? The fight to save Niagara Falls was the first environmental battle in America. The industrialists were quite capable of shutting off the Falls by diverting all the water to power generation – and they would have, if not for the protests that finally spurred government intervention. The battle for Niagara Falls was fought in large part, surprisingly, in the pages of the magazine "The Lady’s Home Journal," whose editor championed the preservation cause. The fight was non-violent, however. I added the element of violence to heighten the drama and to reveal all that was at stake for the future of the nation. The power station in your story was based on the actual Adam’s Power Station, built in 1895 from designs by Nicola Tesla, a very famous inventor. Is his character hidden in the story somewhere? As far as I could learn, Tesla was not in Buffalo in 1901, and I didn’t include him in the story. By all accounts, he was quite an extravagant figure, brilliant and highly eccentric. Portraying him in fiction would have been fun, but I simply couldn’t find an opening for him. Electrical power seems so fundamental to our lifestyles that it’s hard to imagine it not existing for lack of any individuals or events. Do you think the birth of this industry was brought by the industrialist’s force of will or by its own inevitability? I think the triumph of electricity was a combination of industry will and inevitability. Niagara Falls wasn’t the only site of electrical development in America, but it was the most dramatic, both in terms of technological development and sheer physical monumentality. From the time I began my research, I was fascinated by the fact that in Europe, electricity was considered a human right, like running water and sewage systems in a major city. In America, however, electricity has always been a commodity, developed and sold for profit, revealing the predominance of industrialists in American culture. Have you ever thought that you’d like to see your novel made into a movie someday? I would be thrilled for "City of Light" to become a movie! And of course I believe it would be a terrific movie.The Android device story has followed a predictable pattern for the past few years: Samsung, HTC, LG, and Sony release top-tier hardware to carriers the world over, with their own proprietary software layered over Android. Google, meanwhile, partners with one of those companies to release a Nexus phone running “pure” Android software, usually without carrier support and usually on hardware that doesn’t feel quite up to snuff.
This year, two flagship phones, the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, represent the pinnacle of Android hardware. They seem to have everything you could ask for: fast processors, gigantic and beautiful screens, LTE, and (mostly) great hardware design. But like their predecessors, they also come with a lot of extra software you probably didn’t ask for.
But this year, Google found a way to get HTC and Samsung to offer those same phones without their so-called “skins.” Both the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One can now be purchased without their respective manufacturer customizations for $649 and $599, respectively. Offered unsubsidized, unbranded, and unbesmirched by carrier software directly from Google, together they represent something we haven’t seen in a very, very long time: the best available hardware paired with Google’s vision of Android.
On top of all that, for the first time we can compare a customized version of Android directly against stock software running on the same device with manufacturer support. Do Samsung’s TouchWiz and HTC’s Sense really detract from the “true” Google experience?
Hardware New software, old hardware
Since we’re already reviewed the hardware on the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, let’s quickly list out the physical changes on the stock editions. On the Galaxy S4, the carrier logo and the "Galaxy S4" logo have been replaced by a simple, single "Samsung" logo on the back. HTC’s "beatsaudio" logo remains, as this stock edition supports it. That’s it. Inside and out, these phones are identical to their predecessors
Inside and out, these phones are identical to what we’ve already seen. They’ll do LTE on both AT&T and T-Mobile, but may not be able to utilize T-Mobile’s AWS HSPA+ networks at their maximum speeds. They use the same NFC, IR ports, cameras, processors, radios, speakers, screens, and all the rest. It’s worth noting that the HTC One’s storage is 32GB, double that of the Galaxy S4 — though the latter still has a microSD card slot for expansion. Now that we’ve had several months to get to know these phones, the fact that they have identical hardware turns out to be a mixed blessing for both of them. The HTC One is still the most beautiful and elegant Android phone by a very wide margin. The screen looks great, the speakers are crazy loud, and it simply feels more premium than any of its competitors. However, HTC’s obstinate refusal to bow to the design norms of the Android market hurts the stock One as much as it hurts the skinned model. The power button, located at the top of the phone, is nigh-impossible to reach with one hand. Samsung, LG, Nokia, and many others put it on the side now, an infinitely more reasonable choice for large-screened phones. More annoyingly, HTC continues to participate in Google’s campaign to rid the world of a dedicated menu button. In a perfect world, developers would follow Google’s guidelines and update their apps with on-screen menu buttons. In the real world, Samsung still ships a menu button on the bestselling Galaxy line, meaning there’s simply not enough incentive to get developers to redesign their apps. Arcane Android politics aside, the bottom line is that HTC only provides two buttons — home and back — with the home button awkwardly placed on the right-hand side. This means that when you install an Android app that doesn’t follow Google’s Holo guidelines for on-screen menu buttons, you’re stuck with a gigantic black menu button at the bottom of your screen. Those apps are, thankfully, becoming increasingly rare, but they happen often enough to screw up whatever muscle memory you’ve built up with the keyboard whenever it gets shifted up. The stock Galaxy S4 has the same slimy-feeling back cover, faux-metal plastic rim, and overall midrange aesthetic. In our original S4 review, David Pierce wrote that the hardware "makes an awful first impression" and I can’t say that I disagree. But what the GS4 lacks in panache it makes up for in utility. That back cover comes off so you can replace the battery and add an SD card. It also has the traditional three-button menu/home/back button layout that works better with stock Android. I was able to get some third-party apps to successfully work with the GS4’s IR blaster, though app selection in that regard is still quite limited. Google says that the IR blaster on the stock HTC One doesn’t work right now, but will with a future software release.
Cameras Power vs. simplicity
Since the hardware and stock Android software are both known quantities, the biggest question surrounding these phones is how well the cameras would perform. Both Samsung and HTC put a lot of effort into their custom camera software and hardware, and more importantly they tout their improvements as essential facets of their custom software experiences. Samsung piled an absolutely gigantic set of (occasionally gimmicky) features onto an advanced 13-megapixel shooter, while HTC took the risky route of using fewer megapixels that could take in more light — the so-called "ultrapixel" camera. Grid View
The good news is that, for the most part, you can still get good photos from the stock versions of these phones. In many cases, I was unable to discern any difference between the skinned-version photos and the stock-version. Especially when you’re shooting with the default auto settings, photos from both the GS4 and the HTC One were nigh-indistinguishable from their skinned counterparts.
There are exceptions, though. HTC’s camera in particular managed to get slightly sharper shots in extremely low-light settings with Sense than the stock version. On both the GS4 and the One I found that video was slightly better on the skinned versions as well, with richer colors and less "jellyvision." Grid View
I can’t say how much effort these companies put into making sure their cameras worked well with the stock Android software, but it does seem clear that they spent at least a nominal amount of time tuning the image processing. Samsung should have probably spent a little more time doing so — the stock Galaxy S4 exhibited a noticeable and troubling shutter lag that isn’t present on the skinned version nor on either HTC One. While just pointing the phone at a subject and clicking the shutter button doesn’t yield remarkably different results between skinned and stock, that’s far from the whole story. Both Samsung and HTC offer a series of settings that can give |
has failed.
The editorial also claims that Sinn Féin wants to default on Government debt. This is not true. Sinn Féin has consistently argued for the Government to honour its debts. What we do not accept, however, is that the citizens of this state should pay the toxic debts of the banks. We believe that a negotiated write-down of the Anglo Irish promissory note is possible. Unfortunately, the Government, according to Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, has not even put this option on the table.
The editorial accuses Sinn Féin of ignoring and misrepresenting economic and political realities and of peddling fiscal fantasies.
Sinn Féin is acutely aware of the political and economic realities, as are the people we represent. The steady rise of our party in the opinion polls reflects a simple fact. Our critique of the failures of the Government and their EU counterparts is resonating with more and more people. So too are our alternatives.
Sinn Féin does not believe there is an easy way out of our current economic and social crisis. However, there are alternatives to the failed policies of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour. You can-not cut and tax your way out of a recession. Four years into the economic crisis and six austerity budgets later, and where has this approach got us?
Sinn Féin’s alternative economic strategy is based on progressive tax reform, reduction of waste in the public sector and investment in jobs and growth. We have produced detailed and costed Budget alternatives and will continue to do so in order to demonstrate a credible alternative to the failed agenda of the Government.
This is the alternative that people in France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands recently voted for. It is the alternative that people in this state can vote for on May 31st by rejecting the Austerity Treaty.
The Irish Times editorial ran under the headline of “Shallow, cynical and wrong”. It is a fitting description for the poor quality analysis in the paragraphs that followed.
For this writer at least, the content of the editorial was not only an example of the poor standards that have increasingly become the norm in Tara Street. It also speaks volumes about the world view of its author and the section of society that he or she speaks for.
It reveals an anxiety felt by certain sections of liberal middle-class Ireland faced with the prospect of Sinn Féin as the second largest political force on the island. This is the anxiety of those well-meaning liberals who say they want change but never so much as to threaten their privileged position in society.Spain and Real captain Casillas, 31, suffered the freak injury in a collision with team-mate Alvaro Arbeloa during the Copa del Rey quarter-final second leg against Valencia, and has been ruled out for up to three months with a fractured bone in his left hand.
Casillas was replaced by reserve keeper Antonio Adan and Jose Mourinho's side went on to secure a 1-1 draw that put them into the semi-finals 3-1 on aggregate to face Barcelona or Malaga, who meet later on Thursday.
"After carrying out initial x-rays it has been confirmed that Casillas has suffered a fracture at the base of the first metacarpal on his left hand," Real said in a statement on their website.
"It will be assessed again by a specialist later today to decide what treatment will be followed," they added.
"When I tried to close my fist it hurt. It's just the thumb. The fact that it has nothing to do with the wrist is good," Casillas, who had his left hand heavily bandaged, told the club's website.
The injury to a key figure comes at a delicate time for Mourinho with Europe's elite club competition resuming in just over two weeks.
Casillas has just been restored to the starting line up after Mourinho controversially dropped him for the league games either side of La Liga's winter break.
The decision provoked angry reactions from home fans and fuelled media speculation about possible dressing room rifts even though Real's defence has started to tighten up of late.
Former Spain U21 international Adan, who has spent his entire career playing second-fiddle to Casillas, was at fault for the goal conceded in Valencia on Wednesday, a low free kick he was slow to react to, but assistant coach Aitor Karanka defended him.
"Adan knows we have confidence in him," he said. "He played recently and was unlucky to get sent off. He knows he is young and has to progress, and that he has our backing."
The Copa del Rey and Champions League are Real’s priorities after falling well behind Barcelona in La Liga, but the loss of Casillas – one of the world’s top keepers – is a bitter blow to their chances.
"This season, where we aren't going to win the league, we have to think about the Champions League and Cup," Mourinho said in an interview with a French radio station on Wednesday.MUMBAI: The Essel Group, headed by the indefatigable Subhash Chandra, is planning to rekindle its romance with cricket.
The company bigwigs were travelling the day Sydney Morning Herald reported that companies had been registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and also in New Zealand and other full and associate member countries that suggested another move against cricket’s world body (International Cricket Council) some time in the future.
On Monday, after returning to India, one of the top men at Essel Group — who has handled their cricket interests in the past — spoke to the Times of India confirming such a move.
“The IPL is just a copy of the format that we had created in the first place. And the previous BCCI administrators, including Lalit Modi, admitted that they felt threatened by what we did back then,” he said.
Contrary to rumours, Essel says Lalit Modi is not part of their plans, which involve another attempt to take on the establishment like they had done with the Indian Cricket League (ICL).
“The reports are correct [of registering companies]. But they’re all at a nascent stage and are still being worked upon. We’ll share details as things develop,” he added.
The Essel top executive stressed that having battled the might of the BCCI in the past, the company was aware of the pitfalls it faced between 2007 and 2010 while trying to run the ICL.
“That experience has taught us a lot and this time when we return, we’ll be better prepared. We know how not to burn our fingers now,” he said.
A report carried by the Sydney Morning Herald website said the head of world cricket’s players union, Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), believes governing bodies should be “on their toes” about a potential raid on their players by a rebel group despite the Indian conglomerate having a poor record in cricket administration.
Essel previously ran the ICL, which ended abruptly in 2009 with more than $2 million owed to more than 40 players including Australians, and was later the subject of corruption admissions by New Zealander Lou Vincent.
Essel recently agreed to a settlement of $280,000 in a Mumbai court after litigation brought by 12 of the players concerning unpaid money from the 2008 and cancelled 2009 events but the rest of the players and others associated with the ICL remain out of pocket six years after the tournament folded.
Retired Australian players Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and Damien Martyn were among those to compete in the ICL. The fight for the players to be paid was led by FICA and while their chief executive, Tony Irish, believes cricketers would be wary about signing up for a body that in the past reneged on payments he said many would be tempted.
“There is always going to be interest from players in events irrespective of what history has occurred,” Irish said. “Obviously there will be some reticence from players based on what has happened but I don’t think you can discount the fact that players will be interested.”
Irish agreed that players from outside the so-called ‘big three’ of world cricket — Australia, India and England — would be more easily persuaded by a rebel approach for financial reasons. West Indies players, for instance, had a bitter dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board over payments last year, prompting them to quit a tour of India, while Sri Lankan cricketers engaged in their own contract wrangle with their board in 2013.
“International cricket and mainstream cricket have got to be on their toes to keep their players,” Irish said.
“But that’s the case as it is anyway because players have got opportunities in approved T20 leagues around the world at the moment and a lot of players I think are looking to just go that route.
“So whether this event happens or doesn’t happen I think the boards have got to be on their toes and realise there are other markets for players and they’ve got to try and make mainstream international cricket as attractive as possible.”
Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2015
On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google PlayBETWEEN 1960 and 1980 Washington, DC, lost roughly one-sixth of its population. White flight left the city divided into a largely wealthy north-west and a largely poor rest of the city. Between 1980 and 2010 its population shrunk further still, but by less, both overall and proportionally. And that loss masks a rise from 2000 and 2010—DC's first in half a century. The riots that affected so many American cities in the 1960s devastated DC. It was then a completely federal city, without even the vestiges of local governance (known as "home rule") that would emerge in the last quarter of the 20th century. Ambitious politicians love getting to Washington by proclaiming how much they loathe DC, and how their constituents need to send them there so they can show everyone How Things Are Done. Small wonder that the city suffered. The House District Committee managed DC's affairs; John McMillan, an ardent segregationist from North Carolina, chaired that committee, and DC was then, as it (barely) is today, a black-majority city. When Walter Washington, DC's first home-rule mayor, delivered his budget to Congress, McMillan responded by delivering a truckload of watermelons to Washington's office.
It may seem hard to fathom for anyone who moved to DC in the last 15 years, but in 1980 much of the city remained bombed out, abandoned, neglected. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the city was America's murder capital. In 1991 its population was roughly 598,000 and it recorded 482 murders; if contemporary London had a similar rate in 2011 then 6,588 people would have been killed.
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And yet, during those years a remarkable, raw, vibrant underground culture flourished—one that far exceeds, in creativity and uniqueness, anything offered by contemporary DC (one is reminded of Harry Lime's observation that Italy under the Borgias had murder, terror and bloodshed but produced Michelangelo, Da Vinci and the Renaissance, while Switzerland had peace and prosperity and produced the cuckoo clock). "Pump Me Up: D.C. Subculture of the 1980s", which opened at the Corcoran Gallery this week and runs through April 7th, celebrates three aspects of that culture: DC's rough, raw, socially conscious punk and hardcore music; its infectious and criminally unknown go-go music, and its stark graffiti. The exhibition's curator, Roger Gastman, has also produced a deeply researched and deeply felt film about Cool "Disco" Dan, a famous and prolific DC graffiti-writer. To mark the opening of the exhibition, Mr Gastman organised a very noisy romp down Memory Lane last weekend at the 9:30 Club.
To anyone who lived through that period in DC, the objects on display—sketches for Minor Threat's "Out of Step" album cover, fragments of a wooden wall or door with Cool "Disco" Dan's tag and, best of all, a room full of Globe's colourful and vibrant concert posters—have a totemic power. The objects on display wrap around the wall of the Corcoran's immense entry hall, organised by year, set amidst ample and well-chosen political posters, newspaper front pages and photographs from DC's history. Mr Gastman managed to source some remarkable political artefacts: "Just Say No: The Board Game", buttons supporting and opposing Ronald Reagan and George Bush, one of the innumerable "Meese is a Pig" posters that dotted DC. Such items make the progression on display richer, though here I ought to admit that I have a hard time judging "Pump Me Up" on its own merits; like Mr Gastman, I grew up in the DC area in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and walking around this exhibition often felt like walking around the bedroom of my adolescence (of course my bedroom was much smaller, and had lamentably fewer women in it).
For those new to the city, this exhibition provides a living catalogue of its vital past. Before the Atlantic Building housed a J.Crew store, it was home to the 9:30 Club, one of the best (and certainly one of the weirdest smelling) music venues on the east coast. Before the Navy Yard area housed Nationals Park and a thicket of glass-and-chrome condo buildings, it was home to the Capital Ballroom. All cities change, of course—particularly American cities in the past 30 years—but few change as radically as DC did. For all of its global importance, those who grew up here understood that it was fundamentally a small, mostly black town. Today it barely hangs on to its black majority, and seems almost certain to lose it within a decade.
The city is also far richer, more homogeneous, more like other cities and, yes, safer than it was. Nobody wants to go back to the underinvested, neglected, murder-capital days. Nobody wants to see Marion Barry run for mayor again (though his is a tragic story, not a comic one, as it so often is in the telling; Mr Barry is one of the canniest and most gifted politicians of his era). Nobody wants 3,000 people, mostly young and mostly black, killed in a four-year period. But remembering the broken, troubled and dynamic past entails rejecting neither the present nor progress. After all, once the past goes into a museum it's pretty well buried. Still, if you were blindfolded and dropped off on a street in Penn Quarter today, you would not necessarily know where you were; it could be Bricktown, Oklahoma City, or downtown Charlotte, or any "revitalised" district of any other city in America. I doubt anybody wants that either.
(Picture credits: COOL “DISCO” DAN at Good Hope Road, Southeast Washington, 2008. Teri Memolo/ Roger Gastman; Various Hardcore 7” records, 1980s. Aaron Farley/ Roger Gastman; Globe Poster, 1980s. Roger Gastman)
"Pump Me Up: D.C. Subculture of the 1980s" is at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, until April 7thMany of the Muslim leaders I met who were demonstrating against Ahok said that it was an open-and-shut case in Islam that Christians could not lead Muslims. “The Quran is very clear” that Christian leaders are forbidden, said Sofyan, who goes by only one name and who helped coordinate anti-Ahok protests for the hardline Forum Umat Islam group.
But while Ahok’s Islamist opponents insist that the Quran is clear and Muslims cannot be led by Christians (or by Jews), this is, in fact, a far from settled question within Islam. According to Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of Islamic Exceptionalism, even within political Islam there is no clear consensus about the role non-Muslims should be allowed to play. “The argument that a non-Muslim cannot be governor of a city, that’s not something we should take at face value, even among Islamists, let alone Muslims more broadly,” he said.
Throughout the Muslim world there is great diversity in how Muslim societies treat the idea of non-Muslim leaders. In a few Muslim-majority nations, like Senegal and Burkina Faso, Christians have been elected to the presidency, the highest office of the land. In 17 other Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, non-Muslims are legally restricted from becoming head of state. (By contrast, according to the Pew Research Center there are just two countries where Christians are required by law to be head of state, not including cases where “figurehead monarchs” like Britain’s monarch are required to be Christian.) In Indonesia, anyone can legally attain any office, including the presidency.
According to Hamid, Indonesia’s Islamists take an even harder stance against minorities’ right to rule than Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood did. The Muslim Brotherhood’s official position was that non-Muslims could attain any state position except that of president; a Christian became vice-president of their political party and was considered as a possible vice-president of Egypt.
Some progressive Indonesian Muslim leaders have suggested that one reason Indonesia’s Islamists take such a hard stance toward non-Muslim leaders is due to mistranslation of the Quran from Arabic, which few Indonesians speak as a first language, to Bahasa Indonesia, the national language. In 2012, when Ahok first ran for deputy governor of Jakarta and Islamists attacked him, Akhmad Sahal, an Indonesian academic, wrote an article in Tempo, the nation’s most prominent news magazine, titled “Are Non-Muslim Leaders Forbidden?” In the piece he argues that the Indonesian translation of the crucial Arabic passage is quite different from the intended Arabic meaning. While in one standard Indonesian translation the Quranic passage reads “O! devout followers, do not take Christians and Jews and make them your leaders,” in the original Arabic, the word that is translated as “leaders” actually means something closer to “protectors” or “allies.”CHP head criticizes law schools for remaining silent
Yalçın Bayer - ISTANBUL
HÜRRİYET photo
“In which law and order country do you have a case where the president appoints some 25 percent of the Council of State members? Political authority cannot overshadow jurisdiction. We need to ask, where are the law faculties [and] academics?” asked Kılıçdaroğlu.
Saying the Justice and Development Party (AKP) did “not care about national will, despite being chosen by the people,” the CHP leader added the ruling party was using the Turkish parliament as a “tool for unlawfulness.”
Also touching upon the American-style presidential system debate that has erupted between him and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, Kılıçdaroğlu said his two questions to the prime minister regarding the American presidential system were rejected.
“I asked him [Yıldırım] two questions: ‘There is a federal system in the U.S., will you be able to bring that [in to Turkey] and each state has a right to make laws, will you do this as well?’ Mr. Yıldırım rejected these...” said Kılıçdaroğlu, adding that the ruling party was making politics by creating enemies.
Addressing his party deputies on June 14, Yıldırım had said, “Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu said on a television program that his party could support a presidential system like the one in America. We think this means ‘we are ready.’ So fine; let it be an American-style system. We would prefer a Turkish-style system, but if you insist then we’re in. Let’s see if you will [insist],” he added.
Concerning the “partisan presidential system” suggestion by the AKP for the new constitution, Kılıçdaroğlu expressed his belief that such a law would not pass.
Saying that the people had a major duty in government change, the CHP head added they were faced with the question of why they did not press with the coalition government after the June 7, 2015, election.
“Be sure that we presented every solution. We even suggested premiership [to them]. It did not happen,” said Kılıçdaroğlu.
The chair of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, has criticized law faculties for remaining silent in the face of a major shake-up in the country’s laws and judiciary, during an exclusive interview with daily Hürriyet.Maxime Bernier has his sights set on Kevin O’Leary as his biggest rival in the federal Conservative leadership race.
Without skipping a beat, the Beauce, Que. Conservative MP named the outspoken former Dragon’s Den entrepreneur as a potential frontrunner in the heated and crowded 14-candidate race.
“It’s between me and him,” Bernier said at a Toronto Sun editorial board meeting this week.
“I must admit that I have the best opponent I can have. Kevin O’Leary doesn’t have a platform. People want to have real, conservative, bold changes. Kevin O’Leary can’t speak to Francophones across the country, I can. I want to debate with him. If there’s another debate, I hope Kevin O’Leary will be there.”
The 54-year-old Saint-Georges, Que. businessman and lawyer has deep roots in politics, serving under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper as minister in four departments — Industry, Foreign Affairs, State (Small Business and Tourism), and State (Small Business and Tourism and Agriculture).
He launched his campaign in April, based on “four principles very important to me” — individual freedom, personal responsibility, fairness and respect.
“I believe in free markets, I believe in individual freedom and I have examples to tell members that I’m serious about it,” Bernier said. “The free market is good for the producers and for me…we’ll be sure to have a smaller government, balance the budget.”
Kellie Leitch, on the other hand, is a candidate Bernier clashes with when it comes to her Canadian Values Test and policies on immigration.
“I disagree with her and the questionnaires and how she’s dealing with that,” said Bernier. “We have a good system of selecting our immigrants. More are coming here because they share our Canadian values. Equality for the law, equality between man and woman and freedom of religion, freedom of speech.”
Bernier said he wants to give Canadian Border Services Agency guards more resources for background checks if they want to do more face-to-face interviews.
“But I’m not Kellie Leitch and having every single new Canadian do face-to-face interviews,” he said. ”The costs will be huge and we don’t need that…I don’t like the style of the campaign she’s doing, but I think our members don’t like that also, because she’s not a front runner right now.”
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Here are a few other excerpts from Bernier (edited for length):
BIGGEST VULNERABILITY OF TRUDEAU:
“The economy. He said two years ago he will bring more opportunities, more jobs and hope. So what’s happening right now? The unemployment rate will be huge right now. For people between 15 and 30 years old, it’s 15%, that’s huge. We have wage stagnation in Canada. If we want to increase our standard of living in Canada, we need at least 3% economic growth. And what the Trudeau government has given us — 1.2%, 1.4% — it isn’t going anywhere. With the huge deficit, if we don’t see the end of that, we will have $100 billion (federal) debt.”
ON A GUARANTEED MINIMUM WAGE AND TAX REFORM:
“No, (a guaranteed minimum wage) is not part of my platform and I won’t bring that. I understand their point about taxes and regulation — that it’s very high and it’s not helping them. What I’m thinking is 15% incorporated tax (reduced) to 10% for every business. I want to have a special corporate rate for small businesses.”
ON IMMIGRATION:
“South of our borders, people are crossing our borders. We must fix that loophole and we must be sure to keep the legitimacy of our borders and immigration system. It is not fair for the real refugees that are waiting to come to Canada, because these people who are coming from the U.S. to Canada are jumping the line, so we must be fair and fix the loophole. I’m asking the Trudeau government to have a meeting with the Trump administration to be sure to fix that loophole…If you need to put more resources for the RCMP to be sure our border will be respected, we must give resources to our border security officials and RCMP to do their work…We must ask the Canadian Armed Forces to (temporarily) help.”
ON MARIJUANA LEGISLATION:
“I’m for the decriminalization. I’m open on the debate for legalization. I’m waiting, like a lot of Canadians, to be able to read that legislation. When they will table the bill, I will look at it and decide how to vote. But I’m very curious and I’m pushing them to table the bill as soon as possible, because we want to know how they’re going to solve a lot of challenges they’re having.”RME FIREFACE 400
OUT OF PRODUCTION!!!
Overview
Connectivity 18 Input / 18 Output channels
8 x Analog I/O
1 x ADAT I/O or 1 x SPDIF I/O optical
1 x SPDIF I/O coaxial
2 x MIDI I/O
2 x Firewire 400
1 x Word Clock I/O
2 x Mic Preamp with digitally controlled gain
TotalMix
RMEs Fireface 800 revolutionized the world of FireWire audio interfaces. Now the revolution continues: The Fireface 400 is not just the little brother of the Fireface 800 - it is a completely newly designed device. It is the only device in its class with active jitter suppression, stand-alone functionality, complete controllability from the front panel, highly flexible I/Os in professional quality, and an unsurpassed 648-Channel matrix router - at sample rates up to 192 kHz.
As usual, RME offer a host of sophisticated features and characteristics with the fastest Firewire technology. These include:
Two digitally controlled Mic Preamps in high-end quality
Two balanced universal inputs for line and instrument signals
SteadyClock for maximum jitter suppression and clock refresh
Simple stand-alone operation with rotary encoder and front panel display
54 Level Meter Peak/RMS, hardware-calculated
Full mobility by Bus Power support
DIGICheck, RME's unique meter and analysis tool
TotalMix: 648-Channel mixer with 42-bit internal resolution
FireWire audio by RME is seen as the reference by both users and editors.
It includes lots of not available from other manufacturers.
RME FireWire Audio RME's FireWire audio offers many pro-audio features not available from other manufacturer's units: Complete real-time sample rate lock Complete real-time sample rate control, even during playback/record Complete start/stop control. No changed offset after reboot. Extreme varispeed / external sync support, in all modes (even DS / QS) Despite having a superior sync behavior (see above), the Fireface's SteadyClock provides a heavy jitter suppression even in varipitch applications. Reduced protocol overhead, by not sending CIP (Common Isochronous Packet format) headers (AVC, mLan) Working FireWire 800 solution Working FireWire 800 fix for Windows XP SP2 Latency change on the fly, while ASIO is running Latency change on the fly, while GSIF is running Hardware-based data packet check and drop out correction Complete real-time monitoring solution, covering all inputs and all playback channels, equaling an 28+28 channels inline console having 28 Aux sends per channel. Lots of advanced and unique features. Plus hardware based Peak/RMS metering. Windows and Mac OS X drivers are completely identical in terms of features and functionality Super low jitter MIDI I/O similar to PCI-based performance (1 ms)
The DSP-based TotalMix mixer allows fully independent routing and mixing of all 18 input and output channels to all 18 physical outputs. Up to 9 totally independent stereo sub-mixes simply mean unrivalled monitoring facilities. Copy/paste of routings, ganging and group-based operation of faders, and the extraordinary Matrix window are just some of the mixer's unique features. The mixer can be completely MIDI controlled, even in stand-alone operation. Furthermore the DSP hardware calculates RMS and Peak levels for all 54 audio channels, without causing any significant CPU load.
A word clock input and output (BNC) plus two MIDI I/Os (breakout cable, 5-pin DIN) complete the analog/digital feature list and turn the Fireface 400 into a complete audio system of the highest quality.
The Fireface 400 excells as portable all-in-one solution when it comes to power supply. The included switching power supply accepts voltages from 100 to 240 V, thus can be operated all over the world. A rear panel switch enables Bus Powered operation, taking the power directly from the FireWire connector. To avoid potential problems, both the unit's internal power supply and the protective circuits at the FireWire port were specially designed and thoroughly tested.
Inputs and Outputs
Analog I/Os: Eight inputs and outputs (balanced, output 7/8 unbalanced) with software controlled switching of the reference levels (-10 dBV, +4 dBu, Lo/HiGain), of course realized discretely in the analog domain, guarantee highest dynamic range and highest fidelity.
The Fireface 400's front panel features 2 balanced microphone inputs with a digitally controlled input stage, individually switchable 48 V phantom power, and Neutrik Combo connectors for XLR and TRS. These can also be used as additional Line inputs. A gain of up to 65 dB, adjustable in steps of 1 dB over a range of 55 dB, exceptional EIN performance even at low amplification settings, and extremely low THD+N let these preamps surpass those of other devices that cost several times the price of the Fireface 400. All level settings are 100% reproducible and can also be adjusted by software comfortably.
Inputs 3 and 4 are stunningly flexible balanced universal inputs. Firstly, they operate exactly as inputs 5 to 8 on the rear and can be adjusted to accept standard studio input levels (+4 dBu, LoGain). Furthermore, the input impedance can be switched from Line (10 kOhm) to Instrument (470 kOhm). An additional analog input amplification of up to 18 dB (in steps of 0.5 dB) is also available. In short: There's no signal that these inputs can't deal with perfectly!
Inputs 5 to 8 on the rear feature RME's proven level references. -10 dBV, +4 dBu und LoGain can be selected in the settings dialog, equivalent to +2 dBV, +13 dBu und +19 dBu for digital full scale. The same applies to the balanced rear analog outputs 1 to 6.
The high power phones output offers high volumes even with low-impedance headphones, and represents playback channels 7/8. All outputs can be used for ASIO Direct Monitoring purposes.
Digital I/Os: An ADAT optical I/O* allows for a connection and insertion of effects devices, mixing consoles or external converters. Of course, these 8 channels are available simultaneously with the analog channels. Using an additional ADI-8 DS or OctaMic D, you'll get 16 analog inputs and outputs, which remain still 12 at 96 kHz. The coaxial SPDIF I/O, which is fully AES/EBU compatible (as is common for RME), also works up to 192 kHz, which means that at the highest sample rate, 8 analog and two digital inputs and outputs are directly available. SPDIF optical can also be accessed through the optical I/O.
Features
Thanks to an internal flash memory, all settings including TotalMix are recalled during boot. The device can thus be configured and used as a stand-alone device, without being connected to a computer, e.g. as a submixer, A/D and D/A-converter, headphone mixer, format converter, instrument or microphone pre-amplifier, monitoring mixer and much more.
The Fireface 400 is equipped with SteadyClock(TM), RME's unique sync and clock technology. With this, the device becomes a sync reference for the whole studio. SteadyClock refreshes clock signals, removes jitter, and takes care of optimal AD/DA conversion quality, thus guarantees a sensational sound quality, completely independent from the reference clock's quality. SteadyClock allows the unit to control the sample rate freely on its own. The Settings dialog includes a direct choice of the video and audio world's most often used sample rates. Additionally, two faders can be used to set the sample rate freely and in real-time, within the range of +/- 4% and +/- 0.4%.
Of course the Fireface 400 offers a second FireWire port for hub functionality. Up to three devices can be connected to one FireWire interface and operated in parallel. The renowned Fireface 800 shares the same driver, allowing mixed setups.
Technical Specifications
Input AD: 6 x 1/4" TRS (4 x Line, 2 x Line/Instrument), 2 x XLR/TRS Combo connector (2 x Mic/Line), all servo-balanced.
Output DA: 6 x 1/4" TRS, servo-balanced, DC-coupled signal path. 1 x 1/4" TRS unbalanced
Input Digital: 1 x ADAT optical or SPDIF optical, SPDIF coaxial (AES/EBU compatible)
Output Digital: 1 x ADAT optical or SPDIF optical, SPDIF coaxial (AES/EBU compatible)
MIDI: 2 x MIDI I/O via breakout cable (4 x 5-pin DIN jacks), for 32 channels low jitter hi-speed MIDI
Dynamic range AD: 110 dB RMS unweighted, 113 dBA
THD AD: < -100 dB (< 0.001 %)
THD+N AD: < -98 dB (< 0.0012 %)
Crosstalk AD: > 110 dB
Dynamic range DA: 110 dB RMS unweighted, 113 dBA (unmuted)
THD DA: -100 dB (0.001 %)
THD+N DA: -96 dB (0.0015 %)
Crosstalk DA: > 110 dB
Input/Output level for 0 dBFS @ Hi Gain: +19 dBu
Input/Output level for 0 dBFS @ +4 dBu: +13 dBu
Input/Output level for 0 dBFS @ -10 dBV: +2 dBV
Sample rate internally: 32, 44.1, 48, 64, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 128, 176.4, 192 kHz
Sample rate externally: 28 kHz - 200 kHz
Frequency response AD/DA, -0.1 dB: 5 Hz - 20.4 kHz (sf 44.1 kHz)
Frequency response AD/DA, -0.5 dB: 1 Hz - 43.3 kHz (sf 96 kHz)
Frequency response AD/DA, -1 dB: 1 Hz - 80 kHz (sf 192 kHz)
Driver support
Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP, Vista (32 and 64 bit), 7 (32 and 64 bit): Full ASIO multi-client operation of WDM, MME (not XP64), GSIF 2.0 and ASIO 2.0. WDM (DirectSound) with stereo and multi-Channel support. Full hot-plugging. Up to 3 units operational. Mac OS X (10.3 or higher) PPC and Intel: Core Audio, Core MIDI. Full hot-plugging. Up to three units operational.
* In Quad Speed mode (176.4 and 192 kHz), the ADAT I/O is deactivated
** Firewire is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.
Accessories
19" RackmountsEast of Swansboro, 1979, alkyd, 20 X 13. This scene near the coastal town of Swansboro is a study of land, water, cloud and sky as they recede into the far distance. A number of glazes (20-30) were used in this painting to imitate the effect of atmosphere on near and distant objects. The idea of trying to paint space and air will impress many as a nebulous exercise at best, and I must admit that I feel it is one of the more difficult aspects of painting. However, air exists as surely as a rock or a figure, and its constant state of change affects the objects we see both near and far. When looking at the work of the better realist painters, one can almost stroll through their paintings and breathe the air. Perhaps it is this seeming ability to walk into these paintings that leads one to remember them as larger in size than they actually are. I don't mean to imply that the air in the paintings seem breathable because the works are so detailed and "magically" real. I feel the quality of air in a painting has little to do with tightness of technique. One can see good examples of paintings that seem full of air in the works of the Impressionists whose use of the vibrant color can be studied and applied to realism. Blues off Fort Macon, 1981, alkyd, 24 X 24. My sons and I have fished many times from this jetty at Fort Macon, near Morehead City, North Carolina. The title refers to both the bluefish the fisherman are catching and the blue sky and water. The line of the ocean on the horizon is not a hard edge but a hazed one, achieved by scumbling and glazing. Had this been painted as a hard edge, it would not tend to recede into the distance. To be able to render atmospheric effects, perhaps one should know the air's chemical makeup. However, I have always felt that too much dependence on the scientific or mechanical aspects of art (such as mechanical perspective) has a tendency to draw the life from art. Proper understanding of such subjects is essential, but after one knows the facts behind what is happening, it may be best to relegate that understanding to the subconscious and think more about art.
Air consists of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 9 percent argon,.03 percent carbon dioxide, traces of other gases, and a variable load of water vapor. Air molecules intercept the short blue wavelengths of the sun's radiation, thereby giving us our blue skies. The lighter value of blue at the horizon is caused by |
this Friday. Lets calculate the home win/draw/away win probabilities for that match.
The trick is in finding the average home goals and away goals to use in the formula. We know that home field advantage plays a big part in football. So for our averages we will look at the average goals scored and conceded by Dundalk at home. We will also look at the average goals scored and conceded by Cork away. I will base the average on this season, you could pick a shorter period (more relevant) or a longer period (less susceptible to outlying results). Using the season to date will be perfectly fine for this example.
The chart below shows Dundalk have averaged 2.82 goals per game at home, but Cork have only conceded on average 0.80 goals on the road. These two figures actually give us two different estimates for the same thing (home goals scored = away goals conceded). So we average both figures to give us a single expected home goals scored of 1.81 specifically for this match. This figure gives us a good estimate of the likely home goal tally taking into account both Dundalk's high scoring home record and Cork's tight defensive record. The same process is carried out for away goals scored.
This is where the Poisson Formula fits in. Given the average (which we now have) the Poisson Formula can calculate an accurate probability that Dundalk will get 0 goals, or 1 goal, 2 goals, etc. And similar for Cork.
The equation is:
which looks complicated but we now know all the variables so its just a case of keying it in to a calculator and churning out the probabilities. The table left shows the probabilities already calculated. It shows that Dundalk have a 29% chance of scoring exactly one goal and a 26% chance of scoring exactly 2 goals etc, Cork have a 35% chance of scoring exactly no goals and a 36% chance of scoring exactly 1 goal etc.
After that its just a number crunching exercise to calculate the probability for every home/away score combination. Then sum up the probabilities for each combination that makes a home win, draw and away win.
The final result is good news for Dundalk - remember they need to win. Cork will lift the trophy with a draw. It looks like a 55.7% chance the title is heading to Dundalk. Leaving Cork with a 44.3% chance.
Outcome Probability Rough Odds Dundalk 55.7% 4/5 Draw 23.0% 10/3 Cork City 21.3% 15/4
These estimated odds are not far from those published by Paddy PowerNew Eagle Willie Rioli will go under the knife
WEST Coast livewire Willie Rioli is facing up to three months on the sidelines after confirmation he will undergo surgery on his damaged hamstring tendon.
The mature-age draftee injured his right hamstring last week and, despite jogging around the boundary and kicking at training on Monday, he is set to go under the knife.
Rioli had been a shining light on the training track this pre-season with his speed and forward pressure, and was set for a club debut against Greater Western Sydney in the JLT Community Series on Saturday.
But the exciting 21-year-old, who shed 16kg before the 2016 SANFL season, will now be out of action for 10-12 weeks.
In better news for the Eagles, forward Simon Tunbridge ran for the first time on Monday after undergoing a hybrid LARS operation on his ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in December.
"It was a bit weird, I just didn’t have confidence running and putting weight through the knee, but once I got going it felt good and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face," Tunbridge told westcoasteagles.com.au.
Tunbridge, who was demoted to the rookie list at the end of last year, underwent the radical LARS hybrid option in a bid to get back on the park midway through this season.
The 23-year-old will soon overtake Nic Naitanui in his ACL rehabilitation after the star ruckman had a traditional full knee reconstruction last August.
"I kind of feel bad for him. I had my surgery four months after him and now I'm overtaking him and hopefully training in a few weeks," Tunbridge said.I also ordered one size up per the other reviewers. The problem isn't the heal to toe size. I wear a 12, and ordered a 13. The shoe doesn't have a traditional "tongue" which I think is the problem. It looks like it has a built in sock so to speak. So it's a very narrow fit. The size up I ordered didn't help that. Now the shoes are almost an inch too long from the tip of my toe. They look great, and I will wear them as a casual shoe since the price for this color was less than half retail when I ordered it. But I will not be able to do any sort of exercise with them as I had hoped. And I assume the more I wear it, the more the sides will stretch out and make it more comfortable.
TL;DR too narrow and shallow of a shoe. If you're in love with the style and the price is right, go ahead and order the size up. Just be forewarned.Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine
Concerning reports of provocateurs and saboteurs infiltrating into the territory of Ukraine
1. Antratsyt, Donetsk Region
Concerning yesterday’s sightings of KaMAZ trucks transporting extremists with Russian flags, in the town of Antratsyt [Donetsk Region]. Information about possible attempts of saboteurs to cross the border in this area was received by appropriate Ukrainian state authorities on the morning of May 5, 2014. Rapid measures were taken to increase security at the state border, involving additional forces of the State Border Guard Service, the Security Service of Ukraine [SBU], and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There is no record of any motor transport columns carrying groups of people crossing the state border.
Special services and law enforcement authorities are currently investigating the situation. It is possible that the ‘sighting’ was organized by Donbass-based extremists in order to imitate a ‘breach of the border’ by extremists from Russia.
2. Border with Transnistria
According to our information, up to 250 ‘Putin’s tourists’ and saboteurs were transported to the territory of Ukraine from Transnistria over the past 3 days. Their task is to continue destabilizing the situation in the southern regions of our country. The planned peak of this destabilization is May 9th [Victory Day].
Previously, these individuals had arrived to Transnistria from Russia, coordinated by officers of the Russian Federal Security Service [FSB]. Information Resistance made numerous reports of this during March-April 2014. Currently, [Ukrainian] special services are taking measures to neutralize these extremist groups.
3. Crimea
Extremists coordinated by Russian special services continue arriving in Odessa from Crimea.
Due to the strict entry regulations ensured at the administrative border of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea by the forces of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, saboteurs and provocateurs adopted a new tactic. Ukrainian citizens residing in Crimea, being hired by Russian special services, travel to the mainland individually or in small groups, posing as peaceful citizens. Following that, they closely cooperate with local separatists and receive weapons after their arrival on-site.
Ukrainian special services are working to neutralize these saboteurs as well.Groupon’s international business today got a little bit smaller — 92,043 square miles smaller, to be exact. The company has decided to wind down its operation in Romania, effective today, after it failed to find enough traction in the market. The news was sent out in an email to its merchant partners in the country signed by EMEA VP Luke Massery, which we are copying below, and we have confirmed the details with Groupon directly.
“After a thorough analysis of the Romanian market and taking into account all relevant factors, we have decided to close our business in Romania,” a spokesperson noted in an emailed statement. “A combination of the macroeconomic situation and the low internet penetration in the country made it difficult for Groupon to gain desired critical mass. Shutdown of our operations in Romania is in effect from 03.09.2014.”
For those who have already bought Groupons, or for businesses that have offered them on the platform, they will have them honored until the date originally agreed. Alternatively, customers will be able to get refunds for any unused Groupon deals that they have purchased.
The spokesperson confirmed that there would not be further closures in other countries, calling Romania a “special case” in the region. “Our EMEA business is doing well,” she noted. “[The] Romanian business hardly shows up in total sales, due to its small size.”
You might be thinking, “Why should I care that Groupon is shutting down its operations in this little, beautiful (see above) country of 20 million people known best for things like the Dracula legend?”
In a way, you are right. But on the other hand, Groupon in Romania underscores the opportunities and challenges for Groupon and other e-commerce hopefuls.
The Romanian operation first opened for business around four years ago, when the Samwer brothers, who sold Groupon clone CityDeal to Groupon in 2010, were still running things. It had around 40 employees.
Romania is on the “still developing” side of the digital divide in Europe, and as with many other countries in that category, e-commerce sits as a gateway service to other tech developments. Over the next two years, a number of other local deals sites emerged in the country, peaking to around 100 in 2012, local publication Wall Street notes. But perhaps due to the lack of quality, mixed with a lack of interest and infrastructure, that number declined steeply in more recent times.
Groupon was among those who may have been one of the bigger deal companies in the Romanian market, but that didn’t always translate into profit. In 2013, the company reported a loss in the country of €540,000 ($709,000). That was down from a loss of €773,000 ($1 million) in 2012, but apparently with declining customers.
The wider context for Groupon in Europe is that the company has had some challenging years in the region after its CityDeal acquisition, with a lack of operational, technical (and maybe cultural) integration between what was happening in the U.S. and in Europe.
That is one of the reasons why Groupon so often launches new services in the U.S. that cannot be rolled out concurrently elsewhere (one example: the timed reservations feature that Groupon launched today).
This is now changing, though. Although Groupon in the last quarter reported flat gross billings in the EMEA region compared to a year ago, revenues have been a more encouraging story, with EMEA seeing the highest revenue growth of the three regions:
Still, the company’s last earnings report disappointed investors with the company failing to meet analyst estimates. With North America continuing to be Groupon’s growth engine, it’s not a surprise to see the company cleaning house and looking to firm up underperforming operations elsewhere. Whether that strategy will manifest in other ways is still to be seen.
The letter in Romanian is below, followed by an English version via Google Translate:
Image: FlickrHi guys, I'm thinking of creating an app for smartphone (android/iOS)
The app will be like herodex, where you can check for stats and skills for every heroes released.
If possible I would like to include the information on the items in it as well.
This app would be very useful to check hero/item related information without going to the actual website itself.
Also if everything goes well, maybe a build calculator
Now here's the problem. I have no idea how to create a smartphone app, nor program writing in general.
Therefore I'm asking for assistant from programmers to help me with this project.
I would like help from someone who is willing to write the basic code for it.
I could handle with the grunt work, the data-inputing and the maintenance, but I can't do anything at this point without a basic structure.
If anyone is interested in helping out please let me know, I really want to make this happen.Ganon OK. No further new business so I'll open this meeting to public forum.
Helmasaur I have a question. So, as you know, I was born with this green crystal in the middle of my head. It's the only part of my body that's not impervious to damage. It's why I wear this helmet.
Ganon Of course. I built that helmet. It's a masterpiece of craftsmanship. It can only be cracked by the most magical of hammers.
Helmasaur That's what I wanted to talk about. You keep a magic hammer in the Palace of Darkness, which is the palace I'm assigned to. I feel like maybe you could keep it in the Swamp of evil, or even throw it in the Lake of Ill Omen
Ganon Relax. Helmasaur, you have nothing to worry about. That hammer is locked in a special treasure chest that can only be opened by one key.
Helmasaur Right, but that key is in my dungeon, too. It's in a treasure chest that can be opened by any key. And once you have that, all you have to do is find your way through a dark room to get the hammer.
Ganon It hasn't been a problem yet.
Helmasaur No one has attacked us yet. I'm just saying, maybe I should guard the hammer, or the key, or both.
Ganon You're guarding one of the seven maidens. You have enough to worry about.
Helmasaur OK, but why have that other stuff in there at all? And why do I need to stay in the most remote room in the dungeon? It would make more sense if I waited by the entrance and killed anyone who entered.
Ganon I know things aren't perfect, but we have to learn to deal with them. My only weakness is silver arrows and a fairy was selling just that in my Pyramid of Power. So, what did I do? Did I complain? No. I sealed her into the wall and i made her fat. I dealt with it.
Helmasaur You didn't solve the problem at all. You could have made her leave. Or killed her.
Ganon It's no fun if it's not a challenge, right?
Helmasaur I'm sorry, are we doing this for fun, or are we doing this as part of your grand plan to unleash evil upon the world, because I thought you had a plan.
Ganon Anyone else? Anyone else have a problem with the way I do things?
Kholdstare I've been in the Ice Palace for a while now and I'm pretty sure there is a suit of armor inside that is specifically fitted for the mythical hero that's supposed to destroy us.
Dodongo Me can't help eat bombs. They so delicious! You leased room in me dungeon to bomb dealer. Why you hate Dodongo?For other ships with the same name, see USS Grand Rapids
The second USS Grand Rapids (PGM-98/PG-98) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.
On 13 June 1968, the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, Tacoma, Washington laid down Grand Rapids, the eleventh Asheville-class gunboat built by Tacoma. In August 1968, however, the Tacoma shipyard suffered a severe fire that destroyed the under-construction Grand Rapids (together with sister ship Benicia). A new Grand Rapids, with the same hull number, was laid down again by Tacoma Boat 20 May 1969, launched on 20 December 1969 and commissioned on 5 September 1970.[1][2]
Grand Rapids was homeported in San Diego and later Naples, Italy,[3]
Grand Rapids was decommissioned on 1 October 1977 and transferred to the Naval Sea Systems Command where she was renamed Research Vessel Athena II.[4]
As of February 2019, the ship is moored in freshwater near Mobile, Alabama and is for sale by private party on Facebook.[5]
References [ edit ]Working To Save The Painted 'Zonkeys' Of Tijuana
Enlarge this image toggle caption Amy Isackson/NPR Amy Isackson/NPR
Ruben prances across the street one recent morning on his way to work on a corner of Tijuana's famous tourist strip, Avenida Revolución.
Ruben's hair is freshly dyed. His nametag is shiny.
But both he and his boss, Victor Reyes, have long faces.
Ruben, well, he's a donkey, (a "zonkey" in local parlance).
As for Reyes, his business — taking photos of tourists atop Ruben — has stumbled on hard times.
'Old Mexico'
Back in the 1960s, Reyes says, the American tourists coming into this westernmost Mexican city, just south of San Diego across the California border, lined up for the chance to have a picture taken atop one of the donkeys painted to look like zebras.
Tijuana had been a tourist destination for a century, says Josúe Beltrán, a professor of history at the Autonomous University of Baja California. Beltran says the American tourists would drink, gamble, visit prostitutes, and look for "old Mexico." The donkeys filled that bill.
Photographers trotted them out as a representation of old times, throwing serapes over the shoulders of Americans dressed in long dresses and heavy suits. They'd stand next to the donkey or climb on top.
The only problem was the white donkeys didn't show up well in black and white photos. Just a little ear and nose.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Guillermo Arias/AP Guillermo Arias/AP
Photographers began to experiment, and it occurred to someone to paint stripes so they'd show up. And so they did with women's' hair dye.
'Zonkey' Fever
For decades, business boomed.
Tijuana's basketball team was named "The Zonkeys". The city began to use stripes in its logo.
But the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks changed all that. Security lines at the U.S. border became interminable.
Then the recession hit. Then the drug war.
People became fearful to even step a toe into Tijuana.
The number of donkeys shrank from 25 to three.
On a recent afternoon on Avenida Revolución, a lone mariachi band crooned to about a dozen tourists and hundreds of empty bar chairs.
Reyes has settled in atop a plastic bucket.
He thumbs through the newspaper next to Ruben, until some tourists from Texas arrive, only his third customers all day.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy Roberto Lango Courtesy Roberto Lango
Tourist Sue Robel say she was excited to take a picture with her granddaughter, Amber Ivy.
"My mom and dad were here in the '40s. And they have a picture, not with a zebra, but with a donkey. And so it's like, 'OK, let's do it,'" says Robel.
Tijuana's Cultural Heritage
Roberto Lango, who runs a marketing firm, leads a group of concerned citizens who want to keep this tradition from going extinct. He says he grew up seeing striped donkeys, and he wants his grandchildren to see them, too.
In September, Lango will ask the State of Baja California to protect the "zonkeys" as part of Tijuana's cultural heritage.
He wants photographers to get on the state's payroll, "zonkeys" at all big civic events, and iPads for the tourist photographers so they can post photos directly to Facebook and Twitter.
He says Tijuana's "zonkey" business may have to modernize, but it will not change its stripes.Pubs are necessary as well as enjoyable. Many are landmarks, often standing prominently at street corners and sometimes proudly surviving when all else around was swept away. Railway and underground stations – and thus whole districts of London – sometimes take their names: the Angel, Royal Oak, the Elephant and Castle, while Norwood Junction began life as Jolly Sailor. And pubs can be architecture, although very few famous architects have ever designed a successful public house. One who did was Sir Edwin Lutyens (the Drum Inn at Cockington, Devon) who, in 1937, wrote that, ‘The Public House represents what should be the hub of our wheel of Life, essential to our material need and second only to the Church that stands and represents our spiritual necessity. The Church is to the spirit as the Inn is to the flesh, and, if good and well designed, they baulk the Devil himself.’
Other than the church, the public house (or inn, alehouse or tavern) is our oldest social institution in built form. We still have some medieval inns – the Angel at Grantham and the George at Glastonbury, both fine and rare examples of secular gothic architecture – performing their original purpose. As Tom Burke wrote in his book on The English Inn (1930), ‘By a tour from inn to inn you may make a connected study of domestic architecture from the fourteenth century to the twentieth.’ A pub crawl can be an architectural education (the late Ian Nairn included no less than 27 hostelries in his Nairn’s London in 1966). Many of the old inns that stand proudly in the centres of towns and villages, once so important for transport, are vernacular buildings, half-timbered perhaps. In the Georgian period – the heyday of the stagecoach – they might be given a grand brick front, like the George at Stamford.
The number of public houses expanded greatly in the 19th century, particularly in cities. Now they assumed a characteristic urban form, like large and opulent classical houses, embellished internally with mirror, cut glass and gilding to make them glitteringly attractive. Pubs were built or rebuilt in a series of booms and slumps, a process partly dependent on politics, as Tory governments tended to favour the brewers. This process – charted by Mark Girouard in his 1975 book on Victorian Pubs – culminated in a crash in 1899. And many of the extravagant palaces that resulted were designed by architects, but they were specialists and remain obscure: Shoebridge & Rising, Treadwell & Martin, Fletcher & Migotti (‘Why did they so often hunt in pairs?’ wondered Girouard). Respectable architects, designers of churches and country houses, did not engage in this vulgar trade. The exception was Richard Norman Shaw, who designed the pub for the new ‘Queen Anne’ suburb of Bedford Park. Significantly, it is called the Tabard, evoking Chaucer and Olde England, and in appearance is in deliberate contrast to a contemporary gin palace.
Those who have written about pubs and inns always seem to have felt they were under threat, and certainly their history is one of constant change. Girouard noted that ‘London is full of dead pubs. In Oxford Street…there were nineteen pubs in 1890; today there is only one.’ The advent of railways in the mid 19th century was a catastrophe for the old coaching inns, taking away their trade. In London they disappeared – the Society for Photographing the Relics of Old London recording several, like the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, in their last sad days. Now we have only the George in Southwark, that precious galleried fragment off Borough High Street, to show us what they were like.
The great threat in the early 20th century was temperance and, worse, prohibition. One answer was the ‘improved’ public house, a building which, like the Tabard, presented a wholesome, rustic, pre-industrial Arts and Crafts image. Many are to be found in and around Carlisle where, in 1916, under the Defence of the Realm Act, pubs were nationalised as a response to the alarming drunkenness of the large Irish workforce introduced to build munitions factories. Many pubs were closed; others were rebuilt to Harry Redfern’s designs. Intimate drinking spaces were abolished and the new buildings were usually in a suave and genteel Tudor style.
Redfern’s work was very much the model for the type of improved public house built between the world wars. To resist the real threat of prohibition, such new buildings looked as different as possible from the urban Victorian tavern; food was served, and they were meant to be places to which women, even children, might go without fear of degradation. Many were in the suburbs and built along the new arterial roads being laid out around big cities. The advent of the motor car – which gave a new lease of life to many old coaching inns along main roads – encouraged the building of these ‘roadhouses’, which, together with cinemas, are the characteristic building types of the period. Such buildings were illustrated and described in The Renaissance of the English Public House (1947), a book by the architect Basil Oliver. They reflect the fashionable styles of the period: many were Tudor; others neo-Georgian and a few pseudish, or modernistic, or art deco. The doyen of roadhouse architects was E.B. Musman, who could design both the Scots baronial Berkeley Arms at Cranford and the streamlined modernistic Comet Inn at Hatfield – named after the 1934 record-breaking aeroplane.
These interwar pubs have yet to find their historian. And now they are under threat. Pubs have always suffered from destructive changes in fashion but the situation today is much worse. Cheap booze in supermarkets and the smoking ban, combined with escalating property values and a relaxation of the planning laws (allowing old pubs to be converted into houses or whatever) have resulted in an alarming and continuing number of pub closures – 21,000 since 1980. And a high proportion of these closures seem to be of interwar pubs. An extreme but significant case was that of the Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale, a building of 1920–21, which earlier this year was suddenly and illegally demolished by its new owners, after a proposal to replace it by flats had been turned down and while it was being considered for listing by English Heritage. Other such pubs have been converted into restaurants or made into hotels – the fate of the Comet Inn – or just boarded up and abandoned, ripe for demolition.
Listing may preserve the best architectural examples of pub architecture, but there is no resisting fashion when it comes to places in which to drink. These closures should nevertheless cause concern, and not just among those interested in architecture. As Hilaire Belloc wrote, ‘When you have lost your Inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.’
From the July/August issue of Apollo: preview and subscribe here.During NATO’s 1999 air war over Yugoslavia, the Atlantic alliance struck hundreds of targets over Serbia and Kosovo. Most were uncontroversial: air-defense sites, army headquarters and other military targets. The destruction of one target in particular, however, set off a wave of anti-Western—and anti-American in particular—protests half a world away. That target was the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
NATO’s bombing campaign began on March 24, 1999, after peace talks meant to stop the persecution of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo collapsed. Targets in both Yugoslavia and Kosovo were struck—first the Serb air defense network that opposed NATO planes, then a broader target array including Yugoslav army forces said to be directly involved in the persecution of Kosovars. The target list also included political-military targets inside the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade itself.
Overall, twenty-eight thousand bombs and other munitions were exploded over Yugoslavia, a country the size of Ohio. William Cohen, then secretary of defense, characterized Allied Force as “the most precise application of airpower in history.” Some five hundred civilians died in the bombing, a remarkably low number for such a high number of munitions expended. In its own account of the campaign, NATO stresses that targets were “carefully selected” and that “massive effort was made to minimise the impact of the air campaign on the Serb civilian population.”
Despite the seemingly extensive target vetting, on May 7 the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was struck by five Joint Directed Attack Munition satellite-guided bombs, delivered by U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bombers. Three Chinese journalists—Shao Yunhuan of Xinhua, and Xu Xinghu and his wife Zhu Ying of the Guangming Daily —were killed in the attack. Twenty other Chinese nationals were injured, five seriously.
In response, President Bill Clinton made a rare public apology to the China. Clinton gave his “profound condolences” to the Chinese, saying the attack was a mistake. NATO claimed it was acting on information that the embassy was actually the headquarters of the Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement (FDSP).
In his detailed explanation to Chinese officials of the target selection process, Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering stated that the United States believed it was striking a state-sponsored proliferator of missile parts to Libya and Iraq and a Yugoslav military logistics facility. Pickering blamed “multiple factors and errors” that stretched back to 1997, and cited three main failures: the flawed technique used to identify the FDSP building, the U.S. military and intelligence community’s complete lack of understanding of where the Chinese embassy was actually located, and the lack of vetting the FDSP’s location with anyone who actually knew better. As Pickering pointed out, although many U.S. and NATO diplomats must have actually visited the Chinese embassy in the four years since it moved, its new location had not been updated in “no-target” databases.
Despite assurances that the attack was a mistake, a wave of anti-American protests spread across China, targeting the U.S. embassy in Beijing and consular facilities in other major cities. Tens of thousands of Chinese demonstrated in Beijing, and U.S. diplomatic buildings suffered damage from vandalism. Chinese authorities cordoned off the buildings from protesters, but otherwise allowed them to continue.
Across China, the general consensus was that the destruction of the embassy in Belgrade was intentional. Even the Chinese government did not believe that the embassy was bombed because of an out-of-date map. The attack, intentional or not, tapped into a deep vein of anti-foreigner sentiment in China dating back hundreds of years. Chinese people, having lived their entire lives with the knowledge of unequal treaties, demands, and other aspects of colonialism forced upon a weak China, viewed the attack as yet another humiliation imposed by foreign powers. Much of the anti-Western sentiment was heartfelt.
At the same time however, there was evidence that the Chinese Communist Party encouraged the anti-Western protests. Chinese authorities allegedly organized the protests through Communist Party cadres assigned to universities. Bottles, stones, bricks, paint and even Molotov cocktails were thrown at the U.S. embassy in Beijing. In Chengdu, the consul’s residence was set on fire. Given the tight control the Chinese Communist Party exerts over the country, it is difficult to imagine that the more violent protests were at least tacitly allowed to occur. Then again, it’s difficult to imagine that the vast U.S. military and intelligence apparatus could mistake an embassy with a traditional Chinese green tiled roof for a military logistical hub.
The rush to conspiracy on the part of China is in some ways understandable. There is no obvious reason why the Chinese embassy in Belgrade should be bombed, especially by an all-seeing and all-powerful American military. Simple stupidity simply can’t be the cause; terrible acts such as the bombing of the Chinese embassy must have equally terrible causes, such as a mysterious, racist, imperialist urge to once again humiliate the great Chinese people.
Yet to what end? There was no logical reason to intentionally bomb the embassy and provoke China, nor was there a great swelling of anti-Chinese feeling in America that would have provoked such an act. Ultimately, the conspiracy explanation lacks motive. Hanlon’s razor says it best: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami.
Image: A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber. Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Air ForceChemogenetic activation of NAc A 2A R neurons increases sleep
We first used a chemogenetic approach to clarify the neurobehavioural and electroencephalographic outcomes of activating A 2A R-expressing indirect pathway neurons in the NAc. To target excitatory “designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs” (DREADD)19 in A 2A R neurons located in the NAc, we used transgenic mice in which Cre-recombinase was expressed under the A 2A R promoter (A 2A R-Cre)20, 21. Adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) carrying Cre-recombinase-dependent hM3Dq DREADD (AAV-hSyn-DIO-hM3Dq-mCherry) were stereotaxically injected bilaterally into the NAc of A 2A R-Cre mice (NAc-hM3Dq mice; Fig. 1a, b). To investigate the effect of NAc A 2A R neuron stimulation on behavioural activity, we measured locomotor activity after intraperitoneal injections of vehicle or clozapine-N-oxide (CNO), a hM3Dq ligand that evokes neuronal excitation. Locomotor activity was decreased in NAc-hM3Dq mice for 5 h after the administration of CNO at 20:00, i.e., at the beginning of the dark period when mice usually show high levels of arousal (Fig. 1c). We then analysed electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram (EMG) recordings made after vehicle or CNO injections at 20:00 to measure sleep. Compared with vehicle injection, injection of CNO led to a dose-dependent and 3 h-long increase in slow-wave sleep (SWS), which is also known as non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep, the major part of sleep characterised by slow and high-voltage brain waves (Fig. 1d, e and Supplementary Fig. 1a). The number of prolonged SWS episodes (duration between 120–470 s) was also significantly increased (Fig. 1f). Changes in the mean episode number of wakefulness and SWS, and the number of stage transitions from wakefulness to SWS or from SWS to wakefulness did not differ significantly between mice treated with vehicle or CNO for 3 h after the intraperitoneal injection, as assessed by paired Student’s t-test (Supplementary Fig. 1b, c). To assess whether EEG activity was altered by chemogenetic activation, we compared the normalised EEG power spectrum of SWS in NAc-hM3Dq mice at baseline (1 day prior to vehicle injection) and after treatment with vehicle or CNO, and in A 2A R-Cre mice without AAV injections at baseline (Fig. 1g). The EEG activity in the frequency range of 0.5–25 Hz during SWS was indistinguishable between chemogenetically induced and natural (baseline or vehicle treatment) sleep. We also compared the absolute EEG power spectrum of SWS in each condition, but detected no statistical differences (Supplementary Fig. 1d). Moreover, mice treated with vehicle and CNO had similar SWS spindle frequency (Supplementary Fig. 1e). These analyses suggest that the induced sleep was likely physiological sleep rather than abnormal sleep.
Fig. 1 Chemogenetic stimulation of A 2A R neurons in the NAc induced SWS. a A 2A R-Cre mice were injected with AAV-hSyn-DIO-hM3Dq-mCherry into the NAc and implanted with somnographic electrodes. b A brain section was stained against mCherry to confirm that hM3Dq-mCherry protein was expressed in the NAc. Scale bar: 500 μm. c Time course of locomotor activity. Black and white bars indicate dark and light periods, respectively. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed followed by Bonferroni’s post hoc comparisons. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, compared with vehicle. d Typical examples of EEG (power spectrogram and wave traces), EMG, and hypnograms after the administration of vehicle or CNO. e Dose-dependent changes in SWS time normalised to the SWS time of the vehicle control. One-way ANOVA was performed followed by Bonferroni’s post hoc comparisons. f SWS episode spectrum. *P < 0.05, compared with vehicle, assessed by paired two-tailed Student’s t-test. g EEG power density of SWS between 20:00 and 23:00. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 6). Each pair of grey dots indicates data from one mouse Full size image
Optogenetic activation of NAc A 2A R neurons induces SWS
We then used optogenetic stimulation of channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), a blue-light-gated cation channel, expressed in NAc A 2A R neurons to further explore the temporal properties of sleep responses evoked by activating A 2A R neurons in the NAc. After AAV carrying Cre-dependent ChR2 (AAV-EF1α-DIO-ChR2-mCherry) was stereotaxically injected into the NAc of A 2A R-Cre mice (NAc-ChR2 mice; Fig. 2a, b), we performed whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of acutely prepared tissue slices containing the NAc (Fig. 2c–i) to test the response of ChR2-expressing neurons, presumably A 2A R neurons, to optogenetic stimulation. Brief pulses of light (5–15 ms) evoked single action potentials in ChR2-expressing A 2A R neurons, whereas pulses longer than 15 ms resulted in two spikes (Fig. 2f, g). Light pulses evoked action potentials with high frequency fidelity between 1 Hz and 30 Hz (Fig. 2h, i). We then stimulated the NAc in vivo in NAc-ChR2 mice with 5-ms pulses of blue light in the frequency range of 5–40 Hz at 22:00 when the mice were awake. The latency to sleep onset, defined as the time from the first light pulse to the appearance of the first SWS episode lasting longer than 20 s, was dependent on the pulse frequency as well |
, including “Readers-writers,” “Producer-consumer”, and “Dining Philosophers.” In addition, it collects a number of not-so-classical problems, some written by the author and some by other teachers and textbook writers. Readers are invited to create and submit new problems.
Think Bayes is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which means that you are free to copy, distribute, and modify it, as long as you attribute the work, make it available under a similar license, and don’t use it for commercial purposes.
The LaTeX source and supporting code are in this GitHub repository.
Sync, the thread simulator that runs the code in the book, is part of Swampy, which is in this GitHub repository.
Example code
threading_cleanup.py
counter.py
counter_mutex.py
coke.py
counter.c
counter_mutex.c
semaphore.cWritten by Lewis Mainwaring
Daphne Ashbrook is known for both her comic timing and deeply complex emotional portrayals on both the big and small screen. One of her best known roles (and my personal favourite) is that of Dr Grace Holloway in the Doctor Who TV Movie (1996). We recently caught up with her for an interview about her life both on and off screen.
“I love, love, love getting lost in a character’s reality. Quite fun leaving my own boring life at the door. Ha!”
What led you to become an actress? Well, it’s sort of the family business. My parents, D’Ann Paton and Buddy Ashbrook, met playing the leads in Dark of the Moon, and were married soon after. They continued doing play after play all through my childhood, and my sister, Taylor Ashbrook, and brother, Dana Ashbrook, and I were basically raised in theatres while our parents were rehearsing or performing.
My father became a director as well, and cast me in my first play at the age of six, and it was a natural step to go into the business when the time came. I think what I love about acting most is the feeling that I might contribute, in some small way, to enrich someone else’s life, either through information or emotion. I have found healing properties in stories, and I love being a part of telling them.
And I love, love, love getting lost in a character’s reality. Quite fun leaving my own boring life at the door. Ha!
What was working alongside the talented Paul McGann like?
Paul is a fabulou s actor, and a generous one. It was so much fun to work with him. It often felt like we were playing some sort of tennis match. It’s a gift to work with someone with whom when you look at them, they are actually looking back. And listening. That’s when the real game’s afoot. Right? Really feeling like you’re in the moment, and reacting to one another. It doesn’t happen all that often, so when it does, it is exciting and elevates the performances, and ultimately the whole project.
Are there any behind-the-scenes stories you would like to share? Just that we spent most of our time laughing. Between Paul and Sylvester (McCoy), I was always laughing. That’s when you pinch yourself and say, “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this.” Doesn’t feel much like work, you know?
Are you a fan of Doctor who (pre movie/post movie)? I have become a fan of Doctor Who now that I have seen it. Before the movie, I had no knowledge of DW. I had only the script, and I loved the story and the character that I was going to play. But since, I have gone back and seen a smattering of the Classic Series, and I have seen as much as I can of the New Series. So, I feel like I know a little about it all, but will always feel like I am catching up.
What is your relationship with technology? Do you regularly use a smartphone or tablet? I have an iPhone and a laptop. Also, a Web Dalek, who has brought me into the 21st Century. I have a great relationship with my iPhone and laptop. But the Web Dalek does have a temper.
The TV Movie divide Doctor Who fans, I personally love the movie – how do you feel about it? I think the film had MANY cooks in the kitchen, and many masters to serve – to mix metaphors. It was meant to introduce Doctor Who to an American audience (30 years behind), modernize the series, while keeping as much of the charm and tradition of the classic series in tact. Oh, and do it all in an hour and a half. Not a small task.
My feeling is that the movie fulfilled 99% of those demands, and knowing what I know now about what it took to get the darn thing made, I don’t know how they did it. Phillip Segal navigated seven years of labor and obstacles, and never gave up. And his obvious love for the Doctor was always evident on the set. His enthusiasm was contagious.
I think the movie had lots of charm, and did a fair amount toward introducing the show to an American audience, while still making an entertaining movie. And I think Paul’s Doctor was wonderful.
How has your experience with Dr Who fans ‘whovians’ been? I feel like I have friends all over the world now. It has been such a humbling experience. I can be rather shy, and I really didn’t think I was going to be able to handle being myself in front of a lot of people. I always was perfectly happy, actually preferred losing myself in characters. But what I found was, I liked meeting the fans more than they liked meeting me. In a nutshell, it has been a gift, and I am grateful to be considered a small part of the family.
Would you ever like to return as Grace Holloway in a physical role (TV)? I would love to continue to explore Grace in Doctor Who stories. But, alas, the rights to Dr. Grace Holloway is owned by Universal, I think. BBC (and Big Finish) are unable to bring her back. Such a waste. She was an interesting character, and I think challenged the Doctor in entertaining ways.
What is your favourite role to date? Grace was certainly one of my favorites. A role I played in a mini-series called Intruders was incredibly challenging. And then maybe the character of Dawn in THE OC. Also, challenging. I DO love a challenge!
Can you tell us abit about your life and interests off screen? I practice Bikram yoga, love to write and sing. And I love watching my daughter, Paton Ashbrook, on stage at Juilliard, where she is currently studying to be an actor/singer. I can never describe how proud I am of her. She is amazing!
As an active musician, who are your musical idols? Joni Mitchell, Patty Griffin, Billy Holiday, Annie Lennox, Sean Colvin, Ed Sheeran, James Taylor, Stephen Sondheim, Nick Drake, Adele and many, many more.
What is your personal favourite TV show and movie? Well, I’m really enjoying Scott & Bailey right now on ITV. And my favorite movie is Harold and Maude.
What upcoming projects do you have? I just released my second album, All Good Dreamers, which you can find at http://www.daphneashbrook.com/store/. All the songs that I chose for All Good Dreamers comment on the complexities of love, dreams, and just being a person in today’s world. Navigating your way through all the noise and tragedy that seem to roll through our lives daily. This music helps me through it.
And I am currently finishing writing a film called Once More With Feeling, that I will act in and will begin filming soon. I am very excited about this project. I love the challenge and I think it’s going to be fantastic!
I have another project that I am working on, but unfortunately, I cannot say a word. It’s a secret at the moment, but it should give the Doctor Who fans some happiness! Stay tuned!
Keep up to date with Daphne at www.daphneashbrook.com
See Also
All our Doctor Who related content.
Our interview with seventh doctor Sylvester McCoy.
AdvertisementseSports might be bigger than ever before, but one of the most well-know new eSports franchises of the last years has shut its doors for good. Titan, the organisation at hand, began with a Malaysian Dota team which booked quite the success at The International in 2013. It later expanded to cover Quake, CS: GO and SMITE.
Titan’s founder and CEO Damien Grust announced an immediate cease of operations just hours before the start of the 2016 CS: GO season due to money problems. These problems began in early 2015 as Valve issued the bans of players who had been detected using unauthorized cheats in CS: GO, which one of Titan’s best players KQLY belonged to as well. Grust said the following about this in a statement on the official Titan website: “This sent shivers down my spine, because it couldn’t have come at a worse moment. All the bad press that this brought and the major hit the image of an otherwise respectable brand took, was too much.”
Apparently sponsors who were about to sign suddenly started backing out of deals, as they didn’t want to be associated with a company that had just been publicly tarnished. This all resulted in the 2015 budget going up in smoke in a day’s notice. With the hope of high-placing performances and an investment from Grust’s own pocket, he hoped to heal Titan’s image, but with the rest of the CS: GO team’s members moving on to other teams and the SMITE team failing to qualify for Worlds, it unfortunately wasn’t meant to be.
Our Thoughts
A bad image can ruin ones company all too quickly, and unfortunately Titan was a victim of just that. If the controversy surrounding one of its best players had never happened, perhaps the eSports organization would still be standing today. We wish Grust and all other Titan employees all the best for the future.
Source: Titan Official WebsiteFoto: FAH, Index
BIVŠI predsjednik Republike Srpske Radovan Karadžić proglašen je u četvrtak pred Međunarodnim kaznenim sudom za bivšu Jugoslaviju u Haagu krivim za genocid u Srebrenici i druge ratne zločine u Bosni i Hercegovini i osuđen na kaznu od 40 godina zatvora.
> Presuda Karadžiću: Kriv je za genocid u Srebrenici, progon, istrebljenje, deportacije i ubojstva
Tekst se nastavlja ispod oglasa
"Vijeće vas osuđuje na jedinstvenu kaznu od 40 godina zatvora", rekao je predsjednik sudskog vijeća O-Gon Kwon.
Kriv je za genocid u Srebrenici
Raspravno vijeće utvrdilo je da je kriv za genocid u Srebrenici i višegodišnje teroriziranje Sarajeva kao i za uzimanje pripadnika UN-a za taoce, a utvrdilo je da nije bilo genocida u sedam općina -Bratuncu, Foči, Ključu, Prijedoru, Sanskom Mostu, Vlasenici i Zvorniku te ga je oslobodilo krivnje za taj dio optužnice.
Sud je utvrdio da je postojao plan sudionika udruženog zločinačkog pothvata za eliminaciju stanovništva Srebrenice kroz prisilno premještanje žena, djece i starijih muškaraca te fizičku eliminaciju muškaraca što je dosegnulo razmjere genocida.
Vijeće je utvrdilo da su 12. i 13. srpnja 1995., nakon što je stvoreno ozračje prinude u srebreničkoj enklavi, stanovnici prisiljeni na odlazak. Trideset tisuća žena i djece prevezeno je iz Potočara na područje pod muslimanskom kontrolom. Tisuće muškaraca, koji su odvojeni od njih, nakon toga ubijeni su na sustavni način i organizirano, utvrdilo je vijeće. Vijeće je uvjereno da je postojao plan da se svi vojno sposobni muškarci i dječaci pobiju i da on nije mogao biti proveden bez znanja i namjere vojnog vodstva bosanskih Srba da počine genocid.
Vijeće je zaključilo da su Karadžić i Mladić još u ožujku 1995. osmislili plan da se muslimani uklone iz Srebrenice i da je primao relevantne informacije tijekom osvajanja enklave. S civilnim povjerenikom za Srebrenicu Miroslavom Deronjićem Karadžić je nakon pada Srebrenice 13. srpnja 1995. navečer govorio o muslimanima u šiframa kao "o robi koja se mora smjestiti u magazine", a odmah nakon toga razgovora Deronjić je s pukovnikom Ljubišom Bearom razgovarao gdje pobiti muslimane. To za vijeće "van razumne sumnje pokazuje suglasnost Karadžića za ubijanje muslimanskih muškaraca" i da je dijelio cilj udruženog zločinačkog pothvata da se pobiju muslimanski muškarci nakon 13. srpnja 1995.
Kriv za udruženi zločinački pothvat
Kao član udruženog zločinačkog pothvata odgovoran je za genocid, zaključak je vijeća.
Sud je utvrdio da je u BiH postojao "sustavni i organizirani obrazac zločina nad bosanskim muslimanima i Hrvatima" koji su prisilno raseljeni, protupravno uhićivani i zatočeni u 50 zatočeničkih objekata u kojima su vladali nehumani uvjeti života. Sud je utvrdio da su pripadnici srpskih snaga zlostavljali, uključivši i seksualno, zatočene muslimanske i hrvatske muškarce i žene, koristili ih za prisilni rad i kao živi štit te su ih pljačkali i uništili njihovu imovinu. Srpske snage također su ubile mnoge bosanske muslimane i Hrvate u BiH, kazao je sudac ističući da je sud zaključio da je ubijanje bilo toliko masovno da je dosegnulo razinu istrebljenja.
Karadžić je optužen za sudjelovanje u četiri udružena zločinačka pothvata u okviru kojih je u srpnju 1995. počinjen genocid u Srebrenici, progon i etničko čišćenje nesrba u velikim dijelovima Bosne i Hercegovine koji su u sedam općina dosegnuli razmjere genocida, višegodišnji teror Sarajeva kojeg su pod opsadom držale snage bosanskih Srba i za uzimanje pripadnika mirovnih snaga UN-a za taoce i njihovo korištenje kao žive štit.
Nije kriv za genocid u Prijedoru i još 6 općina
Vijeće je utvrdilo da u sedam općina - Bratuncu, Foči, Ključu, Prijedoru, Sanskom Mostu, Vlasenici i Zvorniku nije počinjen genocid jer se nije uvjerilo da je cilj zločina bio fizičko uništenje Hrvata i muslimana niti da su provedeni s genocidnom namjerom te stoga zaključilo da nije bilo genocidne namjere ni kod optuženog niti kod drugih članova udruženog zločinačkog pothvata. Stoga je vijeće zaključilo da taj dio optužnice protiv Karadžića nije dokazan.
Sud je utvrdio da je Karadžić značajno pridonio udruženom zločinačkom pothvatu i da je imao središnju ulogu u definiranju ciljeva bosanskih Srba i širenju propagande protiv muslimana i Hrvata. On je omogućio zločine svojim porukama da se ih se neće goniti. Sud je utvrdio i da su Karadžić i drugi članovi udruženog zločinačkog pothvata znali za zločine i prikrivali ih pred međunarodnom zajednicom. Sudsko je vijeće zaključilo da su članovi udruženog zločinačkog pothvata imali namjeru progona stanovništva počinjenjem zločina poput deportacija i zatočenja, no nije se uvjerilo da je postojala namjera da se progon počini ubojstvima. Sud je utvrdio da je Karadžić znao da je nesrpsko stanovništvo bilo izloženo riziku zločina i ta mogućnost ostavila ga je ravnodušnim.
U pogledu odgovornosti za višegodišnji teror stanovnika Sarajeva topničkim napadima i snajperima kad su ubijene i ranjene tisuća civila vijeće je zaključilo da je vojska bosanskih Srba počinila te zločine protiv civila. Civili su bili ili ciljevi vojske bosanskih Srba ili su bile žrtve njihova neselektivnog gađanja, zaključilo je vijeće. Vijeće je zaključilo da je Karadžić kao član udruženog zločinačkog pothvata imao za cilj zauzimanje Sarajeva te je proglašen krivim za višegodišnje teroriziranje i ubijanje stanovnika Sarajeva snajperskim napadima i topničkim napadima. Vijeće je zaključilo da je Karadžić i na operativnoj razini sudjelovao u provođenju napada na Sarajevo. Teror Sarajeva bio je za Karadžića sredstvo ostvarenja političkih ciljeva i sredstvo pritiska na međunarodnu zajednicu.
Karadžić je proglašen krivim i za uzimanje pripadnika mirovnih snaga UN-a za taoce i njihovo korištenje kao žive štit. Taj zločin, po vijeću, također je počinjen u kontekstu udruženog zločinačkog pothvata čiji je cilj bio pritisak na NATO kako bi se suzdržao od zračnih napada.
Vijeće je utvrdio da su članovi četiri udružena zločinačka pothvata bili najviši politički i vojni dužnosnici bosanskih Srba među kojima su i generali Ratko Mladić i Radislav Krstić, Biljana Plavšić i Momčilo Krajišnik.
Haški tužitelji zatražili su u završnim riječima na kraju suđenja da se Karadžića za njegovu presudnu ulogu u zločinima proglasi krivim i osudi na kaznu doživotnog zatvora. Karadžić je za sebe tražio oslobađajuću presudu.
Optužnica protiv Karadžića podignuta je 25. srpnja 1995. godine. Uhićen je 21. srpnja 2008. u Srbiji gdje se godinama skrivao i radio pod imenom dr. Dragan Dabić. ICTY-ju je izručen je devet dana kasnije. Suđenje je započelo 26. listopada 2009., a završne riječi održane su krajem rujna 2014.There's much romanticism in underdog stories. Eighth-ranked and India-romped, living to inspire internet lampoons for three weeks in a row, Pakistan now stand at cricket's zenith, with an ICC title at the cost of their nemesising arch-rivals. And you can only blame them so much for turning up as India today -- scoring runs and fielding their tendons out -- so close are the two countries on the map. With hopes that this Sarfraz era flourishes, and that you liked the coverage, this is Pratyush Sinha taking leave for tonight. My colleagues Ramakrishnan, Nagaraju, Abhishek Chaudhary, Vineet Anantharaman and Abhinand Raghavendran bid farewell too. Until another one-sided India-Pakistan skyscraper of hype, it's ta-ta!
The match was about little moments that defined it. We have a lot of reading lined up for you. So do come back and check our portal for the many specials by Tristan Holme and Ganesh Chandrasekaran.
***
For one last time, here's Deepu with his numbers:
180 run loss for India is the biggest for a Full Member nation in CT.
PRE: 167 runs by Ban vs NZ, Colombo(SSC), 2002
180 run margin is the biggest loss for a team in an ICC tournament final.
PRE: 125 by Ind vs Aus, Joburg, 2003
Most wickets in a single edition of CT:
13 J Taylor (2006)
13 Hasan Ali (2017)
12 F Maharoof (2006)
12 R Jadeja (2013)
Teams winning all three ICC World titles: West Indies, India, Sri Lanka (shared trophy in 2002), Pakistan
Shadab Khan (18y 257d) is the youngest to win an ICC ODI tournament final. PRE: Aaqib Javed (19y 233d), WC 1992 final
Hasan Ali - first bowler to take four successive three-fers in CT
Best figures in CT finals: 5/30 Kallis v WI, 1998; 3/16 Mohammad Amir; 3/19 Hasan Ali; 3/20 R Bopara v Ind, 2013
Man of the Match in CT finals: J Kallis, C Cairns, I Bradshaw, S Watson (2), R Jadeja, Fakhar Zaman
Man of the Series in CT: J Kallis, R Sarwan, C Gayle, R Ponting, S Dhawan, Hasan Ali
***
Sarfraz gets the trophy from ICC's President, Shashank Manohar, and the music goes live. Fireworks. Blue confetti. Pakistan flags out in the crowd, filling in the chests that have been pumped into warehouses of pride. A lap-of-honour there, flaunting the trophy to the fans who have stuck by. Posing. Smiling. Jogging around the circumference. They are going round the Oval, are Pakistan!
Sarfraz Ahmed - captain, Pakistan: "Actually not (if he expected to be standing here after that loss to India at Edgbaston). After the India match, I said to the boys that the tournament doesn't finish here. Good cricket, positive cricket, and we will win. Thanks to the team management. And look we are here today. Fakhar Zaman is a great impact. Played like a champion batsman. If he plays like this, he will make his country proud. I think all credit goes to my bowlers. Amir today. Hasan Ali throughout the tournament. Imad Wasim. Shadab Khan. All bowlers. This is a young team. Credit to the team management for boosting us well. When we arrived here, we played like we had nothing to lose. My advice is to play like this. No one recognized Pakistan in world cricket, and here we are, the champions. Keep praying for us, Pakistan."
They wait behind the trophy, like first-benchers, but selfie-taking first-benchers, as Sarfraz has a chat with Nasser Hussain.
Pakistan players now. Alphabetically. Coming on one by one to take their fancy white jackets. As if cricket wasn't a civil enough sport, we have blazers -- not jackets! -- being disembersed at the presentation. Cricket, you freakishly obsessive about class beauty. Shadab wanted to rush to the stage to collect his, but he's been pulled back.The Raiders could soon find themselves a new fan favorite in first-round draft pick Karl Joseph, the safety taken No. 14 overall from West Virginia.
“He won over the hearts of Mountaineer Nation very, very quickly,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgerson said Friday on 95.7 The Game. “He’ll do the same thing for Raider Nation.”
Holgerson backed up all of the talk about Joseph being a hard-working, high character player.
“In today’s day and time, there’s a lot of kids that don’t do the right thing and they want things to happen for them very quickly and right now and make bad decisions in the mean time,” Holgerson said. “This is a guy that makes the right decisions. He made the right decision coming back to school. He made the right decisions every day. It was a joy to coach and everybody’s going to fall in love with him.”
It could’ve been easy to wonder at a point if Joseph’s decision to return to West Virginia for his senior year was a wise one, considering he could’ve possibly been a first-round pick last year and then torn his ACL after just four games.
But Holgerson said Joseph placed a premium on completing his degree and, despite the knee injury that cut short his collegiate career, his return helped make him a better player by addressing concerns about his pass coverage skills. He had five interceptions in the four games before getting hurt.
“They said he needed to work on his coverage skills a little bit so he came back, he worked on his coverage skills,” Holgerson said of the feedback following Joseph’s junior season. “I think the interceptions that he had this year just shows what kind of work ethic that he’s got. He wanted to get his degree so he left WVU with a degree. If he left early, he wasn’t going to get that done, so he made his parents proud, made me proud from just simply finishing what he started.”
Joseph was a team leader for Holgerson’s team, so much so that he said, “I could’ve named him captain as a freshman because he was our defensive leader as a true freshman.”
With it now clear Joseph’s knee injury didn’t affect his draft stock, Holgerson expressed his one disappointment in the early end to the safety’s senior year.
“At that point in time, he was the best defensive player in college football,” Holgerson said. “I think anybody that saw him play those four games would say that. He would’ve been on every All-American list. He would’ve won every defensive player of the year award. So it was sad not to see him do that, but obviously his future is bright.”
As for Joseph’s skills, Holgerson is in lock step with Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie and coach Jack Del Rio in talking about his versatility and ability to play anywhere. In fact, Holgerson said he initially recruited the 5-foot-10, 205-pound Joseph as a middle linebacker.
“He can play in the box,” Holgerson said. “He can get in the backfield. He can cover in man coverage and then you can put his butt back there on the hash and he can go sidelines to sidelines. It doesn’t matter where you need him, he’s going to be able to fill any kind of role that you need.”
And yes, Holgerson raved about Joseph’s ability to lay the lumber.
“Karl is known across the country as one of the most fearless hitters in the country,” he said. “He’s got great ball skills, great coverage skills, but the toughness and physicality that he brings to the table is what separates him from other guys.”[wysifield-embeddedaudio|eid="439881"|type="embeddedaudio"|view_mode="full"]
Coming off of their bye week, the Seahawks (3-1) return to CenturyLink Field this Sunday, October 16 for a Week 6 game against the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons (4-1), with kickoff set for 1:25 p.m. PT and live television coverage on FOX (channel 13 in Seattle).
The matchup marks the 16th all-time meeting between the two teams, including postseason play, with the Seahawks owning a 9-6 edge. Seattle won the last meeting, 33-10, in November 2013 at Atlanta, a game that came less than a year after the Falcons bounced the Seahawks from the 2012 NFC playoffs in the divisional round.
Here's a look around the web at which side local and national analysts are predicting to win this weekend:
Sheil Kapadia at ESPN.com likes the Seahawks to win 30-20, "Much of the focus will be on how the Seahawks' defense matches up with the Falcons' offense. But Seattle should have a decided edge against the Falcons' defense. Russell Wilson has thrown four touchdowns and no interceptions in his past two games and is healthy enough to use his legs again following rest and treatment during the bye week. Jimmy Graham has 213 receiving yards in his past two games, and Doug Baldwin has been phenomenal going back to last season. The Seahawks should also be getting a healthy Tyler Lockett (knee) back. Those weapons against a Falcons passing defense that has allowed 14 touchdowns (tied for most in the NFL) should be a mismatch that works in the Seahawks' favor."
Vaughn McClure at ESPN.com gives the advantage to Seattle and the 12s, predicting a 28-24 Seahawks win, "As much as it makes sense to go with the Falcons, who average 35 points per game, the Seahawks (allowing just 13.5 points per game) will be extremely tough at home and have an atmosphere capable of throwing Atlanta off its game with pre-snap penalties."
Elliot Harrison at NFL.com picks Seattle to win 28-20, "Falcons fans are going to be rather upset with this friendly writer, but the Seahawks are winning this game at home. Going back to back on the road in Denver then Seattle would be hard for the 2007Patriots or the 1972 Dolphins, much less this 2016 Atlanta team.... The key for the Seahawks is the return of first-round pick Germain Ifedi. The previously injured guard got his first taste of NFL action against the Jets, and the much-maligned Seattle O-line provided Russell Wilson ample time against a Jetsdefensive front that is much more talented than Atlanta's group. Couple that with the home crowd, and the Seahawks prevail."
Chris Burke at SI.com sees Seattle winning a close one, 21-20, "Atlanta is now an impressive 3–0 on the road this season, its latest victory coming over the defending champion Broncos. The Matt Ryan-led offense is attacking defenses in a variety of ways, from Julio Jones’s dominance to Tevin Coleman as a pass-catcher. This matchup is arguably the toughest the Falcons will face the rest of the season. Seattle has the athleticism at linebacker to succeed where Denver failed in covering Coleman across the middle, and with Russell Wilson healthy again it certainly brings more to the table on offense than Denver did behind Paxton Lynch. The weather could play to Seattle’s advantage, as well, with rain and high winds expected Sunday. Tough conditions for a pass-happy Atlanta offense."The Astronomia Sky builds on its predecessor’s daring nature.
Truly appreciating the latest timepiece from Jacob & Co. (212.719.5887, jacobandco.com) starts with understanding its antecedent. “After the first version [Astronomia], we really wanted to connect the watch with the stars,” explains Luca Soprana, the watch-development specialist behind the creation that Jacob & Co. unveiled in 2014. That extravagantly complicated timepiece features a time display and a tourbillon, as well as representations of the Earth and moon that rotate on spokes around a central axis—all visible beneath an expansive sapphire dome. The watch bucked a trend toward conservatism in new timepieces, and while it drew admirers within the Swiss watchmaking establishment, it also encountered some skeptics.
Jacob & Co. has silenced much of the criticism with its new Astronomia Sky (about $690,000). It incorporates a sidereal-time display that tracks the movement of the stars with zodiac indications. No feature brings as much gravitas as the sidereal-time complication, which historically has been attempted on only the most complex and prestigious watches. “The reference in these displays is the flat sky charts done by Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin,” says Soprana. “Jacob’s idea,” he adds—referring to Jacob & Co. founder and chairman Jacob Arabo—“was really to create a sort of planetarium with all the stars and planets going around.”
The Astronomia Sky’s star chart lies under an inverted dome over the movement, with a moving oval indicating the stars above the Geneva latitude. The dome rotates imperceptibly, about 1 degree per day to account for the orbit of the Earth around the sun that differentiates a sidereal day (23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds) from a solar day. Soprana had to create special planetary gearing to accurately render the massive speed reduction, but it was Arabo’s approach to watchmaking, Soprana says, that allowed him to create a starry dome that reminds him of works by the painter Giotto. “The best thing about working with Jacob,” he says, “is that he is not a watchmaker at all. He is concerned with the aesthetical quality of the piece and asks for things technical people would never request. He asks for a totally different approach, and for me, it’s very interesting to work this way.”PLAYMAKER Tom Rogic is the latest Socceroos player to have a World Cup fitness cloud hanging over him after being excluded from Friday’s training session.
Rogic, who has been carrying a groin injury, was among a handful of players carrying niggles excluded from the main group at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah yesterday, but while he’s likely to miss the South Africa clash on Monday FFA is confident he will be fit for Brazil.
Curtis Good (hip flexor) and captain Mile Jedinak (groin) worked with physio Les Gelis and strength and conditioning coach Alan McCall for most of the session while Sion’s Dario Vidosic and Nagoya Grampus striker Josh Kennedy peeled away from the main group to do light running for most of the session.
Keeper Mitch Langerak was the other unsighted player, and is another week away from commencing training after he hyperextended his knee training with Borussia Dortmund last week.
Socceroos assistant Ante Milicic said there was no need to take risks in Monday’s send-off game against South Africa at ANZ Stadium, considering with remaining games against a local Brazilian side (June 2) and Croatia (June 6) before the Chile opener on June 13.
“He (Ange Postecoglou) will look at every player individually, case by case, and then see if they can participate on Monday and if so, is it better starting that individual or off the bench,’’ Milicic said.
Tom Rogic competes for the ball during an Australian Socceroos training session at Central Coast Stadium. Source: Getty Images
“He doesn’t need to risk anyone that doesn’t have any question marks and the beauty of it is we have got a game lined up on June 2. On top of that there’s a Tuesday session after the Monday game before we depart.
“It’s not a game where he has to risk any players, and there’s probably players that he wants to see more than others and he’ll make that call.
“Now it’s just how Ange wants to use the game, does he want to test out a few things in different positions? We’ve also got a game on June 2 and there’s a lot of travelling to get there.
“I’m sure he’s got in his mind certain players that are pretty much going to Brazil, and he’ll look at all the loads, fatigue, sleep, how players are pulling up and make a decision on if and how many late arrivals play on Monday.’’
Milicic, who was |
. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people." Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez also cited the same interview where Wayne defended white Europeans' encroachment on Native American land. "Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves," the actor said. Wayne's support for the anti-communist House Un-American Activities Committee and the far right John Birch Society were also brought up. After the defeat Harper said the proposal failed due to "the orthodoxy of political correctness". "Opposing the John Wayne Day resolution is like opposing apple pie, fireworks, baseball, the Free Enterprise system and the Fourth of July," he said.
You might ask Mr. Harper what his point is? Of course liberals oppose applie pie (fattening), fireworks (too much like guns), baseball (exploiting workers), free enterprise (you're kidding, right?), and July 4th (racist, sexist, murdering country shouldn't celebrate anything).
And Assemblyman Donald Wagner pointed out others had been honoured despite controversies in their past, mentioning President Franklin Roosevelt who had been honoured despite his internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two. The John Wayne Day row comes a week after it was announced the face of former US president and slave owner Andrew Jackson would be removed from the front of the US $20 bill and be replaced by freed slave and anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman. Also this month Princeton University announced it would keep former President Woodrow Wilson's name on one of its buildings despite calls to remove it because he was a segregationist and held racist views. The university decided that President Wilson's accomplishments deserved to be recognised along with his faults.
Only liberal icons can be forgiven their past sins, or their troublesome views placed in historical context. Wilson's nauseating racism can be excused because he expanded government. Martin Luther King's communist affiliations are actually celebrated by some liberals. Malcolm X's violent, eliminationist rhetoric against whites was justified. Ted Kennedy's drinking, womanizing and murder of a young girl can be forgotten because of his accomplishments in the Senate - so goes the rationale.
Wayne's words were ignorant. But the context of the times puts him squarely in the mainstream of the thinking of ordinary white Americans - as were President Wilson's views on race. It's not an attempt to excuse Wayne's words - he should have known better. But a big part of the civil rights movement at the time was to make thinking like that obsolete by educating white America about how hurtful words like that were to ordinary blacks and ultimately, how wrong they were.
For decades, John Wayne was the face of America to the rest of the world. Not acknowledging that singular fact is petty and without merit.‘Battlefront’ succeeds as a fun, engaging immersive game that scratches the Star Wars itch. But little maddening and avoidable issues hold back what could have been a great game.
Death Star, “Star Wars Battlefront’s” highly anticipated third DLC, arrived last week. This latest addition to the Star Wars first-person shooter (FPS) asks players to either help destroy or defend the Death Star.
“Possibly the most iconic location in the Star Wars universe was released nearly a year after the game launched as paid DLC?” Only a cynic might ask this question—one who views the game as a half-finished money-grab that quickly fragmented its player base by offering several paid map packs.
A New Hope
Electronic Arts released the highly-anticipated “Star Wars Battlefront” in November 2015 in an obvious attempt to feed off “The Force Awakens” hype. While not a great FPS in pure gaming terms, “Battlefront” has proven itself a perfect option for gamers who may not have the time (or desire) to endlessly level-up or collect the best weapons and other murder-assisting doodads. This accessibility gives even terrible players like your friend Keith the chance to play as Nien Nunb without fear of being a complete embarrassment.
Even better for more grown-up gamers, the console version doesn’t feature team text or voice chat, like many online games. Casual players can enjoy a match without constant, vulgar reminders of how terrible they are or what’s been done to their mother recently. It’s like they made the game for married gamers and gamers with kids.
More importantly, “Battlefront” captures the look and sounds of the Star Wars universe better than anything this side of the movies. Facing down AT-ATs in Walker Assault, the multiplayer mode, feels as daunting as it did on Hoth. Drop into a Supremacy match on the Survivors of Endor map, and the smell of charred Ewok practically emanates from the screen. Retrieving the payload in Cargo brings back that classic game of capture the flag from “Return of the Jedi.” Even the lighter moments of the game exhibit the scale and beauty.
“Battlefront” succeeds as a fun, engaging, and thoroughly immersive game that scratches the Star Wars itch. But little maddening and avoidable issues hold back what could have easily been a great game.
I Don’t Like Sand
To start, the initial release of “Battlefront” felt… dirty. The $60 game offered players a $50 “Season Pass” of four additional DLCs (or $15 per DLC purchased separately). Additional paid content isn’t necessarily bad. However, “Battlefront’s” initial dearth of content made it fairly obvious that a complete game would cost $110 minimum. It makes for a terrible pitch to people who may only purchase a few games a year, not to mention that paid maps break up the player base.
It doesn’t help either that DICE or EA (or whomever) moves at a plodding pace to address bugs in the game. Nearly three weeks after the “early” release of the Death Star DLC, game-breaking server connection and gameplay bugs continued to plague the game as a whole. Each DLC has introduced new bugs that take far too long to fix. The existence of bugs doesn’t surprise. The sheer number and persistence of them frustrates to no end.
It’s Coarse, and Rough, and Irritating, and It Gets Everywhere
But at least the bugs eventually get fixed. Core fundamental flaws, like quickly finding a game, loading a game, or getting back into the game from a spawn point, probably take up at least half of the total “playtime.” Battlefront possesses an impressive inability to consistently put players into a preferred game mode or map. Or it will spit players out into the same map over and over and over like some sort of Scooby-Doo hallway chase scene.
In addition, the creators evidently prefer to measure spawn point distances in parsecs. X-Wings literally run out of space gas before they even get close to the targeted Star Destroyer in the new DLC. These matchmaking, server, and spawning issues persist, despite the game nearing its first birthday.
The game provides plenty of FPS game modes with enough variety to satisfy almost any preference (the lack of a single-player campaign doesn’t bother me). Unfortunately, the game’s dogfighting mode offers little and certainly no lasting entertainment. Each side features only two ship options and the occasional “hero” pickup (rumors of playable Y-Wings and B-Wings abound). Only the recent Death Star DLC has any sort of meaningful objective (while, confusingly, reducing the number of players).
Comparisons to the X-Wing series from the ‘90s or even “Rogue Squadron” may not be entirely fair, considering the specificity of those games. However, they still provide a useful and frustrating contrast to the paucity of Battlefront’s flight-sim mode. Like the game itself, Fighter Squadron feels like it was made to meet a deadline.
This brings us back to what inspired this article in the first place: the Death Star DLC. What should be an intense, thrilling battle in and around the Death Star is instead a vacuous, vapid affair. The new DLC features few game modes (supposedly what the fans wanted). The actual attempt to destroy the Death Star offers players a three-tiered, immersion-killing battle: an unnecessary Star Destroyer dogfight, a rescue attempt aboard the Death Star, and the Trench Run.
An attempt to destroy or save the Death Star should deliver endlessly replayable fun, much like Walker Assault. Yet I stopped playing after a few days and returned to other game modes. Perhaps the limited number of players reduces the sense of urgency. Or maybe putting in 20 minutes of playtime just for a chance at the Trench Run doesn’t seem worthwhile. Or maybe it’s just boring.
Instead of a great game, EA released a missed opportunity. I pity the developers and designers, likely put under immense pressure to meet deadlines to maximize sales (as if a new Star Wars game needed help from a movie tie-in). They may be stretched thin with work on “Battlefront 2,” as well.
“Battlefront’s” not bad. It’s occasionally very fun. It’s too often maddening. That’s what’s so frustrating about “Star Wars Battlefront.” It didn’t have to be this way.Behind almost every correction in The Times, there is a story. In the case of the correction about Alexa O’Brien, the story is a particularly interesting one.
The correction, which was in Wednesday’s paper, read:
An article on Tuesday about the role of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in the case of Edward J. Snowden, the former computer contractor who leaked details of National Security Agency surveillance, referred incompletely to Alexa O’Brien, who has closely followed the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of providing military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. While Ms. O’Brien has participated in activist causes like Occupy Wall Street and US Day of Rage, she also works as an independent journalist; she is not solely an activist.
After the article was published, Ms. O’Brien e-mailed me and others at The Times, making the strong case that she is a journalist and should be referred to as one. I passed it along to the corrections desk. The Times, to its credit, considered the case and decided to run a correction.
But this raises a question that is very much of the current moment. Who – and what – is a journalist? It’s not just about semantics.
There is a strong legal component to this discussion: Who will be covered by a federal shield law that would give legal protection to journalists who have promised confidentiality to their sources, if it ever comes to pass? Will it cover only established news organizations or those who get paid for news gathering? Or does it cover everyone with a Facebook page?
The question takes on added heat in the context of the Obama administration’s prosecution of leakers using the Espionage Act, its pursuit of Mr. Assange, and the recent naming of a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, as a co-conspirator in a leak case.
Then, quite separately, there’s a question of the amount of professional respect shown to those like Ms. O’Brien and the columnist Glenn Greenwald, who has broken major news stories about government surveillance for The Guardian in recent weeks.
Is Mr. Greenwald a “blogger,” as a Times headline referred to him recently? That headline was atop a profile that did not use the word journalist to describe the columnist for The Guardian United States, the New York-based Web site associated with the British newspaper. At the time, I wrote (on Twitter) that I found the headline dismissive. There’s nothing wrong with being a blogger, of course – I am one myself. But when the media establishment uses the term, it somehow seems to say, “You’re not quite one of us.” (And that might be just fine with Mr. Greenwald, who has written disparagingly of some media people, whom he calls “courtiers of power.”)
Bruce Headlam, who edits media coverage in The Times and who was an important voice in deciding that a correction was in order on the reference to Ms. O’Brien, has considered the subject.
“I don’t consider ‘blogger’ an insult and I don’t consider ‘activist’ to be an insult, either,” he said. But he acknowledges that “I might be in the minority” on those points.
He also noted, rightly, that these matters have taken on more significance in the current climate, and could be crucial for Mr. Greenwald. (Under fire, the Obama administration has recently said that it won’t pursue journalists for doing their jobs.)
On the flip side, but in the same context, the journalistic credentials of at least one established broadcaster came under attack in the last week.
Frank Rich, writing about the NBC-“Meet the Press” anchor David Gregory, smacked him around (as did many others) for asking Mr. Greenwald why he “shouldn’t be charged with a crime” for “the extent he aided and abetted” Mr. Snowden, the N.S.A. leaker.
In a New York magazine piece, Mr. Rich wrote: “Is David Gregory a journalist? As a thought experiment, name one piece of news he has broken, one beat he’s covered with distinction, and any memorable interviews he’s conducted that were not with John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Dick Durbin or Chuck Schumer.” And he derisively suggested that Mr. Gregory begin to host his network’s “Today” show, so that he can “speak truth to power by grilling Paula Deen.”
So, who’s a journalist? I could explore the legislative and legal questions, and that may be something worth returning to in this space. (Decisions that have been made in interpreting New Jersey’s strong shield law are of particular interest, as is the language before the Senate now on the proposed federal law.)
But for now, I’ll offer this admittedly partial definition: A real journalist is one who understands, at a cellular level, and doesn’t shy away from, the adversarial relationship between government and press – the very tension that America’s founders had in mind with the First Amendment.
Those who fully meet that description deserve to be respected and protected — not marginalized.From CNN in September:
From the Colorado Springs Gazette today:
Air Force Academy finds cadet candidate responsible for racist messages
By: Tom Roeder November 7, 2017
An Air Force Academy cadet candidate once thought the victim of racial slurs at the preparatory school on campus was actually the vandal who scrawled the threatening messages across the note boards outside his room and the dwellings of classmates.
The academy confirmed that finding Tuesday afternoon, and stood by a stern speech given by its top general in the wake of the incident. Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria gathered cadets and staff members for a speech that has gone viral in videos posted across the internet. He said that those who can’t respect others “need to get out.”
“Regardless of the circumstances under which those words were written, they were written, and that deserved to be addressed,” Silveria said in a Tuesday email. “You can never over-emphasize the need for a culture of dignity and respect – and those who don’t understand those concepts, aren’t welcome here.” …
No matter its origins, the incident sparked a national discussion on racism and the academy’s swift and public response. Silveria was widely praised for his strong speech, with some suggesting he run for high office after he leaves the service.TAMPA, Fla. -- South Florida suspended wide receiver Chris Dunkley indefinitely Sunday following his arrest on a charge of domestic violence battery.
Dunkley, 21, was arrested on USF's campus late Saturday night by Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies hours after USF's 30-17 loss to Florida State. Dunkley's charge, a first-degree misdemeanor, stemmed from an incident that occurred with his girlfriend on Sept. 21, according to a Hillsborough County arrest report.
"Our players have an obligation to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner on and off the field," coach Skip Holtz said in a statement. "Due to the serious nature of this matter, we have suspended Chris indefinitely from all team activities."
The arrest report indicates Dunkley "forced the victim to the floor and began to punch and strike the victim in the arms and legs causing bruising." Then Dunkley "grabbed the victim's hair and forced her into a closet where he began to strike the victim with a computer cord on the back of the thighs, causing several lacerations."
The report also indicated there is "a strong likelihood of repeat violence" by Dunkley.
In 2010, Dunkley transferred to USF from Florida. This season as a sophomore, he had four catches for 93 yards, including one catch for 10 yards against FSU on Saturday.
Brett McMurphy covers college football for ESPN.com.Learn Buddhist meditation techniques The Aro gTér Lineage free internet meditation course is a series of weekly emails that are sent to you automatically by this web site. The course takes a practical, down-to-earth approach. The first weeks email provides all the instructions you need to get started. In the following weeks, you will learn refinements in the technique and additional meditation exercises. The course also explains ways of dealing with any problems that may come up, shows how to apply the insights of meditation to the rest of life, and recommends other resources and further steps. If you already know that you want to learn how to meditate, you can sign up for the course now. The first email will come immediately. We will not share your email address with anyone else. At the end of each email we include a few, unobtrusive links to other meditation-related projects. You can unsubscribe at any time if the course turns out not to be for you. What the course covers Some of the courses topics are: Breath meditation several methods
Posture and physical supports: how to be comfortable, relaxed, alert, and still
When and how much to meditate
How not to meditate
to meditate Formless meditation in emptiness
Presence and awareness; thought and reality
Walking meditation
Meditating with strong emotions
How to take the insights of meditation into everyday life Some details come from the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen approach. However, the techniques are quite similar to those found in forms of Buddhism: vipassana, shamatha-vipashyana, mindfulness and insight meditation, and shikantaza (from the Zen tradition). Obstacles and antidotes It is important to acknowledge that meditation can be boring, frustrating, uncomfortable, and confusing. This is particularly true in the beginning. These are perhaps the reasons not everyone meditates, despite the extraordinary benefits meditation can provide. There is a tendency in some quarters to gloss over these difficulties. Some advocates seem to pretend that meditation is an easy and quick path to inner peace, if not eternal bliss. We do not think this is helpful. Meditation takes some determination. If you begin with the expectation that everything will go smoothly, you are likely to give up as soon as you see a difficulty. Instead, much of this course is devoted to frank discussion of the obstacles all meditators encounter. None of these obstacles needs to stop you. The course provides antidotes to each of the problems, including: boredom
restlessness
sleepiness
physical discomfort (aches and pains)
self-judgement and self-doubt
fear
confusion
procrastination Learn more If you would like to know more about meditation in general, and the approach of the Aro gTér Lineage in particular, you may want to read our meditation FAQ (answers to frequently asked questions) and other resources. Or, you may just want to sign up for the course.Go to Google and type in “H.R. 4133.” You will discover that, apart from a handful of blogs and alternative news sites, not a single mainstream medium has reported the story of a congressional bill that might well have major impact on the conduct of United States foreign policy. H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, was introduced into the House of Representatives of the 112th Congress on March 5 “to express the sense of Congress regarding the United States-Israel strategic relationship, to direct the president to submit to Congress reports on United States actions to enhance this relationship and to assist in the defense of Israel, and for other purposes.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) reportedly helped draft the bill, and its co-sponsors include Republicans Eric Cantor and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrats Howard Berman and Steny Hoyer. Hoyer is the Democratic whip in the House of Representatives, where Cantor is majority leader. Ros-Lehtinen heads the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The House bill basically provides Israel with a blank check drawn on the U.S. taxpayer to maintain its “qualitative military edge” over all of its neighbors combined. It requires the White House to prepare an annual report on how that superiority is being maintained. The resolution passed on May 9 by a vote of 411–2 on a “suspension of the rules,” which is intended for non-controversial legislation requiring little debate and a quick vote.
A number of congressmen spoke on the bill, affirming their undying dedication to the cause of Israel. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was the only one who spoke out against it, describing it as “one-sided and counterproductive foreign policy legislation. This bill’s real intent seems to be more saber-rattling against Iran and Syria.” Paul also observed that “this bill states that it is the policy of the United States to ‘reaffirm the enduring commitment of the United States to the security of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.’ However, according to our Constitution, the policy of the United States government should be to protect the security of the United States, not to guarantee the religious, ethnic, or cultural composition of a foreign country.” Paul voted “no” and was joined by only one other representative, John Dingell of Michigan, who represents a large Muslim constituency.
It is interesting to note what exactly the bill pledges the American people to do on behalf of Israel. It obligates the United States to veto resolutions critical of Israel, to provide such military support “as is necessary,” to pay for the building of an anti-missile system, to provide advanced “defense” equipment (including refueling tankers, which are offensive), to give Israel special munitions (i.e., bunker-busters, which are also offensive), to forward deploy more U.S. military equipment to Israel, to offer the Israeli air force more training and facilities in the U.S., to increase security- and advanced-technology-program cooperation, and to extend loan guarantees and expand intelligence-sharing (including highly sensitive satellite imagery). Actually, there’s even more included, and I may have missed the kitchen sink. But the objective is to provide Israel with the resources to attack Iran, if it chooses to do so, while tying the U.S. and Israel so closely together that whatever Benjamin Netanyahu does, the U.S. “will always be there,” as our president has so aptly put it.
But the scariest bit of the bill is its call for “an expanded role for Israel within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including an enhanced presence at NATO headquarters and exercises.” If Israel becomes part of NATO, which is clearly Congress’s intent, the U.S. and other members will be obligated to come to the aid of a nation that is expanding its borders and is currently engaged in hostilities with three of its neighbors. Israel has also initiated a series of regional wars. Whether NATO membership for Israel would benefit anyone is questionable, but it is something the neocons have been seeking for years, to turn Israel’s wars into a new crusade against the Muslim world.
And then there is the congressional propensity to conceal additional spending in legislation that is normally passed without a great deal of debate. It is perhaps no coincidence that on May 7 the Republican spokesman, the redoubtable Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, released his party’s proposal for increased defense spending (yes, increased) for 2013. McKeon, who has never served in the military and who was holds a bachelor of science degree in animal husbandry from Brigham Young University, is an uber-hawk who relies heavily on campaign contributions from the defense industry. Perhaps “Buck” should consider changing his sobriquet to “Warbucks,” but as he probably lacks a sense of humor, it would be wasted on him.
Included in the proposed defense bill is a cool $1 billion for Israel to upgrade its missile defenses. Money for Israel inserted in the U.S. defense budget suggests that Congress believes that defense of the U.S. and defense of Israel are pretty much conjoined at the hip. That’s on top of the $3 billion Tel Aviv already receives and the numerous defense co-production programs that it benefits from, which will clearly be expanded if 4133 is any indication. The media predictably underreported the largesse for Israel with a couple of lines hidden away in a story in The Washington Post about overall defense spending.
Many who follow the issue have known for some time that Congress, generally speaking, will unhesitatingly do anything to benefit Israel and its supporters, be damned the consequences for the rest of us. That they do it without any public scrutiny is unforgivable and is as much the fault of the media as it is of the devious ways of America’s legislature. If Congress wants to give Israel the type of guarantees that would require Washington to support Tel Aviv’s foreign and security policy, there should be a free and open debate with the American people understanding clearly what such a commitment means in terms of costs and consequences, not a “suspension of rules” stealth legislative package. If Buck McKeon and his friends on the House Armed Services Committee want to give Israel a billion dollars and actually believe it serves the U.S. national interest, why do they hide it in a procurement bill for the defense of the United States? If historians 100 years from now seek to explain how a great power committed seemingly intentional national suicide, they will have to look no further than the voting record of the U.S. Congress.
Read more by Philip GiraldiBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Oct. 24, 2016, 3:28 AM GMT / Updated Oct. 24, 2016, 3:28 AM GMT By Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela's Congress declared Sunday that the government had staged a coup by blocking a drive to recall President Nicolas Maduro in a raucous legislative session that was interrupted when his supporters stormed the chamber.
Opposition lawmakers vowed to put Maduro on trial after a court friendly to his socialist administration suspended their campaign Thursday to collect signatures to hold a referendum on removing the deeply unpopular president.
Pro-government supporters try to storm the National Assembly in Caracas on Sunday. Ariana Cubillos / AP
Lawmaker Julio Borges said the opposition-led congress is now in open rebellion after a majority of its members voted that the decision constituted a coup with government participation.
"We will bring a political trial against President Nicolas Maduro to get to the bottom of his role in the break with democracy and human rights here," Borges said.
A day of fiery speeches was briefly thrown into chaos when dozens of red-shirted protesters who had been heckling opposition lawmakers outside the capitol burst onto the floor. Lawmakers ran out of the path of protesters who chanted: "Congress will fall!"
A lawmaker holds up a sing reading 'Maduro dictator' in Spanish, referring to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, during a special session Sunday at the National Assembly in Caracas. Ariana Cubillos / AP
It wasn't immediately clear how the protesters entered the heavily guarded building, which has been under the opposition's control since it won legislative elections in a landslide in December. The protesters filed out after Socialist Party leader Jorge Rodriguez called on them to leave, leading the opposition to charge that Rodriguez was directing the protest.
Opposition spokesman Jesus Torrealba said the protest on the floor was a perfect illustration of the opposition's complaint that democracy has been suspended in the oil-producing country.
"The fact that lawmakers elected by 7.5 million people were silenced by 300 thugs sums up the situation better than any speech could," he said.
Legislators also proposed efforts to replace national elections officials and Supreme Court judges.
Amid severe shortages and the world's highest inflation, polls suggest that as many as 80 percent of voters want Maduro gone this year.
A push to take legal action against the president would throw the country further into a constitutional crisis, but it would probably not prevail because the administration controls the courts and other major institutions.Hello Games finally broke it’s silence today, though not in the way they might have liked: Earlier this morning a message went out via Hello Games Twitter feed saying that it’s most recent game No Mans Sky was a mistake.
This coincidentally echoes the sentiments of many gamers who have taken Hello Games to task for the promises that it failed to deliver on regarding their much-hyped release. Including the games lack of multi-player, which caused the game to receive one of the lowest user-based ratings ever on the Steam platform. With negative scores from over 70,000 users.
Since the release Hello Games has gone deathly silent, especially Sean Murray. Despite the fact both had been extremely frequent posters in the months and years leading up to No Mans Sky’s release. So the tacit admission came as a shock to most. Even moreso when it was quickly deleted from their profile (though still on the company site), causing gamers to wonder whether the account had been hacked.
And this is where it starts to get confusing.
A representative of Hello Games sent a message to Erik Kain of Forbes, that the tweet had been sent by a disgruntled employee. Claiming that they were trying to sort out the issue. A similiar email was also sent to Mashable, signed by Sean Murray.
Meanwhile Polygon received an email from Sean Murrary admitting responsibility in which he states “The tweet is from me, but somebody from the team took it down. We have not been coping well.” A further email was reportedly sent to two Polygon staffers which strangely accepted blame for many of the numerous complaints made by those who purchased No Mans Sky.
No Man’s Sky was a mistake. I have contacted you because the silence from Hello Games has been unwarranted and unprofessional. The community has asked me to speak up, and I have a confession to make. The game was simply unfinished upon arrival. Our hand was forced by not only Sony, but the community as well. The constant harassment and absolute gross misconduct on the community’s part has made it hard to fulfill our artistic vision, while the pressure from Sony to release the game as soon as possible forced us to cut key features. I want to apologize for what we did not deliver on, as the game does not meet up to what our artistic vision was. However, we do wish that the community was more understanding of our situation. Many people have asked for refunds despite our promise to continually improve and update No Man’s Sky. We are just a small studio that has poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this project. The complete lack of respect when it comes to the work we have done absolutely saddens not only myself, but the team as well. We want to improve the game to the point we dreamed of it being and beyond. I hope everyone affected understands, Sean Murray
Sean Murray then broke the seal of silence on his personal Twitter account to send a Tweet that their server had been hacked. At the same time making a joke about binge-watching Mr. Robot.
To make things more awkward we then get a Tweet from Sean Murray, Tweeting to Hello Games. Even though they should both be in the same room.
Hello Games has since then responded to Sean “Murray”, saying that all of the emails and everything else has been the result of a hacker who has hijakced their email and Twitter account.
Essentially everything at the moment is a monumental clusterf*%k, with no one knowing exactly what is going on with Hello Games. And Hello Games, true to form, is remaining as silent as possible. As of this point no one has actually stepped forward to speak about what is going on in an official capacity. Leaving most journalists and gaming sites wandering about in confusion.
While the media is confused, reactions from gamers themselves have been somewhat…unsympathetic to the company’s plights.
Subreddit R/Nomanssky is a subreddit which started out as a fan sub but quickly became a sub for criticizing and complaining about the deceptions and dodgy business decisions of Hello Games. In a display of anger at Hello Games finally opening their mouth only now they have taken “Sean Murray”s comment about binging on Mr. Robot and changed the name of their sub. Earlier the subs moderator placed a video on youtube explaining his frustrations with the company.
It seems safe to say that Hello Games has managed to build up quite a considerable amount of ill-will among the tech-savvy gaming community. So the identity of this mysterious hacker may be something impossible to decipher. There are simply too many likely suspects to choose from.
AdvertisementsHong Kong Airlines accused of profiting from "flying Taiji dolphin coffins"
A recent article in China Daily pointed to charges that Hong Kong Airlines "has been accused of profiting from animal cruelty by striking a HK$850,000 deal to fly live dolphins from Japan to Vietnam."
Why were they headed to Vietnam? Because, Dolphin: it's what's for dinner.
The dolphins in question are captured at Taiji, a dolphin-hunt site in Japan made famous by Sea Shepherd's actions, and the film The Cove.
Sandy McElhaney at Examiner.com (an open publishing platform, not a newspaper as the name may suggest) wrote this interesting post about the China Daily article, and a Change.org petition followed. There are a few scattered press reports, but they don't include much direct sourcing beyond the China Daily piece so far. Hong Kong airlines has issued a weak statement that denies responsibility for any wrongdoing, profiteering or animal abuse.
For what it's worth, China Daily is not exactly a free and independent press outlet, but known for more Western-style journalism than other state-owned papers in China.
(image via Hong Kong Airlines.)“There is no hollowing out. These numbers that people are throwing around are just false. They’re wrong,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 28. | Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP Photo Tillerson fends off'redesign' critics The secretary of state responded to scathing critiques of his plan to reshape the State Department.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday dismissed mounting criticism of his plan to restructure the State Department, insisting “there is no hollowing out” of the agency but that it can be run more efficiently and with less funding.
Addressing questions after a speech on U.S.-European relations in Washington, Tillerson shed some new light on his largely veiled plans to reshape the department. He also said many of the reports about a loss of diplomatic personnel and sunken interest in the Foreign Service were exaggerated or incorrect.
Story Continued Below
“There is no hollowing out. These numbers that people are throwing around are just false. They’re wrong,” Tillerson said.
Tillerson’s defense follows increasingly vocal complaints from Republican and Democratic lawmakers about the slow pace of what he calls the “redesign” of the department. A scathing Monday New York Times op-ed by former ambassadors Nicholas Burns and Ryan Crocker accused the secretary of “a deliberate effort to deconstruct the State Department and the Foreign Service.”
A visibly annoyed Tillerson said his critics were misinformed and relying on misleading numbers. He pointed to a widely circulated figure that State had lost 60 percent of its career ambassadors under his leadership and noted that it reflects a very small sample. In fact, Tillerson said, there were six such ambassadors when he took over in February, four of whom have since departed.
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The overall number of Foreign Service officers has barely budged, Tillerson added, noting that he has made some 2,300 exceptions to a declared hiring freeze and has rejected very few requests.
Tillerson's speech, hosted by the nonpartisan Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, reassured Europeans that America's fundamental commitment to their security has not changed under President Donald Trump. But Tillerson added that "the nations of Europe must accept greater responsibility for their own security challenges," and reiterated Trump's prior calls for America's NATO allies to increase their defense spending.
Tillerson also took a hard line on Russian aggression in Ukraine, insisting that any resolution to the conflict there would be “unacceptable” unless it results in a Ukraine that is whole, independent and sovereign. He said that Russia's actions do not reflect a "responsible nation."
At the same time, Tillerson — a former ExxonMobil CEO who dealt often with Russian leader Vladimir Putin — also said that the U.S. wants to cooperate with Russia where possible. That includes finding a political solution to the conflict in Syria, he said.
On the question of stewardship at Foggy Bottom, Tillerson did concede that the nomination process for top State Department officials had been unusually slow during his tenure, and praised the many career diplomats now serving in vacant leadership slots on an acting basis.
“The people that are serving in those roles are doing extraordinary work,” Tillerson said. “I’m offended on their behalf” by the criticism aimed at the department.
Tillerson launched the redesign process soon after taking over as secretary. He has largely supported Trump’s proposal to slash State’s budget by 30 percent — a cut leading members of Congress call unrealistic — and many believe Tillerson ultimately wants a much smaller department.
Tillerson said the department’s budget in recent years had ballooned to some $55 billion and was filled with spending inefficiencies. He also said the State Department would need less money as global conflicts wind down.
Although it’s not the first time Tillerson has made such a claim, critics note that he’s given no specifics about which conflicts he sees petering out. They warn that new conflicts could easily emerge from North Korea to Iran.
Tillerson hinted that his redesign plan may be less about the department's structure and more about its practices. One major focus, he said, will be on technology upgrades, along with revised human resources policies.
Tillerson said he was surprised to learn that many U.S. diplomats only spent a year in some overseas posts after expensive training for that specific role. Extending such tours could be one change to come, he said.AMES, Iowa (AP) -- Credit Iowa State's defense and two
sensational runs for this one.
Seneca Wallace was kept under control until crunch time, when he helped engineer Iowa State's victory.
Iowa State (No. 14 ESPN/USA Today, No. 11 AP) kept Kliff Kingsbury in check and Seneca
Wallace ignited the offense with a 12-yard touchdown run that
covered at least 60 yards of ground as the Cyclones beat Texas Tech
31-17 Saturday night.
Lance Danielsen followed Wallace's touchdown with a 79-yard TD
run on a reverse to |
Leder, who shot one of the show's most shocking installments — the stoning murder of Gladys (Marceline Hugot) — and the introduction of Garvey Sr. (Scott Glenn) and his National Geographic magazine, a storyline on which the finale touched in Garvey's (Justin Theroux) fascinating dream sequence.
It had its fair share of metaphysical and character-driven questions: What was Garvey's wish, and did Holy Wayne (Paterson Joseph) truly grant it? How did Laurie (Amy Brenneman) and Tom (Chris Zylka) happen to end up in the same park? What's the effect of the Bible verse on Garvey and the baby on Nora (Carrie Coon)? What's with the dog?
Leder has answers (except when it comes to the dog; she says, "you just have to read into it yourself what you bring to it"). But she says her finale's themes are those that run throughout the entire first run of the ambitious HBO drama, which will return for a second season. "I think there's a common thread of anger, despair, grief, loss — of, is there hope for humanity?" she tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The director explains her episodes and discusses the season with THR.
What was hardest to get right in the finale?
One of the scenes that was so very hard to achieve, especially because it was shot in two days, was the burning down of the cul-de-sac of the GR's houses. It was an intense, difficult scene to shoot. We're not an action show, so my approach to it was to try to get into the head of Kevin Garvey — to follow him on this journey of seeing what has happened to his town, seeing it through his eyes. He's discovering that the GR has done the unthinkable, has made them remember, after he's gone through quite a confession himself.
That was a very difficult sequence to shoot. It had a lot of visuals and effects, like the fire. It was very emotional, seeing the bodies being thrown on the bonfire and Laurie being thrown out of the house, hearing her voice for the first time in all the episodes except for the flashback.
Were there scenes you thought would be difficult but that came together very naturally?
One of the scenes I feared the most was Nora Durst discovering her family and how that would work, and after the first take, we all just fell apart because it was just so painful to witness and so pure and honest a scream. We took the sound out of it, which made it even more difficult to watch. Just as you think that she's recovering and moving on, you realize that you can never move on, as Holy Wayne says in episode 6... "will I forget them?" and he says, "never." And the Guilty Remnant will never let them forget. For Carrie Coon, who is a great discovery and a deeply affecting actress, she went there. She went to the floor literally in seeing her Loved Ones.
Another that was difficult was Justin Theroux's reading of the Bible, in an extraordinarily brilliant performance that went so deep. It was just difficult to modulate not that performance, but the whole episode. You have that scene where he’s deeply affected by the words, and Matt Jamison (Christopher Eccleston) has definitely helped him in the reading of those words. But how far do you go with the tears, when you know you have a scene coming up where he confesses to Matt that he wanted his family gone?
The scene with Wayne was quite beautiful and quite powerful, and we wanted to do it very simply. There was the coincidence of Holy Wayne being in that bathroom, having had a huge effect on Kevin's son's life, and granting Kevin the wish that ultimately comes true, perhaps, in the last moments of the show.
What was he wishing for?
What I told Justin was that he was wishing for a new beginning, a rebirth, to start over. In that moment, when Nora comes to the doorstep to leave the note and leave him and leave Mapleton, leave everything behind, she finds this baby. All she says is, "look what I found," and you can see that in the midst of all this anger, grief, uncertainty and loss, there's hope. There's the possibility of love, the possibility of a new family.
How do Laurie and Tom figure into this new beginning?
In the show's arc, [creators] Damon [Lindelof] and Tom [Perrotta] so brilliantly crafted a closeness between Laurie and Tom. Laurie and Tom were both drawn to cults, they both sought out answers. I think Laurie is at this point very disillusioned by everything she thought she believed in, and Tom in his arc during the series has been disillusioned by Holy Wayne, feeling that perhaps he is the fraud that Wayne himself feels he is. (But perhaps in his moment of death Holy Wayne is not a fraud; perhaps the wish he granted Kevin will come true. We don't know — we'll see.) Their stories are about what we as human beings have the ability to believe in, how deeply we believe things can come true if we will them to.
Laurie and Tom have a very special connection. Kevin married her, fell in love with her and raised Tom as his son, but Laurie and Tom have a special connection. Where she goes at the end is where it all began in the pilot: the memorial park. It was another coincidence — how does he show up and find his mother? I said to him and to her, this is the place where you guys would meet. This is the place where your mom would take you. This was their place. So just when she thinks all is lost, she looks into the water, into the abyss, she turns and sees her son.
He's delivered the baby to Kevin's doorstep, because he was abandoned by his father and Kevin took care of him. He took the baby to the only place he knew the baby would be taken care of.
So in the aftermath of the burning of the GR, Laurie's disillusioned with the group?
In the aftermath, when Laurie is looking at her family again — I was reading some reviews about it, and people thought it was Kevin wanting her back. But it wasn't. It was a moment about, "don't come near us." It was a moment about, "you've hurt us so much."
She's disillusioned and feels the shame of having put her daughter in jeopardy. One of the scenes that was most interesting and most difficult in many ways was the sequence in the house where her daughter (Margaret Qualley) is there and her daughter says, "talk," and she says not, "go away, go home, it's dangerous." She wants to protect her daughter, but she wants to carry out what she has been planning with her group for all these months. The conflict of being the mother and that instinct coming out was a great challenge to her.
Where does this episode leave the GR, in particular Liv Tyler's character Meg?
Liv Tyler has just been an extraordinary force. People see Liv as this very fragile kind of waif, and she's really this strong, tough, powerful woman. I loved shooting her coming out of the house, taking over Patti's (Ann Dowd) role as the leader and filling those shoes.
The GR will never let anyone forget what happened — you can go on with your lives, but you can never move on. They're the realists. So are they a cult, really? It made a lot of sense in many ways. They'd rather live in reality than in denial.
You directed the series' other most devastating moment of violence against the cult, the stoning of Gladys. How did you go shoot that scene?
When I read it, I thought, "Oh my god, how am I going to shoot a stoning? How am I going to do one of the show's most shocking scenes?"
I wanted everything to be very still before they abduct her, and then I wanted everything to be so wild that you could barely see, just the struggling of being dragged through the woods and tied up and having this vow of silence. I shot it very simply in terms of camera angles. Once we got there, we needed to be still so that we could feel the effects of the stones hitting her face and destroying her life and the tragedy of her begging for her life even though she martyred herself. It was a very powerful thing to shoot, very frightening to shoot.
In your episode centered on Kevin's father, what's your sense of the elder Garvey's mental state? Is he crazy?
My interpretation is that he is hearing voices and that he's not crazy. I think he snapped after the departure, the voices really do come and talk to him. That's why I did the shot of his reflection in the window — who's he talking to? He's definitely talking to somebody. He definitely hears the voices, the voices are telling him what's important, and he tells his son to listen. This is Damon's brilliant crafting — in episode nine, we go back and we see Garvey Sr. tell his son, "this is it. This is your purpose in life. You need to accept it. There isn't any more than this." In that moment, your mind will hopefully go back to this episode seven. It's part of Kevin's arc, finding out what is his purpose in this life.
Has he found it?
I think he's still discovering it. I think he's just, in this finale, confessing to what happened at the moment of departure and what he was wishing for. He was wanting his family gone, and he feels the guilt. He is still looking for his purpose.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @AsiegemundbrokaI get that conservative Christians have a problem with homosexuality. But this piece posted by Charisma magazine, written by Bert M. Farias, is so full of hatred and vile that I think we can finally put that whole “love the sinner” canard to rest:
The government of Denmark has made it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages, regardless of religious beliefs, conscience or convictions. No church or minister in Denmark is exempt from complying with this new law. … Here’s the raw, naked truth: Homosexuality is actually a demon spirit. It is such a putrid-smelling demon that other demons don’t even like to hang around it. A genuine prophet of God told me that the Lord allowed him to smell this demon spirit, and he got sick to his stomach. And yet as humans, many embrace this demon. Yes, you heard me right: Being gay is demonic. Pigs have more sense than some humans. Some people embrace homosexual demons, but the pigs would rather die than be possessed with demons. … Just as a fornicator or an adulterer can stop being sexually active, any gay person who claims to be a professing Christian can stop being gay.
Somewhere, the ghost of Jerry Falwell is thinking, “Dude… Too far.”
Charisma appears to have already deleted several dozen comments criticizing and correcting the piece. Even the part about what’s happening in Denmark, which Farias completely misunderstands. (Gay couples can get married in state-run churches, but no minister is forced to officiate.)
(via Joe. My. God.)Story highlights Chicago has a six-day stretch with no fatal shootings until weekend death
550 people have been shot in the city this year, according to the Chicago Tribune
(CNN) A six-day reprieve in Chicago's shooting deaths ended this weekend with the killing of a 32-year-old man whose body was found in a vacant lot on the west side of the city, police said.
No fatal shootings were reported in the city between February 26 and Saturday, according to police.
On February 26, a 23-year-old man was shot in a drive-by while he was seated in the driver's side of a parked minivan.
In the same six days, police reported 20 nonfatal shooting incidents, some with multiple victims.
The six-day stretch slowed Chicago's murder count when compared to 2016 rates. At least 104 homicides have been reported this year, shy of the 109 recorded during the same period in 2016, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Read MoreUPDATE : This article was written over a year ago, as a preview of the Olympic Hockey Tournament. Please check out our updated Olympic Hockey Primer, and our full Podcast Preview of the Olympic Hockey Tournament.
The Winter Olympics is a little more than a year away, but its never too early to start planning ahead for the Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament. Ice Hockey is one of those rare team sports like soccer where you have a great international tournament and a number of competitive teams. Soccer has its World Cup and Ice Hockey has the Olympics. Since the United States is usually an afterthought in Soccer, Ice Hockey is one of those rare team events were you can root for the U.S. and they might actually win. Baseball has no real international tournament (and no I don’t count the crappy World Cup they threw together) and Basketball has seen the U.S. dominate (less so in recent years, but still not all that competitive).
How competitive is the Winter Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament? The modern NHL has allowed its athletes to go to the Olympics only three times, in 1998, 2002, and 2006. In 1998 the Czech Republic defeated Russia for gold. In 2002, Canada nipped the United States. And in 2006, Sweden beat Finland. Three different champions and no country has even managed to make the finals twice.
To get you excited, we are previewing the best possible teams for each country. Let it be clear that these teams are the best case scenarios. Certain players have retired from international play, some have chosen not to play in the past, some may simply opt out or be injured. We don’t know for sure what each player will end up deciding a year from now. But countries are already formulating their squads, so we’ll look at the best possible team to give you an idea as to who will show up in Vancouver in 2010.
In this nine part series we’ll profile the “Big 7”, plus have an extra post outlining players to watch on the other squads in the tourney. Per International Rules, each team is allowed to select 23 players, including 3 goalies. Each player is from the NHL unless otherwise noted.
The 2006 Results:
2010 Olympic Groups (with IIHF ranking):EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday demanded a new independence referendum in late 2018 or early 2019, once the terms of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union have become clearer.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has demanded a new independence referendum in late 2018 or early 2019, once the terms of Britain's exit from the European Union have become clearer. Her demand comes just as British Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to launch the Brexit process, something opposed by most Scots in last June's vote on leaving the bloc. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
An independence vote that could rip apart the world’s fifth largest economy just months before Brexit raises the stakes for Prime Minister Theresa May as she prepares to trigger two years of formal Brexit talks.
“If Scotland is to have a real choice - when the terms of Brexit are known but before it is too late to choose our own course - then that choice must be offered between the autumn of next year, 2018, and the spring of 2019,” Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh.
In the June 23 Brexit referendum, the UK-wide vote was 51.9 - 48.1 percent to leave the EU. Voters in England and Wales chose to leave while in Scotland and Northern Ireland they voted to stay, and since then the strains on the United Kingdom have deepened.
Hours after Sturgeon spoke, Northern Ireland’s largest Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said it wanted a referendum on splitting from the United Kingdom “as soon as possible”.
“Brexit will be a disaster for the economy, and a disaster for the people of Ireland,” Sinn Fein’s leader in Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill told reporters in Belfast. “A referendum on Irish unity has to happen as soon as possible.”
Sturgeon, who heads Edinburgh’s pro-independence devolved government, said she would next week seek the approval of the Scottish Parliament to discuss with the UK government the details enabling a second referendum to take place.
The detailed arrangements for a referendum - including its timing - should be decided by Scotland’s parliament, she said.
Scots rejected independence by 55-45 percent in a referendum in September 2014, but support for Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party has surged since then.
It is ultimately the UK parliament in Westminster - where May commands a majority - which decides whether Scotland can hold a second referendum.
But if she refused to approve such a vote she could provoke a constitutional crisis and stoke discord in Scotland.
While Sturgeon said the “door was still open” to talking to London, she added she was not expecting a change of tack over Brexit by May’s government, which says it will prioritize immigration controls over continued preferential access to the European single market.
“I cannot pretend that a compromise looks remotely likely given the hardline response so far,” she said.
“TUNNEL VISION”
May has not publicly said whether she would try to block a Scottish attempt to hold a second referendum, but has accused Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party of sacrificing Scotland’s interests through its “obsession” with securing independence.
“The tunnel vision that SNP has shown today is deeply regrettable,” May said.
“Instead of playing politics with the future of our country, the Scottish government should focus on delivering good government and public services for the people of Scotland. Politics is not a game.”
May’s spokesman said the evidence showed that the majority of people in Scotland did not want a second independence referendum, which he said would be divisive and cause huge economic uncertainty.
Sturgeon has said she wants Scotland to have its own deal as part of the United Kingdom’s Brexit agreement, to keep its preferential access to the single market.
But on Monday she said her efforts had hit a “brick wall of intransigence” in London and that she feared a bad deal or even no proper deal for the UK to leave the EU.
“I will now take the steps necessary to make sure that Scotland will have a choice at the end of this process,” she said.
“A choice of whether to follow the UK to a hard Brexit - or to become an independent country, able to secure a real partnership of equals with the rest of the UK and our own relationship with Europe.”
An independent Scotland born after a messy secession battle with London would have to apply for EU membership after the United Kingdom left, according to diplomats and EU officials.
Sterling gained broadly against major currencies after Sturgeon’s announcement.
Slideshow (10 Images)
Recent opinion polls have shown support for independence rising since May announced Britain would quit the single market. A poll last week saw a 50-50 split.
Asked if she believed she could win a second independence vote, Sturgeon replied: “Yes I do. Absolutely, I believe that.”Police seized almost $30,000 worth of illegal fireworks Monday night and arrested three people accused of participating in selling them out of a makeshift storefront in North Long Beach, authorities said.
City officials stood in front of stacks of the confiscated merchandise at a press conference Tuesday and warned residents against buying or shooting off similar fireworks.
“I don’t think there’s any city where these types of fireworks are legal,” Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna said. He underscored that all fireworks are illegal in Long Beach even if they’re permissible elsewhere.
Long Beach police have been trying to root out fireworks leading up to the 4th of July. Enforcing fireworks laws can be difficult because officers have to witness the violation themselves to arrest someone for possessing or lighting fireworks, according to Luna.
The penalty can be up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
This year, police have placed extra emphasis on finding the sellers supplying the pyrotechnics, the chief said.
An anonymous tip led to Monday night’s bust, he explained.
Around 8 p.m., officers served a search warrant on a home in the 1800 block of East 57th Street, according to Luna.
In the garage, they found about 5,000 pounds of fireworks and a makeshift storefront where they were being sold, police said.
That glut of fireworks was “a very large amount for one single bust,” Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said as he congratulated police and firefighters on their work.
Officers arrested two men and a woman related to the stash, police said. Family protective services also took custody of four kids at the home — ages 5, 8, 10 and 17 — according to Luna.
One man, 24-year-old Long Beach resident Darius Bo, was arrested on suspicion of possession of dangerous fireworks and held in lieu of $20,000 bail, according to Luna.
The second, 36-year-old Los Angeles resident Armand Moore, was arrested on suspicion of possession of PCP and held in lieu of $30,000 bail, police said.
The woman, 29-year-old Long Beach resident Sreypeur Say, was arrested on suspicion of possession of dangerous fireworks and also held on $20,000 bail.
Moore and Bo are both documented gang members, according to police. People arrested for selling fireworks in Long Beach are often gang members, Luna said, in front of a row of cameras at the press conference.
“So it’s very important for the community, the viewers, to understand that when they purchase these fireworks — these type of fireworks behind me — from unauthorized sources, they are essentially putting money in the pockets of street gangs, supporting their illicit activities,” Luna said.
Using fireworks is not only illegal, it’s dangerous, according to the chief.
Last year on the 4th of July, a 17-year-old setting off fireworks at Pacific Coast Highway and Lemon Avenue had his hand “partially amputated” in an explosion, Luna said.
An hour before that injury, police had written the boy’s grandmother a $1,000 ticket related to fireworks, Long Beach Fire Department Deputy Chief Rich Brandt said.
“It’s responsible parents that we need as well, not just our efforts but all of our community efforts,” Brandt said.
The Long Beach Fire Department has also doubled down on its campaign to tell people fireworks are illegal, according to Brandt. That effort includes billboards, signs, social media posts, fliers, posters and yard signs.
“We’re not going to put up with this,” Brandt said.
Monday’s arrests were the latest in a series of fireworks busts made by Long Beach police officers, according to the department.
In one case, officers arrested a man on June 17 after finding a large amount of fireworks, cash, drugs and a stolen handgun in his home, police said.
In another instance on June 12, an online advertisement led officers to a Bixby Knolls address where they found $2,500 worth of “high powered” fireworks and arrested three men, police said.Our new issue, on what a President Bernie Sanders could actually do in office, is out now. Subscribe today to receive it!
When we think of strikes, we usually think of disputes over wages and benefits. Strikes make the case that it’s easier for bosses to pay workers more than to run a company without them. But unions often fight for more than money. Workers can walk off the job to demand new rights at work, fighting for control over their working conditions. The recent strike at University of Manitoba focused on these issues. At the end of negotiations, the provincial government intervened, demanding both parties sign a one-year contract with no wage increase. The University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA), which represents 1,200 full-time faculty and librarians, filed an unfair labor practice complaint. But the government’s bizarre move helped clarify something else their members really wanted: power over how the university is run. When faculty and librarians walked off the job on November 1, they did so to contest the administration’s vision of the university as a corporation.
Speedup on the Line As throughout higher education in North America, examples of the University of Manitoba’s corporatization abound. UMFA president Mark Hudson told me that the Faculty of Health Sciences successfully sold naming rights for $30 million to the Rady Family Foundation. When his own faculty, Arts, met to come up with their own donor-friendly fundraising schemes, he explained that “the process wasn’t about figuring out the university needs,” like a writing center or services to help indigenous students make a successful entry into university life, “but figuring out what donors would actually fund.” One area that seems designed to draw in money is the university’s promise to “indigenize.” Winnipeg has the largest urban indigenous population in Canada, and the university has seen more and more First Nations students enroll. The 2015 strategic plan lists “creating pathways to indigenous achievement” among its central initiatives. It promises “to make Winnipeg the national center of excellence in indigenous education, and in particular to allow indigenous students to be prepared for and to achieve educational success.” The campus is already home to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, set up to study, document, and make amends for the long-standing practice of removing First Nations children from their homes and sending them to residential schools. The school’s commitment to indigenous education and the presence of the TRC on campus should present amazing educational opportunities for students. But the university has consistently interpreted its promise as a chance to build more buildings and hire more administrators, not support faculty and students. The donations coming in to support this initiative seem to be going to administrators first, faculty second, and students only if there’s some leftover. Niigaan Sinclair, chair of the Native Studies program, has repeatedly pointed out this irony. As he writes, the university decided to “indigenize without indigenous faculty.” In a video indigenous faculty members created in support of the strike, he describes how the push for indigenization has actually placed incredibly taxing demands on his department, which has not hired a new tenure-track faculty member in four years: “In a situation in which Native Studies should be a leader, should be the most supported program on campus, we are the least.” As Hudson noted, the university now has fewer indigenous faculty than they did when the strategic plan was announced. When donations can’t be found, the administration turns to creating partnerships with businesses. At the Smartpark, for-profit companies like Monsanto lease space in the university’s innovation centers. These corporate interests are, of course, beginning to bleed into campus life. Serenity Joo, associate professor in the Faculty of Arts, described a colleague who was “reprimanded for being uncollegial” after critiquing bad research put out by the factory-farm interests on campus. And, like many other campuses in Canada and the United States, Manitoba is heavily recruiting international students, who pay three times what provincial students pay. While cashing their hefty tuition checks, the university has farmed out English language instruction to Navitas, a for-profit company. Hudson explained that management fights to preserve “maximum flexibility to readjust [and] reallocate labor” to make sure revenue stays high. This so-called flexibility manifests in a number of different forms, but two recent developments contributed to the union’s anger going into contract negotiations. Last year, the dean of the Faculty of Arts increased courses for non-tenure-track faculty from three to four classes a semester, a 33 percent increase. In past years, deans would have sought approval from faculty before making any change to workload requirements, especially one so major. As negotiating team member Brenda Austin-Smith reported, this time the dean responded to two negative votes from faculty by saying “‘Thank you very much, I’ve consulted with you, and now I’m going to go ahead and [increase workloads].’ Members were incensed.” Austin-Smith likened the move to a “speedup on the line,” a logic that now permeates the university. When deans couldn’t add additional classes to instructors’ duties, they simply increased the number of students allowed to enroll. Meanwhile, forty librarians were fired, massively increasing workload for everyone else. As Joo pointed out, “Even if you did get rid of the riff-raff, that’s an immense amount of labor that’s been shifted onto them.” University president David Barnard defended the move, explaining that technology had made librarians obsolete. These decisions, and Barnard’s baffling defense of them, indicate that the administration and faculty fundamentally disagree about the university’s mission. The professors I spoke with all argued that the administration does not support the values of education, ignoring — either willfully or out of ignorance — the faculty’s expertise and the students’ needs.
Worker Power The University of Manitoba’s corporate focus brings corporate management techniques with it, relying on, as Austin-Smith said, “top-down, hierarchical, command-and-control methods.” Faculty self-governance, in contrast, pushes towards the more horizontal and democratic. Committees of professors, which often include students, propose curricular changes, which then move to faculty council for approval. Research is assessed by experts in the field, not by external donors and investors. This difference came to the fore in the fight over the university’s use of bibliometrics to measure and assess faculty research output. Hudson explained that the union knew that the university had purchased SciVal, a program that uses academic citation databases to “roll together a set of performance indicators based on citation counts, number of publications, [and] journal impact factors” and spits out a researcher’s “h-index.” As Joo noted, the purpose of these programs seems to be to “homogenize research and make all research in all fields look comparable, allowing non-experts to assess, evaluate, and hierarchize specialized research.” The administration promised it would use those figures only to help sell the university to donors and the provincial government. But faculty feared that the university might begin using metrics to determine promotions and departmental budgets. If they do, Hudson argued, a lot of the real work of academia stops. If a student’s coming into my office, and it’s going to take me an hour to explain, say, the relationship between exchange rates and interest rates, that doesn’t pay. I’m now in an incentive system where I want that student out of my office as fast as they can get out of my office. Because I’m not going to be in any way evaluated on the basis of my interaction with that student. Not only do bibliometrics force faculty to prioritize research over teaching, but they are also notoriously biased against new research and against female academics. Joo pointed out that they favor certain research areas over others: “If you work on curing cancer, you get more hits than if you work on less popular diseases. It obviously disadvantages people who are working in more obscure or less popular fields.” Jonah Olsen, a student activist, argued that metrics are always political: “They choose certain journals or publishing companies, and those are the only ones that really count. That seems like a rational thing, but how could you possibly determine that, and how could that not be a reflection of your political beliefs?” Austin-Smith summed the problems up, calling bibliometrics “completely gameable numbers.” Further, faculty already have robust methods for determining what research is valuable: peer review. As Joo explained: You don’t go to someone higher to review your paper and publish it. It’s passed around to your colleagues in your field... You get feedback from your peers, and that’s how you can attest to the validity the project, not [that] some manager thinks it’s a good project. Bibliometrics erode academic freedom by pushing researchers into orthodox fields and punishing those who work on less popular areas or who make controversial findings. UMFA fought another threat to academic freedom in their contract campaign: job security for non-tenure-track faculty. The faculty feared that if the union couldn’t extend the same job protections tenure-track faculty enjoy to librarians and non-tenured instructors, academic freedom might disappear on campus. This can happen in a less overt way than the teacher who was reprimanded for criticizing factory-farm propaganda. Right now, management can only fire tenured professors — except in cases of gross wrongdoing — if the university can demonstrate extreme financial exigency, showing the union and faculty committees the campus books to prove that they really must let a professor go. Hudson described this as the “nuclear option.” No such protections exist for non-tenure-track instructors or librarians. These workers do have academic freedom protections — meaning an instructor can’t explicitly be fired for criticizing the administration or its partnerships with business — but it can let any non-tenured worker go to cut costs, without justification. So if a faculty member is critical of the administration, either in class or in the press, the university can fire that troublemaking instructor and use budget restraints as cover. As Hudson explained, “They don’t need to have a justification for who they lay off, they could just sort of pinpoint whoever they wanted... It hollows out academic freedom.” Again, traditional faculty self-governance protects these core academic values that corporatization endangers.
Union Benefits According to the faculty I spoke with, collective bargaining has become an essential tool for preserving the values of academic life. Without a union, Austin-Smith explained, all faculty can do is petition. “You can say please to your administration,” but with a recognized union backed by labor law, You organize collectively, you meet collectively, you meet the employer face-to-face, and you bargain. Because when you bargain, you’re not petitioning anymore, you’re not asking for a favor, you’re not there with a begging bowl. You’re there to make demands based on principled, democratic decisions, undertaken by the members of the bargaining unit. Moreover, Hudson said, the strike showed faculty how the administration had “quite deliberately discouraged” the ethic of collegiality. The speedup on the line and the rationalization of research output reveals that the administration sees faculty as “productive automatons sitting at our desks twelve hours a day, churning out least-publishable units and processing student credit hours.” Walking the picket line together for twenty-one days reminded them that another way of working was possible. Austin-Smith described a faculty senate meeting that took place during the strike. The senators who were walking the picket line decided to attend the meeting together. Thirty UMFA senators all crowded into the senate chamber after having been on strike for about two weeks. And we sat in our usual places, and instead of the usual kind of silence... there was a buzz of conversation. Rather than looking at their phones or grading papers while waiting for the meeting to begin, they talked: about the strike and the contract, about getting coffee later, and about their research. This key element of collegial life — sharing ideas with people both in and outside your field — was further enhanced by fly-in pickets. The Canadian Association of University Teachers Defense Fund pays for workers from other unionized campuses in Canada to travel to an ongoing strike and join the picket lines. While faculty marched with their colleagues from across the country, they shared stories about past strikes and old contract negotiations. And, of course, they discussed their research. Students participated in the newfound collegiality as well. The University of Manitoba Student Action Network organized teach-ins on the lines, so picketers could listen to lectures about the corporatization of the university or about how feminism relates to industrial actions. When students marched with their faculty, they engaged in precisely the kind of one-on-one conversations that the profit model of higher education does not value. Olsen’s student group, the University of Manitoba Student Action Network, immediately joined the fight. They created a pamphlet to hand out to students with questions about how the strike would affect their education and signed people up to march with faculty. Olsen told me that much of his work before the strike started was simply talking to classmates. Students expressed concerns that the strike would delay their graduation and, in the case of international students, that a lost or extended semester would threaten their visas. These one-on-one conversations worked: From the first hour of picketing, students joined faculty on the lines. Over the course of strike, student support grew. UMSU, the officially recognized undergraduate union, endorsed the strike in its second week. The graduate student organization followed suit a few days later. The support also took material forms. Students delivered coffee, chili, and even homemade pickles — with cheeky signs reading “The strike is a big dill” and “Gherkins of the world unite” — to picketing workers. They also planned a massive solidarity rally, which culminated in the occupation of the campus administration building. After twenty-one days, faculty signed a one-year contract that enshrined many of their rights to self-governance. Now, if deans want to increase workload, faculty must ratify the new plan. If the faculty says no, the dean has to come up with something different. The university and union will also assemble a committee made up of three faculty members and three administrators to study the issue of bibliometrics. If four out of the six committee members agree that using bibliometrics is damaging for scholarship and education, the language the union proposed around assessment will automatically enter the contract. They were also able to secure a guarantee from the administration that no faculty or librarians would be fired before January 1, 2019. While the provision doesn’t have the strength faculty hoped for, they will return to table this spring to try again. The strike at University of Manitoba demonstrates that the values of higher education and union organization fit together, suggesting the possibility that some of the principles of colleges and universities — self-governance, horizontal power-sharing, and collegiality — can be taken up by the labor movement outside the ivory tower.LAKE FOREST A youth mentor at Saddleback Church was arrested Thursday by Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators on suspicion of having an inappropriate relationship with two 14-year-old boys, authorities said.
Ruven Meulenberg, 32, of Lake Forest was booked into the Orange County Jail on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child, Sheriff’s Department Lt. Lane Lagaret said in a statement. Meulenberg was being held Friday on $100,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court.
Sheriff’s Department investigators were contacted Wednesday after deputies took a report that a man working as a junior high ministry mentor at Saddleback Church had an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old boy, Lagaret said. An investigation identified a second victim who is also 14, he added.
“Both victims indicated they had engaged in inappropriate conduct with the suspect for the past year while he volunteered at the church,” Lagaret said. “There have been several alleged incidents of lewd and inappropriate conduct, several of which have occurred on the church property.”
One of the victims attended Saddleback Church and was part of the junior high ministry program when the suspected lewd acts occurred.
Meulenberg volunteered at the church for about six years and investigators believe there may be additional victims, Lagaret said.
Anyone with information regarding additional victims is asked to call the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Special
Victim’s Detail at 714-647-7418 or 714-647-7000. Anonymous tips may also be submitted |
This is a Clockwork flashable zip only. It WILL erase your internal memory. Please make the necessary backups.
Features
Includes latest force status bar hack for Honeycomb like experience!!! (Force with Status Bar Toggle) (Thanks brianf21!!)
(Thanks brianf21!!) Choose between OC kernel or stock
Based on Nookie Froyo 0.6.8
Implements brianf21 and samuelhalff's bottom status bar implementation.
Altered the status bar and notification items to Honeycomb style positions
Customized LauncherPro v0.8.3 (based on s23's original version here)
Honeycomb Lockscreen Clock Font
Accurate Honeycomb Battery mod
Theming based on wretchedlocket and valle mod's themes
Honeybee boot animation
Apps
Gapps included
Notion Ink Keyboard (AWESOME!)
Honeycomb Clock Free
Honeycomb Music 3.0 apk
Notion Ink Canvas, E-mail, and Quickoffice included from here
NookColor UMS
Nookie-Froyo Utils to force/unforce statusbar at boot
Status Bar Toggle to force/unforce on the fly
QuickDesk Application to adjust the statusbar while within any application
Installation
Copy "NookieCombvXXX.zip" to the root of your SD
Place SD in nook and power on
Format SYSTEM, DATA and CACHE (You do not need to wipe if coming from a previous version!)
Flash Nookie Comb
Once finished flashing, unmount your sdcard, remove from the slot and reboot.
Give your nook a few minutes to stabilize on first boot. Choose LauncherPro initially as your first action. You will have to adjust your softkeys settings to remove the little floating guy in the case you launch Softkeys, as well as want to set up how your button activate each launcher.
Once stable, I recommend a reboot. Helps prevent any issues.
You should be able to sign in to market right off the bat.
I highly recommend using my launcherpro_backup setting in the link below. This hides a few unusable apps, as well as sets up your home screen rows/columns and colors. To install, just unzip the launchepro_backup.zip to the root of your sdcard. Hit the menu button, select "Preferences" in LauncherPro, then "Restore Backup"
That's it!
Troubleshooting and Notes [Updated 4/13/11]
Flash: Most likely you installed over a previous Nookie Froyo or other ROM and decided not to do a full wipe, which is ok, except that your flash data and dalvik-cache exist from your old Flash install. Just uninstall flash, and reinstall from market
SD Card and Gallery: If you're having these issues,just visit settings, unmount SD, and mount again. Don't assume you can simply unplug and plug it back in. Even though it may look already mounted, doing it this way should fix those issues
Won't wake from sleep: This seems to have been associated with hot plugging the SD card before putting the Nook to sleep. Might only be associated with the OC kernel (thanks to arrjaytea)
You can optionally force your statusbar to be always on using Status Bar Toggle. This app is brought to you by brianf21!
It's recommended to set QuickDesk as your Launcher, then select LauncherPro within it. This way, double-tapping the hard home key will bring up the quick desk application while in any other application. You can put the Status Bar Toggle app here to toggle at any time
You can select the NI keyboard by holding your finger over a text box, selecting Input Method -> NI Keyboard
You can switch the symbols and caps by just double tapping the shift or fn keys. Symbol key is better than fn
Normal Android keyboard is still included in case you don't want the NI keyboard.
Additional
Still in works
Downloads
Changelog
Added and modified brianf21's Status bar toggle application with new icons
Added QuickDesk Launcher application (set this guy as default). This will allow you to toggle the status bar within any other application by double tapping the hard home button. You can set LauncherPro from within QuickDesk
Replaced NookColorUtils with Nookie-Froyo Utils
Adjusted a few font colors for readability. Less black on black
Removed MIUI Music.apk
Added new Honeycomb/Gingerbread Music.apk. (Hide Jumper test using my new launcherpro_backup.zip)
Removed my April Fool's day joke
Updated init.rc in uRamdisk to mount the internal 5.0GB storage to /media. You can access this using a file manager
Moved the notification icons and notification toggle button to the right.
Changed the notification toggle button to a big freakin' "i" inside a circle. Looks secksy.
Adjusted a few more font colors for better readability in some situations
Changed OC version to the version recommended above. This is not dalgrin's latest, but fixes all those wifi and related issues using his newer kernel
Added back stock Email application
Added a little something extra...
Included Overclocked version with dalingrin's OC kernel and in addition non-overclocked version
Updated Fonts colors!
Includes 3/31 Statusbar hack from brianf21. You can now force statusbar people!
Made the statusbar a little smaller (36dip)
Reduced size of progress and seekbars. They should look a little more sexy now...
Added NookColorUtils to allow users the ability to enable/disable statusbar always on
All I can think of now
If you like my work, you can buy me a drink!
Hey everyone,I'm still relatively new to developing, and this is just my first start getting my feet wet (My very first ROM). Anyway... here it is:This ROM is based off of Nookie Froyo 0.6.8, thanks to Cicada and the Nook devs for all of their awesome work.To be clear, I may or may not be entirely speedy on updates, but I will do as I can as time goes on.I highly recommend using a Clockworkmod 3.0.1.0 SD card to flash this zip, as that's what I've been using and haven't tested any others.As for the ROM, I think phiredrop says it best:Probably more stuff but that's all I recallNOTE: Flash with the latest ClockworkMod Recovery/via ClockworkMod Recovery SD or standard Clockwork Recovery 3.0.1.0. This version is fully compatible with any Clockwork used for Nookie Froyo 0.6.8 (see the Nookie Froyo page here -Compatible with Froyo based kernels.-Highly recommend downloading Desktop Visualizer from the market and using the HoneyComb Icons pack below to create Honeycomb-like widgets!!Got everything mostly fixed... hmmmm...Older versions(Makes the homescreens PRETTY, more rows columns, removes launcherpro default look, hides unusable apps,Highly recommended, unzip folder to root of sd, then go into LauncherPro Preferences, Restore Backup)Other optional stuffCicadawretchedlocket (huge thanks!)brianf21 (huge thanks!)samuelhalffobsessionXYZgojimiAn 82-year-old Edmonds woman gets a notice of delinquency, though she’s not past due on any of her bills. Who could have sent it?
At 82, Janet Reiman is of the generation where you not only balance your own checkbook, but it’s a point of pride to have no debts and pay all your bills on time.
“I keep careful track of all my accounts,” Reiman, of Edmonds, says. “That’s what made this embarrassing.”
This past week, when the mail carrier came to Reiman’s Edmonds home, he was toting a letter block-stamped in huge red type: “NOTICE OF DELINQUENCY.” The return window said “Office of Records, Washington Area Assessment — ***Immediate Response Requested***.”
“My heart skipped a few beats,” Reiman says. “Did I forget to pay my property taxes? Then I thought: My mailman probably thinks I’m a deadbeat.”
Like I said, she’s got high standards. Much higher than the charlatans who sent this letter.
Reiman was concerned, and when she opened the envelope found an invoice marked “PAST DUE.” The invoice asked Reiman for anywhere from $25 to $500 to make up for her past-due balance. But the attached letter began like this:
“This NOTICE OF DELINQUENCY has been sent to you because the Republican Party has contacted you multiple times to ask for your support of our 2016 campaign … But we have not heard back from you and time is running out.”
Ha ha, false alarm. It’s just your Grand Old Party, trolling for money.
Reiman says nothing in the letter is true — the party didn’t contact her at all, and she wasn’t ever a donating member. Ironically, she has sided with Republicans at times, voting twice for George W. Bush, for example.
Political fundraising mail is habitually filled with hype and fear. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mailing that so actively tries to con, or at least confuse, potential backers. Including by fabricating an institution in the envelope return window.
With Reiman’s permission I forwarded the mailing to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the post office’s law-enforcement arm. A spokesman said they had reports of the same mailing from other parts of the country.
The inspection service said by email Friday that it is “currently reviewing the complaint, but no determinations have been made.”
The agency’s website says sending a fundraising appeal disguised as an invoice is illegal.
“Title 39, United States Code, Section 3001, makes it illegal to mail a solicitation in the form of an invoice, bill, or statement of account due unless it conspicuously bears a notice on its face that it is, in fact, merely a solicitation,” the agency’s website says. “This disclaimer must be in very large (at least 30-point) type and must be in boldface capital letters in a color that contrasts prominently with the background against which it appears.”
None of these disclaimers is in the Republican National Committee’s pretend delinquency notice. The heading of the letter and the rest of the content does read like a pretty typical fundraising appeal, though.
Calls and emails to the RNC got no response.
Who knows, maybe the whole thing was an attempt at a joke? You’re delinquent, Americans, unless you’re invested in the Republican Party. Get it?
But Reiman said because there’s no clear explanation that the notice is fake, some people who don’t read it closely or don’t have all their faculties may get bilked.
You’d think with Citizens United unleashing unlimited money, they wouldn’t need to dupe “little old ladies” for cash, she said.
But actually the political money race is becoming more rife with cons and scams than ever. Last year Politico’s Kenneth Vogel (formerly of our own News Tribune in Tacoma), documented the rise of right-wing “scam PACs,” which solicit donations from mom-and-pop conservatives but then “mostly pad the pockets of the consultants who run them.” The Ben Carson campaign for president was revealed to have poured almost all its small-dollar contributions into a handful of direct-mail fundraising and telemarketing firms, rather than actual campaigning.
Now the committee central to national Republican leadership is trying to flimflam its own supporters into thinking they owe the group money.
“What I don’t understand is, are they really this desperate?” Reiman wondered.
Desperate, no. Greed is the condition at work here.SO I HAVE read all of the Brocade series somehow i skipped this book so i read it and boy i love highlanders and strong women who can fight for what is right.
but what happens when a lad comes across a man who takes him as his squire. but what if the lad is na a lad but a lass. and what happens when the truth is revealed and the man who took her as a lad fell in love with her. and wants to avenge her family her Sette. and to take her name as his as well as she takes his name can this happen can she be happy and can she let her promise for revenge for her family go unpunished. find out by reading the brocade series not just this book but all books in the series which can each be read out of order or in order they are each a stand alone book.THE FACTS. PERIOD.
UNITED STATES:
While you can buy, using SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, food items including bread, fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, and dairy products… you can not buy toilet paper, diapers, tooth paste, shampoo, deodorant or feminine hygiene products.
Approximately 70% of women of menstruating age in the United States use tampons. A woman may use more than 16,000 tampons in her life.
Most states carry a sales tax on feminine hygiene products. (37 as of 10/17)
Some women have reported giving up their food stamps for money to buy tampons.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sued a county on behalf of female jail inmates who say they were subject to "inhumane" treatment, including a lack of feminine hygiene products.
WORLDWIDE:
Supporters in Britain and many other countries have been lobbying for an end to the "luxury" tax on feminine hygiene products. (Yes, it's considered a non-essential, luxury item! Oh, men's razors are not taxed. Go figure!)
As of July 1, 2015, feminine hygiene products, including tampons, pads, and menstrual cups, are no longer subject to Canada’s five percent “Goods and Services” tax.
Findings from a report highlighting Bangladesh, where 80% of factory workers are women, show that 60% of them were using rags from the factory floor for menstrual cloths.
Girls in rural Uganda miss up to eight days of study each school term because they have their periods.
Approximately one in four people on earth is a woman of childbearing age. (2002)
STILL INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE? HERE ARE SOME COOL PLACES TO START:
Cosmopolitan, How These 3 Women Are Working to Make "Menstrual Equity" a Reality
The Guardian, We Need to Talk About Periods: Why is Menstruation Still Holding Girls Back?
New York Magazine, Menstruation Can Become Humiliation in Prisons
New York Times, Helping Women and Girls. Period.
Huffington Post, 'Flo' Is New Period Solution For Girls Who Can't Afford Pads, Face Stigma
Change.org Writer and advocate Jennifer Weiss-Wolf has joined forces with Cosmopolitan to spread awareness and acceptance of women’s periods and galvanize a No Tax On Tampons campaign in the U.S. Go to the web site below to learn all about #TamponsForAll, and how you can get involved.Results from one quarter do not settle the stimulus/austerity debate. Many other factors are in play. For example, Germany is surging, in part, because America is borrowing. Essentially, we Americans borrowed from our kids, spent some of that money on German machinery, and ended up employing German workers.
But the results do underline one essential truth: Stimulus size is not the key factor in determining how quickly a country emerges from recession. The U.S. tried big, but is emerging slowly. The Germans tried small, and are recovering nicely.
The economy can’t be played like a piano — press a fiscal key here and the right job creation notes come out over there. Instead, economic management is more like parenting. If you instill good values and create a secure climate then, through some mysterious process you will never understand, things will probably end well.
Photo
The crucial issue is getting the fundamentals right. The Germans are doing better because during the past decade, they took care of their fundamentals and the Americans didn’t.
The situation can be expressed this way: German policy makers inherited a certain consensus-based economic model. That model has advantages. It fosters gradual innovation (of the sort useful in metallurgy). It also has disadvantages. It sometimes leads to rigidity and high unemployment.
Over the past few years, the Germans have built on their advantages. They effectively support basic research and worker training. They have also taken brave measures to minimize their disadvantages. As an editorial from the superb online think tank e21 reminds us, the Germans have recently reduced labor market regulation, increased wage flexibility and taken strong measures to balance budgets.
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In the U.S., policy makers inherited a different economic model, one that also has certain advantages. It fosters disruptive innovation (of the sort useful in Silicon Valley). It also has certain disadvantages — a penchant for over-consumption and short term thinking.
In the past decade, American policy makers have done little to maximize their model’s natural advantages or address its problems. Indeed, they’ve only made the short-term thinking problem worse, with monetary, fiscal and home-ownership policies encouraging even more borrowing and consumption.
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Nations rise and fall on the intertwined strength of their cultures and governing institutions. Despite all the normal shortcomings, German governing institutions have functioned reasonably well, ushering in painful but necessary reforms. The U.S. has a phenomenally creative culture, but right now it’s an institutional weakling.
If you look around the world today, you see that a two-class system is coming into being. Some countries are undertaking fundamental reforms. In those places, weaknesses have been exposed. Orthodoxies have been shattered. New coalitions have formed.
This is happening in Britain, where a center-right government is reining in a government that had spun out of control. It’s also true in Sweden and other consensus-based countries, where there is so much emphasis on consistent, long-range thinking.
In other countries, political division frustrates long-range thinking. The emphasis is on fixing things for next month or next quarter. The U.S., unfortunately, is struggling to get out of Group 2.Japan may be “in the American Embrace,” as Gavan McCormack’s Client State cogently argues, but in whose embrace is America?
In Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, Gavan McCormack demonstrates how Japan’s apparent nationalist turn owes much to the need to conceal the country’s increasing subordination to American imperial designs. However, a closer examination of the driving forces behind the US Empire in the 21st century suggests that both countries may be serving a quite different agenda.
Rightly described as a “masterful” analysis by fellow Japan expert Chalmers Johnson, McCormack’s 2007 book expertly documents how Japan’s postwar “peace constitution” has been steadily attenuated to the point of meaninglessness, as Tokyo has consistently bowed to pressure from Washington to become more active in its support of US hegemony, culminating in a “merger” of their military forces in the wake of 9/11.
McCormack claims that this is “an agenda heavily in the American, rather than the Japanese national interest.” But in what sense could the extremely costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now being expanded into Pakistan under the “antiwar” commander-in-chief Obama, be said to be in “the American interest”?
These illegal wars of aggression have been costly to America not only in terms of the trillions of dollars added to its ballooning national debt, but also in terms of the incalculable loss of credibility that it has suffered in the eyes of world opinion, appalled by the shameless lies about WMDs, the lurid scenes of torture in Abu Ghraib, and the massive casualties inflicted by high-tech weaponry on innocent civilians, whose lives are casually dismissed as “collateral damage” in the never-ending pursuit of the elusive Bin Laden.
The so-called War on Terror may be extremely profitable for weapons manufacturers, private military corporations, and the venal pro-war pundits they fund, but who else does it benefit?
Big Oil, says the antiwar left. But the “no blood for oil” adherents too may be misinformed, according to one leading analyst of the Iraq war. “Contrary to the view of most American progressives that oil, and specifically the interests of Big Oil, is the primary mover, there is no evidence that the major US oil corporations pressured Congress or promoted the war in Iraq or the current confrontation with Iran,” James Petras argues in The Power of Israel in the United States. “To the contrary: there is plenty of evidence that they are very uneasy about the losses that may result from an Israeli attack on Iran.”
And as for the American people, or at least those lucky enough to hold their jobs in the coming Wall Street-induced depression, they will be paying dearly in greatly increased taxes for their government’s folly for the foreseeable future.
Considering all this, it is difficult not to concur with the conclusion of a policy paper published by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) that the War on Terror has been “for the most part, extremely damaging to US interests.”
The 2003 paper, “Clean Break or Dirty War?” by Irmep, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that studies US-Middle East policy formulation, shows how policies originally prepared for Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996 by a study group which included the likes of Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser under the title “A Clean Break: A Strategy for Securing the Realm” came to shape US foreign policy under the Bush administration.
“A Clean Break” (ACB) advocated getting rid of Saddam Hussein, and the destabilisation or overthrow of the governments of Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia for Israel to be truly safe. Many of the same themes were repeated in the Project for the New American Century’s 2000 document “Rebuilding America’s Defences,” which, after the “catastrophic and catalysing event” of 9/11, became the official US policy of “preemptive war” in the US National Security Strategy of 2002, authored by PNAC signatory Paul Wolfowitz.
As the IRmep paper explains, “…no set of policies ever come to fruition without an active and vocal distribution and implementation network.” This small but influential neocon network,” it is argued, “have achieved amazing success at seasoning and baking ACB policy agenda items into a tenuous mold as ‘vital interests’ of the United States itself.”
The IRmep paper damningly concludes: “Many US actions are simply so inexplicable that consideration of their chief benefactor, Israel, is the only reasonable explanation. And as Americans dismiss Arab government charges that Israel is attacking them by proxy across the region, the evidence shows that the Arabs are correct. ‘A Clean Break’ is, at heart, an Israeli proclamation of ‘Dirty War.’”
The spies who love US
Indeed, Americans recently got an inkling of just how corrupted their political system has been by Israeli interests, or at least they would have if the mainstream media had given the latest twist in the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) spy scandal the serious attention it deserved. For those who haven’t been following the story on Antiwar.com, where Justin Raimondo, Grant F. Smith, Philip Giraldi and others have written extensively about it, here’s what happened.
Jeff Stein, who writes for Congressional Quarterly, reported in April that two former national security officials had read transcripts of National Security Agency wiretaps in which Democrat Congresswoman Jane Harman was overheard talking to a “suspected Israeli agent” who wanted her to lobby the Justice Department on behalf of two former AIPAC officials under indictment for violating the 1917 Espionage Act. The two lobbyists, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, were charged with passing on classified information about Iran to the press and the Israeli embassy, which they had received from Colonel Lawrence Franklin, who had been a top Iran analyst in Douglas Feith’s office at the Pentagon before Franklin pled guilty to espionage in 2005. In return for Harman’s assistance, the Israeli operative promised to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give Harman the chair of the House Intelligence Committee by threatening to withhold the political contributions of Haim Saban if she didn’t.
It was not a threat to be taken lightly, as Saban, the billionaire Israeli-American media mogul, had been the largest overall contributor to the Democratic National Committee during the 2001-2002 cycle, when, according to Matthew Yglesias, “the party leadership was backing the Iraq War.”
In case there are some outraged Democrats who might protest that Saban’s support for the party was probably not just about Iraq, that he more than likely also approved of the Democrats’ liberal domestic policies, Saban’s own words should disabuse them of that notion. On September 5, 2004 he told the New York Times, “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.”
Considering that this self-confessed monomaniac used to spend hours on the phone with Ariel Sharon, the so-called “man of peace” who in a saner world would have been hauled to the Hague for war crimes, Saban’s influence over the Democrats should be cause for concern, to say the least.
Now that the Iraqi “threat” to Israel has been effectively neutralized by the American invasion and seemingly endless occupation (America’s West Bank?), Saban’s current paramount concern appears to be the “existential danger” that Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons now pose to Israel, a state which already has hundreds of nuclear weapons — the only one in the Middle East which does. Yet Israel is also the only one which is not under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the only one which has not acceded to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Despite these facts, Saban’s recent acquisition of Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the US, as part of a wider AIPAC outreach strategy to the growing Hispanic community, is probably intended to convince its 3.7 million viewers of the urgent need to spill more American blood, much of it Hispanic, in curbing the Iranian “threat.”
Lest anyone dismiss Haim Saban as an isolated ideologue attempting to use his wealth — he’s the 102nd richest person in America — to remake US foreign policy in the image of the Likud party, consider that close to 60 percent of Democratic Party funding (compared to 35 percent for the Republican Party) comes from mainly hardline pro-Israeli Jews, unrepresentative of American Jews in general, who tend to be antiwar unless Israel is directly involved.
Rosen, another PNAC signatory, even had the chutzpah to lead the witch-hunt that prevented Charles Freeman from becoming chairman of the National Intelligence Council, practically smearing the respected diplomat as an “anti-Semite” for his failure to confuse American interests with Israel’s. In that key position, Freeman would have been responsible for supplying the President with sound intelligence about genuine threats facing America, as opposed to the fake intelligence that led to the Iraq war, some of which made its way to the White House from Ariel Sharon’s office via Douglas Feith’s Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon, as recounted in Julian Borger’s 2003 Guardian article, “The Spies Who Pushed For War.”
You’d think Rosen would have kept a lower profile at least until his own trial was over, which was ultimately quashed in early May, apparently due to White House pressure. But perhaps he was confident in the knowledge that in Washington Israel’s security is “sacrosanct,” as Obama assured his AIPAC sponsors, whereas America’s security seems to be for sale to the highest bidder, at least as long as most Americans are kept in the dark about the costs of their “special relationship” with Israel.
Dying for a lie
While US taxpayers had subsidised Israel to the tune of at least $108 billion up to 2006 (currently $3 billion a year) the Japanese too have paid dearly for their subordination to a US Empire prone to fight Israel’s wars.
“The seriously ill Japanese economy takes every possible step to prop up the equally ailing US economy, pouring Japanese savings into the black hole of American illiquidity in order to subsidize the US global empire, fund its debt, and finance its over-consumption,” writes McCormack. “Japan has become the sine qua non of Washington’s global, superpower strategy and status.”
Japan’s commitment to the War on Terror has brought added costs. One estimate puts the cost of Japan’s post-9/11 “rear support” at $90 billion. Tokyo promised another $5 billion for rebuilding an Iraq that had been destroyed by lies.
But Japan’s treasure is no longer sufficient to satisfy Washington’s demands of its “client state.”
Richard Armitage, yet another PNAC signatory, once told an Australian audience that an “alliance” meant that “Australian sons and daughters…would be willing to die to help defend the United States. That’s what an alliance means.” As long as the Israel lobby maintains its stranglehold over US foreign policy, that also means being willing to die to defend Israel against its neighbours, who increasingly see its drive for regional hegemony as a real threat to their existence. And as long as Japan remains in the American embrace, it won’t be long before Japanese parents will be expected to make a similar sacrifice.
Now if only there were a powerful Japan lobby in Washington — let’s call it AJPAC — things might be a lot different.In what area of scholarship are repeated replications of always the same experiment every time published and then received with surprise, only to immediately be completely ignored until the next study? Point in case from an area that ought to be relevant to almost every single scientist on the planet: research evaluation. The first graph I know to show the left-skewed distribution of citation data is from 1997:
PO Seglen, the author of above paper, concludes his analysis with the insight “the journal cannot in any way be taken as representative of the article”.
In our paper reviewing the evidence on journal rank, we count a total of six subsequent (and one prior, in 1992) publications that present the left-skewed nature of citation data in one way or another. In other words, this is an established and often-reproduced fact that citation data are left-skewed. This distribution of course entails that representing it by the arithmetic mean is a mistake that would make an undergraduate student fail their course. Adding to the already long list of replications is Nature Neuroscience, home of the most novel and surprising neuroscience with this ‘unexpected’ graph:
Only this time, the authors are not surprised, appropriately cite PO Seglen’s 1997 paper and acknowledge that of course this finding is nothing new: “reinforcing the point that a journal’s IF (an arithmetic mean) is almost useless as a predictor of the likely citations to any particular paper in that journal”. Kudos, Nature Neuroscience editors!
What puzzles me just as much as the authors and what prompted me to write this post is their last sentence:
Journal impact factors cannot be used to quantify the importance of individual papers or the credit due to their authors, and one of the minor mysteries of our time is why so many scientifically sophisticated people give so much credence to a procedure that is so obviously flawed.
In which other area of study does it take decades and countless replications before a basic fact is generally accepted? Could it be that we scientists, perhaps, are not as scientifically sophisticated as we’d like to see ourselves? Aren’t we, perhaps, equally dogmatic, lazy, stubborn and willfully ignorant as any other random person from the street? What does this persistent resistance to education say about the scientific community at large? Is this not an indictment of the gravest sort as to how the scientific community governs itself?
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RelatedSo the Nationals are giving away a Bryce Harper bobblehead on June 30 ; there he is above. Appropriately, this Harper bobblehead is posed in a running position, and his helmet has come flying off, and has an authentic Harper haircut.
Meanwhile, before Wednesday night's game, Matt Williams said the Nats are hoping Harper will return by July 1.
"We don’t know yet, but I’d like to see him back by the 1st of July. I think that would be a good target, but we just don’t know. It depends on how everything else goes." (Matt Williams, via Nats Insider, 6/4/2014)
How about a June 30 return? Wonder if it'll be the same scene as the last Harper Bobblehead Day last June?
(H/T @dcuniverse. DC Sports Bog posted a better image of the bobblehead, which we lovingly borrowed.)FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - Police are on full alert and investigators are working overtime Wednesday morning after the fourth shooting in two days left another victim dead - the third person to be killed by gunfire in Federal Way since Monday.
The latest victim was out for a run with his dog when he was shot, said Federal Way Police Chief Andy J. Hwang.
An emergency meeting of the Federal Way City Council was called after several council members - including Susan Honda, Kelly Maloney, Mark Koppang and Martin A. Moore - called for a public forum to address the alarming spike in gun violence.
"There's actually a crime wave going through Federal Way, and we need to get a handle on it," Maloney said. "I don't know if any of this is interrelated, but we need to find out and we need to put a stop to it."
The emergency public meeting is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Federal Way City Council chambers.
The most recent shooting Tuesday night took the life of a 30-year-old man who was out jogging with his dog, police said. As in the previous shootings, no suspects have been identified or arrested. No suspect descriptions are available in any of the shootings.
Police responded to the latest shooting, in the 1800 block of SW 356th Street, just after 11 p.m. Tuesday after receiving at least one 911 call reporting shots fired.
When they arrived there, they found the victim with multiple gunshot wounds. Medics attempted CPR, but the man could not be revived and died at the scene. No suspects were identified, and there was no obvious motive for the crime.
Police collected evidence at the scene, but they don't have a lot to go on as they try to solve this latest cold-blooded killing.
Hwang said one of the three recent deadly shootings appeared to be drug-related, but the other two did not appear to be linked to drugs.
He urged Federal Way residents to be extremely vigilant at all times - especially late at night or in the early morning. He said no one should go out walking alone until the shooter or shooters are caught.
"This is alarming to the police department, it's alarming to the community," he said.
The chief also urged anyone with information to come forward before any other innocent victims are hurt.
"Somebody knows who these individuals are," he said. "We're asking them to come forward and bring a resolution to these violent crimes."
Residents in the Federal Way area were unnerved even before the latest shooting
"It's scary to know this is going on in the community," said Sandra Rodarte, who lives just down the street from the second fatal shooting.
In the first shooting, a 26-year-old Seattle man was shot dead at about 1 a.m. Monday at an apartment unit in the 1300 block of SW Campus Drive. There appeared to be no link to drugs.
In the second shooting, at about 9 a.m. Monday, a 21-year-old Federal Way man was shot by a companion as they sat in a car together in the 3000 block of South 266th Street. That shooting was found to be accidental.
The third victim was found dead at about 11:40 p.m. Monday after officers responded to a 911 call about a person slumped over in a vehicle in the 2200 block of South 333rd Street. That shooting may have been drug-related, Hwang said.
In addition, Federal Way police say a 24-year-old man was shot in the leg at about 1:15 a.m. Friday after being confronted by two strangers in the 28300 block of Pacific Highway.
The three fatal shootings this week bring the total number of homicides in Federal Way this year to five. Normally there are an average of three to four homicides each year, Hwang said.This Is The One Relationship Habit That Could Be Physically Breaking Your Heart
Forget the sneaky after work drinks, late night Netflix binges, or lengthy dinner dates. When it comes down to keeping your heart healthy, it all boils down to lip service.
A new study published in the journal Psychological Science found that people who feel less supported by their spouse had higher levels of hardened arteries.
Examining the hearts and relationship satisfaction of 136 married couples, each person was asked to fill out a survey ranking their partner’s support and care in times of need and upset.
When the researchers looked back over the survey, and examined the heart health of respondents, there was a clear link between those who felt less supported and higher levels of hardened arteries.
The most at risk group were those who classed their other half as ‘ambivalent’ – saying that although they were supportive sometimes, there were other times where they felt like they had been let down.
So how is being less supportive affecting your heart health?
The researchers have attributed a lack of support as putting increased pressure or stress on someone, which can influence your risk of cardiovascular disease.
So whether it’s popping on the kettle for a quick chat, or checking in after a busy day of work, you could be benefiting your relationship in more ways than one.In preparation for its pending buyout of Time Warner Cable, Comcast has agreed to transfer a portion of its post-merger subscribers to Charter Communications. The deal, which was rumored last week and confirmed this morning, will see roughly 1.4 million Time Warner Cable subscribers sold to Charter, expanding its 4.4 million video customer base to around 5.7 million, according to a statement. This addition would make Charter the second-largest cable operator in the US, though the new Comcast's 30 million video subscribers would still put its numbers to shame. In addition to this straightforward sale, the companies will also be swapping and spinning off several million more customers. Comcast and Charter will trade 1.6 million subscribers in different markets, a decision that they say will let them operate more efficiently.
In a more complicated move, the two companies will create a third entity to handle about 2 |
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Did you enjoy the FSBC Aura Blast Cup? Are you looking forward to the FSBC Shining Feather Cup? Let us know in the comments below!Untitled a guest Apr 11th, 2016 7,232 Never a guest7,232Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 21.95 KB 11:39:17 AM) gavin_tremlor: (1:13:38 AM) the_mittani: that's why i took tib aside and told him about the megaalliance strategy on mumble earlier (1:13:54 AM) the_mittani: because it's true none of our shit makes sense unless you realize we literally dgaf about fcon (11:39:32 AM) Alavaria:? (11:39:41 AM) hvac: xander doesnt really record anymore and taka and i didnt want to continue the american cz one (11:39:54 AM) angry_mustache: Alavaria: latest lemba leak (11:39:58 AM) baculus_orden: is CZ english? (11:40:05 AM) angry_mustache: hvac: hence why Jeffraider runs the podcast now? (11:40:06 AM) baculus_orden: british* (11:40:10 AM) hvac: xander and jeg are both scottish (11:40:11 AM) brutus_septimius: crossing zebras (11:40:12 AM) angry_mustache: scottish (11:40:45 AM) hvac: xander spends half his time offshore and cant do records so for a while taka and i would do shows while he was offshore (11:41:17 AM) the_mittani: yeah they snipped off the context of that gavin_tremlor, that was in response to fcs raging about the 10-carrier group loss in north dek (11:41:46 AM) the_mittani: ps morning all we got pastebin drama to go over because discussing megaalliances is apparently a shadowy conspiracy (11:41:50 AM) koahi: morning mittens morning hvac (11:41:51 AM) rc: http://41.media.tumblr.com/e869d7285c389eb7023073e4c4e08380/tumblr_nah80lomec1s3vpl9o1_1280.jpg (11:41:54 AM) baculus_orden: wait - these logs are editted!? (11:41:58 AM) harataka: GASP (11:42:04 AM) kismeteer: why would anyone care about fcon losing 10 carriers? (11:42:05 AM) Alavaria: eh, oh you were discussing megaalliances well before, of course (11:42:11 AM) gavin_tremlor: right, which happened as I understand itbecuase we were ordered to defend UQ9 instead of withdrawing to Sarenan three weeeks as xPred requested. (11:42:12 AM) gumbo_innit: the_mittani: I want to be the butt of this new mega alliance pls (11:42:14 AM) gumbo_innit: where do I signup (11:42:15 AM) hvac: angry_mustache: jeffraider started his own podcast and worked out a deal with cz to host it (11:42:17 AM) Alavaria: I was wondering if he somehow was leaking after bgetting purged (11:42:21 AM) gavin_tremlor: three week ago* (11:42:36 AM) the_mittani: yeah the megaalliance shit is such a big scandal we've had multiple people posting about it, including our allies, and talking about it on fireside chats (11:42:40 AM) brutus_septimius: it was all discussed and agreed upon at the 2006 yacht bbq, rite? (11:43:05 AM) Alavaria: take more pictures (11:43:06 AM) Alavaria:!yacht (11:43:24 AM) imperium_romanus: i did yacht see that coming :p (11:43:28 AM) kismeteer: the absorbtion of wildly inappropriate has shown that mega alliances don't work. oh wait, they're awesome now and there is like 1/10th the drama (11:43:29 AM) Alavaria: so we can set up rc to... actually wait, it would be troublesome to be spammed if we were discussing yachtfleet (11:43:46 AM) gavin_tremlor: I feel completely unclear about where FCON stands in the imperium. We controlled and maintained (ADM's) an entire region on behalf of the imperium for a long time, and seem to have been left to die on the vine in response (11:43:47 AM) laba_hanaya: The north dek carrier loss happened because someone decided - against all advice and common sense - take a camped gate instead of spending extra 45min suffering from fatigue. (11:44:07 AM) the_mittani: sunlight is the best disinfectant so let me c&p what i said to the autocrats about this in our little slak (11:44:35 AM) isphirel: when will i be able to submit FOIA requests to the direktorate (11:44:37 AM) the_mittani: ll that shit is real with context snipped off, yep, including me saying 'dgaf about fcon' [11:17] that was the day the tiberizzle rage out happened, and he was yowling about the carrier losses from fcon moving 10 caps through north dek mittens [11:18 AM] there's pretty much every opportunity in illum to see me say that i don't give a shit about any given 'crisis' every day [11:19] example: in uq9 fcon lost some canes to bombs and my fcs were flipping the fuck out in illum because one fc had yelled at another fc over global to not use canes [11:19] probably there'll be a leak with me saying it doesn't matter, who cares mittens [11:21 AM] here's some more from that day [11:22] this is just after the 'dgaf' remark, you can see the 'lol carrier loss' bullshit in illum i'd been deflecting them from (11:44:37 AM) rc: http://41.media.tumblr.com/1da28d20649fab97a2bb9b745bedba2b/tumblr_o51cofo1kn1s3vpl9o1_1280.jpg (11:44:38 AM) kismeteer: I wish we could solve these problems through what we're best at: posting. (11:45:01 AM) the_mittani: mittens [11:23 AM] so yes, we don't give a fuck about fcon losing a carrier group in north dek because it doesn't matter at all given the restaging in saranen and adapting to the mechanics of the sov system [11:24] there's some stuff also leaked about me being worried about fcon losing uq9 and taking it poorly, that's something you always worry about with the loss of space of anyone anywhere [11:25] so one the one hand you have "mittani doesn't give a shit about allies lol" and in the very same amazingly controversial leak i'm openly fretting about the health of allies enduring loss (11:45:02 AM) rc: http://40.media.tumblr.com/390889385ea5d67bc4969ab2f7039ef4/tumblr_o51cewyLTT1s3vpl9o1_1280.jpg (11:45:12 AM) Alavaria: wow "leaks" straight into illum (11:45:20 AM) querns: the other thing is that illum is, in general, considered to be a "private" space (11:45:24 AM) Alavaria: this must be the war of logs (11:45:29 AM) the_mittani: mittens [11:28 AM] (10:41:15 PM) the_mittani: i think sma and tnt are finally on the verge of widotting (10:41:25 PM) the_mittani: the pressure is working [11:29] correct, the reality of the fozziesov defense shit is something we discussed at great length [11:29] how defending is increasingly impossible when the number of allied hackers turning up for ops keeps going down, and that's to be expected as pressure increases [11:30] we've talked about this for years off and on as you've seen and pure blind is pretty much impossible to defend unless we're under one banner [11:30] the funny thing about leaks is that i'm supposed to be all embarrassed by this instead of openly discussing it in front of all of you, like it's a conspiracy [11:31] our fcs periodically rage about how there aren't enough defensive hackers on ops, and defensive war the first phase is to keep your directors from blaming allies or defusing their nonsense, especially in a place where we ourselves make fuckups [11:32] a lawn guy independently arrived at the same conclusion and i linked his post during the fireside chat, and we went over this in front of an audience of thousands just yesterday (11:45:30 AM) rc: http://36.media.tumblr.com/dd8f6a339132c7584d7ff5bbb8ce6639/tumblr_mgr3ypRsYe1s3vpl9o1_1280.jpg (11:45:31 AM) isphirel: huh, somehow i didnt expect that your nick on your client is ""mittens"" (11:45:31 AM) rc: http://41.media.tumblr.com/cb307782a491caca7ac56062c7696d7f/tumblr_nah7kw6esQ1s3vpl9o1_1280.jpg (11:45:35 AM) querns: one of its roles as a private space is to be the area in which we vent our frustrations about shit (11:45:42 AM) kismeteer: how long has it been since we've had a major illum leak, anyway? (11:45:52 AM) querns: when you deal with Other People, be they internet video game allies, or even a spouse, sometimes you disagree and become frustrated with one another (11:45:55 AM) saya_nakamura: What's up with the SRP page? (11:45:57 AM) kismeteer: since boat was kicked back in 2014? (11:46:02 AM) the_mittani: voila (11:46:04 AM) the_mittani: behold (11:46:18 AM) querns: so we asked our FCs to vent their military frustrations in illum where their freakouts wouldn't do a bunch of unnecessary damage (11:46:21 AM) the_mittani: in the same leaks gsf hates our allies yet at the same time is fretting about their health and welfare (11:46:24 AM) Alavaria: querns: i take the the badguy comms being leaked are different? (11:46:28 AM) the_mittani: how can this beeeeeee (11:46:35 AM) XiTal: lol get owned d-name threadposters (11:46:40 AM) breaky: SPIN SPIN SPIN (11:46:41 AM) isphirel: back in the day blawrf said illum is basically just the most chaotic squad in the alliance or something (11:46:43 AM) Alavaria: skype? (11:46:46 AM) tantaria_stavanghar: saya_nakamura: new url https://affordablecare.goonfleet.com/ (11:46:54 AM) saya_nakamura: tantaria_stavanghar: thanks (11:47:06 AM) Alavaria: are they like 1-to-1 skype chatting, or ircing or what exactly are they using? (11:47:08 AM) baculus_orden: I have been loyal for 28 seconds (11:47:15 AM) gavin_tremlor: thanks Mittani, extra info helps, which is why I came in here alartarn Alavaria (11:47:22 AM) querns: they vent in a "private" space, they get feedback from people who know more or know different than they do, the frustration gets resolved, and we move forward (11:47:23 AM) Alavaria: because the formatting on some of those pastebins is pretty annoying (11:47:24 AM) sixx_spades: would it be too much opsec to just post the logs of those conversations in their entirety? (11:47:29 AM) the_mittani: Alavaria: that's slack logs from moments ago, autocrats all have a slack channel (11:47:31 AM) querns: you can't be in a relationship with anyone and not experience friction (11:47:35 AM) harataka: Yes when imperium bosses vent it's OMG LEAKS when MBC bosses vent it's "who cars didn't know that guy anyway" (11:47:43 AM) querns: even one as silly sounding as a video game partnership relationship (11:48:13 AM) the_mittani: pretty much every single day in every directorate someone will see an ally lose a fleet or something and someone will rage out - when gsf fucks up, allied fcs rage and vice versa (we usually fuck up more than they do) (11:48:31 AM) querns: or a GSF FC will lose a fleet :v: (11:48:32 AM) koahi: why not just have fun and be cool )) (11:48:39 AM) laba_hanaya: I choose to trust "I don't like fights, I spent all my days trying to create fights but now I'm a bad dad and it's all sion's fault" Lemba's version, he seems like a level headed guy (11:48:40 AM) querns: doesn't always have to be allies :haw: (11:48:52 AM) the_mittani: i'd say 50% of what autocrats do on any given day is sin-eating, letting directors/fcs vent, telling them why they shouldn't care, and refocusing them on objectives (11:49:02 AM) harataka: emba "Mittani made me be a bad father" (11:49:21 AM) the_mittani: this is particularly the case when you're in defensive war because the first phase of defensive war always involves loss (11:49:25 AM) harataka: also horde staging local is seriously boring (11:49:30 AM) Avatharian: Lemba became a bad father when he chose to play a videogame instead of take care of his family. (11:49:32 AM) querns: | || || |_ (11:49:33 AM) riddy_zanguard: How do I get logs from directorbot on Pidgin? (11:49:41 AM) breaky: querns: hahaha (11:49:49 AM) Alavaria: in any case, if that's illum aren't the fcon directors there as well anyway? (11:49:55 AM) the_mittani: there's a reason we have everyone welcome in elysium, not just goons, and why i'm happy to reply to anyone from fcon or other allies, like gavin_tremlor (11:49:55 AM) querns: no (11:49:58 AM) Alavaria: or did i confuse that with something else (11:49:59 AM) querns: illum is GSF-only (11:50:02 AM) isphirel: illum =/= autocrats (11:50:11 AM) querns: autocrats is where the alliance figureheads hobknob (11:50:19 AM) koahi: can i come? )) (11:50:20 AM) xenuria: lelelel (11:50:24 AM) isphirel: isnt an autocrat the opposite of a figurehead (11:50:37 AM) querns: im a figurehead irl (11:50:39 AM) jenilee_spartan: is it possible to beat a svipul in a stabber (11:50:39 AM) geeshizzle_maccloud: the_mittani: tbh i find it hard to believe those logs when theyre coherent full sentences and not broken to fuck up (11:50:41 AM) riddy_zanguard: nvm, someone pinged directorbot at the right time (11:50:41 AM) teufelsbeitrag: Have we plugged the leaks yet? (11:50:45 AM) your_neighbor: Can xenuria go? (11:50:51 AM) xenuria: Go where? (11:50:54 AM) hvac: literally someone in cz slack just said that years of inactivity is what's going to kill us THESE GOD DAMN PEOPLE (11:50:59 AM) teufelsbeitrag: I mean I enjoy reading all of our dirty secrets and shit but it's getting ridiculous now lol (11:51:03 AM) gavin_tremlor: Thanks Mittani, I just want to understand what's going on. I'm getting a lot of info from many differnt "sources" all claiming to be credible. Most of which is contradictory and much of it seems like BS. (11:51:12 AM) the_mittani: well i think there's a common thread (11:51:14 AM) querns: there's a lot of flak going on right now gavin_tremlor (11:51:17 AM) tom_kavees: riddy_zanguard: open the buddy list -> Buddies -> view user log -> [email protected] -> open/view/ok (11:51:17 AM) querns: it's to be expected (11:51:23 AM) the_mittani: like i always say on firesides, examine the evidence of game mechanics yourselves (11:51:31 AM) tom_kavees: don't spew it all over internet tho :) (11:51:49 AM) riddy_zanguard: tom_kavees: thanks :) (11:52:00 AM) the_mittani: we've been talking about consolidating imperium alliances to take advantage of game mechanics and best practices for a long-ass while, and that accelerated a bunch with the fizzlesov defense making the burdens on small defenders so much worse (11:52:21 AM) beidorion_eldwardan: hwy juar onw thing boss IF we form that mega alliance can we then do in as IMPERIUM (11:52:24 AM) the_mittani: so for example for sma or tnt it's really hard to get enough counterhackers for large constellation zones, day in, day out (11:52:50 AM) SloMoJoe: It's a literal truth that dudes are going to sperg out over in-game issues.. like to a lot it's the 'universe' when in reality its the meta that runs the game.. I'm just so glad I don't have to deal with it much directly. Mittens and anyone else in illum is taking a huge bullet for us all. (11:52:51 AM) sixx_spades: this would have been a lot easier had ccp made those entosis modules with a attack/defend setting (11:52:52 AM) tom_kavees: riddy_zanguard: pidgin also saves that shit to html files somewhere in your user directory (11:53:02 AM) querns: at the end of the day we aren't gonna, like (11:53:07 AM) querns: hold a gun to anyone's head (11:53:11 AM) isphirel: i dont think you can widot tnt without breaking wibla :( (11:53:14 AM) angry_mustache: I wonder if fozzie ever thought "making "blues" worthless in a fight just means mega-alliances become the norm" (11:53:29 AM) your_neighbor: the_mittani, after the was is over assuming were still in the same place as before how much space would we hold? I'm assuming up to tribute? (11:53:31 AM) laba_hanaya: querns: we know katanas are your threatening weapon of choice :colbert: (11:53:33 AM) sachymetsu: unintended consequences (11:53:39 AM) the_mittani: in those leaks you see us talking about this, abotu culture, and there's a line about 'the pressure is working' - the pressure is 'working' in the sense that i don't seem like a crazy guy shouting at the sky about fizzlesov mechancis, and there's no debate anymore about defender disadvantages for smaller alliances (11:53:39 AM) SloMoJoe: Like it's not just second guessing.. it's like 15th order guessing (11:53:43 AM) angry_mustache: isphirel: maybe after a mittens-wibla-mrs. mittens pegging threesome (11:53:44 AM) rc: http://41.media.tumblr.com/6c4fd990fa2ba625122a7ece9f82ab72/tumblr_nyvi3g8akT1s3vpl9o1_1280.jpg (11:53:45 AM) sachymetsu: coalitions just become mega alliances (11:53:46 AM) querns: :mk: (11:53:50 AM) tom_kavees: angry_mustache: bloc wars will become new again, woo (11:53:54 AM) sachymetsu: because people like to group up and be social (11:53:58 AM) isphirel: angry_mustache: didnt you burn out or something (11:53:59 AM) sachymetsu: whodathunk (11:54:09 AM) Avatharian: inb4 CCP puts a cap on alliance size (11:54:13 AM) angry_mustache: isphirel: seeing the fucking retards smugging on /r/eve (11:54:20 AM) angry_mustache: filled me with determination (11:54:20 AM) riddy_zanguard: blap blap :toot: :toot: (11:54:27 AM) isphirel: heh (11:54:27 AM) the_mittani: so when i'm like "yo we need to merge some shit" it comes off as me strongarming, as opposed to the pressure of war where folks are like 'oh, yeah, this system blows on defense, mergers make sense' (11:54:36 AM) the_mittani: behold, scandal and betrayal (11:54:40 AM) angry_mustache: isphirel: is tarrante in charge of recon? (11:54:50 AM) angry_mustache: I still have 4 cyno V alts because of thim (11:54:57 AM) kismeteer: cyno 5, best 5 (11:55:01 AM) isphirel: angry_mustache: i'd try schwa nuts or akasha (11:55:02 AM) silk75: Kinda proud we have a verb from our corp name, to widot, widotted etc (11:55:04 AM) isphirel: or arrendis (11:55:09 AM) querns: aint language grand (11:55:22 AM) isphirel: imagine how awox feels (11:55:22 AM) querns: and yeah the current climate in our space is like (11:55:23 AM) kismeteer: the widot merger showed it can be Wildly Successful (11:55:24 AM) querns: my comfort zone (11:55:32 AM) querns: my entire stable is born out of sashaying around "hostile" space (11:55:42 AM) angry_mustache: silk75: does anyone in widotte still remember what their old corp was like? (11:55:51 AM) silk75: yeah (11:55:52 AM) sixx_spades: old alliance* (11:56:13 AM) the_mittani: i think i'm gonna just pastebin elysium scrollback and ping it (11:56:18 AM) ubah_fo: CCP really needs to get away from this "your alliances vs everyone else in eve" system (11:56:26 AM) kismeteer: I've always said that being a huge alliance makes it easier to find people to fly with (11:56:27 AM) the_mittani: so allies get a chance to see what's up if they weren't in here in the above (11:56:30 AM) silk75: drunken thrasher roams, appalling comms, and really really bad posting (11:56:36 AM) the_mittani: oh also i think i hit this (11:56:59 AM) the_mittani: the megaalliance shit doesn't have to be all one megalliance, multiple ones are a more likely cultural fit (11:57:07 AM) Yroc Jannseen: i just like that kismeteer is a verb (11:57:14 AM) Yroc Jannseen: hi kismeteer (11:57:15 AM) ubah_fo: maybe make it a war-dec system or something, or make the hacking have a non-zero cost like it does now (11:57:18 AM) the_mittani: so like, fcon lawn bastion, not likely to fit well in a megaalliance with gsf (11:57:18 AM) kismeteer: heh (11:57:25 AM) kismeteer: I have not kismeteered much recently (11:57:30 AM) kismeteer: other than nearly any entosis fleet I go on (11:57:33 AM) silk75: our posting has improved since 2011, hard to believe I know. (11:57:36 AM) laba_hanaya: :ohdear: are we expected to see one single red alliance? (11:57:39 AM) the_mittani: but mechanically again, better to have 3-4 megaalliances on defense instead of 10 (11:57:49 AM) sachymetsu: my experience with corps/alliances is that the more successful alliances have a wider identity compared to not so successful ones, which tend to have people more focused on their corp identity instead. (11:57:53 AM) the_mittani: anyone think this is a wildly controversial statement given fizzlesov mechanics (11:58:00 AM) mishirosen: we just make one megallaiance thats all of nullsec and then we can just fight for gudfites only forever (11:58:23 AM) teufelsbeitrag: the_mittani: Not particularly outlandish. I just don't see people being happy with it (11:58:24 AM) sixx_spades: in a perfect world, the nature of the entosis module should be the one to change (11:58:29 AM) atrum_veneficus: it's only wildly controversial if the_mittani says it (11:58:29 AM) sixx_spades: where you can both attack and defend (11:58:30 AM) nirnaeth_ornoediad: Maybe "alliance" just becomes "organization to help with NIPs", and corporations are where culture lives (11:58:32 AM) kismeteer: the_mittani: can we just promise that if we do get kicked from all null sec, we will do nothing by going and killing our enemy's citadels? (11:58:34 AM) querns: yeah, not everyone will be happy with the megalliance idea (11:58:35 AM) atrum_veneficus: because he tells people to kill themselves (11:58:35 AM) teufelsbeitrag: As you pointed out already, culturally Goonswarm is kind of 'difficult' lol (11:58:36 AM) kismeteer: because I'm looking forward to that day. (11:58:37 AM) sixx_spades: so you can still third party (11:58:40 AM) klens_obort: sachymetsu: Agreed. Even when I was still in TNT, I found myself identifying more with the coalition than I did with TNT or even my corp. (11:58:42 AM) atrum_veneficus: and has digi on a leash (11:58:42 AM) kismeteer: fuck sov, I just want dead shit (11:58:48 AM) the_mittani: we discuss tons of ideas in illum and game mechanics (11:58:51 AM) Wibla: isphirel: I'd probably retire after a widot (11:58:53 AM) sachymetsu: once people start becoming 'insular' within their own alliance and keeping amongst corp members, that's usually a bad sign (11:58:55 AM) the_mittani: some of them work, some of them don't (11:58:56 AM) querns: fairly candidly too (11:59:05 AM) the_mittani: minifo didn't work, for example (11:59:19 AM) angry_mustache: sixx_spades: "entosis disruption script", "entosis sustainment script" (11:59:19 AM) sixx_spades: what was minifo again? (11:59:20 AM) atrum_veneficus: like the entire cloud ring shit (11:59:23 AM) angry_mustache: PROBLEM FIXED (11:59:28 AM) sachymetsu: because it means people are less likely to cooperate or step up on alliance wide issues (11:59:28 AM) nakaori: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/4eaudy/gsf_jabber_leaks/ <- wtf... please tell me most of this is faked.. >.< (11:59:32 AM) sixx_spades: angry_mustache: exactly (11:59:32 AM) Yroc Jannseen: omg the_mittani admits fialure someone post on reddit (11:59:56 AM) atrum_veneficus: we have lots of Dumb Ideas that Don't Pan Out (11:59:59 AM) harataka: makaori: out of context (11:59:59 AM) atrum_veneficus: some of them are public (12:00:01 PM) atrum_veneficus: some less so (12:00:01 PM) the_mittani: anyhoo transparency and sunlight is the best way to handle attempts at making a scandal off half-ass leaks, gonna pastebin the above
RAW Paste Data
11:39:17 AM) gavin_tremlor: (1:13:38 AM) the_mittani: that's why i took tib aside and told him about the megaalliance strategy on mumble earlier (1:13:54 AM) the_mittani: because it's true none of our shit makes sense unless you realize we literally dgaf about fcon (11:39:32 AM) Alavaria:? (11:39:41 AM) hvac: xander doesnt really record anymore and taka and i didnt want to continue the american cz one (11:39:54 AM) angry_mustache: Alavaria: latest lemba leak (11:39:58 AM) baculus_orden: is CZ english? (11:40:05 AM) angry_mustache: hvac: hence why Jeffraider runs the podcast now? (11:40:06 AM) baculus_orden: british* (11:40:10 AM) hvac: xander and jeg are both scottish (11:40:11 AM) brutus_septimius: crossing zebras (11:40:12 AM) angry_mustache: scottish (11:40:45 AM) hvac: xander spends half his time offshore and cant do records so for a while taka and i would do shows while he was offshore (11:41:17 AM) the_mittani: yeah they snipped off the context of that gavin_tremlor, that was in response to fcs raging about the 10-carrier group loss in north dek (11:41:46 AM) the_mittani: ps morning all we got pastebin drama to go over because discussing megaalliances is apparently a shadowy conspiracy (11:41:50 AM) koahi: morning mittens morning hvac (11:41:51 AM) rc: http://41.media.tumblr.com/e869d7285c389eb7023073e4c4e08380/tumblr_nah80lomec1s3vpl9o1_1280.jpg (11:41:54 AM) baculus_orden: wait - these logs are editted!? (11:41:58 AM) harataka: GASP (11:42:04 AM) kismeteer: why would anyone care about fcon losing 10 carriers? (11:42:05 AM) Alavaria: eh, oh you were discussing megaalliances well before, of course (11:42:11 AM) gavin_tremlor: right, which happened as I understand itbecuase we were ordered to defend UQ9 instead of withdrawing to Sarenan three weeeks as xPred requested. (11:42:12 AM) gumbo_innit: the_mittani: I want to be the butt of this new mega alliance pls (11:42:14 AM) gumbo_innit: where do I signup (11:42:15 AM) hvac: angry_mustache: jeffraider started his own podcast and worked out a deal with cz to host it (11:42:17 AM) Alavaria: I was wondering if he somehow was leaking after bgetting purged (11:42:21 AM) gavin_tremlor: three week ago* (11:42:36 AM) the_mittani: yeah the megaalliance shit is such a big scandal we've had multiple people posting about it, including our allies, and talking about it on fireside chats (11:42:40 AM) brutus_septimius: it was all discussed and agreed upon at the 2006 yacht bbq, rite? (11:43:05 AM) Alavaria: take more pictures (11:43:06 AM) Alavaria:!yacht (11:43:24 AM) imperium_romanus: i did yacht see that coming :p (11:43:28 AM) kismeteer: the absorbtion of wildly inappropriate has shown that mega alliances don't work. oh wait, they're awesome now and there is like 1/10th |
their knowledge of Argentina. They try to become as Argentine as possible, rejecting their own culture in favour of mate, watching soccer on Sundays and eating every conceivable part of the cow. They say ‘che boludo’ at every possible moment, consider themselves experts in Argentine slang and scorn the other type of expat who has ‘no idea about Argentina’.
Those dating the clueless expat can wow their partner by explaining basic historical facts about Argentina. Those dating the know-it-all-about-Argentina expat should prepare themselves to drink huge quantities of badly prepared mate.
Cultural Differences – Tango vs. Aging Rockers
Expats who moved to Argentina to dance tango, or got hooked on the dance once they arrived, are notoriously difficult to date.
Tango aficionados often try to convince others of the beauty of their sacred dance, and may drag their partners to milongas to observe as they passionately lock limbs with their dance partner. This will drive jealous types mad with rage, and bore everyone else.
Just like expats assume their Argentine counterparts dance tango, Argentines will take it for granted that their partner shares their love for The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and other rock groups from decades past. The Argentine soon becomes frustrated with their partner’s unwillingness to pay thousands of pesos to see aging rockers at Buenos Aires’ Luna Park.
Until tango-rock becomes a thing, both will have to put up with being dragged along to events that don’t interest them.
The Illegal Expat & Immigration Trips to Colonia
Every three months, most expats have a mini-crisis about whether they should go to Uruguay or pay the fine at immigrations in order to renew their tourist visa. While hopping over to Uruguay every three months may seem an appealing excuse for a romantic getaway at first, staying in the cheapest hostel in Colonia del Sacramento tends to lose its charm after the first four times.
Expats also complain about how difficult it is to be an illegal immigrant, failing to consider how illegal immigrants are treated in their home countries.
The Expat Family – Dealing with Visitors
With a partner who lives thousands of miles from their family, one may think they’ve escaped meeting the parents. But date an expat for a while, and their family will inevitably come to stay. This won’t just be an awkward family lunch — it will be a two-week-long assessment of whether the parents approve of their little darling’s dating choice.
Argentinean partners will be expected to assume the role of tour guide, personal translator and local history expert and be forced to spend hours trawling round Recoleta cemetery in search of Evita’s grave. Plus, they will inevitably have to take them down to the police station when the parents get robbed and want a police report for an insurance claim on that iphone they were warned against flashing in public.
Living Situation & Telos
Expats often live in shared accommodation with a collection of foreigners who come and go at random intervals. This accommodation is often not ideal for sleepovers but many expats find the idea of a telo off-putting, though they are fascinated by the idea.
“I really don’t understand why foreign girls get so grossed out and reject the idea of a telo”, says a 26 year-old Argentine physicist, who dated a girl a New Zealander, who preferred to have sex in a hostel dorm room rather than a telo. “When you go to a hotel, people who were there before you were also having sex and no one complains. It’s the same! Except a telo is specifically designed for people to have sex!”
An Argentine who manages to put up with all the foibles of dating an expat and find themselves wanting to continue a relationship with their funny-talking lover, will find that just as they begin to understand them, they are stumped by the biggest problem of dating a foreigner in Argentina: sooner or later, the expat leaves.
Comments
commentsClimate change is one of the most critical issues facing humanity for, oh, the next 10,000 years, but we’ve barely heard about it in this presidential campaign. So let’s quickly recap the difference between Trump and Clinton on global warming. Because it’s really quite simple — and stark.
Clinton: Hillary Clinton wants to use various regulatory levers at the president’s disposal to nudge down US greenhouse gas emissions bit by bit. Tighten fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles here; plug methane leaks from natural gas infrastructure there. Defend President Obama’s Clean Power Plan to reduce CO2 from coal plants. Bolster appliance standards and building codes. Each individual regulation is penny-ante stuff, but it piles up. The aim is to ratchet down overall US emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025:
If you compare this with the vast scale of what’s needed to halt global warming — an 80 percent cut by 2050 that involves completely retooling our electricity, transport, industrial, and agricultural sectors — Clinton’s proposals are laughably, tragically inadequate. But they’re also at the outer edge of what a president can do without buy-in from Congress.* You can’t get a carbon tax without Congress. Or a nationwide clean energy standard. Or any of the ambitious regulations California is now tinkering with.
So Clinton is basically gambling that this will do for now. Use regulations to slowly grind emissions down. Work with countries like China and India to grind their emissions down under the Paris climate deal. And hope for big political or technological shifts down the road that enable even bigger cuts. This was basically Obama’s plan. It’s far from a solution. It’s easy to imagine it failing. But it’s a plan, at least.**
Trump: Trump’s climate plan is even simpler: He doesn’t have one. Doesn’t seem to care. Never talks about the issue, save for calling global warming a Chinese hoax. He’s said that he’d refuse to meet US obligations under the Paris climate deal (and, since it’s non-binding, he could do that). He’d undo various CO2 regulations that Obama has put in place, like the Clean Power Plan (yes, he could do that too). He’d push to allow more oil and natural gas drilling on public lands. It is very easy to imagine emissions rising under Trump and nearly impossible to imagine them falling sharply.
So that’s the choice in this election. Clinton wants to keep chipping away at this enormous boulder of a climate problem, all in the hopes that bigger cracks eventually appear. Trump says the boulder’s fine as is — if anything, it could stand to be even bigger.
It may not be the world’s most inspiring choice, but it’s certainly a stark one.
Footnotes
* There is one other drastic executive action that Clinton could conceivably take that she never mentions. Under Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, a president could conceivably cite the Paris climate deal in order to enact a nationwide cap-and-trade program without Congress. But it’s unclear if the courts would uphold this — she’d be wandering into wildly unprecedented legal territory.
** Again, Clinton’s plan assumes that Congress is at least partly controlled by Republicans who refuse to do anything on climate change. If, by contrast, Trump loses in a landslide and Democrats take back both the Senate and the House, then we’re in a different world — and Clinton hasn’t really given a good indication of what she’d push for. This would be an excellent question to ask at the third presidential debate!
(Also note that this was one key difference between Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the primary. Sanders would probably behave pretty similarly to Clinton as president if faced with a recalcitrant Congress. But Sanders also gave an indication of the more sweeping things he’d push for if he had congressional support: an economy-wide carbon tax or a nationwide fracking ban or massive investments in renewable energy. Clinton, by contrast, has stayed quiet about that prospect.)Technology is allowing us to monitor our health and fitness like never before. Our smartphones can track every step we take. Dedicated monitors like the Fitbit analyze our movement and our diets, even our watches can now tell us if we’re spending too much time on the sofa.
But how would you feel if your boss insisted you wore a device that would allow your brain to be monitored?
Image: eedesignit
It’s a question Professor Nita Farahany put to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Professor Farahany is a leading thinker on the ethical, legal and social implications of emerging technologies.
Monitoring our minds
She believes the monitoring of workers needs careful consideration, and says the following are important questions to keep in mind:
- Are there any limits to the connected workplace?
- Are there any concerns about the connected workplace?
- Is there any way in which you wouldn’t want either yourself or an employee to be connected?
- Are there any limits to the kinds of information we can gather in order to make our workforces more productive in order to make our overall society more productive?
There is already plenty of evidence that workers resent being monitored by technology.
Professor Farahany cites the example of grocery business Tesco, which uses electronic armbands to track the movements of stock pickers in its warehouses in Ireland. The armbands direct staff members around the warehouse and tell them which item to collect. They take a lot of the administration out of the job by automatically logging inventory rather than staff carrying clipboards to record items manually.
The armbands made the job more efficient and the staff more productive. And, as Professor Farahany notes, the staff hated them.
Big Brother is watching
“They felt like this was Big Brother watching them. And they really didn’t like it, even though in many ways it did make their jobs easier.
“But they didn’t like the sense in which even their bathroom breaks were being tracked.
“Well, too bad you might think. They shouldn’t be taking unscheduled breaks. It’s better for workforce productivity.
“But is it better for morale? Is it better for individuals to feel as if their every movement is scrutinized?”
If a simple device like Tesco’s armbands can stir up such powerful resentment, how might more sophisticated wearable devices go down with workers?
Image: Smartcap
Technology that allows our bosses to monitor our brain activity is already here. The SmartCap is an Australian invention designed to monitor levels of fatigue in truck drivers and operators of heavy machinery in the mining industry.
What our brains tell our bosses
It works by detecting and analyzing the tiny electrical discharges produced in the brain. The company says its objective is to save lives.
All very laudable, but Professor Farahany says these kinds of monitors can provide much deeper levels of information.
“These EEG SmartCap devices have many applications beyond mere drowsiness, we can start to track things like...which times of day you’re most productive, when you’re paying attention and when you’re not, what you’re focusing on…whether or not you are starting to suffer from cognitive decline, whether you have signs of early dementia, whether or not you’re starting to become a very expensive person to employ at a company.”
The end of privacy?
The implications for the use of data mined from our brains are becoming clear. Safety, productivity and performance can be improved. But can ethical and privacy concerns keep pace with technology?
Professor Farahany thinks we need to consider new laws to protect against the abusive use of brain monitoring at work: “There is no such thing as cognitive liberty. There is no such thing as a truly protected freedom of thought.
“What if what we’re really talking about is the total end of privacy?
“What if the last bastion of freedom, your brain, is no longer so free after all?”Based on model year EPA mileage ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.
Driver Assistance Package -Inc: Rear View Camera Head-Up Display,Fineline Oak Wood Trim,Mineral White Metallic,Wheels: 20 X 10 Fr & 20 X 11 Rr (Style 469M) -Inc: M Light Alloy Double Spoke Increased Top Speed Limiter Tires: P275/40R20 Fr & P315/35R20 Rr Perf Run-Flat,Cognac/Black Nappa Leather Package W/M Sport,Premium Package -Inc: 4-Zone Automatic Climate Control Satellite Radio W/1 Year Subscription Comfort Access Keyless Entry,Cognac/Black Bi-Color Interior Design Package -Inc: Black Nappa Leather Dashboard W/Contrast Stitching Fineline Striped Wood Trim Cognac/Black Nappa Leather Package,Rear View Camera,M Sport -Inc: M Foot Rest M Door Sills And Unique Tailpipe Design Aluminum Hexagon Interior Trim Standard Suspension Without Lines Designation Outside Shadowline Exterior Trim Aerodynamic Kit Wheels: 19 X 9 M Light Alloy (Style 623M) Double Spoke Sport Seats Anthracite Headliner M Steering Wheel M Sport Package,Soft-Close Automatic Doors,Rear Manual Side Window Shades,Harman/Kardon Surround Sound System,Smartphone Integration -Inc: Enhanced Usb & Bluetooth,Luxury Seating Package -Inc: Front Ventilated Seats Multi-Contour Seats,Power Front Seats (Std),Surround View,Multi-Contour Seats
M Sport Edition -Inc: Steering Wheel Gearshift Paddles Increased Top Speed Limiter Anthracite Alcantara Headliner Shadowline Exterior Trim Sport Package Acc Stop & Go + Active Driving Assistant Active Cruise Control Lane Departure Warning Forward Collision Warning Pedestrian Warning And City Collision Mitigation Wheels: 19 X 8.5 Fr/19 X 9.5 Rr (Style 302M) Light Alloy V-Spoke Design Tires: P245/45R19 Fr & P275/40R19 Rr Performance Run-Flat Front Ventilated Seats Power Rear Sunshade & Rear Side Windowshades Speed Limit Info Without Lines Designation Outside Aerodynamic Kit Side & Top View Cameras Active Blind Spot Detection M Steering Wheel Ceramic Controls,Anthracite Alcantara Headliner,Executive Package -Inc: Front Ventilated Seats Power Rear Sunshade & Rear Side Windowshades Anthracite Alcantara Headliner Ceramic Controls,Driver Assistance Plus -Inc: Speed Limit Info Active Driving Assistant Lane Departure Warning Forward Collision Warning Pedestrian Warning And City Collision Mitigation Active Blind Spot Detection Side & Top View Cameras,Acc Stop & Go + Active Driving Assistant -Inc: Active Cruise Control Lane Departure Warning Forward Collision Warning Pedestrian Warning And City Collision Mitigation,Platinum/Black Bmw Individual Full Merino Leather Upholstery -Inc: Anthracite Headliner Individual Door Sill Finishers,Piano Finish Black Trim,Ruby Black Metallic,Ceramic Controls,Bang & Olufsen Sound System,Wheels: 20 X 8.5 Fr/20 X 10 Rr (Style 303M) -Inc: Light Alloy Double-Spoke Design Tires: P245/40R20 Fr & P275/35R20 Rr Perf Run-Flat
High-Gloss Roof Rails,Fineline Oak Wood Trim,Driver Assistance Plus -Inc: Speed Limit Information Active Driving Assistant Lane Departure Forward Collision Pedestrian Warnings And City Collision Mitigation Active Blind Spot Detection Surround View,Transmission: 8-Speed Automatic W/Steptronic (Std),Cold Weather Package -Inc: Heated Rear Seats Heated Steering Wheel High-Intensity Retractable Headlight Washers,Wheels: 19 X 9 Multi-Spoke Lt Alloy (Style 448),Multi-Contour Seats -Inc: 20-Way Power 10-Way Power Seat Functions Additional Power Adjustment Functions For Shoulder And Thigh Support Backrest Width And Lumbar Support (Contour And Position) And 2-Way Manual Lateral Adjustment For Comfort Headrest (Std),Rear Manual Side Window Shades,Lighting Package -Inc: Automatic High Beams Led Adaptive Headlights,Canberra Beige Dakota Leather Upholstery,Active Steering,Imperial Blue Metallic,Surround View
Power Rear Sunshade -Inc: Manual Rear Side Window Shades,Executive Package -Inc: Rear View Camera Head-Up Display Park Distance Control Heated Rear Seats Heated Steering Wheel Retractable Headlight Washers,Silverstone Full Merino Leather Upholstery,Lighting Package -Inc: Automatic High Beams Adaptive Full Led Lights,Yas Marina Blue Metallic,Driver Assistance Plus -Inc: Speed Limit Info Active Driving Assistant Lane Departure Warning Forward Collision Warning Pedestrian Warning And City Collision Mitigation Active Blind Spot Detection Side & Top View Cameras,Adaptive M Suspension,Parking Assistant,Wheels: 19 X 9 Fr/19 X 10 Rr Black Light-Alloy -Inc: Double-Spoke Style 437M Tires: 255/35R19 Front & 275/35R19 Rear Mixed Performance,Enhanced Usb & Bluetooth W/Smartphone Integration,Transmission: 7-Speed M-Double Clutch -Inc: Drivelogic,Side & Top View Cameras
High-Gloss Roof Rails,Black Dakota Leather Upholstery,Multi-Contour Seats -Inc: 20-Way Power 10-Way Power Seat Functions Additional Power Adjustment Functions For Shoulder And Thigh Support Backrest Width And Lumbar Support (Contour And Position) And 2-Way Manual Lateral Adjustment For Comfort Headrest (Std),Transmission: 8-Speed Automatic W/Steptronic (Std),Luxury Line -Inc: Wheels: 19 X 9 Multi-Spoke Lt Alloy (Style 448) Luxury Line-Specific Design Elements Satin Aluminum Roof Rails,Fineline Oak Wood Trim,3Rd Row Seat -Inc: 3Rd Row Seat Climate Control Rear Axle Air Suspension,Wheels: 20 Y-Spoke Lt Alloy (Style 451) -Inc: 20 X 10 Front 20 X 11 Rear Tires: P275/40R20 Fr & P315/35R20 Rr Perf Run-Flat,Space Gray Metallic,Bang & Olufsen Sound System,Aluminum Running Boards
M Sport Edition -Inc: Contrast Stitching Increased Top Speed Limiter Anthracite Alcantara Headliner Shadowline Exterior Trim Soft-Close Automatic Doors M Sport Package (337) M Sport Edition (7Mh) Front Ventilated Seats Instrument Panel W/Nappa Leather Finish Power Rear Sunshade & Rear Side Windowshades 4-Zone Automatic Climate Control Head-Up Display Without Lines Designation Outside Aerodynamic Kit Wheels: 19 X 8.5 Fr & 19 X 9.0 Rr (Style 351M) Light Alloy Double-Spoke Tires: P245/40R19 Fr & P275/35R19 Rr Perf Run-Flat M Steering Wheel Ceramic Controls Driver Assistance Plus Speed Limit Info Active Driving Assistant Lane Departure Forward Collision Pedestrian Warnings And City Collision Mitigation Active Blind Spot Detection Side & Top View Cameras,Fineline Brown Wood Trim,Wheels: 19 X 8.5 Fr & 19 X 9.0 Rr (Style 351M) -Inc: Light Alloy Double-Spoke Tires: P245/40R19 Fr & P275/35R19 Rr Perf Run-Flat,Executive Package -Inc: Front Ventilated Seats Contrast Stitching Instrument Panel W/Nappa Leather Finish Power Rear Sunshade & Rear Side Windowshades 4-Zone Automatic Climate Control Head-Up Display Soft-Close Automatic Doors Ceramic Controls,Cold Weather Package -Inc: Heated Rear Seats Heated Steering Wheel,Mediterranean Blue Metallic,Cognac/Black Nappa Leather Upholstery -Inc: Armrests In Center Console And Doors Headrests For Front And Rear Seats And Gear Shift Lever Boot,Driver Assistance Plus -Inc: Speed Limit Info Active Driving Assistant Lane Departure Forward Collision Pedestrian Warnings And City Collision Mitigation Active Blind Spot Detection Side & Top View Cameras
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**With approved credit. Terms may vary. Monthly payments are only estimates derived from the vehicle price with a 72 month term, 5.9% interest and 20% downpayment.European Union member states are planning new sanctions against Israel that will be implemented if peace negotiations with Palestinians do not resume following the March elections, it was reported Tuesday.
The proposed plan would include “sanctions against companies that conduct business over the Green Line, support in the legal proceedings of Palestinians in the issue of settlements and also renewing the proposal to create a Palestinian state through the Security Council,” according to an Israeli official who met recently with European leaders in Brussels, the Hebrew-language Walla website reported.
Israeli officials in several European capitals said the proposals have buy-in from all countries in the EU, according to the report.
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The EU has threatened sanctions against Israel for several years in an effort to prod forward the peace process with the Palestinians and discourage settlement expansion.
According to one of the Israeli officials briefed by European leaders, the process of imposing sanctions was delayed by elections, but will likely be picked up should peace efforts not restart after Israelis go to the polls on March 17.
“For some of the countries there is the hope that after the elections there is a chance to renew the negotiations with the Palestinians. But now it does not seem like that will happen, and therefore they are planning to shift into a higher gear,” the official said.
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett told representatives of the European Union that Israel would not endanger itself to avoid sanctions, in a closed door meeting Monday.
“To single out Israel, to twist our arms economically, in the hopes that we’ll commit suicide because financially we’ll get hit if we don’t — it’s immoral from my perspective,” Bennett told the diplomats, according to a tape of the meeting leaked to Army Radio and published Tuesday. “Instead of understanding… we’re the big dam in this big river of terror.”
Bennett’s office declined to comment on his message to the representatives, which included envoys from 26 out of the 28 EU countries, and noted only that “things that were said behind closed doors should remain there.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.This article is over 5 years old
GetUp! collects 122,000 signatures, citing fears for safety of Pakistani man whose partnership visa application was rejected
A petition with more than 122,000 signatures has been delivered to immigration minister Scott Morrison’s office in Sydney, calling on him to halt the deportation of a gay Pakistani man.
Ali Choudhry is scheduled to be deported on Wednesday after his application for a partnership visa was refused. He grew up in the US and lives in Brisbane with his partner, Matthew Hynd, an Australian neuroscientist.
Paul Toner, a GetUp! member from Ipswich who created the petition, delivered it to the minister’s office on Tuesday. He said he decided to take action because he felt that Choudhry was not not being given a “fair go”.
“If their situation was slightly different and they were a heterosexual couple they would have been married two years ago and we never would have heard of them,” he said.
“We just wanted to do something to give them a little bit of a hand and we never dreamed it would turn into something like this.”
Choudhry fears imprisonment or harassment in Pakistan for being gay if he is deported.
He and his partner were one of the first gay couples in Queensland to register their civil union in March 2012. Despite his Pakistani heritage Choudhry cannot read or write the country's official Urdu language and has few contacts there.
“If he’s deported there’s a real risk Ali could be imprisoned for life in Pakistan, where being openly gay carries a long jail sentence,” Toner said.
"Ali cannot understand why theirs is not considered a legitimate long-term partnership, and neither can I.”
A spokesperson for the immigration minister has said same-sex couples are subject to the same assessments as heterosexual couples.
Choudhry has lodged a last-minute application with the migration review tribunal for a bridging visa.
Later in the day a spokeswoman for the immigration minister said that Choudhry had been granted a bridging visa and was not in danger of deportation.
“A bridging visa is granted whilst an application is being processed. At no time was Mr Choudhry in danger of being deported,” she said.
“Mr Choudhry is on a bridging visa to ensure he remains lawfully in the community while he has an outstanding matter before the Migration Review Tribunal.”This article is over 3 years old
Crowd protests over lack of arrests in case of two-year-old who was abducted from a religious event and later dumped in a park
Girls aged two and five raped in separate attacks in Delhi
Girls aged two and five have been raped in separate attacks in Delhi, sparking angry protests in the Indian capital over police inaction.
The two-year-old was abducted from a religious event in west Delhi by two men on Friday night and raped before being dumped in a park near her home, police and relatives said.
In a separate incident on the other side of the city, the five-year-old was lured to a neighbour’s house and raped by three men, a police officer said
A crowd of more than 100 people gathered near the two-year-old’s home on Saturday afternoon to protest against the police’s failure to make arrests in the case.
One female relative of the girl said: “[Police] are not doing anything to arrest the rapists. We don’t feel safe in this city.”
Delhi has been grappling with a spate of sexual assaults against women – and in several recent cases, children – which have sparked outrage both in India and abroad.
Pushpendra Kumar, the police chief for west Delhi, said a manhunt for the two men suspected of raping the two-year-old had begun, but no arrests had yet been made.
The toddler was bleeding profusely when she was found several hours after being abducted. Authorities have released video of two men riding away on a motorbike with the victim.
Separately, police in eastern Delhi arrested three men overnight in the case of the five-year-old, who tests showed was raped multiple times. Both girls were undergoing medical treatment.
This month a four-year-old girl was allegedly raped and slashed with a knife before being abandoned by a railway track in Delhi. Police arrested a 25-year-old man in that attack.
On Saturday the Delhi Commission for Women chair, Swati Maliwal, said violence against women had assumed “epidemic proportions” in the city.
Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) When will Delhi wake up? Till when will girls continue to be brutalized in Indian capital. Gangrape of 2.5 year n 5 year old. Shameful.
Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said the attacks were “shameful and worrying”, and criticised the prime minister Narendra Modi’s government and his lieutenant governor over the security situation.
Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) Repeated rape of minors is shameful and worrying. Delhi police has completely failed to provide safety. What are PM n his LG doing?
Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) PM Modi shud either himslf act or give control over Delhi police n public order to elected govt of delhi या खुद करो या दूसरों को करने दो
Kejriwal and Modi’s administration are jostling for control of the capital’s police department, while Delhi city authorities say they are unable to improve security for women. They blame Modi’s government, which controls Delhi’s 84,000 police officers – the world’s largest metropolitan force.
Ranjana Kumari, head of the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research, said the turf war between the two governments was making the city less safe for women. “Most of these incidents have been reported in lower-income areas like slums and densely populated areas, where mostly migrants stay,” she said. “These men live in crammed spaces with no social or parental control and usually no fear of law.”
The fatal gang-rape of a young student on a bus in Delhi in 2012 led to an outpouring of anger over levels of violence against women. India recorded 36,735 rape cases in 2014, almost 3,000 of which were in Delhi. The true scale of the problem is likely to be far worse.It’s been about two months since I put my game Drifter up on Steam Greenlight and it’s been going okay with the game having received nearly 10,000 yes votes and the ratio of yes to no votes is pretty much even, which is probably not all that bad for a niche space trading game. If you ask me, anyway.
Still, progress has been a bit slower than I was hoping and it hasn’t been all that easy getting people to visit the page on a consistent basis. These are my problems to overcome of course, and I will overcome them in time (I hope) but in the interests of sharing information to give everyone a better idea of what to expect before bringing a game to Greenlight I have been posting the Drifter Greenlight stats page daily at isdriftergreenlityet.com and am writing this post with some insights into the Greenlight process that I hope will help others prepare themselves for what lies ahead.
Also, I wish to acknowledge that Greenlight has its fair share of problems as a system for getting games on to Steam’s curated storefront and that it is not a perfect system by any means. Even Valve have admitted as much though they insist that they are trying to make things better. That said, given that at this point in time Greenlight is one of the only avenues available for independent games to get on to Steam and because Steam represents such a large percentage of the PC digital distribution market it makes sense for us to arm ourselves with as much information as possible before tackling this seemingly Sisyphean task.
First off, not to be immodest, but in order to frame this piece, I’d like to think that Drifter isn’t exactly some unknown game coming out of nowhere with no work put into promoting it. It’s gotten coverage from numerous high-profile gaming press outlets over the past couple of years. I ran a successful Kickstarter campaign last year which helped build up an early fan base for the game. I even have a relatively large number of followers on Twitter and my mom says I’m pretty cool. I figured if over 3,000 people wanted to give me money for my game, it should be a walk in the park to get a bunch of people to go and vote for it for free.
In retrospect, that was somewhat naive of me.
The problem isn’t exactly in getting those votes, it’s the sheer number of votes required to get to a point where Valve’s internal approvals team will pay attention to your game. That point is somewhere within the Top 100 games as ranked by yes votes received. Ostensibly Valve also looks at other factors to help determine if a game is going to be greenlit such as crowdfunding success or how rapidly a game may be getting votes, so the general idea is that they are paying attention to the Top 100 but the Top 10 (or so) is where most approvals have been happening.
Currently, to get to the Top 100, you are going to need approximately 16,000 to 17,000 yes votes. The good news is that no votes do not count against you and that games are ranked against each other by yes votes received however if your yes to no ratio is not very high it means that you need to get considerably more people in front of your game to get the votes you need. The bad news here is that Greenlight has been designed deliberately to make it difficult for people to find games via Greenlight itself apart from the voting queue that doesn’t seem to generate very many votes, perhaps 100 per day at most. The idea here, at least in theory, is that a game must be able to stand on its own merits and show that it has an audience who wants to play it and more importantly, pay for it. What this means in practice is that you will likely be spending a considerable amount of time and effort on promoting your game to get it on to Steam.
Once into the Top 100, the goal of most games is going to be to reach the Top 10. By my estimates a game is going to require somewhere around 50,000 yes votes to get into the Top 10. At the current “Average Top 50” split of 60% yes/40% no that means a Top 10 game is going to need to drive a little over 83,000 voters to their game. For a game like Drifter with an approximately 50% yes/50% no voting split it means you’ll need to send over 100,000 voters your way.
Unless your game has a large audience already or are otherwise fortunate enough to get a large amount of concentrated word of mouth surrounding your game while it is on Greenlight it will likely take a few months or even longer to get into the Top 100 and then into the Top 10. While this may seem daunting, there is no time limit so at the very least this will give you time to get feedback on your game and its presentation and it will hopefully give you an opportunity to improve your chances of getting the votes you need. Also hopefully by this point you have your game available for direct purchase or pre-order through your website so you can start selling it even if you’re not on Steam.
As for the approvals themselves, it seems like Valve have been approving somewhere between 5 and 10 games every 2 to 4 weeks lately, though it can vary and initially they were approving more games less frequently. When games get approved the rank of all of the remaining games goes up, and those that have forward momentum will move closer to getting greenlit. For instance during the last two batches of approvals Drifter jumped around around 3% of the way towards the Top 100 each time. So at the very least this means that these more frequent approvals will hopefully keep the list moving forward, at least somewhat.
Anyway, that’s about all I have to offer for now though I hope it is of some use! To those that are working their way through Greenlight and those who are going to be there eventually I wish you luck and I hope that your game makes it through as quickly and as painlessly as possible!Last month, the judge in the sugar industry’s lawsuit over ads that try to rebrand high fructose corn syrup as Corn Sugar allowed the suit to move forward but removed the individual corn companies as defendants. Now, Big Sugar has fired the latest legal missle, amending its complaint to accuse those corn companies of conspiracy to deceive the public.
The amended complain filed late last week alleges that senior executives of several agri-biz biggies, including ADM and Cargill, “organize[d] collectively in order to dominate and … control” the ongoing marketing campaign to rename HFCS as “corn sugar.” Big Sugar also charges that these companies, under the guise of the Corn Refiners Association, provided “the funding that has been required to orchestrate and maintain this significant, broad-based, national media, multi-million dollar advertising campaign.”
In a statement to Consumerist, the lead attorney for the sugar folks writes:
Let’s be clear about what is at stake here. This litigation is about false advertising funded by CRA’s biggest members… Sugar cane and beet farmers want the defendants to stop their false and misleading statements that harm consumers, harm the makers of real sugar and harm any dialogue based on the truth. This lawsuit seeks to put an end to the intentional deception.
However, in a written statement, the folks at the Corn Refiners Association tell Consumerist that the plaintiff is bootstrapping:
The simple truth is that the sugar industry is attempting to use the courts to stifle free speech but it lacks the facts to support its claims against our member companies. The court made that fact clear in its last ruling, and we continue to believe these claims against the companies should be dismissed… The more important issue, as the court has recognized, is that of health effects, and we believe the sugar industry is wrongfully alleging that high fructose corn syrup (a sugar made from corn) causes health issues that do not arise from consuming cane and beet sugar.
In September it was revealed that some people at the FDA are not thrilled by the Corn Sugar ad campaign, as the name change has not officially been approved by the agency, which already lists “corn sugar” as another name for dextrose. The FDA reportedly asked the CRA to re-think its campaign but it can not regulate the advertising as the commercials and websites are for a generic ingredient and not a specific product.Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” is one of those movies I thought I watched a few years after it came out, but in retrospect I had only seen bits and pieces before finally watching it all the way through. It came out in 1975 a couple of months before I was born, and I can still vividly remember people talking about it while in a carpool to school. One of my kindergarten buddies kept telling me about all the blood the great white shark ends up spilling, and what he said made me NOT want to see “Jaws” for the longest time.
I do remember seeing certain scenes from “Jaws” for the very first time, and those moments remain forever burned in my conscious mind. When ABC presented its network television premiere of the movie, I remember those giant red letters coming out at me from the TV screen, and it was enough to have my hair standing on end. It was also the first time I saw little Alex Kintner getting dragged down to his bloody death, a very frightening image to be featured in any movie, let alone one with a PG rating.
Years later, I was watching an episode of “At the Movies” with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert where they were talking about Spielberg’s movies in general. This was when I first saw the scene where Roy Scheider is throwing chum into the water, and the great white shark ends up rising out of the water which leads Scheider to tell Robert Shaw, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” This appearance of the shark scared me to death back then, and I felt exactly like Scheider’s character did as he slowly backed away from the boat’s rear.
A few years later, “Jaws” was again showing on television, and it was one of the few motion pictures shown unedited on television. Most movies, when they make their network television debut, are edited for content, but “Jaws” is so highly regarded to where it had to be shown with all the good parts intact. It was then I got my introduction |
was a Gilman Scholar and worked as a staff editor for her university’s academic journal. Her first novel, Year of the Goose, was published in 2015, and her first memoir is forthcoming from Little A books. Her essays and creative writing have appeared in The L.A. Review of Books, The Guardian, LitHub, and Identity Theory, among other publications. Here is what some of our clients have to say about working with Carly “I am mind-blown by my editor Carly’s work. My original essay is like an ill-fitting suit. She hemmed and adjusted it in all the right places and now it looks perfect. I don’t think I’m a bad writer, but I don’t write often and I have spent the past 10 years of my life focused on health sciences. I may have never been able to do this on my own. Thank you, thank you, I consider this essay service a bargain.” – Andy, PA-S “Carly’s edit was absolutely fantastic. When we began, my personal statement was mostly complete in content, but the flow was choppy, and there was some awkward phrasing. Her first edit transformed my essay into a smooth, compellingly clear piece of work, and I am very proud of it.” – Steven Montague, Pre-PA “Carly was fantastic and provided excellent comments and revisions. The turnover was less than 24 hours which is amazing. Thank you so much, you conveyed what I was trying to say but couldn’t find the words to do so!” – Andrew, Pre-PA “Carly did an amazing job of strengthening my essay while still keeping it mine. All of her advice was clear and left me with enough guidance to feel confident I could further edit/add to it on my own.” – Ariella, Pre-PA
Are you ready to get started? Choose your package, and we will begin today! Single Edit One-on-one service Supplemental Essays We have helped over 1,700 PA school applicants just like you (see testimonials and comments below). We are ready to help today. Our current PA school essay review service status: Accepting New Submissions (Photo: Me circa 1987 just thinking […] How to Write the Perfect Physician Assistant School Application Essay Over at Inside PA Training Paul wrote a wonderful blog post about the common pitfalls that many PA school applicants fall victim to while composing their PA school essay. Common Physician Assistant Essay Pitfalls Clichés Lack of Specificity Weak Conclusion No Theme Boring Introduction This is an excellent list because eight years ago while I was applying […]
Download Your FREE 300 PA School Interview Questions and Answers Workbook Sign up below to receive your free 65 page 300 PA school interview questions and answers workbook. Send My Workbook You have Successfully Subscribed!The integrity and Availability of your critical business information and data is non-negotiable should your organization follow the path of the digital era. It is imperative to focus your attention on protecting your data and making sure it’s always available to serve you and your customers’ needs.
Sometimes, circumstances can vary and you need to adjust your company’s investments based on its resources. Being on a budget and reducing investments can weaken key areas of your organization, but the integrity of your data shouldn’t be affected. At Veeam, we have many FREE solutions ready to sharpen the reliability of your data. Today, I will showcase some of our free tools and explain how you can actually reach a high level of protection at no cost, for both your organization and your personal use.
Veeam Backup Free Edition
Veeam Backup Free Edition is an effective tool for backing up, restoring and managing your virtual infrastructure, mainly known for the VeeamZIP functionality. VeeamZIP allows you to perform interactive full backups without state interruption and store them on the local host, to a network share or on a removable media (USB or external hard drive). Another cool thing about this free edition is that it has no expiration date and no limitation on the number of VMs on your VMware or Hyper-V workloads and it is actually quite rich in functionality and features.
When you create a VeeamZIP file, Veeam Backup Free Edition copies VM data, compresses it and stores it to a full backup file (VBK).
Veeam ONE Free Edition
Experience has taught us that it's better to prevent than to cure. Veeam ONE Free Edition is our monitoring tool that can help you gain complete visibility on your VMware or Hyper-V environments and identify issues before they impact your workloads. I would say the main job of Veeam ONE Free Edition is to make IT admins’ lives easier with real-time alerting, resource allocation prioritization, dynamic groups and much more.
If a problem or a potential issue occurs in the managed environment, Veeam ONE triggers an alarm. A user can view alarms triggered by Veeam ONE. Every alarm has a knowledge base article with detailed information about the issue, its cause, resolution steps and links to more details.
Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE
Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE is a simple tool designed to backup Windows-based laptops and desktops, and rapidly recover lost data in case of failure. There are many scenarios in which this solution can come in handy — your PC is corrupted by malware and can’t access data or the OS fails to start. Because of its flexibility, you can perform full backups of the entire PC, volume-level backups for selected drives or file-level backups for particular files and folders.
Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE is compatible with Windows 10, can be integrated with Veeam Backup & Replication and can easily be installed on the computer you want to protect.
I recommend trying the beta version of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, the successor of Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE that will be released soon and will bring more business-oriented features. But no worries, there will always be a free version of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows!
You can restore individual files and folders from Veeam Agent backups. You can browse to files and folders in the backup and restore the necessary files and folders to their initial location to a new location.
Veeam Agent for Linux FREE
Veeam Agent for Linux FREE is one of the newest addition in our portfolio and it allows you to backup physical Linux systems — such as workstations, servers and machines — in the public cloud. This solution allows you to create image-based backup for specific volumes and files or for the entire system and it is designed for any IT administrator. You can access it through the command line or graphical user interface (GUI).
You can monitor the progress of the currently running backup job session, as well as view detailed statistics on performed backup sessions.
Visio Stencils for VMware, Hyper-V and Veeam
As a bonus, we also put together a free collection of Visio Stencils for VMware, Hyper-V and Veeam to make your diagrams shine. They are compatible with Microsoft Visio 2010, 2013 and 2016 and are ideal for any system administrator who needs to create stylish, yet simple presentations, reports or documentation.
Conclusion
Our FREE tools provide a high level of functionality and features that cover a wide range of requirements. The vulnerable areas or your virtual and physical infrastructure can be strengthened without any expenditure. You can find the complete catalog of our free products here.
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loading...What if Seinfeld lived in Fitzroy? The show would probably look a lot more like the Gardens of Edinburgh web series that's popped up on YouTube recently and has been nailing #northsidelife with a gobful of delicious self-awareness. The web series was created by Aaron and Rhett Hughes (Rhett features in the videos), and include collaborations with Melbourne writers/performers Jess Harris (Twentysomething), Danielle Walker and Adam Rozenbachs.
Here are some of our favourite Gardens of Edinburgh moments:
1. "If you remember Golden Plains... you weren't there."
2. Zoning the entire northern suburbs after a break up, and demanding exclusive access to Edinburgh Gardens.
3. Disowning friends who dare consider living in (gasp) Prahran.
4. Drinking organic rosés or cracking a Carlton Draught tinnie with your girlfriend's dad.
5. "I wanna open a boutiquey place in Preston".
Catch up on the Gardens of Edinburgh episodes here and check out our handy guide to finding out if you're a Melbourne northsider at heart.
Full discretion: This writer met her current flame at Edinburgh Gardens on THAT debaucherous New Year's Eve. And lived in the sweet spot between Edinburgh Gardens and Fitzroy Pool for over two years.Vacation Liberty School Adapts VBS to Teach Nation's Founding to Children
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Vacation Bible School (VBS) is no longer the only vacation school in town thanks to Kentucky members of Glenn Beck's grassroots liberty group called the 9/12 Project.
Vacation Liberty School (VLS) treads the line of faith and politics to teach children ages 10 to 15 the virtues of a democratic society, God's role in the founding of America and even economic issues like inflation. However, the creators of the curriculum say they do not wish to interfere with the spiritual importance of VBS or convert attendees to a particular party's politics. They simply want to the youth to know more about America's founding.
VLS has taken Kentucky and the nation by storm since the idea was first conceived last year.
Curriculum creator Lisa Abler says over 30-40 VLS programs were staged nationwide so far this year. To date, Texas and Ohio have exhibited the most interest in the five-day school teaching lessons in liberty, faith and personal responsibility, she says.
The groups hosting the program, Abler said, "love the curriculum... [and] that the kids have hands-on experience with the [program's] principals [of faith, hope and charity]."
Abler said that parents are also happy with VLS.
"Parents... are saying they learned more in a week of Vacation Liberty School than they've learned in all their years of school," she shared.
VLS borrows its play-learn teaching style, timing schedule and even its name and church location from VBS. (Some VLSs have been hosted in clubhouses and public spaces. However, Abler said churches are usually willing to host the schools for free.)
VLS also touches on the topic of faith. The second day of the VLS program is devoted entirely to faith and how signers of the Constitution prayed and held regular Bible studies. During day two, VLS leaders also pray a historical prayer uttered by early American clergyman and historian Rev. Thomas Prince.
However, Abler, a Lutheran, says VBS is spiritual, and she does not wish to take away from the popular summer church ministry.
"Vacation Liberty School borrows from the model of Vacation Bible School that is familiar to so many Americans," Abler noted on the Ivory Notebook's website. "It is not intended to be in competition or association with VBS in any way."
While similar, VBS and VLS curriculums teach very different concepts.
Rather than teaching stories of Jesus and biblical parables, the program teaches children lessons in early American history – the plight of early settlers, the history behind documents such as the U.S. Constitution and the contributions of people like Ben Franklin. VLS embeds these lessons in children's minds through games, scenarios and discussions.
For instance, children learn about the colonists' escape from tyranny to the new world on the first day by entering a room where the seating is assigned, the food consists of only bread and water and the games are "boring." After going through a maze, they emerge in a new room where there are free seating, lots of fun games and a wide variety of snacks.
"When you engage [the children] in meaningful activity in which... they are doing something, then you follow it up with talking afterwards, you reinforce that [lesson]," Abler explained.
Abler and her husband, Jeff, created the VLS curriculum last year after their local Kentucky 9/12 Project chapter contacted her with the idea of the school. The first VLS held last year drew immense interest and a hardcopy curriculum was written so it could be shipped to other states. Abler, a homeschooler, said she and her husband Jeff worked all winter to put together the current planning guide.
While VLS teaches details of the country's founding, it also teaches the 9/12 Project's principles and values.
Conservative Pundit and Mormon Glenn Beck introduced the project in 2009 as a non-profit organization with the mission to return American back to the day after 9/11.
"On 9/12 no one in the government had to tell us what to do. We just did it. We went and we found a place to give blood. We went and we gave money. We gathered together. We gathered our family around. We prayed. We were the people that our grandparents were and nobody had to tell us," Beck told his Fox News viewers.
The group espouses nine principals such as "America is good," "I believe in God and he is the center of my Life" and "I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday." The 12 values include hope, courage, hard work, personal responsibility and thrift.
The group exercises its principles and values through charitable events and patriotic seminars on the Constitution and American rights and freedoms.
Similarly, VLS has an activity-filled seminar for kids that teach the ills of communism, the importance of individual charity over government charity and the dangers of inflation.
The VLS curriculum has been picked up by several Tea Party groups as well as 9/12 groups, Abler noted. But she said VLS is not about growing the Tea Party's membership or teaching their principals.
"It's not to recruit any children to become a member of any party or any particular group. It's to introduce and awaken children to what the truth is about the Founding Fathers and how this country was formed," she shared.
Abler and her husband are working on more liberty-themed curriculums: one for black history month and another VLS planning guide focused on the Constitution and the federalist papers.The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning hearings for legislation that would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired by President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE.
There are currently two sets of bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Mueller. The first bill is being introduced by Sen. Thom Tillis Thomas (Thom) Roland TillisGOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump Don’t look for House GOP to defy Trump on border wall MORE (R-N.C.) and Sen. Chris Coons Christopher (Chris) Andrew CoonsTrump got in Dem’s face over abortion at private meeting: report Live coverage: Trump delivers State of the Union Actor Chris Evans meets with Democratic senators before State of the Union MORE (D-Del.), and would only allow the most senior Justice Department official to fire Mueller.
The second bill, introduced by Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamHouse to push back at Trump on border Trump pressures GOP senators ahead of emergency declaration vote: 'Be strong and smart' This week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration MORE (R-S.C.), would protect Mueller from being fired unless the attorney general tells a three-judge panel that there was "misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest or other good cause," according to CNN.
Tillis told CNN he was informed that the committee plans on to hold hearings on the legislation in the next two weeks, and that the committee's Chairman, Chuck Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyOvernight Health Care: Drug execs set for grilling | Washington state to sue over Trump rule targeting Planned Parenthood | Wyoming moves closer to Medicaid work requirements Senate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Lower refunds amplify calls to restore key tax deduction MORE (R-Iowa.), has not dismissed calling the bill up for a vote.
The development is a sign that the committee would be willing to go against Trump if he called to remove Mueller.
The Trump administration has expressed great displeasure if Mueller's probe, often citing his staff's ties to Democratic campaigns. The president also publicly warned Mueller not to probe his finances in an interview last July.
It has since been reported that Mueller is looking at Trump's financial history as part of the probe into Russian election interference.
The Senate Judiciary Committee recently set its sights on the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., following reports of his 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney.
The younger Trump met with Senate staffers for more than five hours last week, in which he said he accepted a meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE because he wanted to assess her “fitness” for office.Sept. 27, 2016
Dear Colleagues,
The University of Nebraska has joined other state agencies in submitting our request for state funding for the next two years. As you know, we depend on state support for salaries and benefits as well as many of the day-to-day costs of running the university. We look forward to discussing our funding needs with the Legislature and Governor in the months ahead.
Our request includes components that directly impact employees. I want to briefly review these with you.
“Our budget request builds on a long and successful partnership between the state and its public university that allows us to have a $3.9 billion impact on Nebraska’s economy each year.”
Compensation
Like most universities, the University of Nebraska is a people-driven enterprise. As such, the bulk of our request – more than 90 percent – is related to salaries and benefits. We will have a clearer picture of our salary needs after collective bargaining concludes at UNO and UNK. Let me say a few words about benefits. In April I wrote to you about a three-month health insurance “premium holiday” that we were able to offer. I wrote that given our challenge of navigating an uncertain future for the health insurance industry, we expected future premium increases would be required. That will be the case. We are planning a 10 percent increase in health insurance premiums – both the employer and employee contributions – each of the next two years.
I know increases are never welcome news. In working with our independent actuaries, we determined that these increases – the first since 2009 – are necessary to help us manage the significant growth we’re seeing this year in both high-cost claims and claims overall. When you consider that health care costs in general are also rising, the premium increases will ensure that our health plan remains stable and well-positioned to meet the needs of our employees and their families.
You may ask why we implemented a premium holiday knowing these increases were coming. The premium holiday brought our health plan’s reserves – one-time savings that have accumulated over a number of years – near targeted levels. However, the plan depends on the monthly premiums that you and the university pay to cover its recurring expenses, primarily medical claims. So using one-time resources to offset future premium increases would create a “fiscal cliff” that ultimately would require premium increases significantly higher than the 10 percent being proposed.
Our intent is to keep future premium increases as moderate as possible. We will provide you with more information about your benefits options for 2017 in advance of our annual NUFlex enrollment period, which begins in November.
Strategic Investments
Our two-year budget request to the state also seeks funding for the following priority initiatives, which were developed in consultation with your chancellors:
$250,000 for student access and success initiatives at UNK that will support timely degree completion, in line with our goal for the University of Nebraska to be the best place in the nation to be a student.
$500,000 for our National Strategic Research Institute, which is conducting timely and important research in support of USSTRATCOM’s mission to combat weapons of mass destruction.
$500,000 for the Nebraska Applied Research Institute, a new institute housed at UNO that will contract with clients in industry and government in areas like data science, cybersecurity and modeling/simulation.
We have also submitted a two-year budget request for the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture that seeks new state funding for compensation and general operations to advance NCTA’s momentum in meeting the needs of Nebraska agriculture.
Budget Challenges
Necessarily, we cannot ask the state to fund every priority – even in the best economic times. You have likely seen news reports about the current fiscal challenges Nebraska is facing. We will be a partner in navigating these challenges. Our budget request does not cover all our needs; in fact, over time we have had to do more with less given that the university accounts for a much smaller share of state spending than we did 30 years ago.
But our request does represent responsible budgeting that will position us for continued success. Most importantly, it builds on a long and successful partnership between the state and its public university that allows us to have a $3.9 billion impact on Nebraska’s economy each year – to say nothing of the innumerable ways we improve the health and quality of life in communities across our state.
That impact would not be possible without the good work you do daily on behalf of our students and stakeholders. Thank you for making this university an institution Nebraskans can be proud of.
Sincerely,
Hank Bounds
President, University of Nebraska
www.nebraska.edu/president
@hankbounds(CNN) Nicole Elliott was browsing a Georgia animal shelter's Facebook page two weeks ago when she saw him: a scruffy charcoal-gray dog with sad eyes.
His name was Chester. He was about 14 years old. And he was dying of cancer.
"Hospice needed," the profile said. Chester had mast cell tumors spreading throughout his little body. The shelter was looking for someone willing to give him a home for the final weeks of his life.
The dog's story touched her. But who wants to foster a dying pet? Elliott stepped away from her computer, but she couldn't get Chester and his plight out of her mind. The next day, she went to Animal Ark Rescue, signed some paperwork and brought Chester home.
"I only hope someone would do the same for me if I was terminally ill," she said.
Now Elliott, 24, has gone one step further. The Columbus, Georgia, woman has created a "bucket list" for Chester and is spoiling him with extra treats, oatmeal milk baths and outings to parks. It's all documented on a Facebook page, " Chester's final journey," that has more than 50,000 fans.
"I think he deserves it. He seems to have been neglected in his past life. He is such a sweet boy," said Elliott, who works as an administrative assistant. "I have been trying to get a feel for what he is capable of, and most of the things are general doggy things like going to the park and eating tons of treats."
Over the past 10 days, Chester has been living like a king. He gets to eat pretty much anything he wants. He chews on squeaky toys and enjoys belly rubs. On road trips, he sits on the center console of Elliott's car, where he can snuggle against her arm and look out the windshield.
Although he is weak, Chester still wags his tail like mad when excited.
"He follows me everywhere, and when I walk out the door, he is usually right behind me. I can tell he has been enjoying all of the love he has gotten. And the food is his favorite part," she said.
In the near future, Elliott hopes to take him on a day trip to the beach and maybe to visit sick kids or hospice patients to help cheer them up.
"It all depends on him, though," she said. Elliott is sensitive to critics on Facebook who say too many bucket-list activities will tire Chester out. "We don't want to make him do anything that makes him uncomfortable."
Chester appears to be a mixed breed -- maybe part miniature schnauzer. When he arrived at Animal Ark Rescue in April, his fur was overgrown, and he had a large tumor under one leg.
"He had not been taken care of in a while," said Sabine Stull, the shelter's executive director.
The shelter cleaned him up and had the tumor surgically removed, only for others to soon appear. Resigned to the inevitable, shelter staffers sought hospice care for Chester and were thrilled when Elliott showed up.
"It's absolutely wonderful what she's doing for him," said Stull. "It's really something. This is not an easy thing to do."
Veterinarians are not sure how much time Chester has left. It could be anywhere from days to several months, Elliott said. The dog is on pain medication to keep him comfortable.
In the meantime, Chester's bucket list has brought international media attention and an outpouring of support on Facebook and Instagram. Elliott has started an online campaign to fund the hospice program at Animal Ark Rescue and is hoping Chester's story will inspire others to foster terminally ill dogs and cats.
"All of the kind words and support help me get through it. I have cried many happy tears reading the comments," she said.
"It will be very hard (to say goodbye to him), but I know the legacy he is leaving behind makes it easier. I am already in love with him and feel lucky to be there for the remainder of his life."Nowadays, icons are a vital part of web designing. Icons help us capture user’s attention and direct them to the corresponding content. Icons can help the visitors to easily navigate through the site and reach to the desired content. Moreover, icons are an important element of an effective and attractive web design. Effective usage of icons can tremendously improve the experience of your visitors. In this article we are featuring many Amazing Free Icons Sets that you can freely use in your designs. These icons are vector icons so they can be scaled to any size. This post will be regularly updated with new icon sets so keep visiting for the latest additions.
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This beautifully designed icon set contains 440 outlined and filled icons. DownloadThe study of a concussion goes back to ancient Greek times and had been studied as an immediate injury, in other words, an injury that is treated within moments or hours of the initial event. It wasn’t clear whether there was a long term effect of these injuries until former players of the NFL began to question the rates at which veterans of the sport were dropping in their respective sociology-economic standings and suffered from symptoms normally found in dementia and Alzheimer patients.
The NFL initially tried to block and retract the paper published by Dr. Bennet Omalu and accused him of practicing voodoo. Dr. Omalu is the doctor who initiated examination on former player, Mike Webster’s brain in 2002 which brought the issue of post-concussion trauma to the forefront of the sport and led to a multi-billion dollar payout by the NFL.
Before Dr. Omalu conducted the autopsy on Webster, there was little documented evidence that concussions had a long-term effect on the brain. The papers and studies that came out of a British medical consensus was that brain injury and concussion was an occupational hazard in contact sport. This understanding stood as a guide since 1969, that is until Dr. Omalu discovered something very different.
CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy was coined by Dr. Omalu after he studied Webster’s brain along with other athletes that showed similar symptoms. In layman’s terms, CTE means traumatic brain injury sustained during repeated blows to the head. This type of injury can be found in any athlete that partakes in collision sports such as boxing, wrestling, football, rugby, MMA or any other sport where bodies collide.
With this discovery the NFL had to admit to the fact that there was a problem with concussion studies and treatment and after a decade of lawsuits and debates, the NFL eventually established a concussion protocol that now requires multiple assessments and uses technology to relay real time information to the sidelines concerning head trauma.
All teams now use a device developed by X2Biosystems called the xPatch and concussion management systems known as X2 ICE. This piece of equipment is tapped to the back of the ear of a player and can give readouts about the impacts on player’s head.
This technology has now been adopted into the realm of rugby, another sport that has taken concussion seriously and warrants serious investment. Saracens Rugby Football Club, the English club, recently had players wear this device when playing against London Irish. They have put up the initial investment of £350,000 for this program and will likely invest more in the future.
It is a new program that has the potential to re-write protocols and injury management, especially regarding head trauma. At the moment, rugby has a side line assessment program for players that have a suspected head knock. They are taken into the change rooms and given a series of questions to answer and some light physical testing. Once the doctor is satisfied that the player has passed these tests, they are able to return to the field.
Many have rightfully argued that this type of assessment is inadequate and we, as the the rugby community, do not fully understand the long-term effects of brain trauma sustained during a concussion. The technology available can help us better understand the impact suffered in contact with the X2 Biosystem device.
This system allows doctors to receive real time information and they can immediately pull the player from the field to minimise further damage. The xPatch is small enough to be attached behind the player’s ear but unfortunately, due to the nature of rugby, not all players can wear it, so some further development needs to be done so that all players can be monitored concerning brain trauma.
With the concern of catastrophic injuries becoming a main talking point in the rugby world, it won’t be long until some very inventive systems and protocols are introduced to limit injuries and prevent any long term damage. Rugby is a collision game and injuries will occur, no matter how much preparation is put in to prevent such things, that is just the nature of the game. We cannot stop every injury, but most injuries heal with no risk to long term trauma as they are normally ligament damage, broken bones or muscular tears. Most of these can be repaired through surgery, except the brain.
Brain trauma cannot be easily repaired and needs to be cautiously treated once a problem has been identified. The current tech can minimize the trauma and give the doctors a better understanding of the impact, but can never prevent it. This type of injury is normally treated through rest and controlled environments. Players are normally told to stay on the side lines and don’t get involved in any practices sessions.
In 2014 we saw at least two high profile players sidelined due to concussion concerns. Keiran Read was ruled out for a number of weeks during Super Rugby because of lingering concussion concerns and the Crusaders had to play without him. Recently Johnny Sexton has been ruled out until mid-February because of multiple on-field concussions.
These players have received the benefit of new concussion assessment knowledge and to prevent any long term problems, they were ruled out of the game for an extended period to allow their brains to normalise. By studying their cases, and many others, rugby is now in a position to go forward with new programs and technology.
Some ideas that have been proposed include building the xPatch device into scrum caps and having forwards wearing the caps, gum guards becoming a piece of technology that relay information to the sideline doctors and GPS trackers currently fitted to players, to relay other stats instead of just distance traveled.
The future of rugby is now reliant on proper assessment of injuries and the technology is there to help better protect and enhance players’ lives. It will be a sad day if we are to witness former greats in a state of depression and facing similar lives as dementia and Alzheimer patients. Clubs have taken steps to make sure that the future is brighter for the men and women who put their bodies on the line every weekend to play the game that we all love.
Thank you for reading. Follow me on twitter @myrugbyblog – and “liking” our Facebook page. Listen to the podcast here. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld – and “ |
that women generally made better defense jurors than men, Prosecutor Clark willingly accepted a disproportionate number of women jurors. She reportedly believed--wrongly, as it turned out--that female jurors responded well to her courtroom style. The defense's simulated jury tests had indicated that black females disliked Nicole Simpson--believing that she was irresponsibly milking money from a famous black man--and that they would also likely be hostile to a hard-edged female prosecutor such as Marcia Clark.
The defense poured great effort into the jury selection process. Consultant Dmitrius coordinated massive data on each of the jury finalists, including their answers to the questionaire, responses and body language during voir dire, and other data the defense had managed to collect. This data was put into a computer and each juror ranked according to their likely sympathy to the defense.
By November 3, an initial jury of twelve had been selected. The jury consisted of 8 blacks, 2 Hispanics, 1 half-Caucasian, half Native American, and 1 Caucasian female. Fifteen alternates were selected over the next few weeks.
On December 4, the jury was assembled and given cautionary instructions by Judge Ito. They were told that the trial would begin on January 4, and that they could expect to be sequestered for the duration of the several-month trial.
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In another recent case involving a grand jury, white cops, and a black civilian, a grand jury in the east Texas town of Jasper, about two hours from Houston, chose last month not to indict two police officers for the brutal beating of Jasper resident Keyarika Diggles. Diggles had been arrested and jailed in May 2013 over an unpaid $100 parking ticket (which, it turned out, she had been paying in installments.) As you can see in the surveillance video below, at some point officers Ricky Grissom and Ryan Cunningham grab Diggles, slam her head on the counter, pull her hair and drag her across the floor by her feet:
According to the Texas Observer, the officers proceeded to drag Diggles into a dark “detox cell,” where her lawyers said she spent hours before being strip-searched by another officer. Here’s more from the Observer on the aftermath of the attack:
Diggles settled a civil rights lawsuit against the city and the officers last December for $75,000. And less than a month after the incident, Jasper’s city council voted to fire Cunningham and Grissom. That alone was a stronger response than many allegations of police brutality get, and Jasper Mayor Mike Lout said the council would work with the district attorney to consider criminal charges against the officers. Lout and other city leaders stressed that the Diggles case wasn’t a sign of some deeper racial divide in the city, but an isolated incident with the perpetrators swiftly punished.
“We are shocked by the failure of the prosecutor to get an indictment,” said Cade Bernsen, Diggles’ attorney. “I’m wondering what investigation was done because the video speaks for itself.”
According to records obtained by the Observer, Cunningham was hired to join the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office in September.President Donald Trump has complained loudly that the media have dedicated too much time to coverage of the ongoing investigations into Russian interference in last year’s election. | AP Photo Trump: 'Fake News will be forced to discuss' White House accomplishments
The media that President Donald Trump has so often derided for what he perceives as their unfair coverage of his administration will soon have no choice but to report on the White House’s preferred issues, the president wrote online Monday morning.
“At some point the Fake News will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with ISIS, the border & so much else!” Trump wrote on Twitter, listing issues on which he has claimed success since taking office.
Story Continued Below
The president, along with other members of his administration, has complained loudly that the media have dedicated too much time to coverage of the ongoing investigations into Russian interference in last year’s presidential election, as well as other scandals and controversies, at the expense of news that might portray Trump in a more positive light. Often, coverage that the White House has complained about has been spurred by Trump’s own Twitter account, where he regularly posts incendiary comments.
Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, appearing Monday morning on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," said the media have paid too much attention to the president's tweets and not enough to the substance of the policies he has advocated, including an overhaul of the nation's health care system.
"The media have now moved on from Russia to cover themselves, and I doubt that's going to help their 14 percent approval rating. The American people see that they're trying to interfere with the president communicating directly through his very powerful social media network channels," she said. "But also, they notice that they don't cover the substance of the issues. Look, I know it is a heck of a lot easier to cover 140 characters here or there or what the president may be saying about the media here or there than it is to learn the finer points of how Medicaid is funded in this country and how that would or would not change under the Senate bill."
Trump's tweet Monday comes on the heels of several social media posts in which the president blasted members of the media, including MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough as well as CNN.
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In pushing back against what it has labeled unfair coverage, the White House has regularly pointed to decreases in illegal border crossings, progress in the military campaign against the Islamic State and continued positive economic indicators that began during the administration of former President Barack Obama. Many of those economic numbers that the White House has celebrated as proof of its successes were once dismissed by Trump as “phony” and “one of the biggest hoaxes in American politics.”
Trump did not directly indicate what would compel the media to alter their pattern of White House coverage but seemed to imply that the forward momentum that his administration has claimed would leave the press with no other option. And despite Trump’s assertion that the media “will be forced” to cover the issues listed in his tweet, the topics have already been the subject of reporting by multiple media outlets.Phasers, lasers, masers, disruptors, blasters, pulse rifles, plasma cannons, and concussion beams—call it what you will, the directed energy weapon has become a staple element of the science fiction and fantasy genre. Considering the sheer variety of devices, whether powered by mystical energies or hard science, most names are inappropriate to describe the concept as a whole. The term "death ray" seems to be the most apt, in that it conveys the destructive force of such a weapon whilst remaining ambiguous enough not to limit its design. The concept of the weapon is surprisingly old, having its origins in early mankind's attempts to rationalize the natural world.
Thor's Battle Against the Giants by Marten Eskil Winge
The humble lightning bolt provided the original inspiration for the beam of destructive energy that characterizes the death ray. Anyone who has witnessed a lightning storm will appreciate the intense effect it has on the psyche. It is easy to imagine how such an impressive force of nature worked its way into ancient mythology. Lightning-based weapons are commonplace in these stories, from the hammer of the Viking god Thor to the spear of the Hindu god Indra. Through the image of Zeus's thunderbolts it evolved into a symbol of divine intervention: the definitive act of god. Although these myths would eventually subside, our fascination with lightning continued. It its most basic form, the death ray is an attempt to harness this power.
Perhaps the earliest incarnation of the death ray was that of Archimedes's "burning mirror," supposedly employed against the Romans at the Siege of Syracuse (c. 214-212 BC). This device worked along the same lines as burning ants with a magnifying glass, focusing sunlight onto enemy ships and causing them to catch fire. The credibility of such a weapon having ever existed has been a source of debate ever since the Renaissance. The earliest accounts of the battle contain no mention of the device and the conventional weapons of the time were perfectly capable of setting fire to ships at a short distance. However, John Wesley (1810) suggested that, given the available material, such a weapon could have been constructed. An array of highly polished copper or bronze shields could have been used as a kind of parabolic reflector, working in a similar manner to a solar furnace. This method was tested in 1973 by the Greek scientist Ioannis Sakkas, who successfully used a series of seventy copper mirrors to burn a fleet of plywood ships ( Time, 1973). Though not a death ray in the modern sense, it is certainly the longest surviving account of any kind of man-made directed-energy weapon.
The concept of the modern death ray was forged in the 1920s and 1930s, when various individuals theorized the application of a particle beam or electromagnetic weapon. The American inventor Edwin R. Scott claimed to have developed a "lightning device" that could "bring down planes at a distance" (NYT, 1924). Prior to this, Harry Grindell-Matthews had tried to sell an energy weapon to the British Air Ministry. In 1923 he claimed to have invented a device that could "put magnetos out of action," which with enough power could operate to a distance of up to four miles (Ibid.). However, despite demonstrating the weapon to journalists he was unable, or unwilling, to produce a working model for the military. Over a decade later, Antonio Longoria produced one of the more bizarre claims. Apparently he had constructed a device that could kill a mouse that had been encased in a "thick walled metal chamber" by dissolving its red blood corpuscles ( Popular Science, 1940). The then president of the Inventor's Congress, Albert Burns, said that he had witnessed dogs, cats, pigeons and rabbits being killed at a distance by this weapon ( Time, 1936).
Longoria's wanton abuse of pigeons would have angered the noted eccentric Nikola Tesla, who harbored a deep fondness for the bird. No discussion on the history of the death ray would be complete without mentioning the pioneering work of Tesla. He worked on his "teleforce" weapon from the early 1900s until his death in 1943, but because he was unable to secure any governmental funding, the project was left undeveloped. His ideas concerning the creation of the energy weapon seem to be the most viable when compared with those of Longoria, Scott, and Grindell-Matthews. His theory was that a narrow stream of particles, perhaps mercury or tungsten, could be accelerated by a high-voltage current to produce a concentrated beam of minute projectiles. Tesla believed (some would say wildly exaggerated) that this would produce enough energy to destroy "a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles" (NYT, 1934). He boasted that his weapon would have the effect of surrounding every country that used it with an impenetrable barrier, capable of destroying invading armies before they could even cross the border (Ibid.). In fact, all four of these pioneers made similar claims.
Indeed, the one thing that these men all had in common was their singular belief that their death rays could put a stop to armed conflict. Tesla optimistically referred to his weapon as a "peace-ray"—"a machine to end war" (Tesla, 1937). Similarly, Grindell-Matthews believed that "the death-ray will sweep whole armies into oblivion, whole cities into bleak, smoldering ruins, explode bombs in midair, blow up ammunition dumps from great distances [and so] end war" ( Time, 1924). Fundamentally, they desired to create a weapon that was so powerful that it would act as the ultimate deterrent against war. It is no surprise, then, that when such a weapon was finally developed, public interest in the death ray dwindled. The atomic bomb took its place as the superweapon of unimaginable annihilation, surpassing the destructive capability of any of the proposed energy weapons. Although the United States National Inventors Council would continue to list the death ray as a much needed military invention until 1957 (NYT, 1957), the golden age of the concept was over by the late 1940s.
The death ray did have a brief resurgence during the 1980s, at least in a defensive capacity, under the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program. Seemingly lifted straight from the pages of a comic book, the program suggested that a network of satellite-based lasers could be used to destroy missiles in flight. The technology behind this idea was dubious at best, and although the program continues through the Missile Defense Agency, the laser-based concepts have been shelved. This was perhaps the last great gasp of the death ray in modern times, as its applications have proved to be somewhat limited. Their legacy was assured, however, as the real world development of the death ray helped to popularize their use in science fiction.
1906 illustration of H.G. Wells's Martian Heat-Ray
The death ray had, of course, already featured in fiction prior to the twentieth century. H. G. Wells included a ray-type weapon in his seminal novel The War of the Worlds (1898). His description of the Martian Heat-Ray is similar to, and probably based on, John Wesley's description of Archimedes's burning mirror. It too used a parabolic mirror to focus and direct a beam of intense energy, which is described as having similar properties to light. The only differences between the two devices were the intensity of the beam and the source that powered it, which was obviously more fantastical in War of the Worlds. The Martian Heat-Ray led to the appearance of similar weapons in other works of fiction in the early twentieth century. More importantly, Wells probably influenced the development of directed-energy weapons in the real world.
The mid-twentieth century would see the beginning of the widespread use of the death ray in science fiction. At first these were weapons of unknown design, many of which appeared to be electrically based, firing lightning arcs at its target. Later, following the first demonstration of a working model in 1960, the laser briefly became the weapon of choice in science fiction. Examples are the Lost in Space television series (1965-1968) or the pilot episode of Star Trek (1964). However, once the limitations of the laser became evident in the late 1960s, the technology behind the death rays in fiction became more ambiguous. The generic term "beam" became prevalent, being ambiguous enough to describe all manner of energy weapons. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the particle beam-style death ray became the most popular, from the replacement phasers of Star Trek (1966-1969) to the stylized proton beams of Ghostbusters (1984). All of these weapons are, of course, grounded in pseudoscience, and none suffer from the disadvantages that plague energy weapons in reality.
An effective energy weapon has yet to materialize in the real world, in spite of progress in the field. Lasers are the archetypal weapon in science fiction, but power constraints mean that in practice they are usually used only for targeting purposes. In theory a weaponized laser would be able to fire brief pulses of energy that would cause damage through a process known as mechanical shear, meaning that the target surface would be explosively evaporated. There are some of these weapons in existence, usually gas-dynamic lasers, which work by forcing the laser media through a series of holes at high pressure to create a stream of plasma. Stranger still is the electrolaser, which acts as high-powered taser by directing an electric current down an ionized track of plasma. Aside from the power issue, the main drawback of all lasers is the delicate system of high precision mirrors and windows within the resonance chamber. Put simply, they are just not practical in combat situations.
The Active Denial System, developed by the U.S. Air Force, blasts subjects with the feeling of intense heat
Research into the possibility of microwave-based weapons has proved more promising. Weapons of this type have already been manufactured and are capable of injuring human tissue (CBS, 2008). They work by heating the water in the target's skin cells to cause excruciating pain and even death. Microwaves also have further applications in their ability to destroy unshielded electronics. The U.S. Air Force leads the way in this area of research, mainly in producing a stun device for riot situations. In theory this weapon could only incapacitate the target, though some have suggested that lasting damage may occur. The most tantalizing aspect of this type of weapon is that all of all the components that are required to manufacture it are already available. This is the main drawback of particle beam and plasma-based weapons.
The main selling point of the particle beam weapon is the possibility of it being self-focusing in the atmosphere. This had led to the suggestion that it is a prime candidate for use against satellites and spacecraft (FAS, 2005). An electrical discharge in the vacuum of space could travel an unlimited distance at slightly slower than the speed of light. A laser beam would be an unsuitable carrier for this discharge because it would soon disperse. A particle beam could be the solution to this as it would, in theory at least, be able to keep the electric discharge on track. However, like lasers, a particle beam would suffer from blooming, which means that energy directed at the target would eventually spread out after a certain distance and make it less effective. A particle beam would also travel much slower than the speed of light due to the mass and density of the beam itself.
Plasma-based weapons utilize a stream or bolt of plasma, an excited state of matter, to cause damage to the intended target. Plasma torches are used already to cut metal, and these could potentially be weaponized. There is a theory that the phenomenon known as ball lightning may be a type of plasma, which could be mimicked to produce a kind of guided energy missile. This idea was adopted by the Shiva Star project, which attempted to create a defense network to shoot down enemy missiles with plasma projectiles (Turchi, 1973). Again, power constraints are the main issue as well as the practicality of such a device when compared with more conventional weapons.
And so the future of the death ray is uncertain at best. Although the technology is feasible, and in some cases readily available, these devices have yet to materialize on the battlefield. The power constraints of these weapons as well as their highly intricate and bulky designs make them wholly impractical in combat situations. In any case, none of these theoretical weapons have been predicted to match up to the sheer destructive force prophesied by the likes of Tesla. When compared with conventional weapons, the benefits of a directed energy weapon seem slight. Yet there still lingers a fascination with the death ray, perhaps bordering on the romantic. The almost pseudoscientific nature of these weapons will assure their persistence in the fictional world, if not the real one.
Works Cited
CBS News. "The Pentagon's Ray Gun." Jun. 1, 2008.
FAS. Federation of American Scientists. "Neutral Particle Beam (NPB)." 2005.
NYT. New York Times. "Denies British Invented 'Death Ray'—E.R. Scott Asserts He and Other Americans Preceded Grindell-Matthews." Sep. 5, 1924.
Ibid. "Council Seeking Death-Ray and Greaseless Bearing for Armed Forces." Nov. 3, 1957.
Ibid. "Beam to Kill Army at 200 Miles, Tesla's Claim on 78th Birthday." Jul. 11, 1934.
Popular Science. "Inventor Hides Secret of Death-Ray." Feb. 1940.
Tesla, N. "A Machine to End War," in The Anti-Gravity Handbook, 2003, pp. 81-86, 1937.
Time. "Archimedes' Weapon." Nov. 26, 1973.
Ibid. "Grindell-Matthews." Aug. 25, 1924.
Ibid. "Welder at Work." Aug. 10, 1936.
Turchi, P. "Generation of High-Energy Plasmas by Electromagnetic Implosion," in Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 44., 1937.
Wesley, J. A Compendium of Natural Philosophy, Chapter XII, Burning Glasses, 1810.
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EmailThe Secret Service has been getting a lot of flak recently just because a White House fence jumper made it all the way into the East Room. And back in 2011, they didn’t notice the building had been shot for four days. Plus, there was all that stuff about prostitution and agents drunkenly partying all over the world.
Obviously, none of this is good, but it also isn’t new. While agents have put their lives on the line countless times, they’ve also made some egregious errors. Here’s a look at some of their biggest and most bizarre blunders, from the potential assassin who was granted a meeting with Theodore Roosevelt to the tourist who was able to wander around the White House during Reagan’s second inauguration. (There’s no official history of Secret Service debauchery, so you’ll have to use your imagination.)
President Theodore Roosevelt at his desk, 1907. Photo: null/Corbis
Armed man asks to see Theodore Roosevelt, gets invited into the Red Room.
Congress asked the Secret Service, which was created as part of the Treasury Department in 1865 to combat counterfeiting, to begin protecting the president in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley. It didn’t take long for the agency to let a potentially dangerous man get close to his successor, Theodore Roosevelt.
While he was in the White House, Roosevelt would usually see visitors between 9 and 10 p.m. According to Andrew Tully’s Treasury Agent: The Inside Story, one night a man wearing a top hat, white tie, and tails drove up to the White House and told an usher the president was expecting him. The president said he didn’t recognize the name, but he’d meet with him anyway. After a few minutes alone with the visitor in the Red Room, Roosevelt buzzed for an usher and told him quietly, “Take this crank out of here.” When the Secret Service frisked the man, they found a revolver in his back pocket.
TR was famously shot in the chest a few years later (and delivered a speech anyway), but the Secret Service can’t be blamed for that one. The incident occurred on the campaign trail in 1912, and the agency didn’t start protecting presidential candidates until 1968.
Man barges through the front door of the Taft White House, twice.
Getting into the White House was slightly harder for Michael Winter, but he still managed to do it two times in 1912. The Illinois paper The Day Book reported at the time that “when he reached the White House, he ran swiftly up the steps, dashed past the doorkeeper, and for a moment was lost in the darkness of the hall.” He was caught and thrown out, then “a few minutes later he repeated the performance.” Winter, who had a knife in his pocket, insisted he had to speak to President Taft but wouldn’t say why.
Intruder watches a movie with FDR.
White House security was stepped up during the Great Depression, as President Herbert Hoover was receiving a large number of death threats. The Secret Service increased the size of the president’s detail and began searching visitors’ bags and packages. However, according to former First Daughter Margaret Truman, “slipups still occurred.” She wrote in The President’s House:
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s oldest son, Jimmy, tells a story that the Secret Service would rather forget. One night during World War II, he was home on leave and joined his parents at the White House for dinner. Afterward they watched a movie. When the lights came on, a neatly dressed young man, a complete stranger, was standing next to FDR.
The man said he just wanted the president’s autograph, and the president gave it to him before he was escorted out by Secret Service agents.
Preston's stolen Army helicopter sits on the South Lawn of the White House. Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS
Army officer steals helicopter, lands on White House lawn.
Private Robert K. Preston flunked out of the training program to become a U.S. Army pilot, so he did what anyone would do: He stole a helicopter from Maryland’s Fort Meade and flew it to the White House just to prove he could. In 1974, Preston led police helicopters on an hour-long chase and eventually wound up hovering over the South Lawn of the White House, where the Secret Service opened fire. The Associated Press reported at the time: “The chopper, its metal skin peppered with buckshot, veered leftward, bounced on one runner, then the other, and settled to a halt, barely 100 yards from the executive mansion itself.”
Preston was tackled by several officers and later sentenced to one year in jail. His mission was still successful, in a way: The officers who pursued him described his flying as “masterful.”
The Fords celebrate Christmas 1974 in Colorado. Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS
Self-proclaimed “messiah” makes bomb threat outside the White House on Christmas Day.
On Christmas Day 1974, ten months after the helicopter incident, Marshall Fields, the 25-year-old son of a retired American diplomat, rammed his Chevy Impala into a White House gate and parked under the North Portico. Fields was dressed in Arabic-style clothing, claimed he was the Messiah, and appeared to be laden with explosives. His only demand was to speak to the Pakistani ambassador. After four hours of negotiations, he surrendered when Howard University radio broadcast his request for a meeting.
Fields’s “explosives” turned out to be flares. The president was on vacation in Colorado at the time, which is why Fields wasn’t shot. A Secret Service spokesman told the Washington Post, “we had an empty White House on Christmas Day. We have some compassion.”
Man jumps fence, gets near First Daughter.
People jump over the White House fence pretty regularly, but one incident stands out because the intruder managed to wander the grounds undetected for two hours. On Thanksgiving night in 1975, Gerald Gainous hopped over the White House fence and hid in some bushes, then approached the president’s 18-year-old daughter, Susan Ford, while she was unloading her car. He was released on his own recognizance and hopped the fence again ten days later.
Gainous’s father had been convicted of smuggling heroin, and according to an AP report from the time, “Gainous told officials he wanted to ask the president to pardon his father the way he pardoned former President Richard Nixon.”
The Reagans were distracted at the time. Photo: MIKE SARGENT/2009 AFP
Intruder wanders around the White House during Reagan inauguration.
A tourist got a 15-minute private tour of the White House as President Reagan was participating in inaugural festivities on January 20, 1985. Robert Latta simply marched in following the United States Marine Band, though unlike the rest of the band, he didn’t have top-secret security clearance or even an instrument and uniform. He was apprehended in the family dining room when an usher noticed he looked out of place.
Latta told the New York Times he didn’t realize he was doing anything illegal by entering the White House and ”just wanted to see how far I could get.” He was in town to see the inauguration and called the experience ”the high point of being in Washington.”In response to a question from the audience, Cook said, "I think you will see us open up more in the future, but not to the degree that we put the customer at risk of having a bad experience." This means that Apple will allow developers deeper access to APIs, and could even open up iOS to more customization in the form of alternative keyboards.
Of course, while we expect there will be some rage spewed on the Internet over Cook's comments, the fact is that he's telling the truth. As much as Android fans may praise the platform for its abundance of choice, some users simply don't want to make that many decisions. Some users want a device that doesn't have as many options, because the learning curve isn't as steep, and the functionality is good enough. It's all a matter of opinion, and personal preference. Fanboys may forget, but one of the choices Android offers is to not choose Android at all.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has had his PR team working overtime, because there's no way a headline this good came off the top of his head. In one quick move, Tim Cook both excited the Apple fanbase, and caused all of the Apple haters to go blind with rage by saying that while Apple will open up APIs a little, there won't be a huge change, because "the customer pays [Apple] to make some of these choices on their behalf".Source:
Americans’ trust has been undermined by the N.S.A.’s domestic surveillance programs, as well as by senior officials’ misleading statements about surveillance. Only by ending the dragnet collection of ordinary Americans’ private information can this trust be rebuilt.
THE framers of the Constitution declared that government officials had no power to seize the records of individual Americans without evidence of wrongdoing, and they embedded this principle in the Fourth Amendment.
The bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records — so-called metadata — by the National Security Agency is, in our view, a clear case of a general warrant that violates the spirit of the framers’ intentions.
This intrusive program was authorized under a secret legal process by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, so for years American citizens did not have the knowledge needed to challenge the infringement of their privacy rights.
Our first priority is to keep Americans safe from the threat of terrorism. If government agencies identify a suspected terrorist, they should absolutely go to the relevant phone companies to get that person’s phone records.
But this can be done without collecting the records of millions of law-abiding Americans. We recall Benjamin Franklin’s famous admonition that those who would give up essential liberty in the pursuit of temporary safety will lose both and deserve neither.
The usefulness of the bulk collection program has been greatly exaggerated. We have yet to see any proof that it provides real, unique value in protecting national security. In spite of our repeated requests, the N.S.A. has not provided evidence of any instance when the agency used this program to review phone records that could not have been obtained using a regular court order or emergency authorization.
Despite this, the surveillance reform bill recently ratified by the Senate Intelligence Committee would explicitly permit the government to engage in dragnet collection as long as there were rules about when officials could look at these phone records. It would also give intelligence agencies wide latitude to conduct warrantless searches for Americans’ phone calls and emails.
This is not the true reform that poll after poll has shown the American people want. It is preserving business as usual. When the Bill of Rights was adopted, it established that Americans’ papers and effects should be seized only when there was specific evidence of suspicious activity. It did not permit government agencies to issue general warrants as long as records seized were reviewed with the permission of senior officials.
Congress has a crucial opportunity to reassert constitutionally guaranteed liberties by reforming the N.S.A.’s overbroad collection of Americans’ personal data. But the Intelligence Committee bill squanders this chance. It would enable some of the most constitutionally questionable surveillance activities now exposed to the public eye. The Senate should be reining in these programs, not giving them a stamp of approval.
As members of the Intelligence Committee, we strongly disagree with this approach. We had already proposed our own, bipartisan surveillance reform legislation, the Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Reform Act, which we have sponsored with a number of other senators. Our bill would prohibit the government from conducting warrantless “backdoor searches” of Americans’ communications — including emails, text messages and Internet use — under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It would also create a “constitutional advocate” to present an opposing view when the F.I.S.C. is considering major questions of law or constitutional interpretation.
Rather than adopt our legislation, the Intelligence Committee chose to codify excessively broad domestic surveillance authorities. So we offered amendments: One would end the bulk collection of Americans’ records, but still allow intelligence agencies to obtain information they legitimately needed for national security purposes by getting the approval of a judge, which could even be done after the fact in emergency situations. Another of our amendments sought to prevent the N.S.A. from collecting Americans’ cellphone location information in bulk — a capability that potentially turns the cellphone of every man, woman and child in America into a tracking device.
Each of these proposals represents real and meaningful reform, which we believe would have fulfilled the purpose of protecting our security and liberty. Each was rejected by the committee, in some cases by a single vote.
But we will continue to engage with our colleagues and seek to advance the reforms that the American people want and deserve. As part of this effort, we will push to hold a comprehensive reform debate on the Senate floor.
There is no question that our nation’s intelligence professionals are dedicated, patriotic men and women who make real sacrifices to help keep our country safe and free. We believe that they should be able to do their jobs secure in the knowledge that their agencies have the confidence of the American people.
But this trust has been undermined by the N.S.A.’s domestic surveillance programs, as well as by senior officials’ misleading statements about surveillance. Only by ending the dragnet collection of ordinary Americans’ private information can this trust be rebuilt.
Congress needs to preserve the agencies’ ability to collect information that is actually necessary to guard against threats to our security. But it also needs to preserve the right of citizens to be free from unwarranted interference in their lives, which the framers understood was vital to American liberties.Lewis Hamilton says he is "very optimistic" about the prospects for his new Mercedes team this season.
Hamilton finished fifth after qualifying third in the first race of the season in Australia last weekend and says the team can improve on that.
"I came away with 10 points and I'm really happy with that," he said.
"When I made the switch [from McLaren] I didn't know where we would be but I definitely didn't think we'd come away from the first race with 10 points."
Hamilton said he was sure the team would be able to repeat that result and improve on it in the future.
"[I have] the feeling that that's not going to be just a lucky shot," he said.
Hamilton in Australia Qualified: Third
Third Finished: Fifth
Fifth Fastest race lap: 1:29.759s (lap 45)
1:29.759s (lap 45) Gap: 0.485s behind winner Kimi Raikkonen
"It's something we can try to continue through the rest of the year. The top teams are really good at developing the car and moving forward really fast. I think that is something the car is learning to do."
Hamilton said his confidence is boosted by the fact Mercedes did not get the best out of their car on a weekend affected by rain.
"Overall I think we struggled less [than expected]," he said.
"The car performed really well. It was not the easiest of weekends with the weather coming in and out.
"It was new for the team and for me working with the engineers, so it was all in the air and we were trying to catch the balls as much as we could.
"We were strong in a lot of places. I really don't feel we extracted the most from the car so coming here [to Malaysia] I feel really positive and optimistic about the weekend."
Hamilton's former team McLaren struggled in Australia and they have accepted they face a long, hard battle to get back to the front.
Media playback is not supported on this device Suzi Perry previews Malaysian GP
Jenson Button, who finished ninth in Australia, said McLaren would not be in a position to fight for victory in Malaysia this weekend.
"For us at the moment, the important thing is to keep working and see what we can do with development and a direction, taking every day as it comes," he said.
"This weekend we're not going to be winning grands prix, so it's not suddenly going to come good, but we can find a step forward. It's about developing as much as we can, as quick as we can."
He admitted McLaren did not have a complete understanding of the problems with the car.
"Some of it yes," he said. "A few of the midfield teams that would normally be behind us are also very surprised by how quick some of the cars are.
"And I think that has surprised us just as much, as to how we're not getting the performance we thought we had. I think we have a reasonable understanding of what we need to do, but not 100%."
Asked whether there was a sense of panic about the team, Button said: "I wouldn't use that word, but we're working hard to get back to the front because this is not where we expected to be and it's definitely not where we should be."
And he said a title challenge was already unlikely.
"If Kimi [Raikkonen, who won the first race for Lotus] doesn't finish in the points again and the next guy that wins doesn't finish in the points again there might be an opportunity," he said.
"If Kimi goes and wins the next four races, he's going to have a 90-odd point lead over me so it's going to be tricky, but the good news is there are a lot of teams who are reasonably competitive and they are going to take points off each other.
"Lotus and Kimi did a great job in the race. A lot of people will have learnt from what they've done and [Malaysia] is a very different circuit with the conditions so I think you'll see a different winner here."Celebrating Michael Savage's 75th birthday, Matt Drudge, founder of the largest news aggregator site in the world, DrudgeReport.com, paid him a surprise visit and guest hosted for a short while, fielding some calls and offering his opinion on the ongoing struggle between Trump versus the world. Almost begrudgingly, Drudge declared that Trump, single handedly, saved the main stream media from death spiraling amidst catastrophic ratings -- thanks to public disinterest. Because of Trump, Drudge believes, the opposition has 'consolidated', 'following every bouncing ball', which has created a revitalization in the media not seen in years.
“I’m getting a little bit nervous about the media situation. Do you know, the media was near death. The New York Times was hanging on the short hairs. Do you know Vanity Fair was going under. CNN barely had a |
will be exclusively live on Sky Sports Box Office on May 2
Sky Sports Box Office has been awarded exclusive live rights to 'the fight of the century', the welterweight world championship unification clash between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, thanks to an agreement announced on Tuesday.
The contest, one of the most eagerly anticipated events in boxing history, will be shown live from the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 2.
The event puts together two of the greatest boxers of all time: Floyd Mayweather (47-0-0) the undefeated 11-time world champion and holder of the WBC and WBA titles, and Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2) the reigning WBO welterweight world champion and winner of 10 world titles.
Sky Sports viewers will be able to follow the build-up to Mayweather v Pacquiao across its channels and digital media outlets, including access to both boxers’ training camps, press conferences and public appearances.
Ricky Hatton sat down with Andy Scott to break down the biggest fight in history between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao Ricky Hatton sat down with Andy Scott to break down the biggest fight in history between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao
Barney Francis, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said: "This fight has everything and is set to be one of the biggest sports events of the year. As the home of boxing in the UK and Republic of Ireland, we’re thrilled to be awarded the rights.
"We'll provide Sky Sports viewers with the best possible build-up across our channels and outlets and the best coverage of the fight itself from our team in Las Vegas."
Analysis of the fight will be provided by Adam Smith, former world cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson and former world lightweight champion Jim Watt, as well as a range of boxing experts. Sky Sports viewers can also enjoy an extensive schedule of support programming providing the best possible analysis of the fight including the weekly magazine programme Ringside, the Ringside Toe 2 Toe podcast series and feature-length interviews.
Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao took to the stage for the press conference to hype the biggest fight in boxing history Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao took to the stage for the press conference to hype the biggest fight in boxing history
Sky Sports News HQ will be in Las Vegas during the final build-up to bring the latest news and analysis from both camps including the official press conferences and weigh-in as the two fighters complete their training camps and anticipation reaches fever pitch.
The event is part of a packed month of live sport that Sky Sports viewers can enjoy during May. The schedule includes live coverage of the Barclays Premier League, the Sky Bet Championship and League 1 and 2 play-offs, Scottish Cup final, the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix, golf’s Players Championship from Sawgrass, and rugby league’s Magic Weekend from Newcastle’s St James' Park stadium.
Ed Robinson and Johnny Nelson preview Mayweather v Pacquiao after it was announced that it will be exclusively live on Sky Sports Box Office Ed Robinson and Johnny Nelson preview Mayweather v Pacquiao after it was announced that it will be exclusively live on Sky Sports Box Office
The cost of the event will be £19.95 and €24.95 across all forms of booking up until midnight Friday 1 May. From then on the cost will still be £19.95 / €24.95 if bookings are made via remote control and online, but will cost £24.95 / €29.95 if booked via the phone.
Please note an additional £2 booking fee still applies if bookings are made via a telephone agent. Cable customers please contact your operator for booking information.A Muslim woman wearing religious attire was set on fire in New York City on Saturday night, just hours before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The woman, a Scottish tourist shopping on Fifth Avenue, noticed her sleeve was on fire and quickly put it out, the New York Daily News reported.
“She saw (the suspect) pull a lighter away and walk away,” a police source told the newspaper. “He doesn’t say anything.”
Police are investigating whether the incident may be considered a hate crime, and are searching for the suspect, Fusion reported. No description for the attacker was released to the public.
The victim is a 35-year-old dentist from Glasgow, according to DNA Info. She was not badly injured and refused medical attention.
“We will advocate for a full investigation,” the Council on America-Islamic Relations wrote on Facebook.
HuffPost has recorded more than 230 acts of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and political speech in the United States this year. During the month of Ramadan, there were at least 20 anti-Muslim crimes.
The Huffington Post Visit the Islamophobia tracker here.Amateur science is a wonderful thing, but it's got to be kept in check, people. Building your own space balloon or cataloging the local wildlife? Great! Taking a dump in your basement and trying to turn it into gold by heating it until it catches fire? Um.
A man in Northern Ireland was arrested after his turning-my-poop-into-gold alchemy project set fire to his whole block. The operating hypothesis is that Paul Moran, who will serve three months in jail for this bit of idiocy, left his own "faeces" (the Queen's English! Paging Kat Hannaford!) on a heater along with a bunch of other gross stuff, like fertilizer. Then, presumably, he went off to make more. And of course, it caught on fire and burned a bunch of houses.
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The judge presiding over the case had an agreeably deadpan soundbyte: "It was an interesting experiment to fulfil the alchemist's dream, but wasn't going to succeed," he told Mr. Moran, which is just about perfect, though it could probably do with a Tywin Lannister reference. [Yahoo UK]
Image credit: Shutterstock/_EG_Average hourly earnings in March were flat compared to the previous month for the second time in a row. On an annual basis, income increased by just 1.7 percent.
Meanwhile, consumer price index data released two weeks from now could show a jump in prices of as much as 2.6 percent year-over-year, according to an estimate from the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
“Higher gas and food prices are being reflected in headline inflation and we have seen the end of growth in real earnings for some time,” said Ellen Beeson Zentner, Senior U.S. Macro Economist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, in a note after the report release.
“Real wages are the strongest link to consumer spending and are a major reason why our forecast for spending in Q1 has been drastically reduced. Energy prices have risen to the point that they are influencing household spending decisions and it may only be a matter of time before businesses respond by slowing hiring.”
However, the stock market cheered the Labor Department report Friday, with the Dow touching a new bull market high.Investors were focused on the headline number reflecting an increase in monthly payrolls of 216,000 vs. the consensus estimate of 190,000.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has kept interest rates at zero to lift asset prices (i.e. stock market) and lower borrowing costs for companies. A nasty side effect of that policy, traders said, has been a boost in commodity prices. The price of oil climbed to a 30-month high above $107 a barrel Friday. Corn prices surged again Friday, bringing their one-year gain to more than 100 percent. These costs are being past onto the consumer, investors said.
“Bernanke has created an environment of high corporate profits and falling wages, which makes it cheaper to hire and, voila, the unemployment rate goes down,” said Brian Kelly, founder of Kanundrum Capital.
“The Achilles heal of this theory is that it ignores the fact that productivity gains from automation (computers) are much easier to obtain than during the Depression. Therefore, if companies do not hire before inflation takes hold, then the entire experiment fails.”
The stock market seems to be betting Bernanke can thread the needle, with employment rising enough over the next few months that the Fed Chief can hold off until at least December to raise rates in order to control inflation he sees as still in check.
Even consumer stocks are up nicely this year, with the Consumer Discretionary SPDR up more than five percent this year.
“Until jobs, but more importantly, wage growth comes back, I am cautious on the U.S. consumer,” said Michael Block, chief equities strategist at Phoenix Partners Group. “Everything is inflating except for home prices and paychecks. It may not be a problem for the overall indices, but it is for this sector.”
For the best market insight, catch 'Fast Money' each night at 5pm ET, and the ‘Halftime Report’ each afternoon at 12:30 ET on CNBC.
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Got something to say? Send us an e-mail at [email protected] and your comment might be posted on the Rapid Recap! If you'd prefer to make a comment, but not have it published on our Web site, send your message to [email protected] the calorie burn Calculator below to estimate how much time is required to burn off the calories of various Mcdonald’s items in relation to a specific exercise.
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Other Visualizations
Simpson Viewership Decline Fatal Dog Breeds
How I built this visualization. The data was sourced from Kaggle Dataset. The exercise calorie burn rate information was sourced from the United States department of Agriculture’s Choose My Plate initiative. It demonstrated exercise calorie burn rate per exercise. This data was put in a calculation added to the data set. After cleaning up the data with Excel. It was piped into to Tableau for visualization.
Essentially there are only 4 visualization in the sheet:
Time calculator
Time Clusters
Table
Histogram.
Time Calculator
This was created by creating a parameter that allowed for both the exercise measure and item dimension to be changed. Both parameters were linked to a calculated field which use if statements to slice the data.
Time
This was created by putting the item in the dimension shelf with calculated field in the rows. I choose the packed bubbles visualization. A set was created that broke the visualization into items that required 30 minutes of exercise to burn calories and those that required under 30 minutes. The set was placed in the colors mark on the marks card.
Table
All the menu items were placed on the text card and metrics such as exercise time, % of daily calorie allowance at 2000 limit and calories were listed.
Histogram
The histogram was created by putting the exercise bin on rows and the count of the exercise measure on the columns. Then the histogram was select. A filter was then added to cycle through the categories.A coyote known to biologists as C-144 crossed a street last year in the densely populated Westlake neighborhood, west of downtown Los Angeles. An analysis of 100 of C-144’s recorded GPS locations found that 18 percent were on roadways. (National Park Service)
LOS ANGELES — It was nearly the hour of the wolf, and there were no coyotes. Not a single beep on the GPS tracker.
Justin Brown parked his jeep on a pitch dark road and sighed. “I’m going to get out and see if I hear anything,” he said. He was on the edge of a mountainside, pointing his radio telemetry antenna at the sleeping city, hoping it would detect a radio-collared coyote. Still nothing.
[How will L.A.’s mountain lions cross the road? It may take a $55 million bridge.]
Brown is a biologist at the National Park Service’s Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. He tracks coyotes to understand how they live in a fragmented landscape. What does it mean to be a wild animal in an increasingly urbanized environment?
Park Service researchers began monitoring coyotes in the city’s mountains in 1996, hoping to answer that question. Last year, Brown became the lead of the L.A. Urban Coyote Project, a new program aimed at helping locals and lawmakers make informed decisions about the wily canid that lives in the city’s heart, not decisions predicated on fear.
But his year-old study, which has tracked half a dozen coyotes from the city’s core to the surrounding valleys, is based on observations. And on this night, coyotes were nowhere to be found.
National Park Service biologist Justin Brown uses radio telemetry to pinpoint C-144’s location. (National Park Service)
You can search for hours and not see one. You might spot a creeping shadow, or you might just hear an unmistakable high-pitched cry. The chorus seems to come from all 360 degrees, yet the singers are still unseen.
A few nights earlier, Brown had radio-collared a lactating female in a park intersecting the Los Angeles river. As we drive over train tracks through an industrial plot, he describes other coyotes he’s followed. There’s a one-eyed female who somehow crossed the 10-lane 101 freeway. There’s a pack that has made a college campus its home.
[Five mountain lion kittens were just born near L.A., and they’re adorable]
It’s hard to believe that a carnivore of this size — 30 to 70 pounds, with a long snout, upright ears and a bushy tail — could live among us without being noticed.
Two coyote pups walk down a street west of downtown Los Angeles. The National Park Service used a radio collar to track their mother, C-144, in 2015. (National Park Service)
Coyotes have spread throughout North America, colonizing cities from Chicago to New York and its Central Park, though there’s no solid estimate of their population. They’ve been here in California since the Pleistocene, and they continue to find food, shelter and people-free space in this megacity of more than 18 million people. But biologists still aren’t even sure how many city coyotes there are, or whether they prefer scavenging garbage or hunting small game.
That’s why Brown spends early mornings giving chase. By testing coyote whiskers, he can figure what’s on their menu. High concentrations of corn isotopes means human food. The Park Service has also recruited volunteers to scoop coyote scat for analysis. But it might take another five years gather enough information to make conclusions about urban coyote diets, he says.
Last year, the NPS tracked two coyotes living entirely in developed areas. One was a mother with five pups denning in the packed Westlake neighborhood, a 2.72 square-mile patch of city where there’s virtually no green space. Dubbed C-144, she’s believed to have one of the most urban home ranges of any canid ever studied. Her collar battery died, but she’s since been spotted in a nearby neighborhood.
One of C-144’s pups pauses on a porch in 2015. C-144 was spending most of her time in the Westlake neighborhood, a densely populated area just west of downtown. (National Park Service.)
Other findings have been grimmer. C-146, a juvenile female who was captured last fall and used the river as a thoroughfare, was found dead in MacArthur Park. Forensic tests indicated drowning, but four types of anticoagulant rat poisons were found in her system.
Brown says people are afraid of coyotes, and gathering information about how they live benefits both species.
Tens of thousands of coyotes are killed by the government and hunters annually. But coyotes, as coy as their name implies, seem more scared than aggressive when confronted. Attacks are rare, Brown said, and often happen when humans feed them, which is illegal. According to one study, about a dozen coyote attacks occurred each year between 1985 and 2006. In contrast, about 4.5 million dog bites are reported every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Like all wildlife, coyotes can be dangerous if they get used to people. But even the most citified coyotes seem to go out of their way to avoid people, making their daily lives mysteries.
On The Hunt
While driving through the heart of L.A. in the dead of night in search of coyotes, you see pop-up vendors hawking street tacos, kids propped on car hoods passing bottles and blunts, hipsters on fixie bikes pedaling into shuttered parks.
Despite the tough rep of the areas we pass, Brown said he’s has never had a problem. Chicago, where he spent six years studying Midwest coyotes, was different. “We were sleeping in the cemetery one night,” while staking out the canids, he said. That’s when a real-life cops and robbers scene unfolded, complete with armed men running through the cemetery and ruining his fieldwork.
In L.A., Brown said, getting on a property to track wildlife can be tough. And the home ranges of city coyotes are much smaller than in wilder environments.
“Here, we’re not seeing normal species behavior,” he says. “A lot of the time people see coyotes more in their own areas rather than on hikes.”
C-144 trots down a street in Westlake shortly after midnight in July 2015. (National Park Service)
Brown kept driving for hours. We saw a brush rabbit and a skunk, but heard not even a squeak from the GPS. Searching for a better signal, he climbed high on narrow roads. At around 3 a.m., he headed back down to the river, past barbed wire and abandoned buildings and the dizzying hum of cars on the freeway.
It may sound glamorous to chase carnivores, but the reality is that most of the time is spent waiting, and wildlife doesn’t show on cue.
But after pulling back into the parking lot and getting out of the van, Brown suddenly yelped: “Right there!”
A lone coyote skipped past, its head bobbing inquisitively, its short coat a mix of gray, brown and red. It picked through trash for a few minutes, then quickly turned and darted away.
“There was no collar,” Brown said. That means it wasn’t the one he was tracking. It might have been the mating male, he said, or another pack subordinate.
An eerie moment of silence passed before the coyote reappeared on a patch of grass a dozen yards away. Something — maybe a rat or an opossum — dangled from its mouth.
Sensing his audience, the animal slammed its prey to the ground in a death blow and then trotted off with the meal in its jaws. Like a ghost, the coyote was gone, as if was never even there.
Adam Popescu is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Find him on Twitter at @adampopescu.
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Love in the time of climate change: Grizzlies and polar bears are now mating“There is no chance it will survive,” Nye Lavalle said to The Sporting News about MLS in 1994. “Absolutely no chance whatsoever.”
Obviously, Lavalle – a sports exec of some note in 1980s and ‘90s – was wrong. Just as obviously, there were some times throughout that first 15 years where he could have been something close to right.
MLS had existential concerns at the start; they’re well documented. Part of it was figuring out where the game was best played (thank you, Lamar Hunt); part was figuring out who the fans really were and how to reach them (heyo, Peter Wilt!); and part was simply drilling into the collective public consciousness that, “Hey, Americans (and Canadians) are damn good at soccer, too!”
The last part has really been the hard part. We have watched soccer grow and die and grow and die and grow again. Pele came and went before ESPN ever flicked a switch. The 1984 Olympic soccer tournament set attendance records months before NASL folded. A decade later, the World Cup did it again before MLS was truly born.
Throughout it all, the notion of soccer being an American sport (apologies, Canada – I’m being provincial for a moment) hadn’t really seeped through to more than just the fringe. Kids in Kearney or Oxnard may have grown up dreaming of being pro soccer players, but those communities were just islands in the stream.
MLS is no longer in an existential mode. And neither is the game as a whole – the expansion plans of the NASL (they’ve targeted pretty much every decent-sized market from San Diego to Nassau County) speak to that.
Because it’s the Cosmos, Thursday’s NASL expansion announcement drew headlines. I say this in all sincerity and without an ounce of sarcasm: The Cosmos are good like that.
Top 3 Performers: Week 18
But it would have been a significant announcement regardless of the name of the team, or the location. Had it been Las Vegas, or Jacksonville, or Detroit, or – please, someday soon – St. Louis instead of New York, it would have been just as important, just as crucial to the expanding footprint of the domestic game.
“We welcome the Cosmos’ entrance to the NASL,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement. “Having a vibrant second division is important to the overall growth and popularity of soccer in North America, and we are pleased to see the NASL add a new franchise.”
That right there is the long and short of it. A rising tide lifts all boats. A healthy first division begets a healthy second and third division, and vice versa.
They’ll also help with the most crucial task of the next 15 years, as important in its own way as soccer-specific stadiums were.
Namely: player identification and training.
There are simply too many markets, too many kids, too many stones in North America to kick over. Nineteen MLS teams can’t cover that. Expand that to 20, or even 24, and you still fall short.
Let’s say NYC2 – whether it’s the Cosmos or not – is MLS team No. 20. Let’s say the league doesn’t stop there, and adds Orlando, Miami, Atlanta and St. Louis as well. And all these teams build stadiums, and academies, and find great sponsors and do all the things we want to see from all our clubs.
Even in that scenario, more than 50 percent of populous (US and Canada) would be without a local MLS team. And not every kid is going to be lucky enough to have a family who drives him on a four-hour round-trip to practice thrice a week, a la Clint Dempsey, just so he can get the best training available.
This is where the NASL – and USL Pro, the third tier of the game in the US and Canada – come in. They may be years away from having MLS-style academies (just as MLS teams are years away from having Barcelona-style academies), but they’re on the path. They’re starting to do more than just survive in the markets MLS can’t reach, and eventually – or perhaps already – they’ll realize the best way to make those markets truly theirs is to teach the kids.
It goes back to the “identification” premise I addressed in this column several weeks ago. It’s simply good business to have some sort of academy structure – it makes fans feel like you’re part of the community in a way the typical NBA or NHL team simply isn’t.
More importantly, though, it means that the players you’re getting will be better trained, because they will have been trained by professionals. It means the thought of the local kid growing up to play professional soccer isn’t absurd, no matter where he’s from. It means every data point that fed Lavalle’s reasoning is now dead.
And it means that the next generation of Dempseys, or Donovans, or De Rosarios will have come from professional academies. That’s not meant as a knock on the amateur clubs out there – many of them do a fine job of developing the talent they have.
The smart money, though, is on professional academies – a network of them from coast to coast – doing better. That’s the way it’s done all over the world; precedent, after all, is relevant.
And here’s the other part of the precedent: A number of these kids will someday turn into adults who are very good at soccer, and they will move from the third tier to the second tier to the first.
In the international soccer community, talent flows uphill. Then teams on the bottom reinvest to create more of that talent. Success perpetuates success.
You can do the math from there, and you should – it’ll be the relevant storyline of the next 15 years.
Matthew Doyle write the Armchair Analyst column for MLSsoccer.com.LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Lamar Jackson spent a good portion of December and January traveling around the country picking up awards. Teammates had to take a look for themselves, arriving at his apartment to snap pictures with the Heisman Trophy.
"It was like we had won it!" defensive lineman Drew Bailey said.
In essence, they had. Jackson became the first Heisman winner in school history, drawing attention to Louisville football in a way nobody else had previously. Now, nobody can think about Louisville football without thinking about Jackson and so many of his highlight-reel plays, starting with the "Lamar Leap" (now featured in the football facility hallways).
The "Lamar Leap" launched a Heisman Trophy campaign that Lamar Jackson's lackluster end to the season couldn't negate. Rich Barnes/USA TODAY Sports
That means the spotlight, and the pressure, will be ratcheted up as Jackson plans for his crucial junior season. If he was a revelation to start 2016, he will be a marked player starting this September. Jackson knows this. The Louisville staff knows this. And they have a plan.
Once Jackson returned from his travels, coach Bobby Petrino and the offensive staff had one sheet of paper waiting for him. On it, they listed seven areas in which they want Jackson to improve, based on film study from the 2016 season. A season, remember, in which Jackson finished with 1,571 yards rushing, 3,543 yards passing and 51 total touchdowns.
1. Improve on progression reads
2. Improve on sets in the pocket
3. Improve on seeing the defense and understanding coverages
4. Get better protected
5. Get better at throwing the ball away
6. Ball security
7. Get to 100 percent on run reads
There is another item not included on the list: Add snaps from under center back into the offense, including play-action from under center.
Jackson looked at the sheet, listened to his coaches and immediately went to work. Winning awards did nothing to dampen his competitive drive, nor his perfectionism. Jackson understands that to be the best quarterback, and to prepare himself for a future in the NFL, he needs to check everything off this list.
Petrino and his staff are trying to take Jackson to an even higher level, adding new layers to his already impressive repertoire. As a freshman, Jackson survived on his athleticism and instincts. Last season, he improved his knowledge of the playbook, technique and overall understanding of the offense and won the Heisman.
This season, the goal is for Jackson to evolve not physically, but mentally. Once Jackson understands defenses as well as he understands his own offense, he will be able to make checks at the line and make better decisions. That will lead to fewer sacks, improved accuracy and even better results. And that, in turn, will make him more ready for his NFL future.
"He was pretty darn good last year, but you're always working to improve," Petrino said. "I think if he can do all of this, it will be like the great Magic Johnson years -- one year he's the scorer, the next year he's dishing assists. He's making everyone around him better and that's really the goal.
"If he's distributing the ball, hitting the checkdowns, seeing this, making this check, it's going to make all of us better. Whether he'll ever have numbers like he did last year, I don't know that. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But it will make the offense more efficient, which makes him better."
Jackson, coaches and teammates have noticed a difference throughout the spring, which ends Saturday with the annual spring game. He is more confident, more vocal and making better decisions. Jackson's career completion percentage is below 60 percent. This spring, he's completed between 75-79 percent of his passes nearly every day.
"I think if he can do all of this, it will be like the great Magic Johnson years -- one year he's the scorer, the next year he's dishing assists. He's making everyone around him better and that's really the goal." Louisville coach Bobby Petrino
That's one tangible sign, but there are plenty of others. During an open practice last week, Jackson noted he made a blitz check on one play in particular. At this time last year?
"I probably wouldn't have said anything about it and I probably would have gotten sacked," Jackson said. "I didn't really make checks like that. I probably made one check last year and that was the Boston College game, when I saw an over front and I checked to another play. But this year, I'm trying to have it where I'm Tom Brady with it. Peyton Manning, stuff like that. Just go to the line and check out of anything that looks wrong."
What quarterbacks coach Nick Petrino has hammered home is one crucial point: Get to the line with your eyes up. Look at not only the formation, but where certain players -- like the safeties -- are lined up. That gives quarterbacks valuable clues about what the defense plans to do.
With that information, Jackson can make checks and change the protection at the line, which in turn better protects himself (item No. 4).
"I'm impressed with how hard he's working on that that right now," Bobby Petrino said. "He wants to know what the safeties are doing, and understand the rotations. As a quarterback, you've always got to handle blitz, so getting himself protected, knowing where the hots are, already thinking about what possibly could be coming or what the threats are depending on the play called. All of those are things he needs to do."
Once the ball is snapped for a passing play, coaches want Jackson to focus on standing tall in the pocket and keeping his eyes down the field. Here is where the progressions get emphasized, making sure Jackson tracks his receivers and utilizes his backs as checkdowns.
All the while, Jackson needs to make sure his shoulders and hips are properly aligned, his footwork doesn't get sloppy and he stays calm when the pocket collapses. Sometimes when he gets flustered, Jackson drops his elbow and the ball comes out sidearmed.
Then there are the sacks, which encompass points 1-5. Louisville allowed 47 last season, including 22 in the final three games. The offensive line has received its fair share of blame, and rightfully so. But Jackson shoulders some of it, too.
Nick Petrino made a cutup of every sack Jackson took a year ago. Some could have been avoided with a different decision.
"He took too many sacks last year where he could have either thrown the ball away or went straight ahead," Nick Petrino said. "He tries to get out of the pocket too much, holding the ball too long at times.... In the bowl game, we were on the 1-yard line and we ran a naked and he holds the ball and he ends up taking a sack, and there's no point. That's where he's got to learn to throw it away and move on to the next play."
Many of the sacks Lamar Jackson took last season were a product of the quarterback trying to do too much, his quarterbacks coach said. John Raoux/AP Photo
Jackson also has spent extended time this spring taking snaps from under center. He looks natural, but that has come with effort and practice. When Jackson arrived on campus in 2015, he had not taken one snap under center in high school. The last time he had done it was during youth football.
"It was horrible for me," Jackson said. "I was clumsy. I wasn't really progressing well at it, and we just went in the gun after that."
Louisville quarterbacks have practiced both under-center snaps and shotgun snaps every day in spring. Jackson had no problem handling the snap itself. It was getting used to the footwork and drops that took time.
In Jackson's freshman year, Louisville would put Reggie Bonnafon into the game if the Cards had a short-yardage or goal-line situation that required a snap from under center. Last season, Jackson took those snaps sparingly.
But the first three days of spring ball this year, every snap Jackson took came from under center.
"A big part of our offense in the past has always been the quarterback being under center," Nick Petrino said. "It helps the run game and the play-action game, and it's also part of developing Lamar so he can go play in the NFL and do everything he's got to do. It's been good for him. It's helped him with his drops, the timing of throws."
Taking snaps from under center means getting the running backs more involved in the run game, but it doesn't mean limiting what Jackson can do on the ground. He is excellent on zone-reads and power reads, and nobody on staff is going to suggest he quit taking off when he sees a big opening or limit his carries.
But getting better here -- and not fumbling -- round out the list. At crucial points against both Houston and Kentucky to end last season, Jackson fumbled, and that was part of a season filled with them. Jackson had eight fumbles, all on rushes, and lost five.
"That was always a hard one because to be a great runner sometimes you have to be able to move the ball around, but he has to know when to secure it and not have any turnovers," Bobby Petrino said.
There is more work to be done during the four-and-a-half months of film study and workouts before the season opens against Purdue on Sept. 2. When it does, Jackson has vowed those tuning in will see a much different player. "Oh yeah," Jackson said. "Just got to wait 'til September."The Republican tax plan won congressional approval on Wednesday and will soon be signed by President 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.
The law’s thicket of new provisions will affect families and businesses across the nation, in ways The Hill has previously reported upon.
But, when it comes to the politics of the bill, who notched a victory and who took a hit?
Winners
President Trump
Trump badly needed a win on tax reform after the ignominious failure of the attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare. He faced the very real risk of having no major legislative achievement by the end of his first calendar year in power.
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That has changed at a stroke, with Trump and his party colleagues in Congress boasting that they have delivered a Christmas present to the American people.
The overall political ramifications of the bill are not so clear. A raft of recent polls — from NBC News, CNN, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University, among others — all suggest a plurality of Americans dislike the new law.
Still if the tax bill strengthens Trump’s claim that he deserves credit for a robust economy, that could be a substantial political asset in next year’s midterms and beyond.
Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.)
Passage of the tax-reform bill was a huge win for Ryan for two reasons. Firstly, tax reform has been his signature issue since he rose to prominence as one of the GOP’s so-called “young guns” around the start of the decade. Secondly, plenty of people in Trump’s orbit pinned blame on Ryan for the failure of the push on health care, and this is a powerful counter to accusations that he lacks strategic skill.
Critics insist that the law could end up hurting Republicans, but there is no doubt this was a major victory for him. The exuberance with which Ryan gaveled a critical vote to a close on Tuesday showed that he knows it.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady Kevin Patrick BradySmaller tax refunds put GOP on defensive Key author of GOP tax law joins Ernst and Young Lawmakers beat lobbyists at charity hockey game MORE (R-Texas)
On Capitol Hill, Brady was identified with the push for tax reform at least as much as Ryan. He was a tireless advocate for the effort, insisting since Republicans took hold of a unified government in January that action would happen.
Brady gave a host of media interviews defending the plan, but his behind-the-scenes actions were even more important in pushing it to the finish line.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (R-Ky.)
McConnell’s relationship with Trump has been even more volatile than Ryan's.
But he piloted the reform push through the Senate with remarkably few problems. In the end, not a single Republican in the upper chamber voted against the final plan — a stark contrast to the ObamaCare push, which was capsized by opposition from Republican Sens. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Cohen grilled by Senate Intelligence panel Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (Maine), Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration House votes to overturn Trump's emergency declaration MORE (Alaska) and John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (Ariz.).
Trump tweeted on Thursday that McConnell had “done a fantastic job both strategically and politically.”
McConnell for his part, cited tax reform, the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and deregulation, when he told The Hill on Tuesday, “by any objective standard it’s been one heck of a good year for us.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Murkowski, a longtime advocate for energy drilling rights in her home state, got a victory with this bill. The legislation opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for limited drilling.
While such a move is fervently opposed by environmentalists, Murkowski insisted during a Senate floor speech on Tuesday |
the powerful demands made during and after the occupation for a more authentic, indigenous form of governance. “The Haitian democracy is not the German or the French democracy,” Duvalier declared a few years after his election. “It is neither the Latin America or U.S.-type democracy. It is defined in full, according to the ethnic background of the people, its traditions, its sociology, all overflowing with humanism. Those who opposed him abroad, he proclaimed, were participating in a form of “masqueraded colonialism.” (Laurent Dubois, Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, p.344)
At least for me, “authenticity” is a term that rings a bell:
“At its best, ‘authenticity’, as a movement born in 1971 was called, was an admirable attempt to recover a sense of African identity and pride crushed by the colonial experience. It was remarkable in a way, that it had taken so long for a new country to feel the need for a fresh image. The country must modernize, Mobutu told his public rallies, but it would do so in a framework of ancestral spiritual values, not by aping Western materialism. ‘Authenticity is the realization by the Zairean people that it must return to its origins, seek out the values of its ancestors, to discover those which contribute to its harmonious and natural development,’ Mobutu told the United Nations. ‘It is the refusal to blindly embrace imported ideologies. It is, in short, the affirmation of mankind, in its place, as it is, with its mental and social structures.’ (Michela Wrong, In The Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo, p.96)
Where did the Haitians come from in Africa?
“As the Atlantic slave trade expanded over the eighteenth century, west central Africa became the largest source of slaves deported to the Americas. These slaves were supplied through Portuguese raids into the interior from the port of Luanda, from civil wars in the kingdom of the Kongo, and from kingdoms that captured slaves or received them as tribute from regions in the interior. In Saint-Domingue, these slaves were categorized under the generic term “Kongo” (which at the time was usually spelled “Congo”). They made up the majority of the slaves imported into the colony, accounting for 40 percent of the imports during the eighteenth century.” (Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, p.40)
What does Port-au-Prince, the capitol of Haiti, look like today? Does it look more like Paris or Kinshasa, the capitol of the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Note: I present to you, Haitians and Congolese, the same people, separated by the Atlantic Ocean and over 200 years of history:Well-known carpet distributor Konami has disabled the Metal Gear Online beta on PC following the discovery of an exploit that allowed players to get free MB coins, the in-game currency that costs real money.
“Due to a possible exploit, we’ve removed access to the Beta temporarily while a hotfix is being prepared,” Konami community manager Robert Peeler wrote on the Steam forums. “Once the issue is addressed we’ll provide access to the Beta once again.”
The Metal Gear Online beta launched on PC last night, and players immediately discovered that they could buy MB coins without getting charged, which is obviously a serious problem for Konami’s beancounters. We’ll let you know when the beta’s back online.
You can reach the author of this post at [email protected] or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.The federal government is moving ahead with plans to strip certain public servants of the right to strike.
The second budget implementation act, which was introduced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Tuesday, will make it illegal for any bargaining unit declared to provide an essential service to strike.
Instead, such workers will be forced into arbitration in cases of a contract dispute. The rule will apply to any union where 80 per cent or more of the positions are considered to be necessary for providing an essential service.
The proposed legislation goes onto say that "the employer has the exclusive right to determine that a service is essential and the number of positions required to provide that service."
In other words, the government decides when the rule applies. "A democratically elected government should have the right to identify what Canadians consider 'essential services,'" read an email sent to CBC News from Treasury Board President Tony Clement's office.
The Harper government also defended its intent to set public service pay and benefit levels. "The proposed amendments will bring savings, streamline practices and bring them in line with other jurisdictions," said the government's emailed comments. "Our government will sit at a bargaining table on behalf of the taxpayer where the rules are fair and balanced."
Canada's largest union representing public-sector workers says it was caught by surprise by these changes.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada says it is too early to say exactly what the impact will be — but they know they don't like it.
"This bill represents a far-reaching attack on public service workers and the unions that represent them," said PSAC President Robyn Benson.
"The government is upsetting the balance of labour relations, and is showing a callous disregard for due process, health and safety and the collective bargaining rights of every single public service employee," Benson said.
"The collective bargaining rights and the protections of workers who face discrimination, who do dangerous work, or who are treated unfairly will be undermined by the proposals in this bill."
Other changes
The union measure was just one of several provisions in the 300-plus page document, including several measures that do not appear to relate to anything in last March's budget, including such housekeeping matters as:
Changing the definition of "passport" in the Criminal Code to match the one used in other legislation.
Implementing the freeze in Employment Insurance premiums announced by Flaherty a few weeks ago.
Enacting the MacKenzie Gas Projects Impacts Act, which was announced in 2006.
There are also more substantive changes that were not announced or even foreshadowed in the March budget, including:
Making declaratory provisions to amend the Supreme Court Act, to make it clear judges with 10 years at the bar of a province are eligible to represent that province on the court, a direct attempt to resolve a legal challenge to the recent appointment of Justice Marc Nadon.
Changing the way health and safety officers enforce the Labour Code.
Changes to the Immigration and Refugee Act that give the minister more power to pick and choose from economic and professional immigrants who may or may not apply for permanent residency status.
Deficit shrinking more quickly than predicted
Flaherty said Tuesday the government is $7 billion ahead of pace toward balancing the budget in 2015.
He said spending controls the government put in place that have worked better than expected are responsible for the bulk of the improvement in Ottawa's fiscal position.
Flaherty said last year's final deficit will come in at $18.9 billion, better than the $25.9 billion predicted in his budget.
This year's anticipated $18.7 billion deficit will likely be revised lower when the minister recalculates the books in the fall economic update, expected in about a month.UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura during the Astana talks last month in Kazakhstan. He earlier called on the opposition to provide a list of its delegation in days, otherwise, he warned, he may choose an “inclusive” list by himself. Photo:AFP
ANKARA, Turkey—Turkey and Syrian political and armed opposition groups agreed in a meeting in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Friday to exclude the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) from the upcoming talks in Geneva later this month.
Ibrahim Biro, the head of the coalition of the Kurdish National Council (KNC or ENKS), who attended the meeting told Rudaw that Turkey has made it clear that the PYD will not be part of the opposition delegation in the fourth round of Geneva talks, a view shared by the Syrian opposition.
“The objection was not exclusively to the PYD,” Biro said. “The Moscow and Cairo parties, including the PYD who attended a meeting several days ago in Moscow, are not yet accepted among the opposition parties. The opposition looks at these parties as closer to the regime,” he explained, in reference to Syria opposition parties who are stationed in Cairo and Moscow.
The Saudi-backed High Negotiation Committee, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the KNC, armed groups who attended the Astana talks in January, and some Turkmen and Alawite groups attended the meeting in Turkey’s foreign ministry, meeting with the country’s undersecretary Ümit Yalçın.
Riad Hijab, the head of the HNC, and Enes el Abde, the president of the SNC were present at the meeting in an attempt to form an opposition delegation in Geneva.
The UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura earlier called on the opposition to provide a list of its delegation in days, otherwise, he warned, he may choose an “inclusive” list by himself, a move strongly opposed by both the Syrian political and armed opposition emphasizing that only the Syrian people have the right to choose their representatives.
The Ankara meeting took place upon a request from Turkey.
“The meeting was to form a delegation for Geneva in the coming days. There was an announcement from the Turkish foreign ministry that if Geneva talks were to be held on Feb. 20, there should be a broad opposition delegation,” Biro said.
He said that only those parties who previously took part in the Geneva talks, in addition to the armed groups who attended the Astana talks would be part of the opposition, noting that the Kurdish KNC will have at least one member in the delegation.
The ruling PYD, which is the dominant Kurdish party in the self-autonomous region of northern Syria, its armed wing (YPG), and the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were left out of previous negotiations in Geneva as well as Astana. Their exclusion has mainly been because of objections from Turkey, who considers these groups an inseparable part of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PYD representative to France Khalid Isa earlier said that they had received assurance from countries, such as Russia, that they will have a seat in Geneva.
Yalçın has told the Syrian delegation in Ankara “clearly” that the PYD would not be invited as part of the opposition, Biro said.
“The representative of the Turks made it clear that the delegation who met in Moscow with the Russian government are not part of the opposition... including the PYD. These parties would not find their place as part of the opposition.” Biro reported.
“The opposition do not accept these delegation as part of it,” Biro explained, adding that it is not clear at this stage what the international community will decide with regard to the makeup of the delegation who would attend the talks in Geneva.
Mohammad Sabra, a member of the HNC and the group’s legal adviser to the Astana talks, said earlier that other opposition members who in the past took part in negotiations shall be welcomed, but he ruled out the possibility of the PYD.
“Our objection to the participation of the Democratic Union Party is a matter of principle and should the party want to take part, it has to do so on the regime side,” Sabra told Sharq al-Awsat newspaper.
Hesen Qamislo, a YPG commander in the Syrian city of Qamishli, condemned what he claimed was an attempt paint the YPG as a terrorist organization. “The Syrian revolution has been sold by those who claim they own it,” he said, in reference to the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces.
“The YPG has proved itself on the ground with actions,” Qamislo added.
The PYD and the SDF have continuously stated they would not accept any terms reached at negotiations they were not invited to participate in.
Russia, Iran, and Turkey, hosts of the Astana talks aimed at ending the years-long Syrian civil war, will hold their first “Joint Operational Group” meeting on Monday in the Kazakh capital with a focus on establishing mechanisms to monitor a shaky ceasefire and separating the extremist Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front, from the opposition, the Russian Defense Ministry and Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday.New York Rangers General Manager Jeff Gorton announced today that the team has recalled goaltender Magnus Hellberg from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL) on an emergency basis.
Hellberg, 26, has appeared in 35 games with the Wolf Pack this season, posting a 12-14-5 record, along with a 2.86 GAA, a.905 SV%, and 1 SO. He stopped 25 of 27 shots he faced in his last AHL start/appearance on Apr. 8 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and he stopped all 20 shots he faced to earn his first shutout of the season on Mar. 31 against Hershey.
The 6-6, 209-pounder has appeared in three career NHL games with Nashville and the Rangers. Hellberg made his debut with the Blueshirts on Dec. 20, 2015 vs. Washington. He has appeared in one game with the Rangers in 2016-17, stopping all four shots he faced in the third period on Jan. 17 vs. Dallas.Globe-trotting author/TV host/wise-cracker Anthony Bourdain does not suffer fools gladly — especially after a long cross-country flight. Case in point: The scene captured in this hilarious new TMZ video, in which a reporter ambushes Bourdain as he’s exiting LAX and asks him, “Would you be down to do a No Reservations North Korea?” Tony’s pitch-perfect response: “No, because A) I don’t make that series anymore; I left that network years ago. And B) There’s nothing they’re going to let you see in North Korea. It’s a totally unpleasant government.”
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The reporter then asks Tony: “You’d never go there to sample the food and stuff?” And he replies: “Most of the population are starving. Don’t you think that’d be in kind of bad taste?” As the paparazzo keeps badgering Bourdain on his way to the parking garage, Tony calls Kim Jong-Un “a chubby evil little fuck,” and he says that if forced to serve a meal to him and Donald Trump, he would offer them “hemlock.”
In other Bourdain news, Tony’s CNN travel program Parts Unknown returns for its tenth season on October 1, with an episode all about Singapore.
• Anthony Bourdain Outside LAX [TMZ]
• All Coverage of Anthony Bourdain [E]....................................................................................................................................................................................
New Mexico is feeling some serious Emmy love, with projects connected to the Land of Enchantment garnering 33 nominations Thursday.
Leading the pack is HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which secured the most of any TV show, with 24. The fantasy series is based on Santa Fe resident George R.R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy book series, “The Song of Ice and Fire.”
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It was the most nominated series for the second year running. Among its nominations this year was for outstanding drama series.
Martin, who owns the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, simply tweeted, “Emmy Likes Us.”
AMC’s “Better Call Saul” is basking in a great inaugural showing at the Emmys.
The show, which is filmed and set in New Mexico, received seven Emmy nominations on Thursday.
The series is a prequel to “Breaking Bad,” which was filmed in Albuquerque, raising its profile worldwide among millions of fans.
“Better Call Saul” is filming its second season in Albuquerque and is based at Albuquerque Studios.
Bob Odenkirk, who plays Saul Goodman, received an Emmy nomination for lead actor in a drama series, and Jonathan Banks, who plays Mike Ehrmantraut, received a nomination for best supporting actor in a drama series.
The show also picked up a nomination for outstanding drama series, as well as two nominations for outstanding single-camera picture editing, one for outstanding sound mixing and a writing nomination for Gordon Smith, who wrote the episode “Five-O.”
“Better Call Saul” is set six years before “Breaking Bad” and follows the transformation of Jimmy McGill from an unsuccessful lawyer into Saul Goodman, an ace attorney for the criminal element.
The seven nominations for “Better Call Saul” easily beat “Breaking Bad” for nominations in its first year. In 2008, “Breaking Bad” was nominated for two, with Bryan Cranston winning best actor for his role as White.
Last year, “Breaking Bad” was the big winner of the night, with five Emmys.
Stewart Lyons, a series producer, says on his Facebook page, “Looking for the complete list, but the show is nominated. And Bob as well. We’re going to the dance (this never gets old!)”
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There was plenty of online love for “Better Call Saul” from the series regulars.
Michael McKean, who plays Saul’s brother, Chuck McGill, tweeted, “Huge congrats to our own @mrbobodenkirk & the Grand (Jonathan) Banks & our whole damn show. … ”
Michael Mando, who plays bad guy Nacho Varga, “Congratulations to … whole @BetterCallSaul fam for our 7 #EmmyNoms!!! Xoxo.”
In other New Mexico-related nominations, Santa Fe resident Paul Barnes picked up an Emmy nod for his work on Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts.” Burns worked closely with Barnes, who has served as an editor and producer on numerous Burns projects, including “The Roosevelts.”
“For me, working on the project was a great joy,” Barnes says. “I got to live with these three Americans for years. It was enlightening to learn much more than I had already known.”
And WGN America’s freshman show, “Manhattan,” picked up an Emmy nomination for outstanding main title design. This is the first nomination for the show and the network for its original scripted series.
The Emmys will air Sept. 20 on ABC.The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway is one of the putative biochemical pathways that link diabetes with Alzheimer disease. Hence, we aimed to verify the potential antidiabetic effect of galantamine, unveil the possible mechanisms and evaluate its interaction with vildagliptin. The n5-STZ rat model was adopted and the diabetic animals were treated with galantamine and/or vildagliptin for 4 weeks. Galantamine lowered the n5-STZ-induced elevation in body weight, food/water intake, serum levels of glucose, fructosamine, and ALT/AST, as well as AChE in the tested organs. Moreover, it modulated successfully the lipid profile assessed in serum, liver, and muscle, and increased serum insulin level, as well as % β-cell function, in a pattern similar to that of vildagliptin. Additionally, galantamine confirmed its antioxidant (Nrf2, TAC, MDA), anti-inflammatory (NF-κB, TNF-α, visfatin, adiponectin) and anti-apoptotic (caspase-3, cytochrome c) capabilities by altering the n5-STZ effect on all the aforementioned parameters. On the molecular level, galantamine/vildagliptin have improved the insulin (p-insulin receptor, p-Akt, GLUT4/GLUT2) and Wnt/β-catenin (p-GSK-3β, β-catenin) signaling pathways. On almost all parameters, the galantamine effects surpassed that of vildagliptin, while the combination regimen showed the best effects. The present results clearly proved that galantamine modulated glucose/lipid profile possibly through its anti-oxidant, -apoptotic, -inflammatory and -cholinesterase properties. These effects could be attributed partly to the enhancement of insulin and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways. Galantamine can be strongly considered as a potential antidiabetic agent and as an add-on therapy with other oral antidiabetics.
Since new approaches for controlling T2DM are to target different pathways implicated in its pathogenesis, the study entailed evaluating the potential beneficial effect of galantamine as an add-on drug to vildagliptin, the standard drug used in this study.
Based on the previous data, our goal is to evaluate the possible antidiabetic effect/mechanisms of galantamine, using a T2DM animal model, and targeting its modulatory effect on glucose homeostasis, lipid profile, I/R, apoptosis and oxidative stress. The study tackled also the possible participation of the Wnt/ β-catenin and insulin signaling pathways in the galantamine effect.
Galantamine, a drug approved clinically in the treatment of Alzheimer disease, is a tertiary alkaloid that acts centrally as an AChE inhibitor, an allosteric potentiating ligand of the neuronal cholinergic nicotinic receptors [ 9 ], and possesses significant anti-inflammatory [ 5 ] and antioxidant [ 10 ] effects. In addition, it was reported that stimulation of the nicotinic receptor activates PI3K/Akt pathway, which plays a key role in the glucose homeostasis [ 11 ]. Furthermore, in 2009, Wills [ 12 ] has reported, in his patency, that AChE inhibitors, viz., donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine, lower glycated hemoglobin in diabetic patients, which necessitates the adjustment of the antidiabetic therapy used.
Apart from the insulin signaling pathway, other pathways are involved in this ailment including the canonical Wnt (wingless-type MMTV integration site family) signaling pathway, which plays a role in the healing of diabetic foot ulcer [ 6 ], and regeneration of insulin-producing pancreatic cells [ 7 ]. Moreover, the Wnt downstream effector, β-catenin, participates in the pancreatic development and is implicated in the regulation of metabolism and energy homeostasis [ 8 ].
Nowadays, the effect of diabetes on the central nervous system (CNS) is gaining importance [ 3 ]; the brain cholinergic signaling is implicated in the regulation of cytokines release [ 4 ], hepatic glucose/ glycogen production via efferent vagus nerve cholinergic output [ 5 ] and acetylcholine (ACh) facilitates the release of insulin in a glucose-dependent manner. It is likely that these vagus nerve-mediated cholinergic mechanisms, involved in glucose homeostasis, become suppressed or dysfunctional in obesity and insulin resistance (I/R), as indicated by the autonomic imbalance and lower vagal tone in obese individuals [ 5 ]. Moreover, AChE activity was proven to increase in diabetic models, which indicates alteration in the cholinergic neurotransmission with the consequent cognitive impairments observed in the diabetic state [ 3 ]. Hence, it is now plausible that targeting AChE, to increase the cholinergic pathway activity, could be beneficial in the management of T2DM.
The immuno-modulatory/anti-inflammatory function of the cholinergic pathway plays a role in chronic inflammatory disorders, including diabetes and Alzheimer disease. Recently, the coexistence of the two ailments is documented by ample of evidence, where they share some common pathological events, among which are increased acetylcholine esterase (AChE) activity, oxidative stress, apoptosis and the release of inflammatory mediators [ 1 ].
Values are expressed as mean ± S.E.M of 10 animals. The GraphPad Prism v5.0 (GraphPad Prism Inc., La Jolla, CA, USA) was used to analyze and present all the data. Multiple comparisons were performed using one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey post-hoc test. To test for an interaction between individual treatments when given in combination, a factorial design test is used. The correlation coefficient (r) between HOMA-IR with AChE enzyme activity in brain, liver, and muscle, as well as with Nrf2 transcription activity, NF-κB, p-GSK-3β, and β-catenin in liver and muscle was carried out in the untreated and treated diabetic animals using Pearson correlation coefficient; P< 0.05 was considered as the significance limit for all comparisons.
For semi-quantitative determination of the gene expression of GLUT4, the One-step RT-PCR Master Mix Gold Beads kit was used. The following primer set was used, forward 5ʹ-GCAGCGAGTGACTG GAACA-3ʹ, reverse 5ʹ-CCAGCCACGTTGCATTGTAG-3ʹ. To standardize the amount of mRNA in each sample, RT-PCR of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was performed in parallel, using the following primer set: forward 5ʹ-AATGTGTCCGTCGTGGATCTGA-3ʹand reverse 5ʹGATGCCTGCTTCACCACCTTCT-3ʹ [ 28 ]. The cDNA synthesis was performed at 42°C for 60 min. then 94°C for 5 min. for reverse transcriptase inactivation. The resulting cDNA was amplified by PCR of 30 cycles of denaturation step; 94°C for 45 seconds, primer annealing; 56°C for 45 seconds, extension step; 72°C for 1 minute and final extension step 72°C for 10 minutes. At the end of the program, the RT-PCR product was run on 1.5% agarose and stained with ethidium bromide. The bands were visualized (UV transluminator), scanned and analyzed using UVP DOC-ITLSTM image acquisition and analysis software (Ultra-Violet product, Ltd. Cambridge, UK) that analyzes the relative band density to the GAPDH band.
A commercially available ELISA kit for NF-κB p65 and phosphorylated insulin receptor ([pYpY1162/1163] ELISA phosphoELISA Kit) were purchased from Invitrogen (Camarillo, CA, USA). A commercially available Upstate colorimetric Signal Transduction Assay Reaction (STAR) ELISA kit was used to measure p-Akt (Threonine 308) in cellular lysate (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA). The measurement of GLUT2 in liver and GLUT4 in muscle was performed by ELISA assay (Uscn Life Science Inc., Wuhan, China). Phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase-3β (p-GSK-3β) at serine 9 and β-catenin were determined using the corresponding ELISA kit (Enzo Life Sciences, Plymouth Meeting, PA, USA). The protein concentrations were determined using the modified Lowry method [ 27 ].
The hepatic and muscular total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was also measured using Antioxidant Assay kit (Cayman Chemical Co., MI, USA). The assay relies on the ability of the sample antioxidants to inhibit the oxidation of ABTS (2,2’-Azino-di-[3-ethylbenzthiazoline sulphonate]) to ABTS •+ by metmyoglobin. The amount of ABTS •+ produced was measured by reading the absorbance at 405 nm. Under the reaction condition used, the antioxidants in the sample caused suppression of the absorbance to a degree that is proportional to their concentration. The capacity of the antioxidants in the sample to prevent ABTS oxidation was compared with that of Trolox, a water-soluble tocopherol analogue, and is quantified as Trolox equivalents (mM). Additionally, the method of Mihara and Uchiyama [ 26 ] was adopted for the assessment of malondialdehyde (MDA; nmol/gm tissue).
The Nrf2 transcription activity was determined to assess the antioxidant properties of the drugs, where the ‘‘master regulator” of the antioxidant response, Nrf2, modulates the gene expression of antioxidant enzymes. The Nrf2 activation and the antioxidant response element-binding efficacy were evaluated in the liver and muscle nuclear extracts using a Trans AM Nrf2 kit (Active Motif, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Aliquots of 10μg protein of the nuclear extract were incubated with immobilized oligonucleotides containing the antioxidant response element consensus binding site (5′-GTCACAGTACTCAGCAGAATCTG-3′) and the active form of Nrf2, which binds to the oligonucleotides, was detected using an anti-Nrf2 primary antibody after treating with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibody. Quantitative analysis of Nrf2 (μg/ mg nuclear protein) was performed by measuring the chromogen formed as a result of specific activity of the transcription factor in the nuclear extracts using a plate reader at 450 nm [ 25 ].
Hepatic/muscle lipids were extracted according to the method modified by Bligh and Dyer [ 24 ], where the chloroformic layer, containing all lipids, was utilized to assay TGs and TC, as mentioned before and the tissue contents of FFAs (μM/ gm tissue) were measured using the Abcam kit (Cambridge, UK).
At the end of the treatment period, the overnight fasted animals were deeply anaesthetized using diethyl ether and the blood was collected via cardiac puncture and centrifuged (800×g, 4°C, 20 min) to separate the sera, which were used to assess the following parameters. Fasting serum glucose, AST and ALT were assessed using Randox colorimetric reagent kits (Antrim, UK); fructosamine was determined using a commercial test kit (Fructosamina, Wiener, Rosario, Argentina) and insulin by an ELISA kit (Abnova, Jhongli, Taiwan). For lipid profile, the serum contents of triglycerides (TGs)/total cholesterol (TC) were determined using Boehringer Mannheim colorimetric kits (Mannheim, Germany), whereas Abcam colorimetric kit (Cambridge, UK) was used to assess free fatty acids (FFAs). HDL-C was determined according to the method described by Lopes-Virella et al. [ 21 ]; one aliquot of the serum was mixed with the precipitating reagent phosphotungstic acid and magnesium chloride then the cholesterol content was evaluated in the clear supernatant using the Boehringer Mannheim kit (Mannheim, Germany). Finally, LDL-C was calculated according to the Friedewald equation: [ 22 ]
OGTT was carried out for overnight fasted rats and the blood droplets were collected from the tail vein (baseline); afterwards, glucose (2.5 g/kg) was gavaged orally and blood samples were collected at 30, 60, 90, and 120 min. later. AUC was calculated for blood glucose levels during the OGTT according to the following equation: [ 20 ]
Besides the normal control group, the diabetic rats were randomly allocated into eight subgroups (n = 10/group) and were kept on the same cafeteria diet until the end of the experimental period. Of which, group II represented the untreated diabetic animals (receiving the vehicle), while those in groups III, IV and V were treated with galantamine (Reminyl solution, Janssen Pharmaceutics N.V., Belgium) in a dose of 2.5 [ 15 ], 5 [ 16 ] and 10 mg/kg/day [ 17 ], respectively. The following three groups viz., VI, VII, VIII, were administered vildagliptin (Novartis Pharma AG, Switzerland) in a dose of 3, 10 [ 18 ] and 30 mg/kg [ 19 ], respectively. These doses were chosen to test the dose dependent effects of galantamine and vildagliptin. Rats in the last diabetic group were treated with a combination of galantamine (5 mg/kg) and vildagliptin (30 mg/kg) based on the dose dependent activity. Treatments were gavaged orally at 09:00 am for 4 weeks to mimic the route of administration of these drugs in humans. The changes in body weight, as well as food (gm) and water (ml) intake were monitored during the experimental period.
The current protocol was approved by the “Research Ethical Committee” of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt (PT: 576) and all procedures were performed in strict accordance to the recommendations of the “National Research Council’s Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health” [ 14 ]. All procedures adhere to the ARRIVE Guidelines for reporting animal research. A completed ARRIVE guidelines checklist is included in S1 Checklist. All efforts were made to minimize the suffering of rats during the experimental period.
In the present study, 5 days old male Wistar albino pups (Pharos University, Alexandria, Egypt) were divided into 2 groups, the normal control group (n = 10), in which animals received citrate buffer only and the diabetic group (n = 80), where pups were injected with freshly prepared STZ (90 mg/kg, i.p; Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA,) in citrate buffer. On day 21, the pups were weaned and the normal control animals were maintained on a standard rat chow diet, while those in the second group were kept on cafeteria diet (a mixture of chocolate, cookies and standard rat chow, containing approximately 57.7% carbohydrate, 19.5% protein and 22.8% fat by calories) to induce the n5-STZ type 2 model of diabetes [ 13 ]. Twelve weeks post induction; rats with fasting blood glucose level ≥160 mg/dl were considered diabetic and were included in the study. All rats had free access to water and the corresponding food with 12:12 hr light/dark cycle, normal humidity, and good sanitary constant environmental conditions prior to experimentation and thereafter.
Effect of different doses of galantamine (Galan 2.5, 5 & 10 mg/kg), vildagliptin (Vilda 3, 10 & 30 mg/kg) and their combination (Galan5 + Vilda 30) on the hepatic and muscular contents of p-GSK-3β (A, B) and β-catenin (C, D) in n-STZ diabetic rats. Drugs were gavaged orally for four weeks. Values are means of 10 rats ± S.E.M as compared with normal control (*), diabetic control (#), Galan5 (η), Galan10 (ɸ) and Vilda30 (Ψ)-treated groups (one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc test) at P< 0.05. (a) Additive and (b) synergistic interactions when Galan5 and Vilda30 were combined using Factorial Design.
The hepatic and muscular contents of p-GSK-3β and total β-catenin were significantly decreased in the untreated diabetic group, compared to the control one, respectively ( Fig 12A–12D ). These major effectors of the Wnt pathway were corrected to different extents by the treatment regimens (P< 0.05), with the combination regimen showing the best effect among the other treated groups (P< 0.001).
Effect of different doses of galantamine (Galan 2.5, 5 & 10 mg/kg), vildagliptin (Vilda 3, 10 & 30 mg/kg) and their combination (Galan5 + Vilda 30) on muscular GLUT4 gene expression in n-STZ diabetic rats. The upper panel represents stained agarose gels of RT-PCR products as a representative of one rat for each group. Data in the lower panel represents means of 10 rats ± S.EM as compared with normal control (*), diabetic control (#), Galan5 (η), Galan10 (ɸ) and Vilda30 (Ψ)-treated groups (one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc test) at P< 0.05.
Effect of different doses of galantamine (Galan 2.5, 5 & 10 mg/kg), vildagliptin (Vilda 3, 10 & 30 mg/kg) and their combination (Galan5 + Vilda 30) on hepatic and muscular contents of phosphorylated insulin receptor (A, B), and p-Akt (C, D), respectively, as well as hepatic GLUT2 (E) and muscular GLUT4 (F) in n-STZ diabetic rats. Drugs were gavaged orally for four weeks. Values are means of 10 rats ± S.E.M as compared with normal control (*), diabetic control (#), Galan5 (η), Galan10 (ɸ) and Vilda30 (Ψ)-treated groups (one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc test) at P< 0.05. (a) Additive interaction when Galan5 and Vilda30 were combined using Factorial Design.
As presented in Fig 10, the n5-STZ model caused a tremendous decrease in the hepatic/muscular phosphorylated insulin receptor (A, B), p-Akt (C, D), hepatic GLUT2 (E), and muscular GLUT4 (F) compared to normal control rats. These effects were reversed almost in all treated groups dose dependently, with the combination regimen showing the best effect (P< 0.001). Regarding the expression of GLUT4 gene ( Fig 11 ), diabetes halved its expression, while different treatment regimens induced it significantly (P< 0.05).
Effect of different doses of galantamine (Galan 2.5, 5 & 10 mg/kg), vildagliptin (Vilda 3, 10 & 30 mg/kg) and their combination (Galan5 + Vilda 30) on serum TNF-α (A), visfatin (B) and adiponectin (C), as well as hepatic (D) and muscular (E) nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) in n-STZ diabetic rats. Drugs were gavaged orally for four weeks. Values are means of 10 rats ± S.E.M as compared with normal control (*), diabetic control (#), Galan5 (η), Galan10 (ɸ) and Vilda30 (Ψ)-treated groups (one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc test) at P< 0.05. (a) Additive interaction when Galan5 and Vilda30 were combined using Factorial Design.
As shown in Fig 9, n5-STZ |
too cold most of the ride there, but felt much better on the way back when I took off my arm warmers and just wore the jacket.The best part was, I think Brian's dad really enjoyed it. I think he was inspired by Brian's weightloss and his life changes. I truly hope he can continue doing this with us and we can go on family rides more often.I'm so proud of my wonderful man who has now lost 120lbs since January. He's inspired so many people we know. He put almost 4,000 miles in this year. FOUR THOUSAND. Last year, he did maybe 500. There really aren't enough words to express how proud of him I am. <3KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Kansas doctor reviled by anti-abortion groups for his work providing “late-term” abortions was shot and killed in his Wichita, Kansas church on Sunday, and police said they captured the man responsible.
Kansas doctor George Tiller is seen in a framegrab from undated video footage. REUTERS/via REUTERS TV
Police said they planned to charge a 51-year-old man on Monday with homicide and two counts of aggravated assault in the death of 67-year-old George Tiller, who died from a single gunshot.
Tiller was shot while serving as an usher for Sunday services in the foyer at Reformation Lutheran Church. The shooter threatened two other men at the church who tried to intervene, police said.
“We feel that this is an act of an isolated individual, however our investigation continues,” said Wichita deputy police chief Tom Stolz.
Stolz said they were investigating whether the shooter had any ties to anti-abortion groups.
President Barack Obama expressed shock and outrage, saying in a statement, “However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said federal law enforcement officials would work with local authorities in investigating the crime. He directed federal agents “to offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation.”
The killing comes as the Obama administration is seeking confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor, whom many anti-abortion groups have vowed to oppose for her perceived support of the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.
“For the movement, it could not come at a worse time,” the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, which lobbies against abortion, said of the killing.
“If they make it seem that people who embrace the pro-life movement are kind of this extremist violent group, that could diminish some of the passion and energy on confronting Sotomayor.”
Mahoney said that while it was likely Tiller’s killing was motivated by anti-abortion beliefs, the movement did not support violence. Anti-abortion leaders will hold a news conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday to discuss the matter.
Tiller was one of only a few physicians in the United States willing to perform late-term abortions, those performed after the 20th week of gestation when a fetus potentially could survive outside the womb and legal under certain conditions.
PREVIOUS ATTACKS
Tiller’s Wichita clinic had been the site of several mass protests by anti-abortion groups and was bombed in 1985. The doctor was shot in both arms by an abortion opponent in 1993.
Abortion foes celebrated earlier this year when Tiller was brought to trial on charges of illegally performing certain abortions in his Wichita clinic. But he was acquitted in March.
One anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, had been particularly outspoken against him, maintaining a “Tiller Watch” on its website. But the group on Sunday denounced “vigilantism” and said it was praying for Tiller’s family.
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Police declined to name the suspect in Sunday’s shooting, saying only that he was captured a few hours after the killing about 180 miles north of Wichita, near Kansas City. Police said he was a resident of Merriam, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.
Tiller’s family released a statement through its lawyers calling the killing a “unspeakable tragedy.”
“This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace,” the statement said.First came Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, with sickening revelations of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of the cynical conduct of US diplomacy. Then Edward Snowden exposed the full extent of NSA information gathering: anything and everything you have read, written, or spoken on the phone or internet in the last decade or more has been recorded and archived and can be retrieved at will. Branded as enemies of the state, traitors, and threatened with the death penalty, all three of them are either in prison or enforced hiding and exile. Now, the US government itself is hypocritically airing its dirty laundry in a cynical pre-election maneuver, fully corroborating these whistle blowers’ tales, and revealing even greater depths of government depravity.
The Senate report on CIA torture reads like a Stephen King novel, a transcript from the Nuremberg trials, or Josef Mengele’s notes from Auschwitz. The most hair-raising villanies have been committed in the name of the country that gave the world the Declaration of Independence. If anyone had any remaining doubts about the degenerate rottenness of US capitalism and imperialism, this report should exorcise them immediately. These are not “commie lies and propaganda,” but come straight from the horse’s mouth.
Profits and politics by other means
In the name of the “war on terror,” GW Bush unleashed a get-rich-quick, anything-goes, free-for-all for contractors of military and other services. Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld’s private and public partners in crime and business made a literal killing off of fat, no-bid, profit-drenched federal contracts, all in the name of “small government.” Even torture was outsourced. According to the New York Times:
“The chief of interrogations, who is not named in the report, was given the job in fall 2002 even though the agency’s inspector general had urged that he be ‘orally admonished for inappropriate use of interrogation techniques’ in a training program in Latin America in the 1980s. “And Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen, identified by the pseudonyms Grayson Swigert and Hammond Dunbar in the report, had not conducted a single real interrogation. They had helped run a Cold War-era training program for the Air Force in which personnel were given a taste of the harsh treatment they might face if captured by Communist enemies. The program—called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape—had never been intended for use in American interrogations, and involved methods that had produced false confessions when used on American airmen held by the Chinese in the Korean War. “The program allowed the psychologists to assess their own work—they gave it excellent grades—and to charge a daily rate of $1,800 each, four times the pay of other interrogators, to waterboard detainees. Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen later started a company that took over the C.I.A. program from 2005 until it was closed in 2009. The C.I.A. paid it $81 million, plus $1 million to protect the company from legal liability. “Early in the program, the report says, ‘a junior officer on his first overseas assignment,’ who had no experience with prisons or interrogations, was placed in charge of a C.I.A. detention site in Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit. Other C.I.A. officers had previously proposed that he be stripped of access to classified information because of a ‘lack of honesty, judgment and maturity.’ “At the Salt Pit, the junior officer ordered a prisoner, Gul Rahman, shackled to the wall of his cell and stripped of most of his clothing. Mr. Rahman was found dead of hypothermia the next morning, lying on the bare concrete floor. Four months later, the junior officer was recommended for a cash award of $2,500 for his ‘consistently superior work.’ “... The interrogation teams included people with ‘notable derogatory information’ in their records, including one with ‘workplace anger management issues” and another who ‘had reportedly admitted to sexual assault.’”
This is just the tip of the iceberg. At secret locations referred to as “dungeons,” with ominous names such as “COBALT” and “The Salt Pit,” a litany of veritable crimes against humanity were perpetrated. Many of the suspects were entirely innocent. One was “waterboarded” 183 times in a “series of near-drownings.” Nudity and humiliation, forced stress positions, being tackled violently or repeatedly slammed against a wall, prolonged ice water baths, cold concrete cells, dietary manipulation and deprivation, glaring lights and blaring music, tight hand and ankle cuffs leading to blisters and swollen legs, lack of medical care, placing pressure on detainees’ arteries, blowing cigarette or cigar smoke into detainees’ faces, solitary confinement, and enforced sleep deprivation—in some cases for as long as 180 hours—were the norm.
Prisoners were forced to wear diapers and defecate on themselves, stripped naked and run through gauntlets of people beating and dragging them through the dirt. They were told their family members would be raped or have their throats cut, and were menaced with sexual abuse themselves. At least one was left naked in a freezing cell, only to die of hypothermia.
Several prisoners were subjected to forced “rectal feedings,” in which “hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts, and raisins [were] ‘pureed’ and rectally infused.” Unsure of the best techniques to use, the torturers debated among themselves: “[r]egarding the rectal tube, if you place it and open up the IV tubing, the flow will self regulate, sloshing up the large intestines.” Another opined: “[w]hat I infer is that you get a tube up as far as you can, then open the IV wide. No need to squeeze the bag—let gravity do the work.”
This abject barbarism was not carried out by ISIS in Iraq, or by the Taleban in remote, primitive parts of Pakistan or Afghanistan. It was funded and encouraged by the richest country on earth in the name of its citizens. Perhaps more Americans will now understand why many people around the world see the US flag as something to be hated and burned. Even the former military chief prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantanamo says it will take decades to undo the harm done to America’s image and security.
Imperialist hypocrisy
These horrors were conceived on the basis of blatant lies and distortions. None of the 9/11 hijackers where from Afghanistan, yet that country was almost immediately invaded. There was absolutely no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, and intelligence clearly showed he had no weapons of mass destruction, yet Iraq was steamrolled and plunged into misery and mayhem. Over a million Iraqis and Afghanis have been killed, with millions more displaced. Several thousand US soldiers have also died, with ten of thousands more maimed and traumatized for life. We can rest assured that most ordinary Iraqis, Afghanis, Yemenis, and Pakistanis, whose lives have been ruined by imperialism, would prefer less US-style “freedom, civilization, and democracy,” and more food, infrastructure, jobs, housing, education, and healthcare! The same can be said for ordinary Americans, who have had to foot the bill for these wars through vicious cuts, austerity, and deprivation.
Many of the “liberal” politicians now wringing their hands at the findings were fully aware of what was going on years ago. They turned a blind eye to it at the time and fell into lock step behind Bush and Cheney, yet now they feign horror and outrage. Former CIA chief, Michael Hayden, who is now collecting generous checks as a member of the board of the Chertoff Group, headed by the former chief of the US Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, had this to say in 2009: “Let me remind you that every member of our intelligence committees, House and Senate, Republican and Democrat, is now fully briefed on the detention and interrogation program. This is not CIA's program. This is not the President's program. This is America's program.”
Plenty of people in positions of power knew this was unconscionable. According to the New York Times:
“In January 2003, 10 months into the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prison program, the agency’s chief of interrogations sent an email to colleagues saying that the relentlessly brutal treatment of prisoners was a train wreck ‘waiting to happen and I intend to get the hell off the train before it happens.’ He said he had told his bosses he had ‘serious reservations’ about the program and no longer wanted to be associated with it ‘in any way.’ “The bitter infighting in the C.I.A. interrogation program was only one symptom of the dysfunction, disorganization, incompetence, greed and deception described in a summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report. In more than 500 pages, the summary, released on Tuesday, paints a devastating picture of an agency that was ill equipped to take on the task of questioning Al Qaeda suspects, bungled the job and then misrepresented the results.”
All of this was done, not by the Nazis or the medieval Spanish Inquisition, but by the bloodhounds of US imperialism in the first decade of the 21st century. This was not just a few “bad apples,” but was carried out with the full knowledge of the most powerful decision-makers in the US intelligence services, the Senate, and the executive branch.
And the icing on the cake? None of these “coercive interrogation” techniques yielded any actionable intelligence in the search for Osama Bin Laden, the ostensible excuse for the program. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Even when lower-level operatives reported that there was no more intelligence to be gained from these individuals through torture, they were told by their superiors to “keep going.”
Even the Republican right-wing hawk John McCain has made it abundantly clear that the torture program achieved nothing—although big profits were indeed made. Other Republicans, such as Orrin Hatch, have called it “a pure political piece of crap.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney called it “a bunch of hooey” and a “crock.” In fact, according to him, the entire program was legal and above board, and “[the torturers] deserve a lot of praise. As far as I’m concerned, they ought to be decorated, not criticized.”
Republicrats vs. Democrans
Senate Democrats released the long-delayed 6,000-page report, compiled over a period of five years, just weeks before officially losing control of that house of Congress to Republicans. After the beating they took in the midterm elections, they wanted to get one last jab in and position themselves better in advance of the 2016 elections. Their message will likely be that the Democrats may not have achieved much in the way of “hope and change,” but at least it’s better than the “bad old days” under Bush and Cheney.
The ruling class is so unsure how to proceed, and so greedy for the spoils of office, that some politicians are willing to undermine the credibility of the entire state edifice in order to get a few points on their “rivals.” However, we should be clear that the divide is not at all between “left and right,” but between which sector of the capitalist class gets to loot and control the country. Faced with an intractable crisis of capitalism—and don’t for a moment let the sky-high stock market prices fool you into thinking that any real economic recovery or permanent stability has been achieved—they are unable to rule in the old way and are tearing each other apart in search of a nonexistent magic key.
Both parties defend the same fundamental interests, but prefer slightly different methods. And though they will inevitably try to jockey for position and attempt take each other down a notch or two through cheap political showmanship, scandals, and lies, in the final analysis, they will unfailingly join together to defend the US capitalist system and class. Despite the differences among the capitalists and their politicians, they will always close ranks to defend each other when their essential interests are at stake.
As he is somewhat more prescient than the average bourgeois politician, President Obama knows he cannot let this situation get out of hand—otherwise the very institution of the presidency may be threatened. To avoid further incriminating the Bush White House, he personally prevented the release of several documents that would have otherwise made their way into the report. In addition, he says he will not seek to prosecute those involved. According to an official statement by the President, “One of the strengths that makes America exceptional is our willingness to openly confront our past, face our imperfections, make changes and do better. Rather than another reason to refight old arguments, I hope that today's report can help us leave these techniques where they belong—in the past.”
In other words, the torturers and those who instigated and paid them millions will get away scot free. And although Obama formally banned such interrogation methods in 2009, we should not be so naive as to believe that similar abuses do not continue in one form or another. The President has failed to deliver on what many believed to be a “no-brainer” 2008 campaign promise: the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which to this day houses nearly 150 prisoners. He also signed an extension of the Patriot Act and refused to shut down the NSA spying program revealed by Edward Snowden. In addition, he has vastly expanded Bush’s drone program, and has authorized the extrajudicial murder of US citizens by this form of technological terror. This is the “kinder, gentler” face of US imperialism.
We often cite Gore Vidal’s observation that, “There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.” This is truly no exaggeration. Since 1853, the US has been ruled by one or the other of these two parties. In any other country, this dictatorship would be decried as tyranny. In the US it passes as the height of democracy and freedom.
To say that the US is dominated by a tiny clique of wealthy and well-connected extended families and individuals is not a conspiracy theory. Let us not forget that Bill Clinton continued Bush Sr.’s murderous wars and sanctions, Bush Jr. continued Clinton’s, and Obama picked up where GW left off. Their top-level staff and advisors often overlap, with many of them having served as far back as the Nixon and Ford presidencies, not to mention the constantly revolving door between major corporations, Wall Street, and the highest levels of government. Now Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are among the frontrunners for the presidency in 2016.
In anticipation of his brother’s attempt at a “threepeat” for the Bush dynasty, there is an ongoing media campaign to rehabilitate the image of GW Bush. As an individual he is presented as harmless, fun, and down-to-earth, and his presidency as underrated and misunderstood. He is said to have retired to a quiet life of clearing brush, doing the ice bucket challenge, and painting child-like art on his ranch in Texas (although to refer to his body of work in that way is a gross insult to both children and art). When asked in a recent interview who he would support in 2016, he referred to Bill Clinton as his “brother from another mother,” and Hillary Clinton as his “sister-in-law”—but obviously sided with his biological brother Jeb. This is just an anecdote, but it goes a long way towards showing just how intimately connected the Republicans and Democrats are.
“The whole damn system is guilty”
Following the decision of two separate grand juries not to indict the police officers involved in the murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, these revelations will further shake Americans’ confidence in the institutions of capitalist rule. Just as the police in Ferguson and Staten Island acted with impunity, the CIA torturers and their cabinet-level handlers will also literally get away with murder.
Obama says that such methods of torture have “nothing to do with US values.” But we should state plainly that there is no such thing as “US values” in the abstract. There are the values and interests of the workers, and those of the capitalists. The workers are driven by a desire for safe homes, secure jobs and pensions, access to quality health care and education, and time for leisure with friends and family. The capitalists are driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar, no matter what the collateral damage to humanity and the planet.
This is why we have always explained that there are in fact two Americas: the America of the ruling class minority, and that of the working class majority. The stark reality is that this country is run by a small handful of people. They own the key levers of the economy and use their wealth to ensure their political domination. No matter which major party is in power, their basic interests will be looked after. Three consecutive CIA directors blatantly lied about the extent of the torture for a reason: it’s their job as guard dogs of the system to do whatever it takes to defend it. Congress and the White House pretended nothing was amiss for a decade for precisely the same reason.
Foreign policy is merely an extension of domestic policy. “Legality” means little when the interests of the bourgeoisie and their state are concerned, both at home and abroad. Like the proverbial leopard, a socio-economic system that gave us Hitler’s SS and Bush’s CIA cannot change its spots.
So although it disgusts us, none of this comes as a surprise to the Marxists. We have no illusions in the bourgeois state or its form of democracy, and know all-too-well to what lengths a desperate ruling class will go to maintain its interests and power. Their grotesque newspeak cannot hide the reality for those who have learned to read between the lines.
In the future, a workers’ government will throw the archives wide open. What has been revealed so far will seem like a children’s book in comparison to the monstrosities yet to be unveiled. However, for millions of ordinary Americans, this report will come as a major shock. They have long believed the myth of the American dream, of alleged American exceptionalism, and that they truly live in the greatest, most free and democratic society on the planet. They will be deeply disturbed by what has been done in their name. The illusion that “the US doesn’t do that kind of thing” and “that doesn’t happen here” has been shattered.
Nonetheless, this process of awakening consciousness is only in its early beginnings. Despite this sordid report, many will continue to tightly press the blinders to their temples, for fear of seeing what is really going on. But even they will not be able to keep their heads in the sand forever. Events, events, events will eventually smash them out of their self-imposed lethargy, and those who are apparently the most apathetic today, could well be on the front lines of mass movements to change society in the future.
To end imperialism, war, torture, and discrimination—end capitalism!This story was updated at 4:45 p.m. ET
The National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox announced on Wednesday that they are expanding their partnership in a venture that will include National Geographic's cable channels, its 127-year-old magazine, digital and social platforms, maps, travel, and other media.
Under the $725-million deal, Fox, which currently holds a majority stake in National Geographic's cable channels, will own 73 percent of the new media company, called National Geographic Partners. The National Geographic Society will own 27 percent.
Officials at National Geographic and Fox said the deal will bring greater financial stability to the Society’s media products and its scientific research arm, which have operated as a non-profit since National Geographic’s founding in 1888.
The partnership separates the media outlets from the society itself. The publications will become for-profit, while the Society will continue as a non-profit, with an enhanced endowment of nearly $1 billion – roughly double the current endowment. National Geographic officials said the influx will allow the Society to expand its work in science, exploration, and education.
View Images The new media partnership will be led by Declan Moore, now National Geographic’s chief media officer. Photograph by Becky Hale, National Geographic
The new media partnership will be led by Declan Moore, now National Geographic’s chief media officer. In a meeting with staff members on Wednesday, Moore said the partnership with 21st Century Fox and its vast media holdings will allow National Geographic to dramatically expand its efforts to remain a global leader in “visually compelling storytelling,” particularly on mobile, social, and video platforms.
Gary E. Knell, who will remain as CEO of the National Geographic Society, said the partnership means that “we will now have the scale and reach to fulfill our mission long into the future. The Society’s work will be the engine that feeds our content creation efforts, enabling us to share that work with even larger audiences and achieve more impact. It’s a virtuous cycle.”
The deal comes at a time when media organizations in general are struggling to overcome declining readership and advertising for print publications, and are looking for ways to create new revenue streams on digital platforms. National Geographic is on more secure financial footing than many other media, but subscriptions to its magazine have declined from a peak of 10.8 million in 1989 to about 4 million today. National Geographic’s declines in advertising this year have been in line with a 10 percent industry-wide decline for monthly magazines.
“Anybody who’s been paying attention to what’s happening in the media world knows that media companies today face significant challenges to their very existence,” said Jane Lubchenco, a National Geographic board member and former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “National Geographic has hardly been immune to these market forces, and its previously successful business model has been at risk.”
Lubchenco noted that as other media companies shrink, the deal enables National Geographic to expand its work in science and storytelling.
“It is the perfect opportunity for the National Geographic to get on a path that provides a robust and exciting future,” Lubchenco said.
‘They’re Not in the Business of Meddling’
21st Century Fox was created in 2013 when media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. was split in two. It contains television and film properties, including the 20th Century Fox film studio and the conservative Fox News Channel. The reorganized News Corp. now includes Murdoch’s print properties, including the Wall Street Journal and the Times of London.
Moore, who has worked for National Geographic for 20 years, said National Geographic’s publications will remain editorially independent under the new partnership.
“They’re not in the business of meddling,” he said of 21st Century Fox. “They’ve got great respect for the [National Geographic] brand.”
That sentiment was echoed on Wednesday by 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch, the youngest son of Rupert Murdoch, who spoke to National Geographic employees in Washington. Murdoch emphasized his commitment to National Geographic’s editorial integrity and autonomy.
In an interview, Murdoch also stressed there are “benefits to scale,” and that the expanded partnership will create “vast opportunities” for National Geographic’s digital, video, and print journalism to succeed in new ways.
“This is an expanded canvas for the National Geographic brand to grow and reach customers in new ways, and to reach new customers,” Murdoch said.
National Geographic’s partnership with Fox dates to 1997, when the National Geographic Channels International was launched. The partnership has evolved since as more channels have been added. The channels now reach 500 million homes in 175 countries.
Education Programs to Expand
Moore will report to the board of directors, which will include four members from National Geographic and four members from 21st Century Fox. The board’s leadership post will alternate annually between 21st Century Fox and the Society, with Knell serving as the board’s first chairman.
“We feel we’ll be able to build an extremely attractive National Geographic experience that combines television, video, news, photojournalism, long-form storytelling, short-form storytelling under one brand umbrella,” Moore said.
For the National Geographic Society, the partnership will enable the creation of two new education centers: the National Geographic Grosvenor Center for Education—dedicated to creating geographically competent high school graduates—and the Centers of Excellence in Geography, Scientific and Environmental Journalism, and Photography, to develop and fund innovative exploration, documentation, and storytelling.
Knell said the Society will begin developing the new centers this fall.
National Geographic Partners will include National Geographic’s domestic and international channels, National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Kids and Little Kids magazines, travel media, National Geographic Studios, National Geographic Maps, National Geographic Books and Home Entertainment, travel expeditions, licensing and merchandising, eCommerce, National Geographic Creative, and location-based entertainment, as well as related digital and social media platforms.
John Fahey, Jr., chairman of the National Geographic Board, said the new partnership builds on the 18-year collaboration between National Geographic and Fox in operating the National Geographic cable channels.Twelve years ago, David Oman moved to a new home just 150 feet from 10050 Cielo Drive, the house in Benedict Canyon where Sharon Tate and four other people were murdered by the Manson family on August 9, 1969.
The mansion where the murders took place had been torn down in 1994, though a different house was later built on site. Five years after the home was razed, Oman's father purchased a nearby plot for $40,000, and together they built a house on it.
During construction, a worker told Oman heard voices and footsteps coming from the top floor and that he knew he wasn’t alone. On further inspection, he saw that nobody was there. Others claimed to hear voices and footsteps, and feeling a cold breeze on the back of their necks. Then, in July 2004, Oman woke from a deep sleep at 2 a.m. to find “a full body apparition at the bottom of his bed pointing towards the driveway which leads to the murder site.” He tells me, “There was no sound. He gestured three times and then just disappeared."
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Fascinated and curious, he went to the LAPD to see if items from the murder had been left on the once-vacant land that held his house. If a bloodied piece of clothing or a knife carrying the victims' DNA had been on this property, that might somehow serve as a connection, he thought. That’s when he saw a photo of Jay Sebring, Sharon Tate’s close friend and hairdresser — also brutally murdered on that horrible night. Sebring bore an eerie resemblance to the figure he'd see at his bedside.
See also: 10 Chilling Things About Charles Manson Detailed in His New Biography
Paranormal activity at the house became something of an obsession for Oman. In the last decade, he's allowed access to dozens of “paranormal investigative teams,” who've brought instruments to measure electromagnetic activity in the air, which is thought to be a sign of the spirit world. He says, “The very first person to document the paranormal activities was world-renowned parapsychologist Barry Taff, who said in over 4,000 cases he investigated, this house had the highest consistent EMF readings he’d seen. He called it ‘the Mount Everest of haunted houses' and 'the Disneyland for the dead.’”
Yet living there has never fazed Oman. By nature a spiritual person, he isn't fearful of ghosts or paranormal activity. “I always felt like I wasn’t alone here, but I’m not afraid of werewolves or fictitious characters, and I do know life is more than just what we see. Besides, I’m way more scared of the living than the dead,” he says.
In 2011, Oman served as a writer/producer on House at the End of the Drive, a fictionalized movie based on what he's witnessed on Cielo Drive. Every few months, he now opens his home for an evening of ghosthunting, posting a notice on the film's Facebook page. “Wanna go Ghost Hunting at The Oman House? Here's your Chance!”
In May, I decide to join the hunt. The night, May 10, is dense with cloud cover and a half-moon exposure — a Dracula moon. I park on the very private road high above Beverly Hills and walk to the Oman house. The garage door is open, with a team of men watching multiple monitors of surveillance cameras inside the house. “We’re looking for activity,” they tell me.
Oman, warm and cheerful, introduces me to the group of a dozen men and women: some gawkers, others who work on paranormal TV shows and consider themselves experienced in the field. One girl gushes about her and her mom’s obsession with the Tate murders, admitting to driving by this street many times, “just to see where it happened.” Another tells of an evening she spent here a year ago, when her very skeptical friend sustained inexplicable, almost blood-like, red stains on her dress that she said smelled “like old cat pee.” Horrified, the friend would never talk about the dress ever again.
That same night as they were leaving, the woman continues, random cars on the block had only the right front headlight and right back light lit — all along the street. “And as you went up the street, toward the old Tate place, the left headlights and rear lights were lit, again on random cars. It was like a map or trail of some sort.”
Oman guides our group on a tour downstairs. As we descend the winding metal staircase, a man stands at the bottom holding a meter that looks like a cell phone. “The activity is huge! Look at this!! It’s like almost 2,000 and that’s crazy!”
Up next, photos of possible paranormal activity on the property...
A shot Oman believes shows paranormal activity. Courtesy of David Oman
The device, a natural tri-field meter, measures the electrical and magnetic activity that's naturally found in the air. Apparently, this spot gives readings higher than anywhere else in the house. “If you stay in this area of such high voltage it could alter your mind,” the man says.
I ask how he knows the readings are related to “activity” — could it be the electrical field inside all of us? “When the readings are this level, it indicates that this spot is a favorable environment for the spirits to manifest. They can use the energy that’s occurring naturally. So we know to watch in this area.”
We walk through the hallway into a larger room. One of the guys is wearing a tee shirt with PARANORMAL PHOTOGRAPHER on the back. He says, “This is where I saw definitely a male spirit. Not exactly a man standing there, but it was for sure a male and it was as if he challenging me. Like, 'What do you want?'”
We go into a bedroom where a small K2 meter that measures radio frequencies sits on the bottom of the bed, again to measure “activity.” People in the group yell out, “Show yourselves! Are you with us? Let us know you are here!”
The chanting gets louder. “Hey Sharon, are you here?” “Are you with us Jay??!! C’mon, show us!” Ghosts or no ghosts, it feels creepy to shriek at the spirits of brutally murdered people, as if they could just appear on the spot.
Oman later tells me that the actress Lindsay Lohan once visited the house through a friend's introduction — and requested that the spirits manifest. Said Oman, “It just doesn't happen like that, Lindsay.” Yet the people at the house tonight aren't much different — the spirits don't have much room to sneak up on us. We're too busy shouting.
Another shot by Oman purportedly showing paranormal activity. Photo courtesy of David Oman
I don’t see any evidence of ghosts that night, although the photos in the upstairs bathroom of a young, gorgeous Sharon Tate are haunting. I will admit, I want to meet her, dead or alive, just to say how sad I am about it all.
I call Oman the next day, after he emails me photos of flashing, floating light in the house, captured with high speed 400 and 800 film. He says they're sightings. “I’ve had many esteemed psychics and mediums here — James Van Prague, Lisa Williams, Chris Fleming — and they all say that the spirits of those that were killed have unfinished business and they will not crossover until the murderers are also dead,” he says. “I’ve seen infrared video footage of balls of light and shadow figures on many occasions and my figurines that stand in a very active room fall over without any help, often. I know it’s them.”
“How,” I ask, because it’s all I want to know. “It’s been 45 years since the murder. How do you know its Sharon Tate’s ghost?”
There’s a pause. “Once when I had a table full of people here, ten years ago, I literally heard Sharon whisper, 'I just want you to know we’re here.'”
Spooky? Absolutely. But the eeriest thing I learn from Oman is that when his mother died nine years ago, he had to stay with her body for three hours in the dark. “The power went out and I sat with my mother’s body,” he recalls. “I felt her leave her body and her spirit remain. The mythology of death was right in my face and I knew after that, the body and the spirit are two different things.
“Somehow faced with my own mortality, it made things very clear and it cemented for me that there is a soul. And if it’s not at peace, it will stay here until it is.”
For information on future tours, see the film's Facebook page.
See also: Zak Bagans' Paranormal Challenge, American Idol for Ghost Hunters, Stakes Out a Boyle Heights HospitalAs outright pessimists by default, all of us Newcastle United fans will be feeling a slight contraction in the area remarkably near the sphincter this weekend and next as we take ourselves perilously close to a, frankly well deserved, return to the Football League Championship for 2013-14.
Anybody who has seen Newcastle at their worst this season will have no hesitation in denying that they have been shamefully poor against their opposition and even when they have won they have, at times, played with the cohesiveness and fragility of pre-World War One Europe.
It wasn’t too long ago that similar performances and feelings were being shared around the NE1 area. Four years ago, in farcical circumstances within the club, Newcastle United were relegated and humiliated in a very shameful fashion. This season has been very solid behind the scenes in comparison, but performances on the pitch have not been – from the naked eye – too far away from those of four years ago despite the playing staff being of an arguably higher standard.
With 38 points, Newcastle have already surpassed their 08-09 tally of 34 this season with 2 games to go. Looking deeper into the points collection, they already have three more wins to their name than the total that they mustered four years ago, but perhaps most importantly and – so |
I officially joined Engine Yard on January 1, 2008, about a week before we announced our Series A funding, becoming its twenty-second employee. I was Engine Yard's very first "Engineering" hire, and I would spend the next year working on Ezra's Merb project, finally releasing Merb 1.0 at MerbCamp that October.
When I joined Engine Yard, I had already been working on the jQuery project for a couple years, having started visualjquery.com at a time in jQuery's history before jQuery had version numbers. I learned a lot from John Resig about building and motivating open source communities, and I did my first professional work writing jQuery in Action.
The Merb project was my first full-time open source work, and I met some of my earliest open source friends while working on it. When I first met Carl, he was working on a rewrite of the Merb router, the one part of Merb I was still scared to work on. I met Andy Delcambre, who now works on Engine Yard's AppCloud, after he volunteered to help with Merb.
I met Loren Segal, well-known for the YARD documentation tool, while working to give Merb documentation I could be proud of. And I became the first Github user outside of Chris, PJ and Tom in order to get the Merb project on git. If you're paying attention, that made me Github user nil.id, and was the source of some hilarious bugs.
In Hampton Catlin's first Ruby survey in 2008, about one in eight respondents said that they preferred Merb, and by the end of the year, the Rails and Merb teams were coming to blows. During this same time, Engine Yard had taken on a Series B round of funding (this time for $15 million), and had grown from a small company of a couple dozen to a company pushing 100. We had Sales and Marketing departments. We also had an Engineering department, which had spent a large part of the year on our first fully automated product, Engine Yard Solo.
On a personal level, I started getting heavily involved in Open Source other than Merb, especially DataMapper and Rubinius. I started speaking at conferences, starting with a talk on DataMapper at MountainWest RubyConf in 2008. Engine Yard also threw its first Hackfest at that event, an event we would repeat in 2009 and again in 2010. This event, and the work our great community marketing, Open Source and support teams would do over the next several years elevated Engine Yard's reputation as a team of experts that would keep your app running no matter what.
As Engine Yard grew, a lot of people asked us why we were supporting Merb when so much of our business depended on the success of the Rails community. By late 2008, it was probably the most common question I got when speaking at conferences. In truth, the best I could tell was that Engine Yard was worried about the future of Rails, and wanted to make sure that Ruby remained successful. What we didn't realize at the time was that the one full-time employee (me) that Engine Yard had on Merb was more than the total number of worldwide full-time developers on Rails. In short, Rails was a fully volunteer project, and that had something to do with some of the issues that drove people to Merb in the first place.
At the end of 2008, Tom Mornini, the CTO of Engine Yard, recognized that if we could join forces (and this was definitely a big if), we could help shore up Rails into the future. I remember the first time Tom asked me about it in the stairwell of our South Park office. I thought he was off the wall to even suggest it. After all, it didn't seem like the teams could get along at all. But the Merb team had adopted so much of the Rails philosophy that at its core, the only question that remained was how aggressive the Rails project would get to clean things up.
In the years since Ezra first announced Merb, Rails had gotten thread-safe, Rack support, and some improvements to the internals. After hashing out the details (in some very contentious conversations), we decided to give it a try, announcing we would merge the projects on December 23, 2008. That announcement quite literally changed the trajectory of my life. In the almost two years since that announcement, I have worked harder than I have ever worked before, and am more proud of the work I have done than I have ever been before.
Perhaps more importantly, I have worked with some of the best open source developers in the business without whom Rails 3 would have been a pale shadow of itself. Including me, Rails 3 brought on eight new committers. The Rails 3 project did more than improve the quality of the codebase: it reinvigorated the community of developers actively contributing. And by moving toward a model that allowed Rails to have more dependencies, Rails became the center of a thriving Ruby community, where anyone can reuse the code that makes Rails tick for their non-Rails projects.
In the summer of 2009, José Valim became a Google Summer of Code student dedicated to rewriting the Rails generators so that users of DataMapper, RSpec, and Haml could use the standard Rails generators. A lot of people thought it was too optimistic to do in a summer, but José finished the job well before the end of the summer, giving him time to continue his contributions.
Around the same time, Mikel Lindsaar decided to write a ground-up mail implementation, releasing the imaginatively named mail gem in October 2009. This project, which involved writing a parser that could parse the gigabytes of mail in the Trec and Enron email databases, strained credulity, and would enable us to give ActionMailer the facelift it needed for Rails 3.0.
Santiago Pastorino showed up out of nowhere, with a level of pluck that is rarely seen in the Ruby community. Despite a noticeable language barrier, Santiago went from a warning fixer to a Rails committer. This month, he became an official member of the Rails core team. While working on Rails, I learned a lot from a lot of people, but Santiago's raw determination and skill should stand out as an example to the Ruby community.
Everyone knows Aaron Patterson, and I was just as surprised as everyone else when he started the long, dedicated task of improving the performance of the Arel library. He already has quite the reputation in the Ruby community, and even has commit access to Ruby itself, so I'm personally gratified to work with him on Rails. If you haven't yet watched it, watch his Worst Ideas Ever presentation from RubyConf last year. Be prepared to laugh.
Xavier Noria has been a one-man documentation machine, helping to grow and maintain the Rails guides, and constantly reminds everyone that documentation is just as essential to the codebase as tests. Without him, Rails 3 might have been great internally, but nobody would know it. Documentation folks often get little love in open source projects, but to me, the work Xavier does is key to our success.
More recently, I've been extremely impressed by Piotr Sarnacki's work (for Ruby Summer of Code) on finally delivering on the promise of truly mountable engines. His work is already merged into Rails master, and will ship with Rails 3.1. As with the rest of the guys I've talked about, he took on a pretty complicated and entangled task, and managed to get more done in less time than people expected. Keep an eye on him!
In short, the Rails 3 project was about more than code; it was about reshaping the Rails community. I'm proud to have been a part of growing the Rails ecosystem, and humbled by the number of people who have worked so hard for so little.
Now that we released Rails 3, I have had an opportunity to think about what to do next. I could, of course, continue full-time work on Rails for Engine Yard, which has been a fantastic place to do Open Source for the past several years. I am still extremely interested in open web technologies, and want to do my part to help the open web succeed. Having robust, mature server side frameworks that are easy for anyone to use is certainly one large piece of the puzzle, and I've really enjoyed helping to bring the core of Rails up to date with modern web technologies.
But as Avi Bryant pointed out last year at DjangoCon, the technology of the open web is shifting toward the client side. That doesn't change the need for robust, mature server-side frameworks. Even the richest web applications get and sync their data with servers, mostly over the HTTP protocol. And although a lot of people have opined that rich clients can simply wire directly into something like CouchDB or MongoDB, applications with rich clients tend to have the same kinds of complex needs (like authorization) as more tranditional document-based applications have. I see Rails remaining an excellent server-side solution even as clients become richer over the next few years.
There's still a lot to do for Rails in the future, and I want to be a part of that. On the other hand, the field of rich client development is just getting starting, with new mobile devices like the iPhone, Android and iPad giving us an almost blank canvas to work on. Unfortunately, a lot of the really big bets in this space are on selling licenses to either entire libraries or the development tools needed to efficiently work with the tools.
What the open web needs is a robust, easy to use framework with development tools that are trivial to get started with and awesome to work with. And both the library and the developer tools need to be offered for free, like Rails or jQuery. Since 2008, I have poured my soul into helping to build an amazing open source Ruby web framework and the ecosystem that powers it. Now, I want to bring that same energy and enthusiasm to building great tools that leverage the power of the modern open web and a free and open source community around them.
That's why I was so excited when I saw that Charles Jolley, who worked on Apple's Mobile Me product, announced that he was leaving Apple to form a new company dedicated to those same principles. Charles had helped build Mobile Me on SproutCore, a free and open source framework, and had managed to make sure that Apple continued to contribute back to the open source project under the MIT license.
In his blog post announcing that he was leaving Apple, Charles said "SproutCore is now and will always be totally free and open source. I think this business of charging for a commercial license is not an effective way to grow a project. Sure you make a little cash, but at what expense to the community? My goal is to make SproutCore and all of the developer tools that surround it totally free to everyone. All I ask is that you participate in the community somehow to make things a little better for those who come after you."
This philosophy closely mirrored my thinking on the future of client-side development, and seeing a mature client-side framework open a permissive open source philosophy really excited me. Since the beginning of 2010, I was starting to think that if I wanted a permissively licensed client-side toolkit, I was going to have to build it and its community myself. I already knew about SproutCore--early versions of its build tools were built on Merb, and had met Charles a few times. After reading his blog post, I emailed him to find out what he was thinking about doing and he told me about his plans for SproutCore.
The SproutCore library itself, today, is definitely recovering from having been developed almost exclusively inside Apple. It comes with a number of amazing low-level primitives, and you can build a large, complex application on it. That said, it never had a big enough new user community to get a very friendly public API. Thankfully, it's much, much easier to build a great public API than it is to build the core of a web application toolkit. Starting this week, I will be joining Charles' company, Strobe, and will get right to work on the next generation of the SproutCore tools.
I have to say, I'm excited about what comes next.
Postscript
Because you're probably wondering, I will still be active in the Rails community, and will be doing work for Engine Yard on Rails 3.1. I plan to use Rails 3 and Engine Yard for the server-side elements of the projects I will be doing, and really want the new Rails 3.1 features I talked about at Windy City Rails. I will also be helping Engine Yard start a new Technical Advisory Board, which will help provide community feedback for its cloud products, and guidance about what open source efforts could use the Engine Yard bump. I forsee being part of both the Rails and Engine Yard family for years to come.A seamstress buried in the wreckage of a collapsed garment factory building in Bangladesh for 17 days was rescued today, a miraculous moment set against a scene of unimaginable horror, where the death toll shot past 1,000.
Reshma was in such good shape she was able to walk, according to one rescuer. She said she survived on dried food and bottled water. She was discovered near a Muslim prayer room in the basement of the eight-storey Rana Plaza building, where crews have been focused on recovering bodies, not rescuing survivors, since late April.
"I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention," she told the private Somoy TV from her hospital bed as doctors and nurses milled about, giving her saline and checking her condition.
"No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again," she said.
"There was some dried food around me. I ate the dried food for 15 days. The last two days I had nothing but water. I used to drink only a limited quantity of water to save it. I had some bottles of water around me," she said.
She finally got the crews' attention when she took a steel pipe and began banging it, said Abdur Razzak, a warrant officer with the military's engineering department who first spotted her in the wreckage. The workers ran into the dark rubble, eventually getting flashlights, to free her, he said.
They ordered the cranes and bulldozers to immediately stop and used handsaws and welding and drilling equipment to cut through the iron rod and debris still trapping her. They gave her water, oxygen and saline as they worked to free her.
"I heard her say, `I am alive, please save me.' I gave her water. She was OK," said Miraj Hossain, a volunteer who crawled through the debris to help cut Begum free.
In what is being called a miraculous rescue, a woman known only as Reshma was pulled Friday from the wreckage of a garment factory collapse in Savar near Dhaka in Bangladesh, and was resting later in a hospital bed in Dhaka. (Somoy TV via AP Video/Associated Press )
When Reshma was freed after 40 minutes, the crowd erupted in wild cheers. She was rushed to a military hospital in an ambulance, but her rescuers said she was in shockingly good condition, despite her ordeal.
Abdur Razzak, a warrant officer with the military's engineering department who first spotted her in the wreckage, said she could even walk.
"She was fine, no injuries. She was just trapped. The space was wide," said Lt. Col. Moyeen, an army official at the scene.
Prime minister calls rescued woman
Begum was working in a factory on the second floor of Rana Plaza on April 24 when the building began collapsing around her. She said she raced down a stairwell into the basement, where she became trapped by the wreckage.
Her long hair got stuck under the rubble, but she used sharp objects to cut her hair and free herself, said Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the head of the local military units in charge of the disaster site.
Reshma told her rescuers there were no more survivors in her area. Workers began tearing through the nearby rubble anyway, hoping to find another person alive.
"Reshma told me there were three others with her. They died. She did not see anybody else alive there," Suhrawardy said. "We will continue our search until a survivor or a dead body is there."
Reshma's sister, Asma, said she and her mother kept a vigil for the seamstress, who is from the rural Dinajpur district, 270 kilometres north of Dhaka. She said they had been losing hope amid the endless string of grim days, when only scores of dead bodies were removed from the rubble.
"We got her back just when we had lost all our hope to find her alive," she told Somoy TV. "God is so merciful."
[IMAGEGALLERY galleryid=4128 size=small]
The woman survived for more than two weeks in temperatures that touched the mid-30s C. She scrounged for whatever food she could find, Suhrawardy said.
Then, when the workers with bulldozers and cranes got close to the area where she was trapped, she took a steel pipe and began banging it to attract attention, Razzak said. The workers ran into the dark rubble, eventually getting flashlights, to free her, he said.
Hundreds of people who had been engaged in the grim job of removing decomposing bodies from the site raised their hands together in prayer for her survival.
"Allah, you are the greatest, you can do anything. Please allow us all to rescue the survivor just found," said a man on a loudspeaker leading the supplicants. "We seek apology for our sins. Please pardon us, pardon the person found alive."
The rescue was broadcast on television across Bangladesh. The prime minister rushed to the hospital, as did the woman's family to embrace a loved one they thought they'd never again see alive.
More than 2,500 people were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, but crews had gone nearly two weeks without discovering anyone alive. The last survivor had been found April 28, and even her story ended tragically. As workers tried to free Shahina Akter, a fire broke out and she died of smoke inhalation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Reshma in the hospital, and the rescued woman began crying on the phone, Suhrawardy said. She told Hasina: "'I am fine, please pray for me,'" he said.
Hasina, whose government has come under criticism for its lax oversight over the powerful garment industry, was racing to the hospital by helicopter to meet her, and congratulated the rescuers, officials said.
"This is an unbelievable feat," Hasina was quoted as saying by her assistant, Mahbubul Haque Shakil.
Death toll from factory collapse surpasses 1,000
The death toll from the disaster soared past 1,000 Friday, with officials confirming that 1,045 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of the fallen building, which had housed five garment factories employing thousands of workers.
[IMAGEGALLERY galleryid=4223 size=small]
The disaster has raised alarm about the often deadly working conditions in Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry, which provides clothing for major retailers around the globe.
Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, an army official overseeing the recovery work, said the bodies being recovered were badly decomposed and identification was difficult.
"We are working carefully," he said. "If we get any ID card or mobile phone with them, we can still identify them. Our sincere effort is to at least hand over the bodies to the families."
Brig.-Gen. Azmal Kabir, a top official of the military's engineering section, said more than half of the estimated 7,000 tons of debris have been removed from the site but he did not know when the work would be finished.New Orleans Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao is one of only three Republicans to defy the House GOP's self-imposed one-year moratorium on earmark requests.
Saying that New Orleans' needs are too great to abide by a ban on earmarks, Cao has submitted appropriations requests for about 75 projects -- running the gamut from levee improvements to health care -- totaling about $420 million.
Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, the only Democrat in Louisiana's House delegation, has made 72 requests totaling $530 million.
On his congressional Web site, where members are now required to list and explain all earmark requests, Melancon says: "Member appropriations -- sometimes referred to as 'earmarks' -- allow Louisianians to bypass agency bureaucrats in Washington and go directly to their elected representatives to secure federal funding for important projects in their communities."
Melancon wrote that his requests, if granted, would "help build and upgrade levee systems, maintain and improve waterways and roads, fight serious diseases like cancer, and bolster south Louisiana industries such as shrimping, sugarcane production and alligator farming -- all unique and vital parts of our economy."
Melancon's biggest-ticket item, in which he joined with 21 other members of Congress, is a "programmatic request" for $121 million to help modernize the Army National Guard's fleet of Black Hawk helicopters, a top priority of the Louisiana National Guard.
The Senate has rejected the House limits on earmarks, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., a member of the Appropriations Committee, which makes the call on which requests to fill and at what level, and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., both are posting long lists of earmark requests, a process that, because of later deadlines in the Senate, will not be complete until deeper into April.
Cao, 2 others buck GOP
In the House, the two parties have been engaged in a competition to stake what they consider the higher ground on earmark reform. First, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., announced a ban on earmarks that directed spending to for-profit entities. The House Republican conference then quickly one-upped the Democrats by adopting a one-year moratorium on all earmark requests.
But three Republicans refused to go along: Cao and Reps. Don Young of Alaska and Ron Paul of Texas.
"I am elected to serve my constituents, and as long as they continue to request federal funding for their projects of interest, then I will continue to do my best to accommodate them," Young said in a statement.
Paul spokeswoman Rachel Mills said he thinks Washington already extracts too much money from his constituents, and "part of his job is to work hard in Washington, D.C., to get that money back to those constituents in any form that he can." She said Paul also believes that earmarking is more transparent than the regular budget process because you know exactly where the money goes and that it doesn't affect the total amount appropriated by one dime.
In his statement expressing his support for the GOP moratorium, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, the only member of the Louisiana delegation on the House Appropriations Committee, sounded a bit rueful about forsaking a process he has used to good advantage in the past.
"I am a firm believer that federal bureaucrats making up the budget do not know the needs of the 5th Congressional District -- most have probably never stepped foot in this area of the state," Alexander said. "However, I have joined my Republican colleagues in the House in calling for a one-year moratorium of congressional earmarks. This is an important step to show the American public that some in Washington are serious about reducing all facets of the federal budget."
But, he said, "in order to win the larger battle, the administration and congressional leadership must finally rein in the reckless spending spree that has continued for far too long."
Success uncertain
It is an open question whether the three Republican renegades will have anything to show for their trouble.
The office of Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, did not reply to a call asking whether there would be any punishment for bucking the party.
Republicans control 40 percent of the earmark spending, but Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group, said he cannot imagine that they would use their discretion to the benefit of Cao, Young and Paul.
"Jerry Lewis voted for the moratorium," said Ellis, referring to the California congressman who is the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, "and I would be shocked if they would give out earmarks."
But Cao spokesman Taylor Henry said Cao "will go in and try to lobby members of the Appropriations Committee, both Democrats and Republicans, for funding."
Cao, in his freshman year, had considerable success with his earmarks in the 2010 budget.
Many times, he earmarked money that was also earmarked by Landrieu, or by both Landrieu and Vitter, or by the president. But sometimes, the earmarked money originated on the House side, such as the $1 million for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority for commercial development and blight removal, and $350,000 for facilities and equipment at Xavier University.
His only solo earmark for fiscal 2010 was $400,000 for Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corp. for facilities and equipment for a health center. Cao formerly served on their board but stepped down after his election. This year he is asking for $6.5 million for Mary Queen of Vietnam CDC to build Viet Village Urban Farm "as a model community project for economic and environmental stability."
Jonathan Tilove can be reached at [email protected] or 202.383.7827.Local Twins Denied a Learner's Permit Because The DMV Can't Tell Them Apart Copyright by WJBF - All rights reserved twins denied their learners permit [ + - ] Video
Evans, GA - Alicia and Alicen Kennedy are proof that two heads are not always better than one, at least according to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
WJBF News Channel 6's Margaret-Ann Carter spoke with these twin teens about their struggle to get a learner's permit.
Take a close look at their picture. Can you tell them apart? The state of Georgia sure can't.
Panic after a day at the driver's license office took a wrong turn.
A right of passage replaced by frustration as the twins got denied by the DMV, all because a camera could not tell one girl from the other.
"We gave her our paperwork but we didn't even get a chance to take the test because she kept saying something was wrong with the computer," said Alicia, who has a twin sister, Alicen.
That computer can recognize faces, a feature that comes in handy if somebody's is trying to get an illegal i.d. It apparently is not programmed to detect twins.
Alicia said she took her picture several times and then had to sign her signature several more time. She says she felt like it was her fault.
"I was listening to her conversation with the person on the phone and it said that one of us popped up as a fraud," Alicen explained.
"The other lady came back and said that when we were taking our pictures it was picking up as saying that we were one person instead of two different people," Alicia said.
All of a sudden, a day that these girls had dreamed about was dashed. Their high hopes of hitting the open road, brought down by a machine that didn't know what to make of them.
"After try, after try, after try, the system just would not accept them, and it kept saying that it was the same person, they finally said there was a problem and they had to call headquarters," the twin's mom, Wanda Kennedy said.
Carter asked the girls, "Is that crazy to you that you have to go prove that you're two different people?" To which Alicia responded with, "We don't look exactly alike so you would think the computer would pick up somewhat of a difference, but it can't tell us apart."
Now the girls have to regroup. They have to get ready for whatever the state says comes next, as they continue their quest to get behind the wheel.
"I want my permit, I don't want to wait a whole other year," Alicia said.
We spoke with a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS). She says they have not heard of this happening before, but they do have a check box on the application asking if someone is a twin. The girls told me they didn't see one.
After we picked up the story, the DDS has been working with the teens to help this process move along as quickly as possible.CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell said Tuesday he would like to re-sign with the team when he becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season.
"Yeah, definitely [I'd like to re-sign with the Blackhawks]," Bickell said during Stanley Cup finals media day. "I got drafted in '04 with this team. I think this is a second home to me. To be brought up through the minor leagues and being here the last couple years has been an honor. I feel this is a home to me. I have a lot of friends and family with me in the city. I enjoy it a lot here."
Bickell laughed when asked whether he'd be willing to give the Blackhawks a hometown discount. He is making $600,000 this season and is expected to receive a hefty raise due to his playoff performance, which has included eight goals and five assists in 17 games and has him in the running for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
"I don't know about that," Bickell said of giving the Blackhawks a hometown discount. "We'll see. We're just concentrating on the finals. Me and my agent will come together, and we'll negotiate that at the end of the season."
Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman made it sound Tuesday as if Bickell was in the team's future plans.
"He's been with us for a long time and worked his way here," Bowman said. "I think in a lot of ways it's nice to see him finally put all the pieces together. We've known he's had this capability for a long time. Proud of him, proud of the way he's played. He's a nice element to our team. We're excited that he's coming into his own. He's been a big part of the success we've had this year, and looking for that going forward as well."
Bickell's recent play could get him somewhere between $3 million to $4 million a season on the free-agent market. The length of Bickell's next deal also will factor in that salary.
Whether the Blackhawks are able to re-sign the 27-year-old Bickell could depend on their plans with fellow unrestricted free agents Viktor Stalberg, Ray Emery, Michal Handzus, Jamal Mayers and Michal Rozsival, and restricted free agents Nick Leddy and Marcus Kruger.
Bickell has been a work in progress for the Blackhawks since they drafted him in the second round, 41st overall, in the 2004 draft. He played in the OHL from 2004 to 2006 and made his debut with the Blackhawks in 2007.
Bickell was up and down from the AHL to the NHL from 2006 to 2010. He played 16 games for the Blackhawks during their 2009-10 Stanley Cup season and appeared in four playoff games. He's been a mainstay in the team's lineup since the 2010-11 season.
Bickell recorded a career-high 17 goals and 20 assists in 78 games in the 2010-11 season. He had nine goals and 15 assists in 71 games in the 2011-12 season, and had nine goals and 14 assists in 48 games this season.
"Bicks is a guy we know really well," Bowman said. "We drafted him, developed him over the time, and we've worked together to get him to this point. I've had a lot of talks with Bryan over the years going back to his days in Norfolk when he first turned pro. It was a learning curve for him. He was in and out of the lineup a lot trying to understand how to become a consistent player. Then he played a lot in Rockford."
Bickell has played some of his best hockey in the playoffs. He had two goals and two assists in five games during the 2011 playoffs, and two goals in six games in the 2012 playoffs.
Bickell said Tuesday he believes he could be the same type of consistent player during the regular season that he has been in the playoffs.
"I think going through my career in the minors and the first couple years with the Hawks, my consistent level had to be better," Bickell said. "I thought as my career has been going on, it has been getting better. This year was a big steppingstone for me. It's been fun, and I just need to stick with it."
Bickell has received more attention from fans and media as the playoffs have progressed, and he said Tuesday he's enjoyed it.
"It's been fun; it's been different," Bickell said. "I've just been enjoying every minute of this. To be a part of this, the finals, doing what I've gotten for this team, it's been an honor. We just got to keep this going."A bill signed Saturday by California Gov. Jerry Brown aimed at improving voter turnout has critics predicting that it will ramp up voter fraud by making it easier for noncitizens to cast ballots.
The New Motor Voter Act automatically registers to vote all eligible voters when they obtain or renew their driver’s licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles instead of requiring them to fill out a form. Those eligible may opt out of voter registration.
The goal is to ease barriers to voting, but election-integrity advocates warn that the measure could inadvertently add millions of illegal voters to the rolls given that California allows undocumented aliens to obtain driver’s licenses.
Anti-fraud groups True the Vote and the Election Integrity Project of California had urged Mr. Brown, a Democrat, to veto the bill, saying it would lead to “‘state sanctioned’ voter fraud” and pointing out that the legislation exempts from penalties ineligible voters who wind up being registered.
“This bill is terrible. It makes an already bad situation much, much worse,” True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht said in a statement.
Ms. Engelbrecht said California’s registration databases “lack the necessary safeguards to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls.”
Eleven states and the District of Columbia now allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, which are different in appearance from those issued to citizens. In California, noncitizen licenses carry the words “Federal Limits Apply” and “not valid for official federal purposes,” according to DriveCA.org.
In California, however, state officials “specifically chose not to make noncitizen license holders searchable in their DMV database,” said True the Vote spokesman Logan Churchwell, who called the newly signed bill “unprecedented.”
The measure, Assembly Bill 1461, “will effectively change the form of governance in California from a Republic whose elected officials are determined by United States citizens and will guarantee that noncitizens will participate in all California elections going forward,” Election Integrity Project of California President Linda Paine said in a statement.
Supporters, including California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, argued that the bill is needed to increase flagging voter turnout. In 2014 only 42 percent of eligible voters cast ballots even as other states saw increased turnout, while an estimated 6.6 million eligible state voters remain unregistered.
“The New Motor Voter Act will make our democracy stronger by removing a key barrier to voting for millions of California citizens,” Mr. Padilla said in a statement. “Citizens should not be required to opt in to their fundamental right to vote. We do not have to opt in to other rights, such as free speech or due process.”
Although the law goes into effect Jan. 1, the first automatic registrations will not take place until next year, after the state finishes work on its revamped voter-registration database, VoteCal. The upgraded system is expected to be completed in time for the June primary.
California becomes the second state to provide for “opt-out” voter registration, following Oregon, where Democratic Gov. Kate Brown signed a similar bill in March.
Ms. Brown’s office said in a statement that the bill would “help improve elections and expand voter rights and access in California.”
So far the concept enjoys public support. A poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California released in June found that two-thirds of those surveyed favored the idea of automatic DMV voter registration.
Critics argue that California’s low voter turnout can be attributed to other factors, starting with the state’s impregnable Democratic majority, increasingly rare statewide contested elections and historically safe congressional seats.
Stephen Frank of the conservative California Political Review predicted the latest bill will actually reduce voter turnout by increasing fraud and reducing confidence in the integrity of the voter rolls.
“AB 1461 assures corruption of our elections — our elections will look like those of Mexico and other corrupt nations — and honest people will stop voting since illegal aliens will out vote them,” Mr. Frank said in a website post.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Photo by Ben Kaye
Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters has announced “Us + Them”, a new 40-date North American tour set for the summer of 2017.
Arriving four years after Waters’ record-breaking world tour of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, the forthcoming jaunt promises all new material — presumably from his forthcoming, yet-to-be-announced solo album — along with Pink Floyd favorites and other relics. He’ll accompany the music with a “high class, state-of-the-art audio visual production and breathtaking quad sound.”
Update: In a new interview, Waters spoke extensively about his new album.
In a statement announcing the tour, Waters said, “We are going to take a new show on the road, the content is very secret. It’ll be a mixture of stuff from my long career, stuff from my years with Pink Floyd, some new things. Probably 75% of it will be old material and 25% will be new, but it will be all connected by a general theme. It will be a cool show, I promise you. It’ll be spectacular like all my shows have been.”
The title of the tour is of course derived from the Dark Side of the Moon track “Us And Them”.
Check out the itinerary of confirmed dates below. For everyone except Donald Trump, tickets go on sale Friday, October 21st.
Roger Waters 2017 Tour Dates:
05/26 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
05/28 – Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center
05/30 – St. Louis, MO @ Scottrade Center
06/01 – Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
06/03 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
06/07 – San Jose, CA @ SAP Center at San Jose
06/12 – Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
06/14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Gila River Arena
06/16 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
06/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ STAPLES Center
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buried with Eddie Van Halen's black and yellow-striped Charvel electric guitar (sometimes referred to as "Bumblebee"), which was pictured with Van Halen on the inner sleeve and back cover of the album Van Halen II. Dimebag had asked for one of these guitars in 2004, shortly before he was shot. Eddie Van Halen originally agreed to make Darrell a copy of the guitar, but upon hearing of Abbott's death, offered to place the actual guitar in his casket. Dimebag was buried in a Kiss Kasket (a casket inspired by the band Kiss). Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons said, "There were a limited number made and I sent mine to the family of 'Dimebag' Darrell. He requested in his will to be buried in a Kiss Kasket, as he sort of learned his rock 'n' roll roots by listening to us for some strange reason." Not long after Darrell's murder, Anselmo received a heated message from Vinnie, which (according to Anselmo) "went along the lines that my (Anselmo's) day was coming." Anselmo's rebuttal was that everybody's day is coming and that if his day should end before Vinnie's it would not change anything, except for Vinnie to go through "losing another brother".
On May 11, 2006, the VH1 Behind the Music episode on Pantera premiered. While focusing heavily on Darrell's murder and burial, the episode also detailed the band's glam metal beginnings, the band's perceived rise in its own popularity after the change in musical direction, and the conflicts between Anselmo and the Abbott brothers in the band's later years that would tear them apart. When asked by Crave Music in 2006 if there was any chance of reconciling with Phil Anselmo, Vinnie Paul answered "Absolutely not. That's it."[40] The former Pantera drummer subsequently began work on Hellyeah, a collaboration between him and members from Mudvayne and Nothingface. Both Anselmo and Brown reunited with Down, and supported Heaven & Hell and Megadeth on their 2007 Canadian tour, as well as supporting Metallica on the first half of their World Magnetic Tour.
In interviews in 2009 and 2010, both Rita Haney and Phil Anselmo stated that, after a meeting at Download 2009, they had patched up their differences and are once again on speaking terms.[41] On March 30, 2010, Pantera released a greatest-hits collection, titled 1990-2000: A Decade of Domination. It was made available exclusively at Walmart stores and is made up of 10 tracks that were remastered.[42]
On April 11, 2012, at the Revolver Golden God Awards a new song, titled "Piss", was debuted after being discovered in the Pantera "vaults" by Vinnie Paul. A music video was made for "Piss" and shown at the awards show and, according to Vinnie Paul, this is the only complete previously unheard Pantera track. It was recorded during the Vulgar Display of Power sessions.[43] During a 2012 appearance on That Metal Show, when asked about the possibility of a Pantera reunion, Vinnie Paul said it would be possible if Dimebag Darrell were still alive. Despite being proud of his Pantera years, however, he indicated that there were no plans for a reunion, adding that "some stones are better left unturned."[44] On March 22, 2014, Pantera released a 20-year anniversary edition of Far Beyond Driven. All songs were remastered, and as a bonus, they released a live recording of their 1994 Monsters of Rock performance.[45]
Public comments made by Anselmo following the shooting suggested that he had considered reuniting with the band prior to Darrell's death.[46] However, one year after the murder Paul stated in an interview that this reunion was never going to happen.[47] Comments about a potential one-off reunion concert resurfaced periodically, with Zakk Wylde often being suggested as the stand-in replacement for Darrell.[48][49] Paul, however, had been strictly resistant to the idea.[50][51] Despite several overtures towards reconciliation by Anselmo towards Paul, the two men remained permanently estranged.
In a July 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Anselmo spoke out against Pantera and his other band's usage of the Confederate flag claiming it was a mistake to use it on their merchandise, albums and other promotional material. Anselmo said "These days, I wouldn't want anything to fucking do with it because truthfully...I wouldn't. The way I feel and the group of people I've had to work with my whole life, you see a Confederate flag out there that says 'Heritage, not hate.' I'm not so sure I'm buying into that." Anselmo said originally that Pantera used the image because they were huge fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd but it was never about promoting hate.[52]
Also in 2015, Anselmo and Brown were interviewed at length about Pantera for the book Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990's, by author Greg Prato. Brown also penned the foreword for the book, while a concert photo from 1994 of Anselmo and Darrell was used for the book's cover image.[53]
On June 22, 2018, Billboard.com reported that Paul had died at the age of 54, making him the second founding member of Pantera (following his brother) to die.[2] Sources initially said that the cause of his death was a massive heart attack in his sleep,[54] but on August 27, 2018, the official cause of death was revealed to be dilated cardiomyopathy and coronary artery disease.[55]
Musical style, influences and legacy [ edit ]
While being a heavy metal band, Pantera's style was considered both groove metal[56] and thrash metal.[57][58] Pantera's early material has been described as glam metal. The band also has been influential to the development of nu metal, metalcore, and several other movements.[59] They have also been called one of the pioneers of the new wave of American heavy metal.[60] PopMatters has claimed that, "Darrell Abbott's influence on the entire genre of heavy metal is massive; after Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power, every notable young American metal band since has, in some way or another, copied their guitar style from those records: Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Hatebreed, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall... the list is endless."[61]
Pantera toured on Ozzfest as main stage acts twice; the band played at the second annual Ozzfest in 1997 and the fifth Ozzfest in 2000. Over the course of their career, Pantera's members became known for their excessive partying and debauchery, even acquiring an official drink called the "Black Tooth Grin". The "Black Tooth Grin" ("Black Tooth", "The Grin", or "BTG", alternatively), named after lyrics from Megadeth's "Sweating Bullets", is a mixture of Crown Royal or Seagram 7 whisky (or both) and Coca-Cola.
Pantera also adopted a self-described "take no shit" attitude, epitomized in its song "5 Minutes Alone" from the album Far Beyond Driven. According to Vinnie Paul, the song originated when, during a show in San Diego, California, Anselmo was annoyed by a heckler and encouraged the crowd to beat him up. Consequently, the band was sued by the father of the heckler who said he wanted "five minutes alone" with Anselmo to prove who was the "big daddy", and Anselmo responded that he would use those "five minutes alone" with the father to "whoop his ass."[17]
Despite being a standard glam metal band early in their career, the band members perceive themselves to have had an uncompromising career in which they never "sold out" or gave into trends. This is most noticeably highlighted in the themes and title of The Great Southern Trendkill. Anselmo said:
We've survived every fucking trend—heavy metal, "grunge metal", funk metal, rap metal—and we're still here. We put everyone on notice that we don't fuck around. Our fans know we're true right down to the fucking core.[62]
Similarly, the die-hard attitude of "We'll Grind That Axe For a Long Time" (from Reinventing the Steel) is, according to Anselmo, "in a way, our motto."[62]
Aside from their post-glam, thrash metal influences, the band members cite heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath as one of their favorite bands. As a tribute, Pantera has recorded three different covers of Black Sabbath songs (all from the Ozzy Osbourne era). The first was "Planet Caravan", a slower, quieter song planned for the first Sabbath tribute album, Nativity in Black, that eventually became the final track on Far Beyond Driven. The band performed Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" on the second Nativity in Black. A previously unreleased cover of Sabbath's "Hole in the Sky" was included on the band's 2003 compilation album, The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits! Pantera's affinity for Black Sabbath is also shown through the lyrics, "Your trust is in whiskey and weed and Black Sabbath", in "Goddamn Electric". The same song also mentions Slayer, one of the band's thrash metal influences.
Exhorder controversy [ edit ]
The New Orleans band Exhorder have suggested Pantera copied their sound during the change from glam metal to groove metal. Pantera's Cowboys from Hell, marking a major stylistic shift, was released just before Exhorder's debut, Slaughter in the Vatican. However Exhorder self-released two demos in the late 1980s (around the time that Pantera was still playing glam metal). Exhorder's members allege Pantera copied these demos.[citation needed]
A review at AllMusic noted some "striking similarities" between the two bands, both emphasing mid-tempo songs and "gruff but very expressive" lead singers – similarities that fueled debate about whether one band imitated the other. In disagreement with the opinion that Exhorder is "Pantera minus the good songs", AllMusic's review of Slaughter in the Vatican expresses that "perhaps a more accurate billing would be to call them Pantera without the major label backing." In explaining Exhorder's much less successful career, Allmusic also point to the fact that the title of their debut, along with the blatantly provocative album cover, "certainly didn't help [its] cause any."[63]
However, some critics dispute any notion that Pantera imitated Exhorder's sound. Brian Davis, a contributor to Internet radio station KNAC, addresses the issue as follows:
Exhorder's main "claim to fame" is the common opinion that they're the band that Pantera stole their sound from. That's total bullshit. There are minor similarities in guitar style, and on occasion, vocalist Kyle Thomas spits out a line or scream that will bring Pantera to mind, but to go so far as to say that Pantera is an Exhorder clone is ludicrous.[64]
Although originally decrying Pantera as a rip-off of their sound, Exhorder lead vocalist Kyle Thomas has stated that he does not care about any of the criticism and is sick of seeing Exhorder's name tied to Pantera's. He also stated that he and the members of Pantera were great friends who used to tour together, and that he mourns the loss of Dimebag Darrell.[65][66]
Band members [ edit ]
Timeline [ edit ]
Discography [ edit ]President Barack Obama has allowed some 400,000 unskilled Central American migrants to pour into the nation’s schools, job-markets, welfare offices, hospitals and jails since 2012, according to government data.
By the end of June, he had cleared the path for 214,982 “unaccompanied” youths plus 181,456 women and children to come in to the country since October 2012. That adds up to 396,428 migrants — with three months to go before the end of the 2016 fiscal year in October.
The inflow is so large that it is greater than the number of African-American men who will turn 18 this year. It is equal to roughly 40 percent of the annual inflow of 1 million legal immigrants, and equal to 10 percent of all young Americans who join the workforce each year.
Judging by prior years, the government will allow another 27,000 unskilled welfare dependent, Spanish-speaking, Central American migrants into the country by the end of October.
That would bring the five-year total to 423,438 migrants, who are sent into the stressed neighborhoods and struggling schools where working-class Americans live.
Only a handful of the economic migrants have been repatriated, despite the nation’s immigration laws, the polls, and the nation’s flooded labor market, which has left many Americans unemployed and pushed their wages downwards.
The migrant youths and children “are illiterate in both English and Spanish [and] the odds of us getting them to pass a 10th grade math test are negligible,” Judith Flanagan Kennedy, the mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts, said in August 2014. The migrants drive up rents, have busted the education budget — “in the last couple years, it has all fallen apart” — and some have criminal records, she said. But local residents “are very afraid to speak publicly about it, because they don’t want to be branded as a racist,” she added.
This week, Obama added to the northward migration by creating a process by which illegal immigrants — and other non-citizens — can get visas for their children and relatives in Central America. The process ignores Congress’ immigration laws, says Sen. Jeff Sessions.
The year-by-year, month-by-month inflow of Obama’s migrants is regularly noted by media outlets. But journalists rarely add up the inflow, or describe its impact on Americans, their schools, towns and budgets.
Obama has absolute legal authority to repatriate anyone who crosses the borders. Instead, However, he has chosen to let the migrants go to immigration courts and federal agencies to ask for legal residency, Green Cards and work-permits. Few of those cases have been resolved in the backlogged courts, whose dockets are filled for years ahead.
Also, many of the migrants have walked away from the legal system, in part, because they know that Obama’s agencies have been directed to ignore most illegals in the country and instead to just focus on violent criminals and jihadis.
There are two stream of Central American migrants — the so-called “Unaccompanied Alien Children” and people in “family units.”
The much-touted UACs are mostly older youths and young men, who declare their age to be 17 or below. Many of these youths are the children of illegal immigrants working in the United States. Once they’re arrested, they’re usually transported for free by the federal government to their foreign parents who are living in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston or Maryland, for example.
The second stream consists of people in so-called “family units.” These are mostly mothers, young kids and teenage girls. The husbands and fathers are usually missing — and are likely taken the normal back routes by illegal immigrants.
The inflow of UACs began in 2010, and gradually accelerated to a peak in 2014 as the for-profit smugglers proved their reliability in delivering the children and young men across the border into federal transport network. But that peak may be exceeded this year prior to the possible election of Donald Trump.
The 2014 inflow was so out-of-control that it shifted public attitudes about immigration and then set the stage for the emergence of Donald Trump. It also forced Obama to send Americans’ taxes to Mexico to fund a new border force that reduces the flow of Central Americans migrants through Mexico’s southern border.
Obama’s welcome for migrants is rooted in his progressive views that Americans’ legal rights must be shared with all foreigners, regardless of their political beliefs, cultures and impact on the Americans’ wages. In a November 2014 speech on immigration, for example, Obama told a Chicago audience that “there have been periods where the folks who were already [Americans] here suddenly say, ‘Well, I don’t want those folks,’ even though the only people who have the right to say that are some Native Americans.”
“Sometimes we get attached to our particular tribe, our particular race, our particular religion, and then we start treating other folks differently… that, sometimes, has been a bottleneck to how we think about immigration,” Obama said, shortly after he announced his Oval Office plan to award work-permits to roughly 4 million additional illegal immigrants, without any approval from Congress.
In turn, that globalist progressive view matches his political strategy of recruiting foreign migrants into the Democrats’ discordant coalition. Obama made his strategy clear in 2006, when he wrote in his autobiography that large-scale migration hurts the wages of African-Americans. “This huge influx of mostly low-skill workers provides some benefits to the economy as a whole… [but] it also threatens to depress further the wages of blue-collar Americans,” Obama admitted.
But those immigrants would help the Democratic Party, he wrote. “In my mind, at least, the fates of black and brown were to be perpetually intertwined, the cornerstone of a [Democratic] coalition that could help America live up to its [progressive] promise,” he wrote in “The Audacity of Hope.”Obama's economic recovery plan will not work. It does not begin to address the profound structural problems that hobble the U.S. economy and that amount to a slow-motion death sentence for the American middle class. His policies are the equivalent of trying to re-float a sunken boat, nothing more. Once the government buoys are removed, the boat will promptly sink again, with the American people trapped inside.
If Obama wants to revive the American economy, he needs to adopt a much more aggressive program than has been contemplated to date. Specifically, he needs to address the chronic shortfall in workers' incomes and the recent collapse of middle class wealth which are the root causes of the crash. The most effective way to do that is with a Manhattan Project-like program to reconfigure the way the nation uses energy.
Such a program would be surprisingly inexpensive, especially when compared to the $14 trillion dollars handed to the banks in the recent bailout. It would not only resuscitate employment and incomes and, therefore, American living standards, it would revive American competitiveness in the world, reduce its dependency on Middle Eastern oil, and improve the economy's impact on the environment. In all of these ways, it would prove a huge boon the American people and the world.
Fortunately, there are many precedents for such an ambitious program. They include the U.S. itself in the 19th and early 20th centuries, 19th century Germany, and 20th century Japan, Korea, and China. These are the most impressive cases of economic transformation in the last 200 years. In each case, activist government intervention allowed the economy to exploit a new technology paradigm and catapult itself to new heights of prosperity and growth. A similar such opportunity is available to the U.S. today, but only if the Obama administration finds the courage to act.
The US economy is profoundly damaged. It is no longer intended to provide a stable and rising standard of living to the mass of American people. Rather, since 1980 and the election of Ronald Reagan, it has been operated with the goal of transferring income and wealth from the working and middle classes to those at the very highest reaches of the economy. And it's been extraordinarily successful at this.
Here is the executive summary of U.S. economic policy over the past 30 years:
Dramatically lower taxes on the wealthiest people in the country; meanwhile, undercut the working and middle classes by shipping their jobs overseas so corporations can profit by paying Chinese and Indian workers 5% of what they pay American workers; send the finished products back to the U.S. and sell them to former workers with now-downsized jobs by getting them to take on onerous levels of debt; when that is still not enough to keep the economy afloat, have the government increase its debt, in the process binding those former and downsized workers with government debts that they will carry for the rest of their lives; have the whole system laundered through big banks who create nothing, but take a piece of the action on every transaction; make sure these banks are "too big to fail" so that when they fail, the downsized, indebted workers can be made to disgorge the last of their remaining assets in order that the banks and their owners don't suffer any losses on their predatory investments that went bad.
Repeat this process until the working and middle classes have been milked of all of their assets and their wealth has been transferred into the hands of the richest people on earth.
It's working exactly as planned.
Between 1993 and 2007, 50% of all the growth in the U.S. economy went to the richest 1%. Between 2002 and 2006, it was even worse: an astounding three quarters of all the economy's growth was captured by the top 1%. In 2007, this top 1% captured 20% of all the income in the entire nation. The top 10% corralled fully half of all the income earned in the entire country, as much as the bottom 90% combined. Only one time since 1913 has so much of the nation's income been seized by such a small elite. That was 1928, the year before the stock market collapsed, ushering in the Great Depression.
The data on concentration of wealth are even more startling. The top 1% own more than 50% of all assets in the U.S. They own more than 70% of all financial assets. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of wealth holders own a mere 3.5% of all the assets in the country. The bottom 40% own nothing. They have a combined net worth of zero. Middle class homeowners now own less of the equity in their homes, 45%, than at any time since World War II when the figure stood at 70%. They lost $13 trillion in the housing meltdown, even as the entire past decade produced zero net new jobs.
So where are we now?
Seven million high-paying manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas in the past decade, one third of all those in the entire economy. Twenty per cent of the nation's labor force - thirty million people - are idle or underutilized. Thirty percent of the nation's factory capacity is idle. Three quarters of the nation's home building capacity is idle. More workers are out of work longer that at any time since such statistics started being collected, in 1948. The results are cataclysmic.
Ten thousand homes enter foreclosure every day. More than 39 million Americans - one out of eight - are on food stamps. Half of all American children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives! Seventy-seven million Baby Boomers stand on the threshold of retirement, expecting, hoping, praying that the nation will honor the promises it has made to them for the last 50 years. It will not, because it cannot.
The national debt that stood at $1 trillion in 1980 now stands at $12 trillion. And this was run up over a period of supposed economic prosperity! Personal debt has risen from 65% of income in 1980 to 125% today. The nation's unfunded liabilities - debts it has committed to pay but for which there is no identifiable source of funding - exceed $65 trillion. The U.S. economy must borrow more than $5 billion every day just to keep its lights on. Most of that comes from foreign creditors-China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and such. Interest payments on this debt will soon reach $1 trillion a year. Not since before the Civil War has the U.S. been so dependent on foreign capital.
When all the assets that are pledged as collateral against this borrowing have been exhausted, the lights will go out, as they must. The creditors will simply pull their capital out of the economy as they did from the Asian countries in the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. The U.S. has become a banana republic, ruled by a small, ultra-rich oligarchy who look after themselves, with everybody else living entirely at the mercy of their wealthy masters.
Despite Obama's cheesy rhetoric and faux-liberalism, his economic program is, in fact, little different than that of George W. Bush. More than $14 trillion have been committed to the banks in the bailout but only $135 billion have been committed to the automobile industry. That's $100 to the banks that wrecked the global economy for every $1 devoted to the "real" economy, where real people live and work. This ratio played out exactly in December when, on Christmas eve, Obama, with a wave of his magic pen, increased funding for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by $400 billion. Later, he begrudgingly relented on an additional $4.5 billion for GMAC. Once again, that's $100 to the banks for every $1 to the automobile companies and their workers.
This policy reaches its abusive extreme when the government allows banks to borrow unlimited amounts from the Federal Reserve at 0% and then re-loan the same money to maxed-out credit card holders at 27%. Or, with the same banks opening their own payday lending arms to milk truly desperate borrowers with interest rates of 400% or higher. If the front door of the looting operation was the $14 trillion hand-over during the bailout, this is the back door, out of sight but ever so effective because, with everybody hooked on debt, they have no alternative.
So what should we do instead?
What we need is a national program equivalent to the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb in only 4 years. It is a program to create high paying jobs that can restore lost middle class incomes and create the wealth to pay down the massive debts run up over the past three decades. We can have such a program for $1 trillion, less than one tenth of what we've wasted bailing out the banks for their destructive, larcenous, unrepentant, sociopathic greed.
Here's the program.
The federal government should commit $1 trillion to refitting the U.S. economy for dramatically more efficient energy usage and improved energy generation. This is less than one tenth the sum it has committed to bailing out the failed financial services industry. Half the money should go for transportation, one quarter for residences, and one quarter for energy generation.
In transportation, the government should commit $100 billion to development of the most energy efficient automobile in the world, one that can achieve 200 miles per gallon and be produced in volume and sold for $15,000 apiece. This is within reach of existing technology. All component manufacturing and assembly would be required to take place within the United States.
It should then spend $400 billion in incentives to spur Americans to buy the cars. If each automobile carried an incentive of $7,500 - half the price of the car - the $400 billion would make possible the purchase of 53 million such automobiles. The program would extend over five years for an average of 10.3 million cars a year. In 2008, GM sold 3 million cars in North America while Ford sold 2 million. Chrysler and foreign manufacturers could make up the difference, provided they manufactured in the U.S. The program would replace a sizable portion of the U.S. automobile fleet.
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At the same time, the government should announce irrevocable, gradually escalating taxes on gasoline. For three years, the gas tax would increase by 5 cents per month or 60 cents per year. After that, it would increase by 10 cents a month. In five years, gasoline would cost $4.20 more per gallon than whatever the market price of gasoline was. This would provide consumers both the incentive and the planning horizon to make the move to the new cars.
Such an investment would employ millions of skilled workers in the design, manufacturing, assembly, and service of not only the cars and their parts, but of the vast infrastructure that would be needed for electrical recharging at homes, businesses, and shopping centers. The private investment for such infrastructure would readily emerge in response to such guaranteed massive demand.
The program would make the U.S. the highest volume, lowest cost producer of fuel-efficient transportation in the world. It would drastically reduce the $400 billion we spend each year importing oil from the Middle East. And with U.S.-based manufacturers licensed to export the cars to other countries, the trade deficit, which has averaged over $500 billion a year for the past decade, would be eliminated entirely.
A similar such program should be implemented for doubling the energy efficiency of the nation's homes. A $250 billion program would allow 25 million homes to be upgraded with a $10,000 federal subsidy for everything from insulation and windows to water heaters and electrical appliances. Additional impact would be achieved by tying the federal subsidy to an equal investment by the homeowner. The success of the recent $8,000 homebuyer's subsidy indicates the huge potential for such partnered investment. It would be all the more certain and powerful if the government announced an irrevocable, staged increase in energy taxes similar to that for gasoline.
As with the transportation program, such an investment would employ millions of skilled housing tradesmen who are now idle and have very few prospects of employment in the future, given the vast overhang of empty and foreclosed properties on the market. And again, with all the new materials manufactured in the U.S., additional stimulus would occur for American factory workers and the communities and services that support them.
Finally, the last $250 billion should be invested in energy generation. The government should undertake a program to provide a $5,000 subsidy for homes and businesses to install their own electrical energy generation capacity. That would create 50 million generators of diffuse, environmentally clean energy that was not subject to terrorism, centralized failure, or economic blackmail by monopoly producers. Households could sell their excess power back into the system to earn revenue for the life of the equipment.
As with the transportation and housing components discussed above, the monies would be provided as a matching subsidy so as to stimulate an equivalent or greater amount of private investment. They would occur in the context of guaranteed, gradually escalating energy costs for the economy as a whole. Such a program would generate millions of jobs for skilled tradesmen in the design, manufacturing, installation, and services industries and millions of more jobs in the industries that support them.
Once again, the full cost of the program would total $1 trillion, less than one tenth the $14 trillion sum the government has already committed to the failed banks, which are not generating new jobs and are not even loaning the bailout money back into the economy. The three investment programs would employ tens of millions of now out-of-work tradesmen in the collapsed manufacturing and home building and the new energy generation industries. Indirect employment, in adjacent support industries, would amount to millions more. The programs would stimulate hundreds of billions of dollars of ancillary private investment that would seek to capitalize on the newly redesigned national energy infrastructure.
In addition to substantial improvements to employment, incomes, and middle class wealth, the program's other benefits are many, significant, and broadly shared. It would:
Dramatically reduce the nation's dependence on imported oil, paying for itself in reduced trade deficits alone;
Reduce the need for the U.S. to occupy the Middle East, with all of the provocations to terror that are attendant on that occupation;
Save hundreds of billions of dollars a year that is now directed to the military in the effort to maintain control of the world's oil supply;
Enable pay-down of personal and national debts, freeing hundreds of billions of dollars a year in interest payments that go to the wealthiest people in the world;
Finally, the plan would dramatically reduce carbon consumption from the U.S. economy and, indeed, the entire world.
In all of these ways, the program would more than pay for itself many times over. Energy Reconfiguration would dramatically transform the very nature of the U.S. economy, and, indeed, U.S. society.
But would it work? Both history and economics suggest it would.
Every major growth phase of the U.S. economy over the past 200 years has been accompanied by three things: 1) a new generation of industrial technology-from railroads to automobiles to electronics; 2) government assistance to lay the foundations of growth; and 3) a build-out of the technology that employed tens of millions of working people. The results in every case were dramatic and successive increases in jobs, wages, and living standards. Consider the facts.
The railroads were built in the 1800s with massive government land grant subsidies. They catalyzed a vast array of adjacent technologies and industries, from engines, steel, and precision parts to machine tools, coal, lumber, and more. The still larger economic effect was to create the world's first continental-scale markets in everything from food and sundry goods to home appliances and industrial materials. This allowed American producers to become the highest volume, lowest cost producers in the world. The impacts were astounding, dwarfing anything the world had ever known.
In 1800, there were no railroads in the US. The US produced less than 1% of the global GDP and held 3% of its wealth. By 1900, there were more than 250,000 miles of railroads. The U.S. was producing 24% of the entire planet's GDP and held almost 50% of its wealth. U.S. workers were the highest paid, wealthiest workers in the world and formed the market for the next wave of industrial revolution, which the U.S. also dominated, the automobile.
It was the German engineer, Rudolph Diesel, who invented the internal combustion engine but it was Henry Ford who made it a mass phenomenon. The reason was not, as we're told in the conventional mythology, Ford's assembly line, but the fact that federal, state, and local governments built roads and highways, without which the automobile was worthless. As with railroads, cars set off an explosion of demand in adjacent industries, in steel, rubber, glass, paint, chemicals, asphalt, road-building equipment and more. They created entirely new markets that had never existed before: tire and repair shops, gas stations, malls, drive-through restaurants, and the whole panoply of culture we know as suburbia. Average real U.S. incomes rose 10X during the 1900s.
The final example is the computer industry. As with railroads and automobiles, the core technology was invented by private initiative-by William Shockley at Bell Labs in 1947. But it was the government's guarantee of demand through the defense department and space programs that gave private manufactures the assurance to truly ramp up production, driving down costs by factors of hundreds. Similarly, it was the government that underwrote the invention of the Internet, graphical user interfaces, and a dozen other advanced technologies that are ubiquitous today and that account for much of the improvement in national productivity we've experienced over recent decades.
Similar explosions in national economic power accompanied other nations' purposeful use of guided industrial investment. In 1850, Germany held 3% of the world's wealth, compared to 59% for the United Kingdom. Over the next 60 years, while the U.K. followed its ideological fetish for "free markets," Bismarck and Germany practiced intense national industrial targeting. By 1910, Germany had blown by the U.K., garnering 21% of the world's wealth to the U.K.'s 14%.
After World War II, the Japanese government carried out the most extensive program of national industrial strategy ever undertaken. They targeted the steel, shipbuilding, machine tools, automobile, consumer electronics, semiconductor, and other industries with the intent of becoming the highest volume, lowest cost producers in the world. They succeeded in every single case. In 1946, Japan produced a total of 50 automobiles. Last year, while General Motors went bankrupt, Toyota became the largest car manufacturer in the world.
We could go on and on. Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, and now China all use such targeted national investment strategies to accelerate industrial transformation and boost their own national industrial gladiators to the realms of the world's largest companies. In 1960 Korea had the same per capita GDP as Ghana. Today, as a result of its highly disciplined national industrial policies, its people enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world. Its industrial gladiators dominate many of the world's leading industries, from ships to cell phones to semiconductor memories.
Some will protest that the government shouldn't be in the business of national industrial targeting, that it should leave investment decisions to the "free market." Such an argument is historically wrong, empirically naïve, and logically false.
The historically wrong argument is made above. The most dramatic instances of economic transformation in the modern world have all involved activist government policies. The charge of "empirically naïve" flows from the fact that the U.S.'s major industrial competitors practice aggressive industrial policy. China, in particular, manipulates its currency, subsidizes exports, extorts leading edge technology from foreign investors seeking access to its markets, and more. To imagine this is not happening and that the U.S. faces a level playing field is simply dishonest.
Most important is the logical fallacy of the free market argument. Our choice is not between free markets and industrial strategy; it is between different industrial strategies. The U.S. government already practices national industrial policy. It enacts a broad and reinforcing array of policies that favor banks, oil companies, insurance companies, weapons makers, and the oligarchs who own them at the expense of the rest of the economy, especially its workers.
The inescapable, damning fact is that the industrial strategy we currently practice benefits the few while destroying the environment. The one proposed here benefits the many while doing much to protect the environment. The political implications are perhaps even more stark. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis said, "We can have great concentrations of wealth, or we can have democracy. But we cannot have both." Our current set of industrial policies are already costing us both our economy and our democracy. Unless they are changed we will lose both.
At the heart of this vision lie three essential truths: 1) the era of cheap, plentiful energy is over; 2) the nations that adapt to this fact will prosper while those that do not will fail; and 3) continuing our present course is a consignment to economic and political suicide. We can choose an energy-efficient infrastructure and the policies to create it, ones that create broad-based prosperity and economic independence; or we can stay |
Travis most likely)
More tests (linting, coverage, etc)
Breaking out the gulp tasks into a separate module (for re-use)
Maybe a Yeoman generator
A Serverless plugin perhaps
If this was helpful to you, please recommend it on Medium and Star the repo on GitHub. Thanks!Drunken passenger banned by Delta Airlines after bragging about carrying poisonous gas
Mugshot photo of Bryan Sisco, who has been banned from Delta after telling a female passenger that he had snuck a canister of poisonous gas onto the flight. He also proceeded to show her a small torch which he lit in front of her. The female passenger alerted flight attendants, which led to the flight being diverted to Memphis.
A man has been banned from flying with Delta Airlines for life after allegedly telling the passenger sitting next to him that he had a canister of poinsonous gas on him.
He said the gas was strong enough to make everyone on the plane pass out.
Bryan Sisco, 40, forced the Dallas to Atlanta flight to be diverted to Memphis where was arrested by police.
After spending four days in custody, he was released on a $10,000 bond and charged with carrying a weapon or explosive on an aircraft.
Sisco, who had been drinking Jack-and-Cokes before boarding the plane, tried to flirt with 23-year-old Danielle Valimont, who was sitting next to him.
He had decided to sit down in a random seat and she happened to sit next to him.
He offered her chocolates and told her he was an architect and a flight marshal.
When the flight attendant and another passenger tried to claim the seat, Sisco said he and the woman were newlyweds, the Memphis Commercial-Appeal reports.
In a drunken attempt to impress her, recently-divorced Sisco allegedly pulled out a butane lighter and then bragged about the gas.
He said: 'We were talking, sharing M&Ms, eating chocolate, having a good time.
'I fabricated some truths about myself... I thought we were getting along pretty good.'
A Delta Air Lines Inc. Boeing 767-332 (N1402A) is pushed back from a gate at the Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., on Monday, Dec. 28, 2009. Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines parent AMR Corp. and UAL Corp. fell in New York trading as a terrorism attempt on a Christmas Day flight to Detroit highlighted potential aviation risks. Photographer: George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In a blog Miss Valimont said that Sisco was 'jittery' when she sat down and within a couple of minutes, she texted 'I'm sitting beside a crazy man.'
He then reportedly said to her: 'Have you ever wondered if someone could get something on the plane they weren't supposed to?'
She claimed that he opened his book bag and pulled out a silver metal torch-like item and put it near her leg.
She wrote: 'He clicked a button and a 4-6 inch blue flame shot out... I acted as if it was no big deal, though my heart was racing.
'"That's cool - what else do you have?" I said. He opened his bag and pulled out an item that looked similar to the end of a headset and told me it was like a tazer and could cause temporary paralysis.'
When Miss Valimont picked up the cylinder Sisco was carrying that he had said was architectural drawings, he apparently said it was a canister 'filled with gas strong enough to make everyone on the plane pass out.'
Miss Valimont then got up and headed to the bathroom where she typed on a note on her iphone and showed it to a flight attendant.
The note said: 'If the guy in 20D is a Marshall disregard this msg. He has a torch that he lit and showed me.
'And he said his canister has a gas device that will make everyone on the plane pass out if there is danger.
'He also has a device that says is like a tazer. I will go sit back down. Do what you need to.'
The pilots then diverted the plane and police dressed as paramedics came aboard to arrest Sisco.
He had fallen asleep and had no idea he was the cause of the ensuing drama.Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into Common Core in a fundraising email on Thursday, lambasting the way the standards portray American history.
The senator claimed the standards contain “anti-American propaganda” and a “revisionist history that ignores the faith of our Founders,” according to Bloomberg News.
However, Common Core only sets standards in english language arts/literacy and math, as ThinkProgress pointed out.
Critics of Common Core take issue with its alleged required reading list, which Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education for President Ronald Reagan, described as a “myth” in a September op-ed.
The only texts Common Core requires students to read are the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and President Lincoln’s second inaugural address, according to NPR.
Paul may be confusing Common Core with the AP U.S. History exam, which conservatives have criticized as unpatriotic. The Republican National Committee in August denounced the revised version of the test, which was released in 2012, for its “consistently negative view of American history.”
Numerous states have since condemned the new course framework or taken actions to combat it. Last week, a Georgia state senator introduced a resolution that criticized the AP history course’s “radically revisionist view of American history.”43156165 story
A few weeks ago you had the chance to ask Jack Horner about dinosaurs, science funding, and extinction level events. He's sent back his responses and commented: "Very impressive audience you have!" Read below for more flattery and his answers to your questions.
comments about the movie Jurassic Park?
by peter303
The 20th anniversary enhanced version will return to theaters in a few weeks. Supposedly Crichton modeled the Sam Neill character partly after you. What positive and negative things did this movie do for dinosaur paleontology? I would have thought it got a few more children interested in the subject.
Horner: I don't really know of anything negative the movie did, but yes, it certainly got more people interested in dinosaurs. Especially students who wanted to become paleontologists. I went from having 3 graduate students before the movie to 18 after it came out!!
Your degree
by onyxruby
You're famous for not having earned your degree, yet you persevered and your reputation for your work goes far outside your field. How hard was it to be taken seriously in your field without the required degree? I ask as someone who also works in a University at a senior level without a degree.
Horner: It took a while to show people that I had the education, just not the paper degree. I would say that was all there was to it except that when I first arrived here at MSU, there were several things I was not allowed to do including writing federal grants, teaching classes and advising graduate students. All were allowed after a few years, but some of that might have been on account of me getting a MacArthur Fellowship.
The Evolution of Paleontology
by eldavojohn
Something that's always made me curious about Paleontology is how far the study has come. If we look back historically at how dinosaur bones were exhumed and treated, some of the methods were actually a little bit destructive. So I've always wondered how paleontologists today cope with the fact that 100 years in the future we will likely have technology beyond our wildest dreams that will be able to scan the ground and find fossils in their original preserved intact positions and when they are excavated the process will surely be much more refined and exact measurements will be taken to better understand dinosaurs. I'm sure preservation techniques and materials science will allow us to even better handle finds. How do you cope with this idea that hundreds of years from now your efforts might be seen as crude or arcane? Do you ever wish that some paleontologists of the past had just left the specimens lying there for a future paleontologist to properly handle? Or do you just see this as a necessary way to move forward? Building on that, is there an end-game for paleontologists where the entire Earth has been inspected/surveyed and how many years out is that (I understand that sensor technology would have to come a very long way)?
Horner: Let me answer that question by stating that most really famous dinosaur collections from the early days in famous museums such as the Yale Peabody, the American Museum, the Smithsonian, and so on are virtually useless even for our questions today. Without the precise location, both geographically and stratigraphically (geologically), let alone taphonomically (the kind of sediments it resided in), there is really no data to allow paleobiological questions to be answered accurately. I think most of those old specimens should be packed up and put in storage, and new specimens with good data should be collected to fill those museums. As for the future, I think we are working as if we are already there if we do collect all the data I refer to as a specimens unified frames of reference in time (UFR), which means geographic stratigraphic, taphonomic, phylogenetic and ontogenetic (growth stage). Any less information is simply inadequate for paleobiological studies. As for the future, yes, we may well get new kinds of equipment to find specimens easier, but we will still need the UFR information. As for preparation, CT scanners will be useful so that we wont have to risk damage by physical preparation, but this technology is useful even now, so it will undoubtedly just get better.
How will science be funded in the US next?
by damn_registrars
For a long time the primary source of money for scientific research has been the federal granting agencies (NIH, NSF, DOE in particular). All three of them are facing either budget cuts, budget stalls, or increases in their budgets that do not match inflation. This does not seem to fare well for new scientists or established ones who are looking to further their careers. Where do you see research money coming from next? Alternately, are we looking ahead to a time where fewer people will be doing science because the funding just won't exist to pay even their meager wages any more?
Horner: Like most researchers in the early part of their careers, I relied on writing grants to NSF, but as these government agencies became more stringent and stingy with funding for dinosaurs and other purely scientific endeavors, I moved away from government funding to private funding, and I think this is where most all research funds for dinosaurs will eventually come from. Private people who have the financial where-with-all and interest in the field currently fund most of the dinosaur collecting, research and exhibitions in the United States. It is up to us paleontologists to make sure we engage the public in all venues, and keep their interest high, if we expect to continue these kinds of studies. The government is much more interested in practical sciences (renewable energy, climate change, medical) these days, a trend I would expect to continue for quite some time.
Which one is your favorite?
by nherm
Which is your favorite dinosaur, and why?
Horner: I am very partial to Maiasaura, a dinosaur my friend Bob Makela and I named back in 1979. It was one of the first dinosaurs to reveal social behaviors, and thus help change the public's view of dinosaurs as social creatures, and not the big lumbering, green, cold blooded monsters of old movies.
Undig-scovered country?
by Anonymous Coward
What, if any, locations on Earth would you like to see a dig start up? Are there places you cannot dig, for physical or political reasons that you are fairly sure are rich sites?
Horner: I have worked all over the world, and although there are some interesting areas, some of which I'm sure will eventually yield new species or new biological data, I am convinced that the best information we can get is right here in Montana and Alberta, where we have access to great quantities of specimens of particular species. There are many paleontologists who are looking for new species, and I think that is good, and it will help fill in the dinosaur family tree, but this is not my interest. My interests are in acquiring as many specimens of specific species as possible so we can do population studies, and understand their growth and behaviors and ecologies. I am currently amassing quantities of Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus, and we have enormous collections of Maiasaura and Hypacrosaurus from embryos to adults, so we know more about these dinosaurs than we know of most any other fossil vertebrate animal.
How many more dinosaurs to discover?
by bill_mcgonigle
This one is from my 6-year-old boy, Will. We're currently reading a book about dinosaurs (he gets three per bedtime). He wants to know, "how many dinosaurs haven't been discovered yet?" One of his favorites is one that was discovered in China fairly recently (many of the famous ones seem to come from the US midwest from the early part of last century). While his question is impossible to answer on its own, do paleontologists have a sense of whether the types of soils likely to hold fossils have been well explored, or if we've merely scratched the surface [sic] of what's to come?
Horner: My colleague Peter Dodson at Penn has estimated that we name a new dinosaur every 7 weeks or so, suggesting that we have many more to find than we have found to date, although I do think many more are named than should be on account of some being unrecognized juveniles of already named species. But, yes, there are many, many places that will yield dinosaur specimens that haven't even been explored! When your 6 year-old is my age there will still be plenty of dinosaurs to be discovered.
Paleocene dinosaurs
by niado
So, first of all this is hands-down the best Slashdot interview ever! On to my actual question: what do you think about the possible existence of Paleocene dinosaurs? I understand that any current fossil evidence for their existence is likely caused by reworked fossils. How likely do you believe it is that a particular dinosaur taxon survived a few million years after the extinction event, and what would be the implications of this occurring?
Horner: Yes, I think that a good argument can be made to the effect that every so called Paleocene specimen that has been reported has been reworked from older Mesozoic sediments, but I personally have no problem with Paleocene dinosaurs, and am amazed that we haven't found any as yet. I really don't care what killed the dinosaurs, so don't have a dog in the fight so to speak, but none of the extinction scenarios really work for me. The meteor theory certainly seems to be a good one, yet we have very good evidence that there was a decline in species prior to that event, so its puzzling. The lack of Paleocene dinosaurs is equally puzzling as one would think that regardless of the event, it couldn't possibly have gotten all of them when their descendants the birds made it through. So, as many people now days think, since birds are in fact dinosaurs, we do have Paleocene dinosaurs, and no need for a discussion.
Things That We Don't Even Know We Don't Know?
by eldavojohn
In science (even computer science) I have a lot of interest in what we know we don't know and what we don't know we don't know. With paleontology and it's subdomains -- specifically your specialty of dinosaur growth -- how do you deal with what must be an unbound realm of what we don't know we don't know? For example, isn't it possible that growth was regulated completely differently in dinosaurs than it is in modern day lizards and birds? Couldn't modern day hormones and endocrine system be much different than what was present in dinosaurs? When you publish research is it all based on assumptions? How do you overcome such an open system of possibilities?
Horner: Yes, it is true, that there may very well be unknown possibilities, but if we are to learn anything, we have to have a process of learning that is consistent, and that is science. Science is the process of observation or data gathering, followed by the formulation of hypotheses that are testable, in other words either repeatable or falsifiable. As we cannot repeat the evolution of dinosaurs we have to formulate falsifiable hypotheses. We also rely on related species to reveal characteristics. For example, when we study dinosaur growth we make comparisons with living taxa that we know to be most closely related, and these are crocodilians and birds. But, crocs and birds do grow differently, and in fact crocs are ectotherms while birds are endotherms, so their physiologies are different. In an attempt to discover the physiology of a dinosaur we compare the parts we have to compare which is only the skeleton. We cut the bones open to reveal microscopic features that we know to be produced by one physiology or another. Dinosaur baby bones are histologically identical to those of birds, and extremely different from those of crocs, so our hypothesis is that the physiology of dinosaurs (and concurrently their growth) was closest to birds, but that doesn't mean it was exactly the same. Using bone structures to construct the hypothesis, it is testable, and possibly falsified by finding a living animal that has bone tissues identical to birds and dinosaurs, and is an ectotherm. If you believe in the notion that everything could have been different in the past, you run the risk of never knowing anything in the present!
K-T Extinction Event
by niado
So, let's pretend the K-T event never happened and dinosaurs survived into the Holocene. What do you think the world's fauna would be like now? How would dinosaur evolution have progressed? Assuming humans had still come onto the scene (because it would be so cool) would we have driven the dinosaurs to extinction by now?
Horner: Yes, I'm sure humans would have driven dinosaurs to extinction had they evolved, but mammal evolution seems very much tied to the extinction of dinosaurs, so I would speculate that mammals would have remained insignificant compared to dinosaurs and their descendants the birds. I think mammals would have occupied the nocturnal world whereas dinosaurs and birds would have occupied the diurnal world. Early primates would have been gobbled up long before they had a chance to evolve the capacity to cause an extinction!!! : )
The market for fossils
by Swisslemur
I hope this comment isn't out of place, but I was wondering on what your opinion is of the market for fossils? It has become so easy to buy and sell fossils - eBay and the Internet - I was wondering if you see this as a threat to palaeontology? I think a lot of people collect fossils as a hobby or as a tangible way to forge a connection with science, so it can generate a lot of interest - which must be a good thing. However, is there a danger when auction houses market fossils as art or decoration, or perhaps investment items? I think there a potential for a lot of parallels with the market for antiquities which has caused a great deal of grief for archaeologists. Has the market got anything to offer palaeontolgy?
Horner: Unfortunately, the fossil trade is primarily a bunch of people who simply want to make money, so data, the information that comes with a specimen, is not generally retrieved, and the specimens are therefore useless to science. Amateur paleontologists or concerned landowners who are actively collecting to help science, donate important specimens or guide paleontologists to particular sites so the specimens and their data can be retrieved. In my opinion, any museum that buys vertebrate fossils that do not have associated data with them are not science museums, but rather show cases to show off pretty trinkets. Most scientific museums do not buy or sell fossils under any circumstance. For the most part, the current fossil market, particularly the eBay market and such, has nothing to offer paleontology.
Thanks!
by eternaldoctorwho
Dr. Horner, you have inspired me to engage in the sciences ever since I was a little kid. Although I didn't go into the field of paleontology, I did study computer science and became a software developer for an education company. In my field, we are always trying to find ways to engage kids in the STEM fields to help develop the next generation of engineers, programmers, biologists, and even paleontologists. In your opinion, how do you see the future of your field within the next generation of scientists, and what steps should we take to help kids become more interested in the sciences?
Horner: I personally think that paleontology is a field that needs revitalization, and one way to do this is to incorporate other fields of science. Paleontology reveals evolution and therefore gives us an historic record of our biological past. But, in order to actually understand how these evolutionary changes took place we can incorporate developmental biology and make attempts to retro-engineer some extinct characteristics. This is the aim of our Chickenosaurus Project, in which I'm hoping to create a dinosaur like animal from a bird (chicken). Integrating paleontology with evolutionary developmental biology has very interesting potential, both in pure science and in practical science. I am now encouraging kids to learn more about developmental biology and genetics if they are interested in paleontology. Sessions: The border wall will be funded
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is ending an Obama administration practice that steered millions of dollars in settlement money from large corporations to public interest groups.
For example, under Obama, when a major bank such as Bank of America ( BAC Citigroup ( C For example, under Obama, when a major bank such asandwas forced to pay billions in settlement money in a housing case, millions would be directed to groups such as Habitat for Humanity.
Republicans have long been critical of the payments, likening them to a slush fund.
Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has complained that the Obama administration redirected nearly $1 billion through the payments. He introduced legislation to stop it.
Sessions' decision apparently ends the practice without legislation. It does not address whether the Justice Department will try to recover past payments.
Sessions alerted Justice Department officials and prosecutors around the country in a letter Monday.
The letter does allow for certain exceptions, including payment that "directly remedies the harm that is sought to be redressed, including, for example, harm to the environment or from official corruption."
The $14.7 billion Justice Department settlement with Volkswagen over emissions cheating included $2.7 billion for projects across the country that will reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, the pollutant VW was caught emitting. It is not clear whether such a payment would be allowed in the future.Login to vote this up!
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Kenneth Cummings
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Murdered: Soul Suspect was a bit of a disappointment to me. I really love the concept of a murder mystery/detective/investigation/whatever the hell you want to call the genre game, which is why I really wanted this one to succeed. Sadly, this was not the case. As a video game, it's painfully average, but as a mystery game, it's a sad failure.A mystery game should have a strong focus on clue-gathering and investigation. Anything else takes away from the heart of the experience, and simply isn't what we came for. At their core, mystery games are essentially an evolved form of the puzzle genre, and most often takes the form of a point and click adventure. The satisfaction doesn't come from a grand sense of adventure or a high skill level, but in the "a-ha" moments when you finally piece together the mystery for yourself. Therefore it's not hard to see that such a game - one that focuses on critical thought over action - might have trouble hitting the mainstream market.So maybe some compromises are made in order to vary up the gameplay. This isn't an entirely unheard of. L.A. Noire had tepid gunfight sections and Deadly Premonition had shoehorned combat that ranges from laughably stupid to mind-numbingly boring.�Murdered: Soul Suspect comes in as the worst version of this concession, with "stealth" mechanics that boil down to using Detective Vision and waiting for the one enemy in the game to turn their back so you can execute the same kind QTE every time. There's really no fun to be had here, and all it does is pad out the game's length with sections that will have you groaning whenever demons show up.These demon sections are a huge black mark on an already mediocre experience, but they're not the reason the game fails in my eyes. Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire both had action segments, but these could only detract from a satisfactory detective experience. Murdered: Soul Suspect may commit some of the same sins these game do, but it lacks the strong core to which the others return. The heart of the experience, the mystery solving, is just unsatisfying, which sinks the whole game for me.Action games test your reflexes and quick-thinking ability. On the opposite end of that spectrum lie strategy and puzzle games, which focus on deeper thought. If you're playing a first person shooter, you have to make quick, shallow decisions with short-term consequences. If you're playing a grand strategy or investigation title, you should be mulling over complex conundrums that have a deeper impact on the experience. Critical thinking isn't something that games do too often these days, but you'd think that an investigation title - a game in which the express intent is to unravel a mystery for yourself - would feel right at home with this.You can probably see where I'm going with this. A mystery game to me is about deep thought and puzzle solving, two things that this game fails to execute properly. The heart of the game is searching crime scenes for evidence and using those clues to unravel a little more of the story. Having a keen eye for evidence is an important part of being a detective in these games, so we're doing fine so far.Unfortunately, what you do with these clues isn't very interesting. The core gameplay is just stating the obvious. After finding a few clues, you need to pick out which ones are relevant to the case, which has nothing to with critical thought, but rather trying to understand the game's weird logic. Common sense isn't a very satisfying puzzle to solve.The game arbitrarily gives you a limited amount of guesses to the correct answer, but it's impossible to fail the investigation, and even if you do screw up, you're prompted to try again right away with no real consequences. With nothing at stake and no real challenge, it's easy to get bored with a series banal point and click "puzzles" that feel more like an interactive cutscene broken up and sold as a video game.Sometimes, the game's attempt at interactive storytelling is just laughable. During one scene, you'll look at a corpse and hear a noise, with the game prompting you to determine what part of the scene made that noise. You get three chances and three choices, and if you pick the wrong one, the game boots you out of the menu and forces you to go back in, with absolutely nothing lost.Other puzzles play out like a high school exam. For example, you might be shown a picture or memory of something or someone, with a variety of descriptive verbs and adjectives floating around them. The way you solve these is to find the answers that are ridiculous or don't belong, leaving only the most relevant ones. Now you aren't really thinking like a detective, you're thinking like a school student taking a pop quiz.At one point, you see a key drop down a vent and chase after it, ending up at a screen with three objects: a fork, a spoon and the key for which you were just looking. The game then asks you to pick up the thing you need, but only gives you three chances to get it right. That's three chances and three choices. How is that even a video game mechanic?This level of simplicity in its interaction makes it feel like you're watching Dora the Explorer. You're on a linear track with no way to fail, shouting obvious answers at the screen, and even if you do guess incorrectly, the outcome remains the same.Failure carries only the risk of the slightest of minor inconveniences, nothing else. In L.A. Noire, there were points where it became possible to get an undesirable outcome to the case, or at least solve the mystery in a less-than-optimal fashion. Misreading suspects, not using the right clues in the right places, and drawing incorrect conclusions can all negatively impact your score and ranking, as well as the outcome of the case.The evidence found in crime scenes can be used to catch suspects in a lie, if you know when to use them. If you have hard proof that contradicts their statements, you can use that against them. The game never brings up a prompt to tell you to use your clue, you have to use your brain and remember what clues you have and can use. For all the shit I give it, Heavy Rain might have some of the best investigation mechanics in the mystery genre. During certain scenes in the Norman Jayden chapters, you'll be able to fully investigate a crime scene and collect evidence. You don't need to pick up everything, only the most relevant pieces, and if you don't get them all, the case is unsolvable, which can lead to one of the bad ends unless you successfully gather the right information as Madison.The climax of Norman Jayden's investigation arc isn't a shootout or a boss fight. The game takes all of the evidencefound, spreads it across a desk, and forces you to piece together the puzzle by linking the clues and forming a coherent narrative (something the game itself sadly lacked) from them. That's the ultimate mechanical culmination of the mystery, actually solving the mystery.If you don't have all the clues, you won't be able to piece the mystery together, and you will fail. There are one of three outcomes: you solve the case in time, you give up, or you run out of time and die, due to some contrivance for which the plot never really gives proper exposition. It might seem a little silly, but having a time limit adds an element of challenge missing from the finale of Murdered: Soul Suspect.The climax of Murdered: Soul Suspect's is very underwhelming by comparison. Like the "Solving the Puzzle" chapter in Heavy Rain, you have a time limit to solve a simple puzzle. The problem with this final level is that you have about ten seconds to figure out what it is, which runs contrary to the entire rest of the game and the genre as a whole.�Having to figure out the game's logic in such a short time doesn't add any sort of tension to the game, and will most likely only add to the frustration when you fail. And if you do fail, you're just put back a couple seconds earlier to try again and again until you get it right. The time limit in Heavy Rain on the other hand is just long enough to not be frustrating, but also strict enough to make you stress. It's a tough balancing act, one that even Heavy Rain doesn't do perfectly, but Murdered: Soul Suspect just seems to fail miserably in the attempt.Murdered Soul: Suspect is a mediocre game with good ideas that sadly fails as a mystery game. It saddens me that it wasn't enough to save Airtight Games from being shut down because despite some very poor design decisions, it could have been a great game if it's concepts were fleshed out a bit more and maybe if they had some more time and money. As it is, it doesn't challenge the player, it never makes them think, and it certainly doesn't warrant a $50 price tag. It turns out your own murder is actually pretty easy to solve.Perhaps if the developers had some more resources, this would have been a much better value, both for the player's time and money. Development troubles aside however, what ultimately sinks Murdered: Soul Suspect is a lack of competence to back up their ideas.�Murdered Soul Suspect doesn't seem to understand what makes solving a mystery fun, and like many similar games outside of the occasional point and click, it has no idea how to entice the player with thought-provoking gameplay that doesn't involve violence and twitch reflexes. It's a real shame too, because the premise of solving my own murder as a ghost is actually pretty cool. Sadly, we may never get to see what that game would have been like.Oh wait, yes we can. Go play Ghost Trick.Вершбоу напомнил, что на Варшавском саммите пройдет заседание комиссии Украина-НАТО на наивысшем уровне, с участием президента Петра Порошенко и лидеров стран НАТО. Заседание будет шансом согласовать наши приоритеты, работу по поддержке оборонных реформ в Украине.
Заместитель генерального секретаря НАТО отметил, что среди украинских чиновников есть сопротивление оборонным реформам. "Все еще есть инерция бюрократическая, видим как тут топчутся на месте. Мы даже видим людей, которые не преданы реформам, даже наоборот, сопротивляются. Мы видим это даже когда они нам говорят то, что мы хотим услышать", - сказал он.
Вершбоу также призвал дать больше функций контроля за оборонной реформой парламенту.
14 апреля заместитель уполномоченного Министерства обороны США Майкл Карпентер заявил, что если украинское руководство продолжит проводить запланированные и уже начатые реформы, Соединенные Штаты не прекратят поддержку Украины.
"Это вызов для Украины, она действительно сейчас должна использовать этот шанс. Особенно сейчас, когда правительство было сформировано после двух месяцев неопределенности. Нужно собраться и воплотить реформу. Мы надеемся увидеть значительный прогресс до Варшавского саммита. Это три месяца, не два", - отметил заместитель генерального секретаря НАТО.After the first two days of the 2017 NFL Draft, general manager Jason Licht made it clear that suspended running back Doug Martin is back in the organization's good graces.
Tampa Bay didn't address the backfield until taking a flier on Jeremy McNichols of Boise State in the fifth round.
At this point, Licht is hoping that Martin can recapture 2015 All-Pro form as the team's lead back.
Appearing on Tuesday's edition of Good Morning Football, Licht raved about Martin's turnaround this offseason, stating that the 28-year-old tailback has been "outstanding" both mentally and physically.
"Doug has looked as good as I've seen him," Licht added.
Licht isn't alone in his newfound optimism.
"Doug has looked awesome the past couple of weeks," tight end Cameron Brate recently told PewterReport.com. "He's been dominating the conditioning drills. That's not something you can fake -- those conditioning drills. You have either been putting in the work or you haven't.
"Just to see him in good spirits -- physically he looks awesome -- all of the guys on the team love Doug. We're excited to see him back. He's happy and he's healthy. We're all excited for him."
Martin's suspension will cost him the first three games of the 2017 season, which will leave the Bucs with a ground attack by committee in September.
Licht singled out Jacquizz Rodgers as a player who "answered the bell" when Martin was sidelined by a hamstring injury early last season. The GM also expects passing-down specialist Charles Sims to be healthy for training camp after suffering a torn pectoral muscle in late December.
As deep as Tampa Bay's backfield appears, however, Martin is ticketed for a starring role after Licht passed on signing Adrian Peterson or drafting an early-round replacement such as Dalvin Cook.
"We like to have options," Licht emphasized, "and one of those options we like having him with us right now is the guy that was the second-leading rusher in 2015, Doug Martin."
With the additions of impact talents such as veteran deep threat DeSean Jackson, first-round tight end O.J. Howard and third-round receiver Chris Godwin, the Buccaneers are a trendy playoff pick this year.
If they're going to overtake the Falcons and Panthers in the NFC South, though, Martin's resurgence as a tackle-breaking foundation back is perhaps the most crucial variable.EPG has just announced it has released four of the members of its lineup, and will build a new team around Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov.
EPG's reason for releasing four of its players has been the team's unsatisfactory results. The news comes after the Russian team failed to make it to the CIS Minor and out of groups in the online Binary Dragons Cup.
hooch will be tasked with rebuilding the team
With the departure of Nikita "waterfaLLZ" Matveyev, Savelii "jmqa" Bragin, Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov, and Alexey "ub1que" Polivanov, EPG will now rebuild a squad around the last man standing and team captain, Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov, who will have to find four players to fill out the roster in this new project.
The following statement could be seen on EPG's VK wall:
Each end of one story is the beginning of a new one. Today Elements Pro Gaming's management decided to bid farewell to four players CS: GO composition - Savely "jmqa" Bragin, Alexey "ub1que" Polivanov, Nikita "waterfaLLZ" Matveev and Cyril "Boombl4" Mikhailov. The reason for this decision was the unsatisfactory results. The new structure will be built around the team captain Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov. We thank Sava, Lesha, Nikita and Kirill for the time they spent in the ranks of the EPG and wish them success on the playing field!
EPG's lineup now consists of:Things haven’t stood still just because there’s been Dreamhack Winter! We’ve been showing you a ton of in-progress gifs of the Season Hydra boss, but no boss is quite complete without a boss portrait, and so Vilya has come to the rescue:
The Temple of Seasons will feature no less than three boss battles, of which we’ve only really talked about one. Here’s the boss splash for another, which has already been mostly implemented:
We don’t want the regular enemies to be left hanging, |
is to try to get 50,” Wall said in February.
It didn’t happen. It never happens. It seems almost impossible. And yet, the rest of the league finds a way. Four teams already have 50 wins this season. Six other teams made it last season. More than half the league — 17 teams — has reached the 50-win threshold since 2011. Every team besides the 76ers, Hornets, Raptors and Wizards has done it in the 21st century.
And the Wizards have now gone through three full decades without a 50-win season.
“Yeah, it’s a big deal,” Wall said of failing to reach that mark. “We feel like we let a lot of games slip and all we can do is try to win as many games as we can and get some momentum going into the playoffs. Forget the 50 wins. Now we just got to go out there and play the best basketball we can.”
Which is fair. Because a playoff win would make virtually everyone forget about that whole 50-wins thing.
(Apologies for the wicked pixels. I dunno why. My heart remains pure though.)Those wondering when the New York Red Bulls would announce their mid-summer friendly may have just been given a helpful hint.
A retracted tweet by the San Jose Earthquakes reveals the Red Bulls amongst ten other teams, both domestic and international, expected to take part in this year’s International Champion’s Cup tournament.
EOS can independently confirm the team’s participation.
The Red Bulls join MLS sides Earthquakes and LA Galaxy amongst a field that includes world powers Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United, FC Porto, Fiorentina, PSG and Club America. This will mark the third installment of the tournament which began in 2013. Chelsea, Manchester United and the LA Galaxy are the only clubs to have participated in the ICC twice. Past participants included Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter and Roma.
The tournament has traditionally taken place in the summer. The LA Galaxy advanced in the competition in 2012, playing three matches under the ICC umbrella, finishing fourth behind champions Real Madrid, Chelsea and AC Milan.
The full slate of matches and venues will be released as early as Wednesday morning.
UPDATE:
EOS has learned “multiple” ICC matches will be taking place at Red Bull Arena. Sources originally said the Red Bulls were aiming for a home match against Manchester United, but that option has been tabled. Venues and opponents will be announced at a later date. The full list of ICC participants will be released today.
The tournament will run from July 11 to August 5The 2009 draft has come and gone. Those who spoke excitedly of Tavares, Hedman and Duchene now whisper the names Seguin, Hall and Fowler. With the Oilers only two points out of dead last it's hard not to join in, especially with Jonathan Willis having already started prepping us for the big day (and don't forget part two). Nonetheless, I thought it might be interesting to look back on the 2009 draft that was. One of my favourite tools in evaluating prospects is Gabriel Desjardins' NHL equivalencies, though personally I think it's a lot more relevant for forwards than it is for defenders (and goalies!). The basic premise is that we can expect each player to bring a portion of his offence with him from the league he's currently playing in to the NHL. After the jump I'll explain a bit more fully and look at what each of the forwards drafted in June of 2009 has done so far this season.
The numbers I've used for equivalencies come from two main sources and, to be perfectly honest, I'm not completely sure if this is the most up-to-date information. If you (my dear reader) happen to know of more current numbers, please let me know and I'd be happy to run the numbers again. At any rate, each league has a different equivalency number. What I've done below is taken each player's goals, assists and points, converted them to a "per game" rate, multiplied them by the league equivalency number, and then expressed them as an "NHL equivalency" assuming an 82-game season. I've used this article for the translations from the NHL, KHL (multiply offence by 0.83), SEL (0.78), FNL (0.54), AHL (0.44), NCAA (0.41), WHL (0.30), OHL (0.30) and QMJHL (0.28). I've used this article for the translations from the USHL (0.27), AJHL (0.16) and BCHL (0.14).
Before I go ahead and put up the chart some brief explanation is needed. Firstly, not all of the players drafted in 2009 were the same age. Several players had already passed through the draft at least once (and sometimes twice). All of these older players are included in the chart but are marked in yellow. Injured players are at the bottom of the chart marked in red, along with Brad Peltz in gray. Peltz is a special case since the Senators have left him to play Canadian high school hockey for another season and it's possible that he was only drafted because his father is a billionaire. Finally, the "Draft Number" column is not the player's actual draft position but the player's position among forwards. So, for example Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers 10th overall but was the 7th forward to be drafted. As such, his "Draft Number" in the chart is "7." I broke the chart into three portions so it would be easier to read, but you can still click on it to enlarge.
A couple of things stand out to me on this chart. The first is that no overage players were taken in the first forty forwards and only two of the top sixty forwards taken were overagers. And some of these players are certainly legitimate prospects. It makes me wonder if it wouldn't be a good strategy to take the top overager on your list in the third round. It looks to me like doing so would give you a very good chance at getting a top-thirty offensive player in the draft.
As for the two overagers near the top of the list, Marcus Kruger's big season in 2009-10 is somewhat surprising. Kruger's 2008-09 was his 19 year-old season and taking that year to compare him with the rest of the list would leaves him in the bottom half (17.1 NHLE points). He's clearly taken a huge step forward but there's a very good chance many of the guys behind him now will pass him by next season. Brandon Kozun, on the other hand, had a very good season in 2008-09. Kozun's 2008-09 NHLE of 36.9 points would leave him in a tie for 7th on this list. He's taken a small step forward again this season and should clearly be looked at as a legitimate prospect going forward despite his small stature.
So far, Brandon Kozun is looking like a good draft steal by Los Angeles Kings. Brandon Pirri (Chicago) and Taylor Beck (Nashville) also look good by the numbers. The Washington Capitals are probably very excited with all four of their players beating their draft number and three players cracking the top forty forwards despite only selecting once in the top forty. The Colorado Avalanche must also be very pleased with the two forwards they selected. On the other hand, Chris Kreider is way off the pace of any other first round forward (apparently Hugh Jessiman didn't teach the Rangers a thing about trusting US high school hockey). At the team level, the Florida Panthers don't seem to have had a very good day (aside: if you're an Oiler fan, no matter how bad things are now, look at the Panthers over the last decade before you say they couldn't get worse)
Four men on this list are already playing in the NHL and of those four, three seem to be doing fine. The one exception is Evander Kane who seems to be struggling mightily at the NHL level relative to the other forwards taken in the top ten. Even without taking the salary cap implications into consideration, it seems like it was a bad idea to keep him in Atlanta. Once those are factored in, the decision is just plain awful.
The Edmonton Oilers prospects are tracking quite well. Magnus Pajaarvi-Svensson is doing very well offensively which is exactly what the Oilers will need out of a top ten pick. Toni Rajala is beating his draft number so far. He doesn't look like an impact player offensively which is too bad since he's the kind of player that will likely need to be impactful offensively to have an NHL career. Anton Lander is the exact opposite situation. His offensive numbers are not covering his draft number but he seems to have the kind of skill set that may get him to the NHL anyway. There's also a possibility that the SEL is better than it's being given credit for. Other than Svensson and Marcus Johansson, all of the Swedes taken in the first two rounds have taken a hit. Which should only make Oiler fans that much more excited about Magnus. Finally, Cameron Abney wasn't drafted for his offence but that was just a terrible draft pick (given the state of the Oilers, I thought that I should end on a sour note).VICTORIA Police will launch an internal review after admitting it relied on an amateur sleuth to monitor and apprehend a wanted fugitive.
Commander Jeff Forti revealed Dion Hayes - on the run since July after failing to appear in court accused of 22 child sex offences - would not be in custody had it not been for the "good job" of a member of the public, known only as Darren, who bought the fugitive's computer.
The Herald Sun exclusively revealed on Wednesday how Hayes, in his haste to flee the state, failed to deactivate his iCloud account, meaning every picture he took on his iPad while on the run automatically uploaded in real time to the computer now owned by Darren.
On Monday, the Herald Sun phoned 000 after learning Hayes had returned to Victoria, which led to his arrest at Green Lake rest area on the Western Highway.
Hayes is now in custody and will face Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday.
media_camera Darren helped in the arrest Hayes by following his pictures that were being automatically uploaded to his old computer. Picture: Ian Currie
Darren said he was left feeling frustrated when police refused to take the computer and he was asked to email each photo to investigators.
READ: How a fugitive was found
He contacted the Herald Sun after the file sizes became too large to email and he was requested to download the photos to a memory stick and drive it to the police station.
"The police put out a public appeal for help but couldn't care less when I had the information to catch him," Darren said.
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
Commander Forti said it was "near-on impossible" for police to monitor the computer activity as Darren had.
"The computer probably would have been sitting in a property office... and there wouldn't be anybody sitting there live like Darren happened to be," he said.
But he admitted, with hindsight, the investigation should have been conducted differently.
"We are incredibly grateful he (Darren) was able to monitor and pick him up."
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took of himself that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
Darren said he saw a photo of Hayes in a Herald Sun story on a police appeal for information on the wanted man.
media_camera How he was tracked across the country.
Hayes, 39, travelled thousands of kilometres across Australia, camping out, after failing to face court on child sex charges.
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
Hayes' obsession with taking "selfie" photos brought him undone after the images were automatically uploaded to his old computer, allowing Darren to track him down.
Hayes had no idea the photos he was taking on his iPad were being automatically uploaded through the computing "cloud" to his old computer - a computer he had sold to Darren five days before he had been due to face court.
Recognising the man he'd bought the computer from a month before, Darren immediately contacted police.
"There was an abundance of information on this computer - I was seeing photographs drop into a folder as he took them," Darren said.
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
"But not only would the police not take the computer away, they wouldn't even come and pick up the photos when I put them on a memory stick - they expected me to drop them off at the station.
"I was doing all their detective work for them, but they still didn't act and go and catch him."
Darren told 3AW radio on Wednesday that police thought he was a "nuff nuff".
"I just said 'no', I know better than this. I have so much information but they just weren't interested more or less," Darren said.
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
"So I rang (police reporter) Jon (Kaila) at the Herald Sun and we worked as a team for the last two to three months, just communicating and trying to track this bloke".
Darren downloaded a program to calculate the co-ordinates of where each picture was taken and plotted Hayes's travels across Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia.
He also had access to the fugitive's Facebook account and messages, as his personal page had been left open on the computer.
Darren gave this information to police and then contacted the Herald Sun.
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
On Monday evening, Hayes posted that he was back in Victoria and had run out of fuel on the Western Highway, between Horsham and Stawell.
He sent a message to his son asking to be picked up at Green Lake rest area.
Armed with Darren's information, the Herald Sun alerted police.
And at 10pm, a stunned Hayes was arrested.
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
"As a result of information to police, a 39-year-old Campbellfield man was arrested 20 minutes outside Stawell on Monday evening," Sergeant Kris Hamilton said.
"Dion Hayes faced Stawell Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and was remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday, where he will face 22 charges including indecent acts with a child under 16, producing child pornography and other serious child sex offences between 2003 and 2011."
Darren said he was pleased justice might finally be served.
"It's been a long process, but I just wanted to see it through to the end. It's taken over my life for the past few months. But hopefully that's the end of it now."
media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.
- with Wayne Flower
[email protected](CBS News) The method of extracting natural gas from deep in the earth known as "fracking" has dramatically changed the U.S. energy industry, but as more wells are drilled, protests have continued.
The latest flashpoint is New York State, which has been a fracking holdout. CBS News has learned that New York is close to making a decision about fracking and is expected to roll out guidelines after Labor Day
As the public awaits the decision, the debate continues.
The days are long and grueling for upstate New York dairy farmers John and Teresa Lyons.
Lyons Hill Farm -- in the family for over 150 years -- is struggling. A 2009 barn fire put the family into debt, and recently milk prices have sunk. The Lyons say they are losing $7000 per month
"The way the economy is there would be a great chance to lose the entire farm," Teresa said.
The Lyons are relying on one hope: that New York State makes a decision soon that would allow gas drilling on their farm.
"The money would be a great blessing," John Lyons said.
The Lyons' farm sits on top of the Marcellus Shale Formation containing natural gas deep underground that stretches from Tennessee to New York.
The gas is extracted by way of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", which involves millions of gallons of sand, water and potentially toxic chemicals blasted deep into the earth, shattering underground shale and freeing natural gas for collection.
On the Pennsylvania side, property owners are expected to make more than $2 billion this year leasing land to the gas drilling companies. But in New York, fracking has been on hold for four years.
"When I think about the money I'm standing on, it would be like someone standing on the bank knowing they have million dollars in it and no access to it," Teresa Lyons said.
Environmental concerns have led to closer scrutiny of fracking. In Albany, New York's Department of Environmental Conservation -- responsible for writing the regulations - says if high-volume hydraulic fracturing moves forward in New York, it will do so with the strictest standards in the nation.
Many New Yorkers, however, are saying not-so-fast.
Sandra Steingraber, an environmental scientist, said that anyone -- even the Energy Secretary, the president and the EPA -- who says fracking can be done safely is wrong.
"When you shatter the bedrock, it's not only full of methane, it's full of benzene, it's full of tylulene, its full of a lot of poisonous hydrocarbons. You blow that up and you put cocktail straws down into the ground to try to get the methane up, you create portals of contamination for other chemicals to come up into our ground water, aquifers and into air," Steingraber said.
But the Lyons said they've seen safe drilling across the border and they'll take their chances to save the farm.
"I drive to Pennsylvania and do not see a difference in the hay crop or the corn crop growing over there, just that they have a new tractor," John Lyons said.Do It Now
A year or two ago, I came up with a brilliant scheme for handling my email. The problem, I decided, was that there was just too much of it. Spam was mixed in with notes from friends along with important things from work and todo items I’d written to myself. What I needed to do was go thru and sort it — pick out the really important stuff to handle right away and move the junk to the bottom. So I wrote a little program that would let me go through and sort my email into neat little folders ordered by priority.
Well, here’s what happened: I sorted all my email, and then I didn’t answer any of it. I told myself that I shouldn’t answer the unimportant stuff until the important stuff was taken care of, then when I looked at the important stuff it seemed hard, so I decided to go read some blogs first. To this day, all those important emails are just sitting there.
Recently, I came up with a really dumb system for handling my email: just do it. I’d start at the top of my inbox, answer the most recent email, and move on to the next one. No excuses. No matter what the email at the top was — no matter how difficult or awkward or unimportant, I had to answer it. I couldn’t move on to another email and come back to it later. I had to answer the most recent email, no matter what it was.
By the end of the day, I’d answered a month’s worth of email.
We procrastinate because we are afraid. We’re afraid it’s too much work and that it will drain us. We’re afraid we’ll screw it up and get in trouble. We’re afraid we don’t know how to do it. We’re afraid because, well, we’ve been putting it off forever and every time we put it off it seems a little more fearsome in our minds. That’s why not putting things off is so liberating. We’re forced to confront our fears, not let them grow bigger by repeatedly running away. And when we confront them, we find they’re not so scary after all.
This doesn’t just apply to email, of course — it works for any todo list. But only if you say no to reordering, prioritizing, estimating deadlines, and doing the most important things first. Forget all that. Do it now.
You should follow me on twitter here.
January 8, 2010Smoking rates in the U.S. have hit an all-time low, with only about 16.8 percent of adults smoking cigarettes in 2014 - a near 20 percent drop from the smoking rate in 2005.
A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday shows that the smoking rate among adults was 16.8 percent in 2014, down from 20.9 percent in 2005 and 17.8 percent in 2013, reported The Los Angeles Times. The figure is the lowest recorded since the agency began tracking cigarette smoking.
The average number of cigarettes smoked daily also declined, falling from 16.7 in 2005 to 13.8 in 2014, according to the study.
Adults between the ages of 18 and 24 experienced the largest decrease in cigarette consumption.
The CDC said that the declining rates could be a direct result of media campaigns, new laws and accessible quitting solutions, although the report notes that the dwindling numbers could be due to increased interest in alternative smoking methods such as e-cigarettes, according to UPI.
The report highlights that quitting smoking has been more difficult for several demographics, most notably the poor. The smoking rate for those on Medicaid, the federally funded health care program for low-income Americans, stood at 29.1 percent in 2014. That's compared to only 12.9 percent of adults on private health insurance who continued to smoke cigarettes. As for the uninsured, 27.9 percent smoked.
Among adults earning below the federal poverty level of $19,790 per year, 26.3 percent smoked.
Rates remained especially high for adults with a general education development certificate, or GED, with 43 percent smoking, compared to only five percent of adults with a graduate degree.
The smoking rate among adults 25-44 was higher than the overall smoking rate, at 20 percent.
Nearly 28 percent of multiracial adults smoked, and the rate among lesbian, gays, or bisexuals stood at 23.9 percent.
"Disparities are the single most important issue in smoking," Kenneth Warner, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, told The New York Times. "The people who are politically influential believe the smoking problem has been solved. It's not in their neighborhoods. Their friends don't smoke. Those who still smoke are the poor, the disenfranchised, the mentally ill. That's who we need to focus on."
Smoking still kills nearly half a million Americans each year and costs more than $300 billion annually, according to the report. Along with anti-smoking mass media campaigns, the CDC said other proven solutions must still be implemented, "including higher tobacco taxes, strong smoke-free laws, well-funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs that include mass media campaigns, and comprehensive, barrier-free health insurance coverage for smoking cessation treatments."
The report came the same day federal authorities proposed a ban on smoking in public housing, which would affect more than 700,000 homes if implemented, according to TIME.
"We have a responsibility to protect public housing residents from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke," said HUD Secretary Julian Castro. "This proposed rule will help improve the health of more than 760,000 children and help public housing agencies save $153 million every year in health care, repairs and preventable fires."For most people, artificial intelligence is Siri, the lovable but modest digital assistant on iPhones.
She can’t really do much beyond answering simple questions. She’s harmless.
Advanced artificial intelligence is far from that. Algorithms are constantly learning, often in unusual ways, and at an exponential rate. It’s one of the cornerstones of our age.
Unfortunately, nobody really knows how they learn. And that should scare you, a lot.
When Siri doesn’t know the answer to a question, she demurs. She may quip or make a snarky comment to obfuscate, then send you to Wikipedia.
“Hey Siri, what is the meaning of life?” Siri: “It’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach you.” Cute.
When Google wanted to improve the way its machine-learning software translates languages, it started by feeding it massive amounts of data. In short order, the software figured out common translations. Soon, accuracy rates improved. Later, the software began translating between languages it had not even studied.
Initially, engineers were perplexed. They later concluded the AI had devised a brand-new language, or “interlingua”, to make sense of language pairs. Once it had the cipher, the rest was a snap.
When Nvidia decided to enter the self-driving car race, it started with neural networks watching humans drive, sometimes badly. Soon, the AI could steer, brake and accelerate just like a careful, confident, skillful person. Later, using a batch of sensors and a learning, trunk-mounted brain, the AI could drive well enough to navigate winding dirt roads, driving rain and thick fog.
Engineers admit, the system is so complicated even they don’t really know how the software is arriving at all of its decisions, MIT Technology Review reports.
This is the part where most people start worrying about Hollywood-style Terminators.
I will admit, the idea of machines making their own choices based on processes that even their creators don’t understand is unsettling, at best. And plenty of smart people like Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk have sounded alarms about unintended consequences.
In a world where machines learn, why wouldn’t they develop emotions and all of the other frailties that cause humans to act irrationally? It could get seriously weird, and dangerous.
That does not mean there will not be terrific investment opportunities.
AI is a game-changing technology. It is already having a positive impact on the bottom line for businesses ranging from financial services to transportation. Ultimately, it will change business models. New services will be born.
To keep it simple, I recommend companies like Alphabet and Amazon, that are taking advantage of this important trend.
That’s the thing about our age of cloud computing. So many technologies are progressing exponentially, it is a unique era of discovery and innovation. Almost anything is possible.
And by the way, Nietzsche was wrong about the meaning of life. It is not without meaning, value or compressible truth. At least that is what I want the machines to think, if they’re listening.[Editor's Note: This video has been removed from the web. To watch the 'Thor 2' preview, snag a copy of 'Iron Man 3' on Blu-ray, starting this September 24.]
' Iron Man 3'comes out on DVD and Blu-ray this September 24 with a butt-load of extra features, including a preview of the upcoming'Thor 2'on the Blu-ray. You're gonna want to own that 'Iron Man 3' Blu-ray and you can get a taste of the incredible special features with a tease of 'Thor: The Dark World' right now.
Though the 'Thor 2' video lacks new footage -- although there are a few interesting snippets of b-roll -- the cast and crew, including director Alan Taylor and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, throw around buzz words, like "epic" and "cinematic," to get you hyped up.
Accompanied by behind-the-scenes shots of vast landscapes, Taylor did say that we'll indeed be going "off-world" a lot more in 'Thor 2' to offer looks at the nine realms. As for Thor himself, he'll be "stepping into the role of king," says Chris Hemsworth, "and coming to terms with the responsibilities that becoming king carries."
In 'Thor 2,' Thor returns to Asgard to fend off an ancient threat. The Dark Elves, led by Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), seek to plunge the universe back into darkness. In order to defeat them, the god of thunder enlists the help of his backstabbing brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), reuniting with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) along the way.
'Thor: The Dark World' comes to theaters this November 8, and you can catch this preview and tons more on the 'Iron Man 3' DVD/Blu-ray extras September 24.The Free Syrian Army (FSA), the “vetted, moderate” rebels the US are constantly arming, but who are also allied with ISIS, have urged Israel to join in the Syrian Civil War by imposing a no-fly zone across the nation’s south.
“Israel has the opportunity to win the hearts of all Syrians, whom the entire world has forsaken,” declared the FSA commander, quoted in the Times of Israel, going on to assure Israel that the border with Syria would be secure post-Assad.
The reality, however, is that the Israel-Syria frontier is controlled almost entirely by al-Qaeda at this point, and analysts believe it will be only a matter of time before al-Qaeda starts attacking Israel across the Golan Heights.
Though Israel has long insisted it is neutral in the Syria War, they have attacked Syrian military targets in Golan repeatedly, including when they were fighting al-Qaeda forces in the recent takeover. It is hard to imagine, however, that the FSA narrative of Syrian gratitude for Israeli intervention will come to pass, particularly with al-Qaeda and ISIS in the rebellion’s driver’s seat.
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The House Republican plan to phase out Medicare is crashing and burning. Rep.-elect Kathy Hochul (D-NY) just won an impossible election victory by campaigning to keep Medicare alive. The Senate just soundly rejected the House GOP’s plan. Even former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who once shut down the government in a failed attempt to force President Bill Clinton to support draconian Medicare cuts, blasted this Medicare-killing plan as “radical right-wing social engineering.”
Yet even as this concerted assault on Medicare hemorrhages support from elected officials, conservatives have a backdoor plan to get the courts to kill Medicare for them. Numerous lawmakers embrace a discredited theory of the Constitution that would not only end Medicare outright but also cause countless other cherished programs to be declared unconstitutional. Under this theory, Pell Grants, federal student loans, food stamps, federal disaster relief, Medicaid, income assistance for the poor, and even Social Security must all be eliminated as offensive to the Constitution.
In essence, supporters of this constitutional theory would so completely rewrite America’s social contract that they make Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the author of the House GOP plan, look like Martin Luther King Jr. This issue brief explores the legal and historical gymnastics required to accept the conservative position that programs like Medicare and Social Security violate the Constitution.
The general welfare
Although Congress’s authority is limited to an itemized list of powers contained in the text of the Constitution itself, these powers are quite sweeping. They include the authority to regulate the national economy, build a national postal system, create comprehensive immigration and intellectual property regulation, maintain a military, and raise and spend money.
This last power, the authority to raise and spend money, is among Congress’s broadest powers. Under the Constitution, national leaders are free to spend money in any way they choose so long as they do so to “provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.” For this reason, laws such as Medicare and Social Security are obviously constitutional because they both raise and spend money to the benefit of all Americans upon their retirement.
Many members of Congress, however, do not believe the Constitution’s words mean what they say they mean. Consider the words of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who recently explained the origin of the increasingly common belief that Congress’s constitutional spending power is so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub:
If you read [James] Madison, Madison will tell you what he thought of the Welfare Clause. He said, “Yeah, there is a General Welfare Clause, but if we meant that you can do anything, why would we have listed the enumerated powers?” Really, the Welfare Clause is bound by the enumerated powers that we gave the federal government.
In essence, Paul and many of his fellow conservatives believe Congress’s power to collect taxes and “provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States” really only enables Congress to build post offices or fund wars or take other actions expressly authorized by some other part of the Constitution. According to this view, the spending power is not—as it is almost universally understood —itself an independent enumerated power authorizing Congress to spend money.
Paul’s understanding of the Spending Clause is not simply the idiosyncratic view of an outlier senator. Indeed, there is strong reason to believe his view is shared by the majority of his caucus. In the lead-up to the 2010 midterm elections, congressional Republicans released a “Pledge to America,” which broadly outlined their plans for governing if they were to prevail that November. In it, the lawmakers claimed that “lack of respect for the clear constitutional limits and authorities has allowed Congress to create ineffective and costly programs that add to the massive deficit year after year.”
This language suggests that many conservatives agree with Sen. Paul that Congress is somehow exceeding its constitutional authority to spend money. But there is no support for this view in constitutional text or in Supreme Court precedent.
In its very first decision to consider the issue—its 1936 decision in United States v. Butler—the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that “the power of Congress to authorize expenditure of public moneys for public purposes is not limited by the direct grants of legislative power found in the Constitution,” as Sen. Paul would claim. Similarly, while the text of the Constitution establishes that “the exercise of the spending power must be in pursuit of ‘the general welfare,’” neither Sen. Paul nor the Pledge cites examples of laws that fail to meet this criterion.
Selectively reading Madison
While conservatives’ narrow understanding of the spending power finds no support in the text of the Constitution or in the Supreme Court’s decisions, Sen. Paul is correct that it does have one very famous supporter. In an 1831 missive, former President James Madison claimed that the best way to read the Spending Clause is to ignore its literal meaning and impose an extra-textual limit on Congressional power:
With respect to the words “general welfare,” I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.
Sen. Paul suggests that Madison’s extra-textual limit is both authoritative and binding—even if it means that programs ranging from Social Security to Medicare to Pell Grants must all cease to exist. But it is a mistake to assume that Madison’s preferred construction of the Spending Clause must restrict modern-day congressional action.
First of all, even the most prominent supporters of “originalism”—the belief that the Constitution must be read exactly as it was understood at the time it was written—reject the view that an individual framer’s intentions can change constitutional meaning. As the nation’s leading originalist, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, explains, “I don’t care if the framers of the Constitution had some secret meaning in mind when they adopted its words. I take the words as they were promulgated to the people of the United States, and what is the fairly understood meaning of those words.”
Indeed, Madison himself would have been dismayed by the claim that an established understanding of the Constitution must bend to his own singular views. Like Scalia, Madison rejected the notion that the framers’ personal desires can defeat the words they actually committed to text. As he explained to future President Martin Van Buren, “I am aware that the document must speak for itself, and that that intention cannot be substituted for [the intention derived through] the established rules of interpretation.”
Secondly, Madison embraced a way of interpreting the Constitution reminiscent of the evolving theories of constitutional interpretation that are so widely decried by modern conservatives. Although Rep. Madison opposed on constitutional grounds the creation of the First Bank of the United States in 1791, President Madison signed into law an act creating the Second Bank in 1816. He “recognized that Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, and (most important, by failing to use their amending power) the American people had for two decades accepted” the First Bank, and he viewed this acceptance as “a construction put on the Constitution by the nation, which, having made it, had the supreme right to declare its meaning.”
The Constitution is not a scavenger hunt
Even if we must, as Sen. Paul suggests, be bound by the Founding Fathers’ subjective intentions, Madison’s understanding of the Constitution hardly reflects the consensus view among those who created it. The truth is that Madison’s voice was merely one of many competing voices among the founding generation—and his vision of the Constitution was eventually rejected by no less a figure than George Washington himself.
Madison’s chief antagonist in early debates about constitutional meaning was Alexander Hamilton. As the nation’s first secretary of the treasury, Hamilton offered an interpretation of the Spending Clause that closely resembles the modern understanding:
These three qualifications excepted, the power to raise money is plenary, and indefinite; and the objects to which it may be appropriated are no less comprehensive, than the payment of the public debts and the providing for the common defence and "general Welfare." The terms "general Welfare" were doubtless intended to signify more than was expressed or imported in those which Preceded; otherwise numerous exigencies incident to the affairs of a Nation would have been left without a provision. The phrase is as comprehensive as any that could have been used; because it was not fit that the constitutional authority of the Union, to appropriate its revenues shou’d have been restricted within narrower limits than the "General Welfare" and because this necessarily embraces a vast variety of particulars, which are susceptible neither of specification nor of definition.
Hamilton’s understanding of the spending power was one part of a broader, more expansive vision of congressional power that also included a robust interpretation of Congress’s power under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause. This broader understanding of Congress’s role prevailed over Madison’s very limited one during the earliest days of the Republic. Hamilton was the chief advocate who convinced President George Washington to sign the First Bank bill over Madison’s objections.
The point here is not that constitutional interpretations should be played like the card game “War,” where conservatives play the Madison card and everyone else plays the Washington card, and whoever plays the higher card wins. Rather, the point is simply that conservatives are wrong to treat the Founding Fathers’ statements as if they were a menu that lawmakers can search through and order the kind of Constitution they want. The Constitution is not a scavenger hunt.
Moreover, it is hardly necessary to dismiss Madison’s tremendous contributions to the Constitution itself in order to recognize why America should not relitigate a 230-year-old argument about America’s power to spend money on programs like Medicare. Hamilton was |
ed his way towards the by-line and lifted the ball over the outrushing MacDonald for Loy to head home.
The game was as good as over and Dundee spent much of the second half spraying passes around to the delight of their healthy travelling support.
Boyd did get a few sights of goal, but, much like his team's display, conviction was lacking.
Stewart rubbed salt into Killie's wounds when he capitalised on slack defending with a ruthless finish into the top right corner.
Stewart's impressive strike put Dundee aheadA bizarre assault case in Southwest Missouri involves biting, weapons, fists and a can of apple pie filling.
Prosecutors say Darrell Beetler of Springfield launched a four-hour long assault on his girlfriend after a disagreement about a tenant.
Beetler’s girlfriend says he punched her in the face, forced her to the floor and beat her with a can of apple pie filling.
She says Beetler also bit her nose and poked her with a small pocket knife before asking his 15-year-old son to get a bigger knife and load a gun that was in the home. The son returned with a rifle, beginning what would be a four-hour long assault and several death threats.
She says when Beetler let go of her to vomit, she was able to get away and call 9-11.
Police say she suffered several cuts and bruises, and that she needed six stiches to close the bite wound.OROMOCTO, N.B. – When it comes to basic reading and writing skills, New Brunswickers continue to fall behind.
According to Statistics Canada, about 53 per cent of New Brunswickers are functionally illiterate. That means many people in the province can read street signs, write their own names, but have trouble with reading beyond that.
Tara Gray is the executive director at the Central Valley Adult Learning Association in Oromocto. The non-profit centre is one of 170 programs in the province that help adults get their high school equivalency diploma.
Gray says she’s not surprised by the statistics.
“Most of the time people think about not being literate as the inability to read a book, to read a newspaper, to understand what’s happening in every day society,” she said.
“They aren’t necessarily thinking about ‘I can’t read the instructions on the medicine bottle that I need to give to my child.’”
One of the problems that Gray sees is students being passed from grade to grade, even when they’re not ready. She says it’s difficult for teachers to cater to everyone, so some students end up being forgotten.
“There is no one mold that fits everybody. So as they try to help each of these individuals learn, absolutely. Some of them are lost in the cracks,” she said.
“And based on stories that parents and learners have shared, they are pushed through to the next grade, and hope that they will grasp that concept.”
One of those students was Trisha Sabattis. The 34-year-old left school at age 16. She says she was supposed to be held back, but she was bumped up two grade levels, even though she was failing.
“I was in grade nine, and I had failed a couple of grades, but they upgraded me from grade nine to 11, and I didn’t know what I was doing. So I quit,” said Sabattis.
“I was always bugging people to help me or even trying to copy, because I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Now, Sabattis is working towards her GED. She hopes it will help her land a job.
“I need an education because you cannot get a job without a grade 12. Or the equivalency of a grade 12. Even at McDonalds it’s good to have a grade 12, right?”
Justin Arseneault hopes his GED will help him get into the military. The 23-year-old dropped out at age 17.
But after about three months, Arseneault has a new diploma, and a new outlook.
“It felt amazing. Like I thought I could do anything.”Hi Everybody!
I was thinking about the feedback that I got from the Kuja post, and I was amazed by the response; I’m glad I got people to look a little further into the character of Kuja, and see that he wasn’t all pomp and flair, and could actually stand on his own as a great Final Fantasy villain.
That said, I was just talking with a buddy of mine, and we were talking about the end of FFIX. We are both huge IX fans, and the subject turned to the final boss, Necron.
“Yeah, the less said about Necron, the better,” he said. “He was definitely just thrown in there.”
Now, I think this was the first time we had truly disagreed on something FFIX-related.
“Wait, what? What are you talking about?” I sputtered, and we proceeded to have a heated debate about Necron’s purpose for a few minutes.
After these few minutes, my friend said, “y’know, I think this would make a great blog post.”
SO HERE I AM! 😀
Anyway, here goes:
Yeah. Necron. Gets shit on by pretty much everybody, right? You may think he’s one or more of the following: useless; never referenced; no purpose in the game?
Let me begin, like I did with my Kuja post, by saying that I don’t expect to turn you into a huge Necron fan. I’m just trying to give you a bit of my perspective on why I think he’s fantastic. Maybe I’ll even get you thinking that there is a bit more to him than you previously thought. That’d be great.
From what I’ve read, it seems like Necron may be mentioned once or twice throughout the game, but these claims seem shaky at best. My question is, how is one supposed to know of the existence of an entity that exists outside of normal spacetime? This, of course, is kind of a flimsy excuse for making a final boss, but, in Pixar’s “22 Rules of Storytelling“, #19 says “Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.” Again, not saying that this is a great excuse to just throw a final boss into the mix, but this is the perspective with which I look at the final battle.
I’ve read that Necron is “summoned” by Kuja’s hate and fear. I have a different perspective.
Now, here’s what I see in the above gif:
– The main characters disappear. The only time you see that in-game thus far is when someone or something dies.
– The Crystal is no longer behind Kuja.
So, here’s what I’m thinking:
– When Kuja casts Ultima, it destroys the Crystal. The Crystal’s destruction is what prompts Necron to come start kickin’ ass, not just Kuja’s massive amounts of butthurt.
– The heroes were the first people to die after the destruction of the Crystal, which is why they’re in this weird quasi-death-realm thing.
– When Necron is defeated, the crystal is restored due to the “nothingness-vacuum” caused by his absence. Because Necron is the personification of oblivion/nothingness, when he is defeated, he’s gotta be replaced by… something, right?
Huh. Weird. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Necron made… some sort of sense existing, at least. He’s also a great foil for… well, every protagonist in the game.
These characters have been through hell. Homelands have been laid to waste. Family members, loved ones, and thousands more have been slaughtered, many of which were at the hands of Garnet’s own mother, gone mad with greed. Freya’s lover, Sir Fratley, who she has been searching for for years, has no memory of their past. Eiko’s family was dead or missing. Steiner and Amarant’s most long-standing philosophies, one of blind loyalty to another, and one of blind loyalty to self, that had kept them alive through the most dire of circumstances, are dissolved before their eyes; the same thing happens with Vivi and Zidane, except instead of their philosophies, they face an even more harrowing question: the status of their humanity itself.
I don’t think Necron is a useless, no-purpose final boss. Quite the contrary – I think he’s the linchpin of the game, the story, and the transcendent theme of Final Fantasy IX. Without Necron, the game would cease to have the exact quality which I think makes it the greatest video game in history: the absolute, against-all-odds, blindingly-bright love of life itself that finally answers the great question that each of our protagonists face when they are staring down the seductive peace of utter oblivion: “is life worth the pain it brings?”. Each of the characters above have fan-fucking-tastic reasons to say, “Hey, nothingness sounds pretty great, compared to the shitstorm that I’ve been through!”.
Not one of them does.
After everything they’ve been through, each and every one chooses life.
I think this has a two-pronged effect. If thought of in this manner, the choice shows more starkly than ever before the fortitude of the heroes, as well as making Kuja slightly more sympathetic and less villainous. He’s just scared, guys. He’s been dealt much the same hand as Zidane, and he’s scared. He doesn’t want to die; more importantly, he doesn’t want the fear of death. Who can be blamed for trying to escape fear? Not that Kuja went about it the right way or anything, but still, he was misguided and scared, and I can’t blame him for that.
Maybe Necron could have been referenced more in-game; maybe he should have been somehow hinted at, if only for the player’s knowledge; maybe it’s not an original idea. But Necron is the character who poses, once and for all, this final question to the protagonists of Final Fantasy IX, providing the single most intense experience I have ever felt from a piece of media in my life. I was 11 when I experienced this; it was the first time I had encountered such a question, and Zidane’s response left me in tears.
“I’m gonna live!”.
I can’t call that useless.On Thursday's edition of the 'Ron Paul Liberty Report' the former Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate talks about the chemical weapons attack which took place this week in Syria, and suggests we don't know as much about who is responsible as some claim.
RON PAUL: So Assad, they claim, went and released gas to kill a bunch of people, but... I looked at the New York Times to get the explanation and they said 'Worst Chemical Attack In Years In Syria, U.S. Blames Assad' So it is all over and done with? But it is not quite so easy, is it?
What happened four years ago in 2013? This whole thing about crossing the Red Line. And ever since then the neo-cons have been yelling and screaming about Assad using poison gasses on his people four years ago. Not quite true. It was never proven...
It doesn't make any sense for Assad under these conditions to all of a suddent use poison gasses. I think there is a zero chance he would have done this deliberately...
But we could also go ask a famous Senator who is famous for foreign policy, we could go ask John McCain to explain it. And he found somebody to blame: I don't know why he has it in for the president... McCain says blame Trump. It is all Trump's fault because he hasn't been aggressive enough.I remember once telling a friend at church that I was going to go do a PhD on John Owen. They replied, "Oh yes, I know him. He's that great Baptist theologian."
But as I've been preparing to speak on infant baptism next week at a conference, I've heard a number of times recently that Owen was really a Baptist. A closet, crypto-Baptist whose real views have been hidden because no-one had read his Hebrews commentary.
The argument goes something like this: His work from the 1650s which I focus on particularly inare "early." But in his later Hebrews commentary, he evolved. There, he gives us a better covenant theology, which is in tune with anti-paedobaptist doctrine. You can read about that in this book on Baptist covenant theology (Pascal Denault,) which cheekily even has Owen on the cover. Or listen to the first 10 minutes of this podcast interview (and around 42 minutes in).
My considered response is that this is poppycock. (That's a technical term in logic for such flawed claims.)
Owen's covenant theology may have been nuanced as he got older, and I talk about that in my forthcoming monograph on his Hebrews commentary. But time and time and time again in his commentary (4 vols.,1668-1684), Owen explicitly applies his own covenant theology to the subject of infant baptism. And -- guess what?! -- he unwaveringly believes that his covenant theology supports, promotes, and demands infant baptism.
Here are a few examples:
Believers' children are in the covenant & receive its seal.
The Hebrews... "shall lose nothing, no privilege, by coming over to the gospel state by faith in Christ Jesus. Upon a new account they become "the people of God;" which interests them and their children in the covenant, with the seals and all the ordinances of it, even as formerly. For this name, "people," doth not firstly respect individuals, but a collective body of men, with and in all their relations. Believers, not singly considered, but they and their seed, or their children, are this people; and where they are excluded from the initial ordinance of the covenant, I know not how believers can be called "the people of God." Hebrews vol 4:328 (Banner edition)
Infant baptism is the greatest privilege of the gospel covenant. To deny it is anti-gospel.
"And is it possible that any man should be a loser by the coming of Christ, or by his own coming unto Christ? It is against the whole gospel once to imagine it in the least instance. Let it now be inquired whether it were not a great privilege of the people of God of old, that their infant seed were taken into covenant with them, and were made partakers of the initial seal thereof? Doubtless it was the greatest they enjoyed, next to the grace they received for the saving of their own souls. That it was so granted them, so esteemed by them, may be easily proved. And without this, whatever they were, they were not a people. Believers under the gospel are, as we have spoken, the people of God; and that with all sorts of advantages annexed unto that condition, above what were enjoyed by them who of old were so. How is it, then, that this people of God, made so by Jesus Christ in the gospel, should have their charter, upon its renewal, razed with a deprivation of one of their choicest rights and privileges? Assuredly it is not so. And therefore if believers are now, as the apostle says they are, "the people of God," their children have a right to the initial seal of the covenant. Hebrews vol 4:329
Denying covenantal infant baptism takes away from Christ's glory and the honour of the gospel.
"...this is enough to secure the application of the initial seal of the covenant unto the infant seed of believers. For whereas it was granted to the church under the old testament as a signal favour and spiritual privilege, it is derogatory to the glory of Christ and honour of the gospel to suppose that the church is now deprived of it; for in the whole system and frame of worship God had ordained "the better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Hebrews vol 4:418
Infants are in the covenant, were baptised in apostolical times, and should be now.
"For whereas there were two sorts of persons that were baptized, namely, those that were adult at their first hearing of the gospel, and the infant children of believers, who were admitted to be members of the church; the first sort were instructed in the principles mentioned before they were admitted unto baptism, by the profession whereof they laid the foundation of their own personal right thereunto; but the other, being received as a part and branches of a family whereupon the blessing of Abraham was come, and to whom the promise of the covenant was extended, being thereon baptized in their infancy, were to be instructed in them as they grew up unto years of understanding. Afterwards, when they were established in the knowledge of these necessary truths, and had resolved on personal obedience unto the gospel, they were offered unto the fellowship of the faithful. And hereon, giving the same account of their faith and repentance which others had done before they were baptized, they were admitted into the communion of the church, the elders thereof laying their hands on them in token of their acceptation, and praying for their confirmation in the faith. Hence the same doctrines became previously necessary unto both these rites;--before baptism to them that were adult; and towards them who were baptized in infancy, before the imposition of hands. And I do acknowledge that this was the state of things in the apostolical churches, and that it ought to be so in all others." Hebrews vol 5:58
Bless your covenant children by baptising them and giving them covenant instruction!
"Parents bless their children by endeavouring to instate them in their own covenant-interest. God having promised to be a God unto believers, and to their seed in and by them, they do three ways bless them with the good things thereof: first, By communicating unto them the privilege of the initial seal of the covenant, as a sign, token, and pledge of their being blessed of the Lord; secondly, By pleading the promise of the covenant in their behalf; thirdly, By careful instructing of them in the mercies and duties of the covenant." Hebrews vol 5:317-31 (cf. 5:392)
Giving the seal of the covenant to our kids has always been God's way.
"And this one consideration is enough to confirm the grant of the initial seal of the covenant unto the seed of present believers, which was once given by God himself in the way of an institution, and never by him revoked." Hebrews vol 5:434
Infant baptism is a great privilege and has preserved many from fatal apostasy.
"Moses found himself circumcised, and so to belong unto the circumcised people. Hereon God instructed him to inquire into the reason and nature of that distinguishing character. And so he learned that it was the token of God's covenant with the people, the posterity of Abraham, of whom he was. It was a blessed inlet into the knowledge and fear of the true God. And whatever is pretended by some unto the contrary, it is a most eminent divine privilege, to have the seal of the covenant in baptism communicated unto the children of believers in their infancy; and a means it hath been to preserve many from fatal apostasies." Hebrews vol 7:145-146Thank you for raising these concerns. If I wanted to hide my views, I could have started another account and made no reference to this account. However, I have nothing to hide, and I prefer honesty and transparency. My years of commentary on sex/gender variance and feminism are available and open for criticism. All I ask is that criticism take place on a respectful, intellectual level and avoid being reduced to character assassination.
I earned this subreddit through my vigilance of intersex issues on reddit, and my persistent desire to help develop intersex community and empower intersex voices. I understand that motivation will be insufficient for some. For some people, nothing I do will ever be good enough. I have accepted that, and I keep fighting.
As I have said many times, Milton Diamond views transsex as an intersex condition, and I believe there is a strong argument for that view. If you wish to judge me based on that single belief, I can't stop you. Since I intend to moderate here for a while, there will be time to debate this issue. All I ask is that intersex issues be prioritized.
/u/rurinaconfesses, I have read through some of your past comments and I like you already. I accept that you will probably never like me. Still, if you would like to participate in this space, your constructive criticism will be welcome.
As an alternative, you could start your own subreddit and compete with this one. During my time leading trans communities, I encouraged decentralization and the flourishing of alternatives to the core trans subreddits. If you find me to be unacceptable, then please, help the intersex community spread by starting alternative communities.Exchanging wedding rings is a significant custom followed almost in all parts of the world, one to symbolize love and loyalty and two to express that everlasting bond of love and affection. To gel with the persons image, there are numerous styles and patterns of rings available out there, but still there are few who have there own style – the geek style. There is nothing in the non-fictional world that can match their style – here thus, from the world of fiction and creation we have plucked out 10 wedding rings that geeks will definitely want to exchange.
Projector wedding ring
Designed by Luke Jerram and jewelry designer, Tamrakar, the bespoke projector ring is an ingenious little creation that’s equipped with a transparent slide and a tiny lens. Jerram placed small images of him and his beloved which can be clearly viewed through the lens against a light source. Alas, fans here may have to build bespoke projector ring themselves as it’s told that Jerram has declined all requests to make any replicas.
USB drive-style wedding ring
USB drives are a common site and most used little devices owing to their small size capable of storing substantial data. Microsoft employee Ray Arifianto was lucky enough to get himself a bride who understood his geekiness and presented him with a wedding ring that’s USB-drive style (non-functional). The carefully crafted ring has a connector that looks like its about to be plugged in.
Ethernet rings
As if USB-drive styled rings weren’t impressive enough, artist Jana Brevick has hand crafted Ethernet rings complete with connector and port. Designed in sterling silver, the rings can be interlocked by both bride and groom. They’re cheap too, costing just about $340 for a pair, so you get something that is pretty unique and affordable as well.
The Remember Ring
Men often forget things, but here is a solution in a wedding ring that’ll never let your husband forget the anniversary day ever. The Remember Ring is guaranteed to make him remember the special occasion. Hot Spot technology heats up the ring to around 120 degrees Fahrenheit which gives a warm reminder to the wearer. 24 hours prior to the anniversary, the ring emits heat for about 10 seconds every hour by converting the hand’s heat into electricity, thus prompting the wearer to remember. Customers can get theirs ordered in silver or gold which also comes with a lifetime warranty.
Google Vanity Ring
This could be the height of all geeky rings, Google lover in you will get a kick out of it especially if you like Googling your name on the search engine. The odd ring displays the Google view count of the wearer and can be docked to update or refresh the hit count. Quite a gift for tech maniacs.
USB rings
This wedding ring packs style with functionality, granted, it isn’t crafted out of diamonds but at least it’s Swarovski. The ring is USB-enabled and the connector plugs into the solitaire crystal. It’s fully functional and can be used to store images, text and videos. While you may not actually use it, it’s nice to know that it’ll come in handy.
The soundwave ring
This is a ring for computer and music lovers, hand fabricated and laser cut, the ring is part of the Waveform Series consisting of different soundwave patterns crafted in gold, silver and other expensive materials. The ring is designed by Sakurako Shimizu and is a nice choice for those who love unconventional and edgy jewelry pieces.
Geeky ring
The Geeky ring packs inside a micro chip that rests on a circuit board. While it may not appeal to women who love their diamonds and expensive stones, there’s no denying that it’s innovative and fit to lure the geek in you. Encased in a heart-shaped box, the ring is one perfect wedding ring to express the heartfelt love for your wife.
Nerd Love ASKII Binary Ring
If computers are your forte, then the Nerd Love ASKII Binary Ring is perfect for you. Trendy enough to be worn even by women who aren’t much into computers, the binary ring has been crafted out of sterling silver. A jeweler’s saw was used to cut out 1s and the 0s out of a strip of metal which was then soldered onto a band of sterling silver for a seamless look.
The Orb
If you thought you had seen it all, then just hold on and glance at this really innovative wedding ring that’s sure to floor all the guest when your wife flips open the ring from her finger to covert it into a Bluetooth headset for some music at the marriage. Yes, you read that right, the Orb (as the ring is called) can be converted into a trendy Bluetooth-enabled earpiece for your listening pleasure.Image copyright yusaku2020, Instagram Image caption The buyer, Yusaku Maezawa, posted a picture of himself viewing the painting earlier
A painting by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has sold at auction in New York for $110.5m (£85.4m).
That is nearly double the price of his previous most expensive work, bought by the same person a year ago.
It has broken several other records including becoming the most expensive work by any US artist.
It is also the highest price fetched for any art by a black artist and the first piece created since 1980 to break the $100m mark.
The untitled work was done in oil stick, acrylic and spray paint, and depicts a face in the shape of a skull.
It was sold to Yusaku Maezawa, a 41-year-old Japanese fashion entrepreneur who plans to set up a museum in his home town of Chiba.
Read more from BBC Culture:Jean-Michel Basquiat: The life and work behind the legend
Bidding for the piece during the auction at Sotheby's lasted 10 tense minutes. Cheers and applause erupted in the room when the work was sold to Mr Maezawa by telephone.
He later posted on Instagram that the painting made him feel "so much excitement and gratitude for my love of art", a feeling he wished to share with "as many people as possible".
Mr Maezawa last year set the previous record for a Basquiat piece, when he paid $57.3m for a painting of a horned devil.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A portrait of Basquiat was displayed in 2006 in Milan
Basquiat, a native New Yorker, died in 1988 of a heroin overdose aged 27. He had been an artist for just seven years.
Most of his works depict the problems faced by African Americans in the US, reports the BBC's Laura Bicker in Washington.
Once a graffiti rebel from Brooklyn who sold drawings for $50, he is now in the same league as Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon, she says - part of a rare group of artists whose work has sold for more than $100m at auction.
"Breaking $100m for a work which is that recent is definitely extraordinary," said Gregoire Billault, head of contemporary art at Sotheby's.
"I think it just speaks about the talent of this guy. It's just pure emotion. He's bringing something never seen before."
Jean-Michel BasquiatLast week I managed to finally get to speak to one of my favourite artists in the Drum and Bass world; the young, eminent and incredibly intriguing Kimyan Law. The premeditated subject of our conversation was his much anticipated 11-track album ‘Zawadi’ (zah WAH dee) forthcoming on Blu Mar Ten Music this Friday, just over two years since his LP debut Coeur Calme. However we ended up discussing a great deal more about the 21-y/o liquid innovator and his life in Vienna, than just his music.
Hey Nico! How’s it going?
Hey Joe I’m doing great, thanks for having me.
No problem, let’s get down to it. How did you get involved with Blu Mar Ten?
Well I got quite lucky with Blu Mar Ten, once we were speaking for like a month, they got me to really invest in my music and I suppose realize my talent. They introduced me to the whole Drum and Bass world and industry of actual people producing that music. Linking in with them was the best decision I’ve ever made, so far. They got me my first gig at Building Six in London for Hospitality. I was so nervous when I saw how huge the venue was but it was an incredible experience.
I can imagine, I think. You done a few with Hospitality right?
Yeah they booked me a couple of times in different places, which was great for me because I love meeting people who share the same passion for music as I do. So many different people and so many different vibes going on, it’s all positive.
What’s the best crowd you’ve played in front of?
Hmm let me think, I’ve never experienced a bad crowd or like a rude crowd-
Well that’s because you’re music’s too good!
Haha well that’s your opinion and I’m glad to hear it but I’m not always that sure about it. I’d probably say Von Krahl which is an Estonian Art House kind of club in Tallinn, that’s the best one outside of my hometown, it was kind of packed but small and intimate. That was the Sublime Drum and Bass event. It was really intimate and I ended up speaking to loads of people afterwards, a couple of people told me they’d travelled from Finland to see me which was incredible, so I bought them a drink and we hung out. It’s the nicest thing.
Being successful so young, would you agree that Kimyan Law is a role model for young producers out there?
I started listening to Drum and Bass when I was nine years old. I don’t know about a role model, but I deeply feel like any young person out there who has an interest in something should pick it up and follow it. Always try something. Sit back and think about what you’re most passionate about and start digging into that.
So Coeur Calme was two years ago, what’s changed?
Coeur Calme was more of a childhood reflection, it was an ambiguous cluster of memories that I tried to express with sounds instead of words. Zawadi, which by the way people have been wrongly translating as ‘Gifts’, in the Congo it would be ‘Gifts from Above’. My Dad used to say it a lot to me and now I’m comfortable I’m in my sound-wave. I want the tracks to say something, to scream out, all the phonetics to make an emotional nuance if my English is correct, and I think I’m better at that now. That’s the difference.
Zawadi is dark, mysterious, melancholic, is that reflective of a feeling you’re trying to convey?
Now’s a good time for me to explain. I started the LP a year ago as a huge sound cluster adapted to a concept, and the concept is a hundred percent dreams. I can’t seem to find a nightmare on the album but each track represents a dream. Aspirations, wishes, cravings, every sense of the word you know? By the time I started the album I had insomnia for like three days and it was harsh and I lost my ability to dream every night and I laid there trying to remember dreams. Ever since I started the album I didn’t dream until a few months ago when I finished it, it’s crazy.
That is crazy! I dream every night too and if I don’t dream I feel like something’s wrong.
Exactly! That was the problem. The album begins when you go to sleep and ends when you wake up, each track represents a state of sleep or part of your journey through sleep.
This is such an interesting concept. So where would you place ‘Luba’ for example? That’s my favourite track on Zawadi by the way.
Hmmm. It’s right in the middle, the second-stage sleep where you enter deep sleep. I ask my Father lots of questions about our heritage and found out that I’m partially descended from the Luba tribe about two hundred years ago, and I feel like I have rhythm inside me which is why I put in the authentic drums. I’m always drumming, you can hear polyrhythmic patterns in so many everyday sounds. I never have a solid recipe for making a track, but this one came from a bothering dream, a deep respect of the place where people came from long before us. You can hear guys yelling in the track, and that was actual language at the time. I made the beat from a table and duct tape, with a pattern I thought would never fit in, but it worked out. You have to find inspiration in everything, I’m making beats all of the time with the most mundane of instruments.
Well when you’re at home and not making music, what are you, Kimyan Law, listening to?
I listen to everything bar death metal and really repetitive or aggressive music. I want the rhythm to talk to me, and that comes across in multiple genres.
Ok, it’s Friday night and you’re not playing a gig, what’re you getting up to?
I’ll probably cook something. I think cooking’s an art form, kind of like music, you just put all the matching ingredients together and if it works it works. After I eat I’ll grab my Dictaphone and maybe a few mates and drive round Vienna. I’m searching for sounds, smells, colours, people, anything stimulating, and combine it in my head until I can translate it into music.
Interesting. Now I wanted to touch on something else, if you’re comfortable. I read that you faced racism growing up in Vienna, is that the case?
Yeah, I did. I was pretty much the only mixed race kid in my let’s say district and a few people were hateful towards me for that reason. I never wanted to address them about it though because it’s probably not even stupidity or ignorance, like it’s just been passed down from another generation and you can’t do a thing about it. The problem is communication. In hindsight, I know it sounds really cheesy but it made it who I am today.
Has that been reflected in your music?
In the first album some of the tunes were very brooding and melancholic, that definitely stemmed from my teenage years, take Copper Clock for example, that emits depression. The second album in comparison is much more earthbound and less ambiguous, it’s much more clear than the first one, even if it’s not that clear ha-ha.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Cooking, making music, not having cut my hair. I have a life goal and a plan which I want to do, but let’s see how things work out. There are a lot of collaborations I want to do and not just in music.
Well thanks very much for catching up with us, it’s been an absolute pleasure.
Thanks for having me!
To pre-order Zawadi or to find out more about Kimyan Law, check out his website or Facebook, or get onto the Blu Mar Ten site.
FranklinBehind the elegance of ballet dancer Theresa Farrell, there is an athlete to the core. In this episode of FUEL, we follow Theresa as she drops half a pound a week, working towards her performance goal weight for the upcoming ballet season with American Contemporary Ballet in Los Angeles.
Theresa has honed her diet down to a science by keeping meticulous records, eating pre-packaged meals, and doing lots and lots of calculations. For her, it's a simple numbers game of calories in versus calories out. This precise counting gives her the peace of mind to maintain her focus on training and long days of dancing, hiking, stretching, and icing. Whether she's having a midnight bowl of cereal or a 5 AM corndog, Theresa has it all calculated so that when it's time to take to the stage, she knows that her body will be ready.
Season 2 Episode 3 of Fuel. Watch moreOne in every five dollars spent in the United States goes toward health-care expenses. Singaporeans spend less than one in 20. They live longer lives and report more satisfaction with their health care system.
What do they do right that the United States might imitate?
Singapore requires that its citizens pay into a health-care fund. This, in effect, ensures the “health care for all” that fervent backers of Obamacare so desired. But in practice the system resembles Social Security more than Obamacare. It’s less of a welfare payment than a deposit into a savings account. This allows for universal coverage, a non-negotiable tenet of most health-care plans floated by liberals. But it does so in a way that keeps the money out of the hands of the state and in reach of the hands that deposited it, even if for a strictly limited purpose.
The Asian city-state also requires its citizens to pay a portion of their own medical bills. This works as a check against runaway medical inflation of the likes experienced for years in the United States. William Haseltine, who penned a book on Singapore’s system called Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Healthcare Story, notes how this requirement that patients, rather than relying wholly on an insurance company or the government, pay parts of every bill keeps overall costs down. He writes:
There is little doubt that the manner in which medical care is paid for has an impact on costs. Singapore has countered rising healthcare costs to a far greater degree than in all other high-income countries. Perhaps when people have to spend their own money, as the Singapore system requires, they tend to be more economical in the solutions they pursue for their medical problems. In contrast, in countries with third-party reimbursement systems, neither providers nor consumers of healthcare bear the major burden of cost. Since someone else is paying — government programs, insurance companies — there is little incentive to be prudent in decisions about which and how many tests and treatments are appropriate for a given situation.
How might a similar approach work here?
Americans at all income levels must pay a significant percentage of their healthcare — say, 20 percent — to reduce overall spending. Wealthy patients can pay 20 percent from income and savings. Those with less wealth can receive tax credits which, if not used, can accumulate in a health-savings account (HSA) and pass on to their families at the end of life. (Singapore allows individuals to share benefits with sick family members.) Patients paying no income tax can receive direct payments for their |
Site Evaluation Council, completes its review and he disagreed with that.
He also noted that if the panel determines the project "is environmentally safe — then I am FOR the project and the economic benefits it will produce for us. If (the panel) determines that the project is environmentally unsafe — then I am against the project."China has for years tried to block Canadian diplomats from Tibet, banning some of them from visiting aid projects once funded by Canadian taxpayers, says Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion.
While China has never denied a request by a high-level diplomat to visit Tibet, Dion says, it has put up roadblocks, including delays in approving travel requests and shadowing Canadians while there.
Dion describes the problems in a written response to questions from New Democrat MP Randall Garrison that was recently tabled in the House of Commons.
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The minister's frank assessment comes as the Liberal government moves to expand trade with China, following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's first visit to China and a return visit by its premier late this summer.
The Montreal-based Canada Tibet Committee suggested the travel restrictions are part of China's ongoing efforts to mask human rights abuses in the region, which it has controlled since the 1950s, when its invading forces drove out Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
"It was refreshingly honest," Garrison said of Dion's unvarnished response. "We have known all along that China was frustrating Canadian access to Tibet, and it was good to see the government admit that."
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment.
Dion outlined five visits to Tibetan regions by Canadian diplomats between November 2010 and September 2015.
He also detailed eight visits to Canada by Tibetan parliamentarians at the behest of China's National People's Congress between March 2009 and November 2015, saying his department was "not aware of any restrictions" on them.
Not so, when it came to Canada's trips to the Tibetan Autonomous Region and other Tibetan areas of China, Dion said.
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"While there have been no rejections of high-level visits, TAR officials routinely attempt to either delay the visits or to make it very difficult to obtain permits," Dion wrote.
"Canada-based embassy staff, with the exception of the local Chinese project co-ordinator, have been restricted from visiting Canadian-funded projects in TAR/Tibetan areas."
Global Affairs Canada says that Canada "does not maintain a significant international development assistance program in China" any more, but the now defunct Canadian International Development Agency was active there in the past.
Canadian diplomats wanted to follow up on some of those completed projects, but they were either given restricted access or barred from visiting altogether, Dion said.
Canadian ambassadors "were only allowed to visit one project each during their trips," Dion said. But Chinese officials barred other Canadian embassy staffers.
"Even after the projects were completed, Canada-based embassy staff continued to be denied permission to visit project partners as TAR officials would not hesitate to inform the embassy that the projects were no longer of relevance to Canada."
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Overall, the diplomatic visits are "tightly managed by local authorities. TAR Foreign Affairs Office officials generally accompany the delegation on the entire visit. Access to local residents can be quite limited," Dion said.
On the most recent visit, to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in September 2015 for a tourism and cultural event, three Canadian diplomats were "not given substantive opportunities to visit with senior government officials," the minister wrote.
Carole Samdup, executive director of the Canada Tibet Committee, called on the government to stop future Tibetan delegations from visiting Canada "until there is full reciprocity for Canadian diplomats in Tibet."
"What does China have to hide?" Samdup asked.
"It's a question of basic diplomatic respect between our two countries. Why does Canada allow itself to be treated as a second-class partner in its relations with China?"
Dion said none of the Canadian requests to visit Tibet were "explicitly made" to monitor or investigate human rights violations.
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But he added: "better understanding the human rights situation in TAR is an important objective of all embassy travel to the region."Former Spc. 4 Santiago Erevia holds his service medals and awards, which include a South Vietnamese medal, an Army Commendation Medal, a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and the Distinguished Service Cross. On March 18, Erevia will also receive the Medal of Honor.
Using an ammo crate as a chair and an Army tent as his office, Pfc. John "Mac" MacFarland set up his typewriter and began to write.
It was the sweltering summer of 1969, about a month after the fierce battle of Tam Ky in South Vietnam. MacFarland had been ordered to write a recommendation nominating Spc. 4 Santiago Jesse Erevia for the Medal of Honor, and he tried to put into words how Erevia's "conspicuous gallantry" had saved so many fellow soldiers.
"Although Erevia could have taken cover with the rest of the group," MacFarland wrote, "he realized that action must be taken immediately if they were able to be relieved from the precarious situation they were now in."
MacFarland, a 23-year-old college student who had been drafted, spent weeks working on the nomination, sure that Erevia, a 23-year-old high school dropout who had enlisted, would be awarded the medal. MacFarland sent the recommendation up the chain of command.
"And then I never heard another thing," MacFarland recalled decades later.
Erevia knew that he had been nominated, and though admitting initial disappointment that he did not receive the Medal of Honor, he went home to Texas and never dwelt on it.
MacFarland did.
Over the decades, he searched lists of Medal of Honor recipients, looking for Erevia's name. Again and again, he dug out his mimeographed copy of the recommendation, fearing he had failed to capture Erevia's extraordinary heroism.
"I found myself … wondering how I could have done a better job," MacFarland said.
He thought of writing Erevia to say he was sorry the recommendation fell short. But he never wrote.
"This became one of the ghosts that haunted me," MacFarland said.
It wasn't until this year, 45 years after the battle, that MacFarland would learn the disturbing truth — the real reason Erevia had been denied the nation's highest military honor.
———
They arrived at Company C with different backgrounds and under different circumstances.
Erevia was born in Nordheim, Texas, and had dropped out in 10th grade. He enlisted in the Army at 22 after working as a cook and soda deliveryman.
"I thought maybe I could better myself," he said.
MacFarland was a college engineering student in Pennsylvania. He was drafted and was prepared to serve. "As an Eagle Scout, my duty to my country was clear to me and had been since I became a Boy Scout at the age of 11," he said.
Erevia doesn't remember MacFarland. But they were together on May 21, 1969, in the fight for Tam Ky, south of Da Nang.
Company C had taken shelter behind a stone wall, under fire from North Vietnamese troops dug in on a hill at the other end of a dry rice paddy. The North Vietnamese were holed up in heavily camouflaged spider holes and bunkers.
As MacFarland noted in the recommendation, about 4 p.m. their unit was ordered to "move out and engage the enemy." The aim, he recalled, was to take pressure off other companies so they could evacuate their dead and wounded.
MacFarland joined other soldiers in going over the wall, firing his rifle as he stepped into the rice paddy. When another soldier fell wounded, MacFarland rushed to his aid.
Erevia came over to MacFarland and the wounded soldier and asked whether they had any extra ammunition. The wounded man handed Erevia his M-16 rifle, magazines of ammunition and several hand grenades.
"It was the last that I saw Jesse until much later that evening," MacFarland said.
Erevia, who was serving as the radio-telephone operator, made it across the rice paddy, which was as long as a football field. As Erevia and other soldiers remained under heavy fire, he and a friend, Spc. Patrick Diehl, took cover behind a tree.
Erevia chokes up talking about that day. "I asked Diehl, 'Do you see anything?' He never answered."
Diehl had been fatally shot in the head.
Erevia decided he needed to act. "It was either do or die," he recalled in a recent interview. "I said, 'Well, if I'm going to die, I might as well die fighting.'"
Erevia ran toward one of the bunkers and threw in a grenade, killing the soldier inside. He moved to a second bunker, bullets still flying around him, and tossed another grenade to knock it out too.
As MacFarland would later write about Erevia: "After reloading his rifles, he advanced toward the third bunker behind the suppressive fire emitted from his weapons." Once again, he took out the bunker with grenades.
After exhausting his supply of grenades, Erevia headed for a fourth bunker while firing two rifles. He killed a North Vietnamese soldier at point-blank range.
"Our company commander, Capt. David Gibson, along with his radio-telephone operators and medic and several wounded had been pinned down and were receiving intense fire from several enemy positions," MacFarland recalled. Without Erevia, "it is doubtful that they would have survived the day."
Shortly after the battle, MacFarland was assigned to serve as battalion awards clerk. Using information provided by others, he wrote the Medal of Honor recommendation, got it signed by the battalion's commanding officer and forwarded it to 101st Airborne Division headquarters.
After it was sent back for more information, Erevia's company commander and platoon leader provided eyewitness accounts and a map of the battle. MacFarland ran off several copies on a mimeograph machine, keeping one for himself.
The next year, 1970, Erevia and MacFarland left Vietnam and went their separate ways.
———
Erevia became a mail carrier, retiring in 2002 after working 32 years for the Postal Service. He lives in San Antonio with his wife, Leticia. He has four adult children, including a son who served in the Iraq war.
MacFarland went on to become a high school environmental science and biology teacher. Also retired, he is a bachelor living in Aston, a Philadelphia suburb. The two men, now 68, have had no contact since leaving Vietnam.
Though denied the Medal of Honor, Erevia was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the decoration created during World War I and the nation's second-highest military honor for heroism. The citation quoted language written by MacFarland.
MacFarland kept his copy of Erevia's recommendation in a binder with photos and other Vietnam memorabilia. He shared his distress about Erevia and the Medal of Honor with Army buddies. They assured him that it wasn't his fault and that the military probably decided against the Medal of Honor because, unlike many medal recipients, Erevia wasn't wounded in the battle.
Still, MacFarland said, "I was not convinced that it was not as a result of my inadequacy as a writer."
The Medal of Honor has been awarded to more than 3,400 recipients since it was established during the Civil War. Of those, 74 are living, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. The medal is bestowed "only to the bravest of the brave," according to the Army.
Unbeknown to MacFarland or Erevia, Congress in a 2002 defense bill ordered a Pentagon review to determine whether discrimination prevented Jewish and Latino veterans from receiving the medal. The Pentagon examined the records of more than 6,000 Distinguished Service Cross recipients to determine whether the award should be upgraded.
Last summer, Erevia was surprised to receive a telephone call from a military officer who told him to expect a call from somebody at the White House. A few days later, he was called again and told to stay close to the phone.
When the call came, a woman announced that the president of the United States was on the line. "It was a short conversation," Erevia said. "He said that I deserved the Medal of Honor. He said that, for some reason, I was overlooked, but that he was making it right. I said, 'Thank you very much, sir.'"
The Pentagon has not released its Medal of Honor review, but in February the White House announced that to correct a historic injustice, the Medal of Honor would be awarded to 24 veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. They include Erevia and 16 other Latinos, one African American and a Jew.
Erevia is one of three surviving veterans who will receive the medal next week. He is honored, Erevia said, even if the wait lasted decades.
"I'm just glad I'm getting it while I'm alive," he said.
MacFarland heard the news from an Army friend. "I can't describe how great that made me feel," he said.
He hadn't failed after all, and there is a good chance that when the citation is read Tuesday at the White House ceremony, it will include lines MacFarland composed in that tent long ago.
Since the announcement, Erevia has received a lot of attention, including letters from strangers praising his valor.
One letter stood out.
It was from MacFarland. He congratulated Erevia and shared with him the "heavy burden" that he carried around all these years.
"It made me cry," Erevia said.
The two may finally meet again at a Company C reunion this year.Helicopter is the most effective source used for logistics,Wars and rescue purposes these days. From their first appearance in World War II, through the Vietnam War and to the modern day, helicopters have helped to transform the battlefield.
These are the top 10 Best Attack Helicopters in the World today. Each are rated on their avionics, agility, speed & firepower capabilities.
10. Z-10
The Z-10 attack helicopter is in service with Chinese army since 2008. The Z-10 helicopter has a standard gunship configuration with a narrow fuselage and stepped tandem cockpits. Gunner is seated at the front and the pilot is at the rear. Weapons of the Z-10 may consist of 30-mm cannon, HJ-9 anti-tank guided missiles (comparable to the TOW-2A), newly developed HJ-10 anti-tank missiles (comparable to the AGM-114 Hellfire) and TY-90 air-to-air missiles. It can also carry unoperated rocket pods.
See also; Top 10 Most Advanced Helicopters in The World.
9. MI-24 Hind
The Mil Mi-24 is a large helicopter gunship and attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers. The Mi-24, the first helicopter to enter service with the Russian Air Force as an assault transport and gunship. The Mi-24 is a close counterpart to the American AH-64 Apache, but unlike this and other Western assault helicopters it is also capable of transporting up to eight troops.
8. AH-2 Rooivalk
The Denel Rooivalk is an attack helicopter manufactured by Denel of South Africa. Rooivalk is Afrikaans for “Red Kestrel”. The South African air forces operate only 12 Denel AH-2 Rooivalk attack helicopters. Although it looks like an entirely new machine, the Rooivalk is based on a degree of reverse engineering of the Aerospatiale Puma, using the same engines and main rotor.
7. AH-1W Super Cobra
The Bell AH-1 SuperCobra is a twin-engine attack helicopter based on the US Army’s AH-1 Cobra. The twin Cobra family includes the AH-1J SeaCobra, the AH-1T Improved SeaCobra, and the AH-1W SuperCobra.
6. A-129/T-129 (Italy/Turkey)
The Agusta A129 Mangusta is an attack helicopter originally designed and produced by Agusta in Italy. It was the first attack helicopter to be designed and produced wholly in Western Europe.
The TAI/AgustaWestland T-129 ATAK is a derivative version of the A129, and its development is the responsibility of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), with AgustaWestland as the primary partner.
5. AH-1Z Viper
Capable. Flexible. Multi-mission. The ultimate in attack helicopters. The Bell AH-1Z Viper is a twin-engine attack helicopter based on the AH-1W SuperCobra, that was developed for the United States Marine Corps. The AH-1Z features a four-blade, bearingless, composite main rotor system, uprated transmission, and a new target sighting system. The AH-1Z is part of the H-1 upgrade program. It is also called “Zulu Cobra” in reference to its variant letter.
4. Eurocopter Tiger
The Eurocopter Tiger is an attack helicopter manufactured by Eurocopter. In Germany it is known as the Tiger; in France and Spain it is called the Tigre. The Tiger is powered by two MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce MTR390 turboshaft engines.
See also; Top 10 Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.
3. MI-28H Havoc (Russia)
The Mil Mi-28 (NATO reporting name ‘Havoc’) is a Russian all-weather, day-night, military tandem, two-seat anti-armor attack helicopter. It is a dedicated attack helicopter with no intended secondary transport capability, better optimized than the Mil Mi-24 for the role. It carries a single gun in an undernose barbette, plus external loads carried on pylons beneath stub wings.
See also; World’s Most Expensive Helicopters.
2. Kamov KA-50/KA-52
The Kamov Ka-50 “Black Shark” is a single-seat Russian attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of the Kamov design bureau. It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1995.
The Ka-50 was designed to be small, fast and agile to improve survivability and lethality. For minimal weight and size (thus maximum speed and agility) it was uniquely among gunships to be operated by a single pilot only. The Russian designed Ka-50 Hokum also can carry 24?Vikhr? missiles, four 20-round rocket pods, or a mixture. The Hokum also can carry the AA-11/R-73 Archer air-to-air missiles, which makes the Hokum a very capable threat against opposing attack helicopters. The 30mm 2A42 is also mounted on the Hokum, albeit more like a fighter?s cannon. The Hokum?s top speed is 350 kilometers per hour, and it has a combat radius of 250 kilometers.
1. AH-64D Apache Long Bow
The Boeing AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter was known to be the preeminent and most powerful anti-armor weapon system in the Gulf War. Designed to perform its combat missions day or night and in adverse weather, the Apache was designed specifically to meet the rigid requirements of the US Army’s Advanced Attack Helicopter Plan. The Apache is equipped with state of the art electronic technology and fire control systems. The firepower is awesome. The Apache can be loaded with 16 AGM-114 Hellfire Missiles, 76 70mm folding-fin aerial rockets or a combination of both – in addition to 1,200 30mm rounds for its M230 automatic cannon.
You may also like the lists of top 10 fastest helicopters and advance fighter jet.You know your team’s powerplay sucks when you can barely find clips of it in 31 games worth of highlights on the internet. I spent hours on the interweb for this post trying to find some highlights of decent powerplay scoring chances or big saves from opposing goalies. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. I guess that is the state of the Rangers man-advantage right now, not exactly YouTube worthy.
To date, the Rangers are clicking at 15.7%, which is good for 21st in the league. Unlike the last, I don’t know 15 years, the Rangers actually have some decent personnel to work with. You’d figure with the career powerplay points between Rick Nash (203), Martin St. Louis (311), and Dan Boyle (283), we’d be able to muster up at least a 20% success rate.
Yet this season feels different, not only in personnel, but in execution. We’re no longer short right-handed shots. We’re no longer reliant on dump and chase hockey to gain our entries. We should be better at this, but for some reason(s) we’re stuck in mediocrity — again.
Here are a few things AV and Arnie need to fix.
1) Too much puck possession
In the old days, before Corsi or Fenwick stats, possessing the puck actually meant holding on to it rather than ramping up shot attempts. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed with this year’s power play it’s that the Rangers hold onto the puck too much. They need to ditch their old puck possession ways and embrace this new definition of puck possession (shots!).
If you look at the top teams in the league in PP conversion, none of them are in the bottom third of the league in PP shots. The Rangers are ranked 20th. It’s not rocket science. You have to shoot to score.
2) We’re too predictable
If you flip through the heat maps (courtesy of sporting charts.com) of where successful teams score goals on the power play, they’re usually not confined to one area. I grabbed the Penguins and TBL’s scoring locations (since they also run variations of the 1-3-1) and compared them to NYR.
You can see the differences pretty clearly. Those teams have scored from everywhere and it’s because they can put pucks on net from anywhere. This makes it much harder for opposing PKs to defend when you have to respect the fact that a team can score from just about anywhere.
The Rangers on the other hand like to run the same play over and over and over. See these clips below from the Red Wings game. Not only are these from the same shift, they are from the same sequence! Three straight attempts that were mirror images of each other. No bueno!
3) Change the point of attack
The Rangers aren’t the only team to run a 1-3-1 power play. Far from it. However, they seem to be the only team that quarterbacks it exclusively from the point, which defeats the purpose of its design.
The best part about the 1-3-1 is you can queue it up from multiple positions (points, either boards, or below the goal line using the slot forward). Changing the point of the attack will not only get us away from these predictable rightwing perimeter shots, but it will also force the PK to change their defensive structure which inevitably leads to blown coverages.
Whatever the coaches implement, hopefully the Rangers start to put a few away on the advantage soon. The easy part of our schedule is ending soon.
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PocketThe current biodiversity crisis would be much more severe had the establishment of protected areas in the last century not occurred. But a fundamental increase in support of the global protected area estate is now urgently needed if it is to fully deliver its potential. Countries are still well short of what they formally agreed to do in the 2020 CBD strategic plan6, and the resources currently provided for protected-area management are, for the most part, insufficient. Many countries are even failing to take adequate steps to maintain what they have already designated for protection. The increasing number of governments overtly or covertly decreasing resources and allowing incompatible use of protected areas sounds a clear alarm bell for current and future performance.
This erosion of support for maintaining and growing the global protected area estate is occurring at a time when anthropogenic climate change, the sudden upsurge in poaching, 'land-grabbing' by powerful businesses and increased mining activity are all making conservation challenges more complex. As human populations grow and pressures on natural ecosystems increase, more species and ecosystems are becoming predominantly (and in some cases, completely) confined to protected areas. These include large, threatened mammals such as the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)83, the tiger (Panthera tigris)27 and all rhinoceros species84, but also numerous plants, reptiles and amphibians44,85. At the same time, large-scale anthropogenic modification of natural ecosystems means that protected areas are now crucial for sustaining a large proportion of the world's poorest people by providing them with life's most basic subsistence necessities — food, water, shelter and medicine3.
A business-as-usual approach, by which most countries do not provide adequate resources to ensure effective management of protected areas and undervalue the need for continued expansion of the protected area estate, means that the broad goals of the estate will fail. A fundamental step change is needed to ensure both the current and future potential of the estate is met.
First, countries need to create management regimes for existing protected areas that ensure they are effective together with policies that support protected-area systems. Management outside protected areas can, and must, make crucial contributions to securing the future of biodiversity, but this is in no way a replacement for the clear benefits that protected areas provide, especially with respect to conserving KBAs43. Crucially, policies should be aligned within government so that the actions of ministries dealing with development, resource extraction and agriculture do not undermine those of ministries concerned with the environment and conservation. Much progress could be achieved simply by implementing approved policies on protected areas that have already been established through multilateral environmental agreements such as the CBD, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World Heritage Convention, as well as implementing the IUCN's guidance on the definition, management objectives and governance types within protected areas40. Adopting the legal principle of non-regression when it comes to environmental laws is also an important action that countries can take86. Another part of the step change is for countries to acknowledge that the widening expectations of protected area systems, along with growing pressures on protected areas, increase the burden for all those involved in management and requires improvements rather than declines in policy and resource support.
Second, countries need to invest adequately in protected areas to ensure that their objectives are achieved. Part of this is recognizing the return on investment that well-managed protected areas provide by conserving natural heritage and increasing the social and economic well-being of their citizens4,87. Countries need to start quantifying the services provided by protected areas and recognizing the costs of protected-area degradation — it should be noted that many of the benefits will not easily be measurable in monetary terms. In Australia, the 2012–13 budget for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority was approximately Aus$50 million, but tourism to the reef was worth more than Aus$5.2 billion annually to the Australian economy62; this income is seriously threatened by the current degradation of the reef. In 2009, the Canadian government spent Can$800 million, but the contribution to the economy was Can$4.6 billion and supported the employment of 64,000 people75. A better understanding of the returns on investment would help to persuade countries of the need to provide resources to protected areas that better match the benefits received. In the Eastern Arc Mountains in East Africa, one-third of protected areas do not receive the minimum funds necessary to be effective reserves, even though it would only require reinvestment of 13% of the revenue raised through protected area tourism in Tanzania to fully fund the protected area estate88.
There is ample evidence to justify more state support of protected areas. But good arguments do not always translate into large amounts of financial resources, and conservation is often an early casualty of any government funding squeeze. As a consequence, the third component of the step change is to accept the fact that governments will often not supply sufficient financial resources for protected areas and that there is a need to identify innovative models for ensuring protected area success; in other words, to encourage the wider community to take collective responsibility for protected areas. Non-conventional funding sources (philanthropic contributions, and payments for ecosystem service mechanisms such as REDD+) have the potential to be crucially important future alternative funding sources, as do mechanisms such as offsets and 'debt-for-nature swaps' from the corporate sector89. All these options need careful appraisal and, where appropriate, more strategic application; we know that some of them can work in some places, but they are currently applied very sporadically90,91. In addition to broadening the funding base of protected areas, the next required change of approach is for a similar explosion in management collaborations. Building resilient social constituencies that advocate on behalf of protected areas and biodiversity conservation requires the formation of coalitions across local, national and international actors (government, NGO, business and community groups) across the political spectrum; yet too little attention has been paid to the requirements of building a political constituency that will underpin long-lasting commitments to conservation92. At the site scale, volunteers can provide a substantial resource for managers of protected areas, filling roles ranging from those involving site maintenance to anti-poacher patrols, and there is evidence to show that properly planned voluntary efforts can be harmonized with professional activities to produce the desired management outcomes93. For example, partnerships between protected area agencies and scientists can bridge research and monitoring gaps in a mutually beneficial way, and citizen science can not only provide information for managers but also build a supportive and hopeful constituency for conservation94,95,96.
Finally, most countries still need to expand their protected area networks to meet CBD obligations and the pressing needs outlined in this Review. The challenges of achieving this on an increasingly crowded planet should not be underestimated. It will require countries to embrace transparent planning frameworks to identify the new areas needed to achieve the objectives outlined clearly by the CBD, rigorous stakeholder consultation, imaginative application of a range of management approaches and then acting on plans and monitoring results transparently. A key element is to expand reporting beyond simply the area of land and seas gazetted to include ecological connectivity, management effectiveness, equity, social and economic benefits, and the contribution of the system to conserving areas that are important for biodiversity.
The package of responses needed for the step change is neither impossible nor unreasonable, although individual countries may struggle with some of the components. Fundamentally, it requires the recognition that protected areas are core to the future of life on our planet. Estimations of the annual cost of adequately managing an expanded network of marine and terrestrial protected areas range from $45 billion to $76 billion97,98, the lower of which is just 2.5% of the global military expenditure99. But adequate protection of marine and terrestrial environments is also crucial to global security. It seems sensible to invest an amount equivalent to a tiny percentage of global military spending to help provide security for humans and all other living organisms on Earth through a system of marine and terrestrial protected areas that is operating at its full capacity. Although we need to understand and report on the performance of protected areas, we also need to focus on the promise and potential they provide for the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants.Image caption Hot springs are surface evidence of the huge magma chamber that sits beneath Yellowstone
The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US is far larger than was previously thought, scientists report.
A study shows that the magma chamber is about 2.5 times bigger than earlier estimates suggested.
A team found the cavern stretches for more than 90km (55 miles) and contains 200-600 cubic km of molten rock.
The findings are being presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
Prof Bob Smith, from the University of Utah, said: “We’ve been working there for a long time, and we’ve always thought it would be bigger... but this finding is astounding."
If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to blow today, the consequences would be catastrophic.
The last major eruption, which occurred 640,000 years ago, sent ash across the whole of North America, affecting the planet’s climate.
Now researchers believe they have a better idea of what lies beneath the ground.
The team used a network of seismometers that were situated around the park to map the magma chamber.
Dr Jamie Farrell, from the University of Utah, explained: “We record earthquakes in and around Yellowstone, and we measure the seismic waves as they travel through the ground.
“The waves travel slower through hot and partially molten material… with this, we can measure what’s beneath.”
Image caption It is unclear when the Yellowstone supervolcano will erupt again
The team found that the magma chamber was colossal. Reaching depths of between 2km and 15km (1 to 9 miles), the cavern was about 90km (55 miles) long and 30km (20 miles) wide.
It pushed further into the north east of the park than other studies had previously shown, holding a mixture of solid and molten rock.
“To our knowledge there has been nothing mapped of that size before,” added Dr Farrell.
The researchers are using the findings to better assess the threat that the volatile giant poses.
“Yes, it is a much larger system… but I don’t think it makes the Yellowstone hazard greater,” explained Prof Bob Smith.
“But what it does tell us is more about the area to the north east of the caldera.”
He added that researchers were unsure when the supervolcano would blow again.
Some believe a massive eruption is overdue, estimating that Yellowstone’s volcano goes off every 700,000 years or so.
Image caption The National Park is a biodiversity hotspot in the continental United States
But Prof Smith said more data was needed, because there had only been three major eruptions so far. These happened 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 640,000 years ago.
“You can only use the time between eruptions (to work out the frequency), so in a sense you only have two numbers to get to that 700,000 year figure,” he explained.
“How many people would buy something on the stock market on two days of stock data.”
In another study presented at the AGU Fall Meeting, researchers have been looking at other, more ancient volcanic eruptions that happened along the same stretch of continental plate that Yellowstone’s supervolcano sits on.
Dr Marc Reichow, from the University of Leicester, said: “We looked at a time window of between 12.5 to 8 million years ago. We wanted to know how to identify these eruptions and find out how frequently they happened.”
The team found there were fewer volcanic events during this period than had been estimated, but these eruptions were far larger than was previously thought.
Dr Reichow added: “If you look at older volcanoes, it helps to understand what Yellowstone is likely to do.”
Follow Rebecca on TwitterThe CNN gremlins got the last laugh after Bernie Sanders sarcastically called the network “fake news” on air Friday night.
Sanders was appearing on Erin Burnett OutFront last night discussing — what else — Donald Trump’s supposed relationship with Russia.
After playing a clip of the president saying he was unaware of discussions his National Security Advisor reportedly had with the adversary, Sanders was asked if it was a problem and he said, “Well, I don’t know. Maybe he was watching CNN fake news. What do you think?” he said with the smirk, apparently attempting to crack a joke.
After an awkward silence, and Burnett smiling and saying, “You don’t buy it…” Sanders replied, “That was a joke.”
But the mystery gremlins apparently didn’t find it funny.
Instantaneously, Sanders earpiece stopped working.
“You don’t buy what he said, obviously,” Burnett continued.
Sanders sat staring, mouth agape.
“Erin?” he said.
“Yes,” she responded. “I’m sorry, senator, you obviously don’t buy what he said.”
“Are we on?” Sanders said, looking off camera.
“Looks like we lost connection with Sen. Sanders so let’s try to get that back up,” Burnett concluded before going to a commercial break.
On Sunday morning, President Trump weighed in on the strange occurrence.
While on FAKE NEWS @CNN, Bernie Sanders was cut off for using the term fake news to describe the network. They said technical difficulties! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2017
“While on FAKE NEWS CNN, Bernie Sanders was cut off for using the term fake news to describe the network. They said technical difficulties!” Trump tweeted.
In November, CNN mysteriously lost the satellite feed as a Muslim woman was defending her vote for Donald Trump.
Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and a co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, was critiquing Hillary Clinton surrogate Khizr Khan and his wife on the network.
Referring to Trump, Nomani said, “He expresses a truth that people speak.
“I sat, watched the Democratic convention, and as I watched the soldier’s family speak, I saw the husband speak, I wondered to myself, who is that woman. She wasn’t even introduced by the DNC if you look back at the tape,” she said, referring to Khan’s wife who stood by his side but never spoke.
“We didn’t even know her name, we didn’t know her identity. And so I’m a woman who fights for rights within our Muslim community and I wondered the same thing, why was she silent,” Nomani said.
“Mr. Khan said she was silent because she would have been overcome by grief to talk about her dead son,” host Carol Costello responded.
“Absolutely,” Nomani said. “Oh my gosh, I am so –” she began before the feed disappeared.
“After a couple moments of silence, Costello said, “Oh my goodness. It’s a bad Skype connection and I apologize for that but I’d like to thank Asra Nomani for coming on and sharing her views because I think it’s important to hear from every kind of American citizen at this tense time in our country.”
CNN gremlins struck in July as a reporter was critiquing Hillary Clinton’s crime record.
Just as reporter Brianna Keilar was appearing live from Hillary’s speech in Springfield, Illinois, the feed suddenly ended.
“Largely Hillary Clinton’s comments here today, John, were based around the recent violence that we have seen,” Keilar reported.
“The police-involved shootings of black men in Minnesota, in Louisiana, and the killing of white police officers by a black gunman in Dallas. That was really what she based her comments on around today.
“And remember Hillary Clinton has some vulnerabilities herself.
“Even as she calls for criminal justice reform because of her support in the 1990s for anti-crime legislation that ultimately helped contribute to this era of mass incarceration that she now speaks out again–,” Keilar was saying.
The screen suddenly went black with only the graphics — referring to |
$300 USD. Let me know if you are interested in my offer." Before Heiferman could finish reading the email, the site came under attack, swamped with an 8.2 gigabit attack that took it down almost immediately. It took 24 hours to bring the site back online, and it didn't stay online for long. The site came up Friday morning, only to go down again Saturday afternoon. It came back Saturday at midnight, then went down again Sunday night. As of press time, they were still struggling to keep the it live.
"I can stop the attack for 300 USD."
It's a strange setup, but not as strange as you might think. Experts say Meetup's horrible weekend is a textbook DDoS extortion attempt, from the absurdly low payoff demand to the half-hearted reference to third-party attackers. Since sites aren't usually eager to discuss the extortion attempts behind their occasional downtime, the tactic has remained a fairly secretive one, but this time, Meetup was willing to break the silence. "We don't know why they chose us," CTO Gary Burns said, "except that we're a large platform that people all over the world use every day, and that makes us a target."
"We don't know why they chose us."
But stories like Meetup's are less surprising to companies in the business of DDoS mitigation — like Cloudflare, which is currently helping the site recover. CEO Matthew Prince says they're most commonly launched against gambling sites or midrange e-commerce sites, as in this example from 2012. They're businesses with enough success to suffer from a few days of downtime, but often not enough foresight to invest in DDoS protection. And once the attack starts, it usually comes in force. "The attacks that are extortion-based tend to be the largest attacks that you see, almost bar none," Prince says.
This round of attacks may be particularly strong because of a recently adopted tactic that hijacks computers' Network Time Protocol, the coding function PCs use to keep their internal clocks in sync. By sending an NTP request — the equivalent of asking what time it is — an attacker can ask a short question and get a long answer, which is a useful tactic for amplifying traffic. And if the attacker spoofed their IP address, they can send the long answer to the DDoS targeted server. Put together, it can amplify an attack to hundreds of times its initial scale. Services are gradually patching servers to be immune to the attack, but it's been slow progress, and the result has left a powerful weapon in the hands of whoever wants to pick it up.
"Let's say you were to consider it. What happens next?"
In the meantime, sites like Meetup are left with an awkward choice of whether to pay up or fight. $300 is a bargain compared with a weekend of downtime, and there's no telling how many sites pay up, staying off the radar entirely. But for Burns, there was no question. "Let's say you were to consider it," he says. "What happens next?" As with any extortion, there's always the worry that the first charge will just be a down payment — especially when it's so suspiciously low. In the end, a little downtime is a small price to pay. "You can't negotiate with terrorists," he says.The tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or Euglossine bees, are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior.
Description [ edit ]
Most of the tribe's species are solitary, though a few are communal, or exhibit simple forms of eusociality.[1] There are about 200 described species, distributed in five genera: Euglossa, Eulaema, Eufriesea, Exaerete and the monotypic Aglae. All exclusively occur in South or Central America (though one species, Euglossa dilemma, has become established in the United States). The genera Exaerete and Aglae are cleptoparasites in the nests of other orchid bees. All except Eulaema are characterized by brilliant metallic coloration, primarily green, gold, and blue.
Females gather pollen and nectar as food from a variety of plants, and resins, mud and other materials for nest building. Some of the same food plants are also used by the males, which leave the nest upon hatching and do not return.[2]
Fragrance collection [ edit ]
Euglossa viridissima as it sleeps on a leaf The special fragrance collection organs are seen on the large hind legs of thisas it sleeps on a leaf
Male orchid bees have uniquely modified legs which are used to collect and store different volatile compounds (often esters) throughout their lives, primarily from orchids in the subtribes Stanhopeinae and Catasetinae, where all species are exclusively pollinated by euglossine males. These orchids do not produce nectar, and hide the pollen on a single anther under an anther cap; they are not visited by females. The whole pollinarium becomes attached to the male as it leaves the flower. Several flowers from other plant families are also visited by the bees: Spathiphyllum and Anthurium (Araceae), Drymonia and Gloxinia (Gesneriaceae), Cyphomandra (Solanaceae), and Dalechampia (Euphorbiaceae) contain one or more species that attract male euglossines.[2]
The chemicals are picked up using special brushes on the forelegs, transferred from there by rubbing the brushes against combs on the middle legs, and finally these combs are pressed into grooves on the dorsal edge of the hind legs, squeezing the chemicals past the waxy hairs which block the opening of the groove, and into a sponge-like cavity inside the hind tibia [3].
The accumulated "fragrances" are evidently released by the males at their display sites in the forest understory, where matings are known to take place.[4][5] The accumulated volatiles were long believed to be used by males as a pheromone to attract females; however, female attraction to male odors or to orchid fragrances has never been demonstrated in behavioral experiments. Instead, it is now thought that the function of the male odors is to signal male 'genetic quality' to females [6] [7], because great effort must be expanded by males to collect orchid fragrances and thus only the most fit males could gather complex odor mixes. This would constitute an unusual example of Zahavi's handicap principle, analogous to the male peacock's tail [8]. The relationship between male euglossine bees and volatile chemicals is essentially unique in the animal kingdom.
Single synthetic compounds are commonly used as bait to attract and collect males for study, and include many familiar flavorings and odors considered appealing to humans (e.g., methyl salicylate, eugenol, cineole, benzyl acetate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate), and others which are not (e.g., skatole).[9]
It is also important to note that resource 'hot spots' wax and wane throughout the year as plants bloom and die, largely due to temporal changes, particularly between the changing of seasons. This often shifts euglossine bee preferences for certain chemicals over others. For Euglossa imperialis, studies have shown that there is a significant trend in chemical preference for cineole during later times in the year as opposed to methyl salicylate. In the local fragrance environment, a shift in the wind direction is another factor which may also cause another fragrance 'hot spot' to be included in the odor plume for euglossine bees.[10]
Neotropical orchids themselves often exhibit elaborate adaptations involving highly specific placement of pollen packets (pollinia) on the bodies of the male orchid bees; the specificity of their placement ensures that cross-pollination only occurs between orchids of the same species. Different orchid bee males are attracted to different chemicals, so there is also some specificity regarding which orchid bees visit which types of orchid. The early description of this pollination system was by Charles Darwin, though at the time, he believed the bees were females.[11] Not all orchids utilize euglossines as pollen vectors, of course; among the other types of insects exploited are other types of bees, wasps, flies, ants, and moths.
The male of Eufriesea purpurata is highly unusual in actively collecting the insecticide DDT in huge amounts from houses in Brazil, without suffering any harm from it.[12][13]
References [ edit ]I had been living at UMass for about a month, and my first quarterly exam was coming up in biology. I felt like I had been doing well in that class. The class had probably 300 people in it. You weren’t a person, you were a number. But in college, it’s not up to the teachers to convince you that you need to do well in the class. It’s up to the student.
I was down to just two classes now, that biology class and another one that I didn’t mind going to, I think it may have been English. I liked being able to bring my laptop to class. I didn’t have enough money to buy textbooks so it was nice to be able to do research online instead of having to run to the library every day. I was trying my best to continue working full time. (They scheduled me for full time at Mcdonald’s even though they had previously agreed to have me work weekends only, but no one else wanted to work overnights. So I had to. I felt like they didn’t care that I had to go to school.) I was trying to juggle working and going to school full time but there weren’t enough hours in the day. By the time I finally went to sleep at 8:30 am on weekday mornings, I had to wake up an hour later for class.
I was withdrawn from 2 of my classes at that point, but I was hanging onto the 2 I had left and trying to do well in them. I wrote notes. I studied if I had any spare time in my dorm. On the two nights per week I had off, I didn’t party anymore. I sat in the common room with my laptop and headphones and made and edited movies (filmmaking was always a favorite hobby of mine) and messaged my friends on Myspace. Facebook had just barely come out, it was only 2006. I loved talking to my friends online, posting pictures on my profile, and writing on my blog. I had a friend named Joe from work who was almost a year younger than I was, he was in his senior year of highschool. We had a lot of similar interests and he seemed to be interested in how I was doing and how everything was going with me. I liked the attention and we decided to go on a date. He didn’t bring any money with him for dinner, he was an awful driver, he wouldn’t stop talking about his ex, and he kissed like a hungry Chihuahua. I didn’t break it off with him immediately, but the next time we hung out in my dorm, I told him we were just going to be friends and that was the end of that. I realized I liked the attention and developing feelings for someone, getting excited about seeing them and being the one they think about all the time. I didn’t want or need any of the rest of the relationship stuff.
I knew DSS would only pay for my school if I went full time. But I had to work full time too. DSS didn’t pay for meal plans at college. They were between 1000-2000 per semester or year, I don’t remember which, but I didn’t have anywhere near that amount of money anyway. I had to sneak into the dining halls or borrow my roommate’s card so I could eat. How would I start paying for my own meal card? How would I get bus fare? How would I do my laundry? If something broke, how would I fix it? If Kristen let me borrow her car, how would I put gas in it? I had to work for the money. You can’t not work. Plus, my whole self-worth was all about my job. If I did well at work, I did well in life. If people thought I did a good job at work, I liked myself. I wanted their approval. I didn’t care about that in school. I just went to school because I figured I had to.
It was my first exam. I was late because I didn’t give myself enough time to get ready, then I went to the wrong room. The college was so huge. I could walk for miles and not see the same thing twice. I finally made it to the correct room and they either let me in or let me take a makeup test, I don’t remember. Anyway, I completed the exam. I felt good about the answers. I felt like the questions were exactly what I had studied, and I knew them. I thought my attempts to be good at college had finally paid off.
Imagine my surprise when the test scores came back and I failed, by a lot. My score was very low. I was put on academic probation, meaning I was going to be kicked out of school if my grades didn’t improve after the next semester.
I am stupid. I am dumb. I used to be so smart when I was younger. I was decent in highschool. If I didn’t understand something it was probably because I didn’t put enough effort in. But in college, I did put effort in. I was just too dumb to even be able to find where my classes were. I was too stupid to pass a test I had already studied for. I KNEW the answers. I had just read the chapters the night before. I was confident in my answers and I still failed. There was nothing else I could think of as to why I couldn’t do this. So I realized that it was my brain that couldn’t do it. No matter how hard I tried, my brain did not have the power to do what I needed it to do. It wasn’t smart enough for school.
I also had no friends. The friends I did have, I stopped hanging out with. Why? I’m not sure. I didn’t want or need their attention, and I didn’t really feel for them one way or the other. I had friends at McDonalds, and they were the ones I talked to when I needed to talk. I liked walking around outside at night when no one else was awake. The campus was so busy during the day, but at 1am on a weeknight, there was nothing. Yet at the same time, there was never any privacy. Everywhere I went, there were people, even if they were sleeping. I liked to look at the large cement walls and the shapes the curved walls made, dark and light gray. I liked the way the bricks on the walkway were laid in a circular pattern. I looked around to see if there were any hidden corners or alleyways, or any place I could be alone to just have a phone conversation, or sit, or listen to music, or just be by myself where no one could find me. The common room door locked, but it had glass windows. I felt like I was always being watched. I had no space of my own, and it was driving me nuts.
I couldn’t leave my laundry in the laundry room downstairs alone or else people would take it out to put their own in, even if mine wasn’t done drying. I couldn’t relax in my dorm because my roommate was unstable and was drinking or doing drugs all the time. I tried talking to my RA but she was no help. I tried talking to Student Services. They always said, if you had any problems, just come to us. I went to them on multiple occasions. They were hardly ever in the office, and when they were, the answer was always “just deal with it.”
One weekend, I was getting ready to start my shift at McDonalds when I realized the buses weren’t going to run the morning after because it was a holiday. I think it was Veteran’s day, the first week of November. Anyway, I needed to get back to my dorm after my shift so I could sleep. I had no where else to sleep. I had previously stayed at Kristen’s for a night in a pinch, but she was unavailable for a reason I don’t remember. I literally had no place to sleep after my shift unless I could get to my dorm 30 minutes away. I didn’t know the buses didn’t run on holidays, either that or I just forgot it was a holiday.
I had friends at work, but not close enough friends that I felt comfortable asking for help. I remembered walking around the rotary in the middle of town earlier that year, thinking about places off to the side of the roads or in little wooded areas that I’d be able to sleep in without the police or really anyone finding me. I thought I’d have to do that again. It was cold out in November, and I knew there had to be a better option. I wished our McDonalds had a basement so I could sneak down and sleep in there. Maybe the abandoned motel nearby. I tried to come up with any idea that didn’t sound terrible, but I couldn’t. At least if I had a car, I could sleep there, no problem. But I couldn’t even do that.
I finally came up with an idea. Steve and Mari’s. All I’d need to do is get a ride there and maybe they would let me spend the night and stay warm until Tuesday morning came and I could take the bus back to college. They lived about 15 minutes away, just a short highway trip into the next town over. I was hopeful. I called them. I explained my situation. They said no.
See, this is why I don’t ask people for help. The only person you can depend on is yourself. It’s offensive to me that I opened up to someone and admitted I needed help, and asked for it. And then I got shot down, like I didn’t even matter. I swore to myself I’d never ask anyone to help me again. It’s really offensive to me. I put all this effort into convincing myself that I could call them and ask. It is not easy to ask for help. And then they said no, so why did I even bother? Now I look like a fool, and they are on top. That’s how my mind works.
For some reason Mari called me back two hours later and told me Steve would come pick me up at 5am, when my shift was done. I was grateful but too exhausted to keep thinking of why and how and what changed their mind. I was going to sleep after work and then I’d be done with the whole thing.
Steve was an insomniac. He was always up throughout the night, driving around. He ended up giving me a ride the next weekend too. He just asked if I needed one. While I was with him, he picked up a homeless lady at Dunkin Donuts, talked to her for a bit, and paid for a hotel room for her for the night. I wondered if he knew her from a long time ago, maybe church or something. I wanted to help people too. I realized that he spent a lot of time in the community just spreading the word of God to just about anyone who would hear it. There were a number of homeless people around town, and Steve got to know them that way. He didn’t actively seek out the homeless, but being a pastor and constantly talking to people means you know just about everyone.
I felt glad and relieved every time I left campus. I started making excuses just to be able to leave and even take the bus to the mall nearby and walk around. If I was away from school, I was happy. If I was in school, I was not. I didn’t make that decision to be happy or not to be happy, it just happened.
I slowly came to the decision that I was dropping out of school. Once I made the decision, I was 100% set on it. I told my social worker and she accompanied me to Student Services to process the paperwork. I was surprised that she didn’t give me any grief about it. No one even asked me any questions about. I was relieved. I just wanted to be out of there.For this week’s dev update we want to show you all a picture of the progress on the new inventory UI. Note that some parts (the icons for the tabs for instance) are place holders. I’ll briefly discuss a few of its features.
Larger Icons
It may not be very apparent from the image, but many of you may be pleased to note that the icons are slightly larger than before. We had gotten a number of complaints about the size of them in the past, especially from users with very high resolution monitors. We increased their default size from 32x32 to 50x50. You may notice in the picture that they appear slightly pixelated. This is because all of the icons are still currently stored as 32x32 images. We’ll do a run-through and re-create them all at larger resolutions to fix the pixelation.
Better Tabs
As you probably know, the tabs in the current Salt inventory interface all act as their own little container. The new tabs are filters rather than containers. One good thing about this is that it allows us to have an “All” tab where you can see the entire contents of your inventory in one grid.
Obvious Item Rarity Colors
I love getting rare loot in games. It is the main draw that keeps me playing many RPGs. It makes me feel accomplished to be decked out in a full set awesome gear. This is why we are making it easier to instantly recognize better loot by having item backgrounds reflect item rarity colors. It also has the added bonus of making rarer crafting components more distinguishable from their common counterparts.
Controller Support
Notice the little frame around the orange crafting journal. What does that mean? Does that mean it is currently being selected by a controller? Why yes it does! I know many of you won’t get too excited about this as you prefer to use the great old keyboard/mouse. However, this will be a great change for many who have been wanting controller support. The inventory as you see so far is fully navigable and usable by a controller. I personally used to be a keyboard/mouse exclusive kind of fellow. Since then, I have come to appreciate how much freedom a controller gives me in terms of finding a relaxing gaming position that doesn’t require me to keep both arms outstretched like a zombie for long gaming sessions.
Character Window
Currently, all equipped items appear in one of the inventory tabs just like everything else. It will be nice to have it more separated and organized. The window on the left side of the screenshot is the character window. It is visible at all times while the inventory is open and it shows what is currently equipped as well as some stats. Equipped head, chest, legs, feet, and handheld items are displayed in the upper section, and all other equipped items are displayed in the lower grid.
Crafting Tab
The crafting tab will be a tab attached to the inventory window. In the image, the tab with the picture of the potion bottle is the crafting tab for temporary functionality purposes. We will change the icon later.
If you select the crafting tab, the inventory grid will be filtered to display only crafting components, and an additional interface will pop up from behind the inventory to display your selected components and what you can make with them.Donald Trump. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters The chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush was baffled at the latest kerfuffle between the White House and the Office of Government Ethics.
On Monday, The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump's White House refused to disclose to the OGE any ethics waivers granted to former lobbyists who now work in the administration.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, the publication obtained a letter from Mick Mulvaney, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, to Walter Schaub, the head of the OGE. The letter asked Schaub to withdraw a request he sent to federal agencies to obtain copies of all the waivers the administration had given.
The Trump administration claimed in the letter that Schaub did not have the legal authority to demand the waivers. Painter said that wasn't good enough.
"Is there any rationale that wasn't purely a legal argument?" Richard Painter, Bush's chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007 who is now a University of Minnesota law professor, told Business Insider. "What's a rationale that is not a legal argument? I haven't heard it."
"So was there any good policy reason not to share waivers with the Office of Government Ethics?" he said.
Several former lobbyists and industry lawyers now hold administration jobs. The Times reported that Trump had hired ex-lobbyists at a rate that far surpassed his predecessor, Barack Obama, despite pledges to the contrary. Schaub, who was appointed to his role by Obama and is in the last year of his five-year term, told The Times the White House request was "extraordinary" and he had "never seen anything like it."
Without the waivers, the OGE, which provides ethical oversight of the executive branch, would have no way to know whether any former lobbyists were violating ethics statutes or had been excused by the White House. In a statement to The Times, the White House said the Obama appointee's request for the waivers was partisan politics.
Trump made ties between politicians and lobbyists a sticking point of his campaign, frequently promising to "drain the swamp" in Washington. In late January, he signed an executive order that barred former lobbyists from working on matters that involved people and issues they worked with or on previously. In that order, Trump, like Obama before him, provided the option for himself to issue waivers to lobbyists as he sees fit. But that executive order did not contain language that made the waivers public.
Painter, who supported Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, said the executive order also did not say whether those waivers were confidential.
"You know, if the president wants to revise the ethics executive order" to say they are confidential, they "still should be shared by the Office of Government Ethics," Painter said. "But then the office would have to not disclose them... But the order did not say that the waivers were confidential."
"And so, in any event, it is critical to OGE's function... that it knows what's going on in the agencies, including in the White House, with regards to ethics compliances and waivers," he added. "It's clearly within OGE's statutory mandate to gather this information. So, what is the reason for withholding it? There's no reason whatsoever for trying to keep the ethics waivers secret from the Office of Government Ethics. There's no justification for that. So I don't know why they're doing it."
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The OGE, under the laws Painter referenced, has authority to make such a request of federal agencies. The Times reported that it is debated whether the White House itself is a "federal agency" that falls under the same requirements. Regardless, the letter from Mulvaney to Schaub made it clear the administration was halting the OGE's request for copies of the waivers issued throughout the administration by June 1 across the executive branch.
"This data call appears to raise legal questions regarding the scope of OGE's authorities," the letter said. "I therefore request that you stay the data call until these questions are resolved."
The Office of Management and Budget also falsely claimed in a statement that the letter obtained by The Times was "leaked." It was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
On Monday, Schaub wrote a letter to Mulvaney rejecting the White House's request that the OGE suspend its initial request for the waivers.
"The unusual nature of your letter highlights OGE's responsibility to lead the executive branch ethics program with independence, free from political pressure," Schaub wrote. "Accordingly, OGE declines your request to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive by June 1, 2017. Public confidence in the integrity of government decision making demands no less."
"OGE is exercising its authority and independence appropriately," he later wrote. "OGE's April 28, 2017, directive is supported by ample legal authority and compliant with applicable procedures. I want to assure you that a request from the Director of the Office of Management and Budget is not something that I decline lightly."
In a call with Mulvaney on Monday night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked the director to fulfill Schaub's request.
"There is absolutely no excuse for the administration to keep these waivers from the OGE or the American people," the New York Democrat said in a Tuesday statement on the call. "I also expressed to Director Mulvaney my deep frustration with President Trump's failure to keep his promise to 'drain the swamp,' and he assured me that he would take my concerns under consideration — I hope they make this change for the good of our country."
Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of Common Cause and former executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, called the move to block Schaub's request "an outrage and part of a disturbing pattern."
"OGE was created in the wake of the Watergate scandal to monitor ethics compliance, but the Trump administration is denying it the ability to do so," he said in a statement. "The OGE is charged with ensuring government compliance with ethical standards and it must be allowed to perform that duty. This is the latest example in a long line of troubling moves by the Trump administration to conduct the business of government in secret."
During the campaign, Trump made uprooting the Washington establishment and pointing out his opponents' ties to lobbyists central to his message, particularly in the later weeks of his quest for office when he introduced the slogan "drain the swamp."
He claimed that opponents such as Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida were all compromised by the influence lobbyists held over them.
"Crooked Hillary Clinton is bought and paid for by Wall Street, lobbyists and special interests," Trump tweeted in July. "She will sell our country down the tubes!"
"I am self-funding my campaign and am therefore not controlled by the lobbyists and special interests like lightweight Rubio or Ted Cruz!" he wrote last February.
And in June 2015, he wrote: "Remember, politicians are all talk and no action - they will never be able to MAKE OUR COUNTRY GREAT AGAIN! Controlled by lobbyists & donors."
Asked if the administration's refusal to provide the waivers violated Trump's ethics-related promises during the campaign, Painter said "of course it does."
"They put this executive order in and then they seek secret waivers and they won't even tell the Office of Government Ethics about the waiver," he said.In recreational mathematics, a repdigit or sometimes monodigit[1] is a natural number composed of repeated instances of the same digit in a positional number system (often implicitly decimal). The word is a portmanteau of repeated and digit.
Examples are 11, 666, 4444, and 999999. All repdigits are palindromic numbers and are multiples of repunits. Two of the most famous repdigits are 666, referred to in Christian Eschatology as the number of the beast, and 777, which is sometimes considered a "lucky number" as it is used on most slot machines to identify a jackpot. Other well-known repdigits include the repunit primes and in particular the Mersenne primes (which are repdigits when represented in binary).
Repdigits are the representation in base B {\displaystyle B} of the number x B y − 1 B − 1 {\displaystyle x{\frac {B^{y}-1}{B-1}}} where 0 < x < B {\displaystyle 0<x<B} is the repeated digit and 1 < y {\displaystyle 1<y} is the number of repetitions. For example, the repdigit 77777 in base 10 is 7 × 10 5 − 1 10 − 1 {\displaystyle 7\times {\frac {10^{5}-1}{10-1}}}.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]FILE - In this Tuesday, May 23, 2017 file photo, Hillary Clinton speaks during the Children's Health Fund annual benefit in New York. A federal judge threw out a lawsuit against Clinton by the parents of two Americans killed in the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, ruling the former secretary of state didn't defame them when disputing allegations that she had lied. "The untimely death of plaintiffs' sons is tragic, and the Court does not mean to minimize the unspeakable loss that plaintiffs have suffered in any way," U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington wrote in a 29-page opinion released Friday. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File) The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge threw out a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton by the parents of two Americans killed in the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, ruling the former secretary of state didn't defame them when disputing allegations that she had lied.
The lawsuit also alleged the former Democratic presidential candidate's use of a private email server caused the death of their sons, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, because it exposed terrorists to sensitive information. They claimed Clinton lied when she allegedly told them it was a YouTube video that prompted the consulate attack.
"The untimely death of plaintiffs' sons is tragic, and the Court does not mean to minimize the unspeakable loss that plaintiffs have suffered in any way," U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington wrote in a 29-page opinion released Friday. But Berman said legal standards required the case to be dismissed.
Berman ruled the parents didn't sufficiently challenge that Clinton wasn't acting in her official capacity when she used the private server, and that the families didn't put forward appropriate claims that Clinton defamed them or put them in a false light.
One of the parents, Patricia Smith, gave an emotional speech during the 2016 Republican National Convention against Clinton. Her son and Woods were killed in the September 2012 attack, along with CIA operative Glen Doherty and the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. ADVERTISING
Clinton's homebrew server bedeviled her campaign before it officially began, when The Associated Press first discovered its use. Emails later released under the Freedom of Information Act showed some contained classified information, although they were not marked as such at the time.
The lawsuit's dismissal was first reported by Politico.We know who coined the term ‘blast beat’ or ‘blastbeat’, but which group was the first to employ the technique now synonymous with extreme metal drumming? Now that is a question I bet even a TakeLessons drum teacher wouldn’t be able to answer. Was it grindcore legends Napalm Death? Was it crossover heroes D.R.I.? Or was Vehicle City originators Repulsion? How about Kam Lee’s demo blasting for Death? Or even The Beastie Boys pre-ill? None of the above apparently.
A quick look up on J. Bennett’s Interhole seems to point to Jazz drummer Tony Williams as the first sticksman to play it quickity quick-like. Indeed, Williams’ fast syncopated hits on the snare could very well be the first blast set to extreme music, but it seems like Jazz—particularly Ayler—is a bit removed from a banger’s point of view. A diagram connecting Mick Harris or Dave ‘Grave’ Hollingshead to Williams would probably just as confounding as a diagram connecting David Vincent or Karl Willets to Mongolian throat singers.
My stinking opinion on the first blast beat in rock music—which of course is the precursor to heavy metal—comes from none other than Billy ‘Uptown Girl’ Joel. See, back in 1969 Joel had formed Attila with drummer Jon Small. The duo only recorded one album, 1970’s Attila, but had Small blasted his way to obscurity and infamy on the album’s final track “Brain Invasion”. Small may’ve picked up on the panicked percussion style from Williams or one of many great and intrepid Jazz drummers of the times (‘60s, ‘70s), but it’s hard to dispute Small’s expeditious patter.
Although Attila’s sole effort has been strongly criticized—even by Joel himself—a quick run-through of the album’s eight tracks reveals the doomed project—Joel supposedly ran away with Small’s wife!—is not just the first rock record with blast beats, but it’s also the first rock record with video game music before there was video game music. So, Napalm Death, D.R.I., Repulsion, and, by extension, Dragonforce, Powerglove, and, uh, MegaDriver… You may be extreme, but you’ll never be as extreme as Billy Joel when he was in Attila.Overview [ edit ]
Prize Pool [ edit ]
The prize pool comprises ¥4,300,000 CNY (~$665,000 USD ).[1]
Currency conversion is based on the currency exchange rate (taken from xe.com) on 2015-12-20. [¥1 CNY ≈ $0.15425 USD]
Format [ edit ]
Participants [ edit ]
There are 16 spots for global teams to qualify to WCA 2015 main event. The number of qualifying spots is as follow:
3 spots from the Chinese Pro Qualifiers.
6 spots from the Global Pro Qualifiers.
1 spot from the Chinese Open Qualifiers.
4 spots from the Global Open Qualifiers.
2 spots from the Wild Card.
Qualified Teams [ edit ]
Results [ edit ]
Group Stage [ edit ]
Playoffs [ edit ]
Quarterfinals (Bo3) Wings Gaming 2 Team Leviathan 1 CDEC Gaming 1 Alliance 2 LGD Gaming 2 Team Empire 1 Team Liquid 2 TNC Pro Team 0 Semifinals (Bo3) Wings Gaming 0 Alliance 2 LGD Gaming 2 Team Liquid 0 Finals (Bo5) Alliance 3 LGD Gaming 2 3rd Place Match Wings Gaming 0 Team Liquid 3
View Games [ edit ]
Streams [ edit ]
VODs [ edit ]
Game Rankings [ edit ]
http://dota.joingamers.net
References [ edit ]
http://www.wca.com.cnDubai employed mostly Asian migrant workers in its development and construction projects [EPA]
The emirate of Dubai has in the past few decades been more than a shiny example of glitzy capitalism and the insulation from the repercussions (and responsibilities) of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It has represented the type of political model which has been promoted to the Arabs, by their rulers and by the West.
When George W Bush, the former US president, visited the United Arab Emirates during his last year in office |
Yet this week’s news cycle was particularly filled with reports on the candidate’s racial animus.
Trump publicly brought up a lawsuit against Trump University, which is accused of defrauding students, and said the federal judge presiding over the case, Gonzalo Curiel, had “an absolute conflict” because he was “of Mexican heritage.”
“He’s a Mexican. We’re building a wall between here and Mexico,” Trump said of the Indiana-born judge in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, who pressed the candidate more than 20 times about whether his attack on the judge was, by definition, racist.
On “Face the Nation,” John Dickerson asked whether a Muslim judge would also be biased based simply on religion.
“It’s possible, yes,” Trump said. “Yeah. That would be possible, absolutely.”
When Dickerson asked, “Isn’t there sort of a tradition, though, in America that we don’t judge people by who their parents were and where they came from?” Trump replied with 11 words that glossed over the entire reason my great-grandparents — and perhaps yours too, reader — came to America:
“I’m not talking about tradition. I’m talking about common sense, OK?”
Trump’s rhetoric about Curiel has been a bridge too far even for some of his supporters. In an email to The Washington Post, Newt Gingrich wrote, “I don’t know what Trump’s reasoning was, and I don’t care. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.”
Trump also came under fire this week for something he said at a rally. Pointing to a black man in the crowd, he said, “Oh, look at my African-American over here. Are you the greatest? Do you know what I’m talking about?” We’ll just leave that one there.
Outside another Trump rally, on Thursday night in San Jose, California, protesters turned violent, attacking rally attendees — some were bloodied — egging them and burning “Make America Great Again” hats. Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, condemned the violence, writing in a tweet, “Violence against supporters of any candidate has no place in this election.”
In lighter news, I suppose, Bill Kristol’s mysterious independent candidate for president, who was revealed to be National Review writer David French, wrote Sunday night that he would not be running for president. He earns points for describing himself as “a pretty darn obscure lawyer, writer, and veteran.”
Several high-profile Republicans still aren’t sure whether they’re going to go to the party’s convention in Cleveland come July, and that includes Ohio’s governor, John Kasich, and one of its senators, Rob Portman, who’s running for re-election.
Those unsure of their July schedules include Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. There are quite a few party establishment types who have checked their black books and will for sure not be showing up July 18, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
“I’m sure it will be fun; I’m sure it will be entertaining,” Graham told The New York Times. “And I can watch it on TV.”
Listen to the latest episode of the FiveThirtyEight politics podcast.
Read more:
Hispanic Voters Will Decide Bernie Sanders’s Fate in California by Nate Silver — Three recent surveys from highly rated polling firms show Bernie Sanders just 2 percentage points behind Clinton in California. Clinton is ahead by double digits, however, in other polls, including one that has her up by 18 percentage points. It’s making for another confusing finish in a primary season that has already had plenty of them. And it’s an indication of how little we know about how Hispanic Democrats (and Asian-American Democrats) are voting this year.
‘Missing’ White Voters Might Help Trump, But Less So Where He Needs It by David Wasserman — The last time the non-Hispanic white share of the electorate went up was 1992, when another ideology-defying, billionaire outsider stirred up a nationwide frenzy. Can Trump reawaken enough of Ross Perot’s voters to beat Clinton in a general election?
Senate 2016: The Democrats Strike Back by Harry Enten — Among the eight U.S. Senate seats most likely to change hands in 2016, six are held by Republicans in states that President Obama won twice. If Trump does better in the presidential race than expected, Democratic gains could be kept to a minimum, but the field is tilted in their favor.Why we moved away from “the cloud” to a “real” server
By David Mytton,
CEO & Founder of Server Density.
Published on the 8th September, 2009.
Up until the end of August, our server monitoring service, Server Density, was hosted in “the cloud”. We had no physical hardware and were using virtualised instances provided by Slicehost and The Rackspace Cloud. This allowed us to start very small and cheap and expand as the service grew – we were paying for what we used, something which is ideal for the first stages of a startup. Everything worked very well and we had few problems.
Progression
Back in Feb 2009 we started out with a 256MB Slicehost instance for only $20 per month. By the end of August we had a 2GB Slicehost instance and an 8GB Rackspace Cloud instance, costing $130 and $345 respectively. We also had a 256MB Rackspace Cloud instance for a VPN we used to access the servers through at $10 per month. The total expenditure was therefore $485 per month.
The Rackspace Cloud options only became available after we had been using Slicehost for several months and given they were half the price, we decided to expand our database server using them rather than Slicehost. The reason for the price difference is Slicehost include a data transfer allowance whereas you pay per GB with The Rackspace Cloud; since most of our transfer is incoming, that allowed us to save substantially.
Slicehost is also owned by Rackspace and they run in the same data centre which meant we were able to use the internal network to communicate between our Slicehost and Rackspace Cloud instances. There was no disruption to the service as we kept our application serving with Slicehost and the database with The Rackspace Cloud.
The disk space problem
The problem we were facing was disk space. Since we store a lot of historical monitoring data, we needed a large amount of storage. The only way we could increase our available storage was to increase the instance size. This was not scalable and so we set about looking at the alternatives.
From a technical interest point of view, as well as scalability, we wanted to move to Amazon EC2. It would have been very cool to deploy on top of a virtualised environment that we could load balance, implement a failover system and make use of the Elastic Block Storage for our data storage needs.
Although we needed little instance storage, our database needs to run 64bit and so we would have had to go with the large EC2 instance. Our pricing calculations looked like this:
Large EC2 Instance: $292
Transfer In: $15 (150GB)
Transfer Out: $4 (20GB)
Elastic Block Storage: $90 (360GB inc backup)
Elastic Block Storage Requests: $30 (300 million, based on tests)
The total cost of which is $431, but we also wanted their support services which are priced at $100, so a total of $531 USD per month. The Elastic Block Storage requests per second is a big variable that is hard to predict. We ran our database on an instance for 24 hours and estimated that we would be using at least 10 million i/o requests per day.
Hardware is cheap
There are also technical complexities in that you have to provision EBS storage before you use it, and if you need to resize then you have to take a snapshot and rebuild from that.
We would have had to build our own infrastructure management system. This would have to handle the starting and failover of EC2 instances, backups and provisioning additional storage. In order to have no downtime when storage was being re-provisioned, we would need a second instance to replicate the database on. Aside from the extra server costs, all of this would have taken development time away from our efforts of improving the product itself.
We had the choice of working on infrastructure that makes no difference to the customer experience (but which would have been technically interesting and fun to develop) verses tangible progress with our product:
With six years of experience running my own software company I can tell you that nothing we have ever done at Fog Creek has increased our revenue more than releasing a new version with more features. Nothing. The flow to our bottom line from new versions with new features is absolutely undeniable.
– Joel Spolsky
And that’s the hidden cost – development time – something that is particularly important for a startup. As Jeff Atwood says, “Hardware is Cheap, Programmers are Expensive“.
Given the situation, the move we made was to get a physical server with Rackspace. Although there was a cost increase compared to the existing solution, it was not much more expensive than the move to Amazon EC2 would have been, and there were no development costs. Since Slicehost and The Rackspace Cloud are in the same data centre as our current servers, the move was very easy.
Uptime and security
As a server monitoring product, the service needs to be available. There is no such thing as 100% uptime but Rackspace is known for its reliable network and systems.
Their support was another factor in the decision making process. Rackspace know how our systems are set up and, like us, continuously monitor them so that if there is an issue, we can work together to fix the problem as quickly as possible. Their support is indeed “Fanatical” – they even swapped out a lower Cisco firewall model for a newer one for free so we could access our servers through a secure VPN on our iPhones.
You can also get an amazing deal by negotiating with the sales team. Cloud pricing is fixed but moving to Rackspace got us amazing value for money for the hardware we have. And now we have an existing relationship, future upgrades can be negotiated.
Further, since we process customer card transactions through our servers (we collect details on our site but do not store them ourselves), we have to be PCI compliant, something that Amazon EC2 is not.
Not entirely clear skies
That said, we are making use of some “cloud” services. Our server has large internal storage but we also make use of the Rackspace Utility Network Attached Storage product. This allows us to scale disk space indefinitely and pay per GB we use. Unlike Amazon EBS, it really is per GB, not per provisioned storage. This has saved a lot of development time working out how to deploy our database across multiple disks or handle resizing existing volumes.
Frequent review
We are likely going to be a Rackspace customer for life. Their support is amazing and we know we can rely on them to deliver the service we would expect as customers. However as we grow we will frequently review the situation to see if savings can be made without sacrificing unnecessary development time and quality of service. Even if not for the primary hosting infrastructure, for other aspects of our systems – for example, we are currently looking into how we can use The Rackspace Cloud to run off-site database replication for further redundancy in addition to our current backups.
“The cloud” has its uses, especially when starting up, but it is not always the best option.Ilkay Gundogan's surprise debut for Manchester City demonstrated what a good signing he is - and that he will be key to Pep Guardiola's system.
Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side have made the perfect start. There has been no 'bedding in' period, no transition, no hiccups. Just Guardiola's genius and, well, results. Seven wins out of seven, 21 goals scored and beautiful football played.
Yet, you still get the feeling that there is more to come. Guardiola is only just getting started, and while there will be a defeat at some point (that is inevitable), Pep's City have yet to hit top gear.
There has been plenty of innovation from the Spanish tactician so far - full-backs playing as central midfielders when in possession (as was the case at Bayern Munich), David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne playing in a role described as a 'free eight', and lots of passing and pressing.
Many players at the club were deemed unsuitable for the system and were shipped out as a result. However, one player (not at the club) was deemed very suitable. So suitable, in fact, that Guardiola appeared to have made plans to buy him even before arriving at the club. That player is Ilkay Gundogan.
Such was Pep's belief in the player that he bought him from Borussia Dortmund while he was injured, and before his recent appearance, nothing had been seen of him.
Guardiola has done this before, with Thiago Alcantara at Bayern. He knew of the player's talent, having seen him firsthand at Barcelona. A central midfielder who could pass, dribble and dictate the game suited the tactician's style down to the ground.
Gundogan is the same, and it showed against Monchengladbach. His first touch was sublime, he always seemed to have time on the ball, and he brought the play forward with intent and purpose. It is a compliment to say that it did not look like he was making his debut.
Star man Sergio Aguero stole the show with his hat-trick, making it nine goals in his last five games, but the debutant's showing should give City fans just as much cause to celebrate.
The German's debut came about due to a last minute injury to David Silva, and while it is still uncertain as to how exactly Gundogan, Silva and De Bruyne will all fit into one starting line-up (perhaps with one of Silva or De Bruyne playing wide, or Gundogan starting deeper), one thing is clear. The ex-Dortmund man is the player to take City to the next level, and when they get there, we are in for a treat.The zombie-ant fungus is part of the Ophiocordyceps genus, and its strange way of infecting worker ants’ heads and controlling them to distribute more spores has been well documented in scientific literature.
Fossil evidence suggests that this infection has been occurring for at least 48 million years. Research seems to indicate that different species of fungi might specialize in infecting different groups of ants worldwide. Closer examination of the infected ant corpses revealed that these fungi are often parasitized by other fungi.
Ophiocordyceps fungi depend on ants to reproduce and spread. Infected ants behave like zombies, walking randomly and displaying convulsions that make them fall down and preclude them from returning to the dry tree canopy.
While the manipulated individual may still look like an ant, it represents a fungal genome expressing fungal behavior through the body of an ant, researchers noted previously.
A nerve toxin spurred on by the fungus seems to be partly to blame. The ants’ heads are already full of fungal cells. Eventually, the ant will clamp down onto a leaf, roughly 25 cm off the forest floor, which is optimal for the fungus’ later stage in which it ejects spores onto the soil directly below. The bites are synchronized near noon (possibly cued by clock genes in the fungus) and usually occur in a north-northwestern orientation.
The fungus also causes atrophy in its victim’s muscles, specifically around its mandibles. The atrophy causes the ant’s body to have lockjaw, allowing the fungus to propagate.
At this stage, the fungus has proliferated extensively through the ant’s body. Ants die within six hours of their final bite. Two or three days later, a fungal stalk will emerge from the back of the ant’s head. After maturing for a few weeks, the stalk’s head will shoot spores into the soil below.
The fungus capitalizes on the ants’ social behavior. The ants best known from being infected are tree-dwelling carpenter ants found in Brazil and Thailand, but the fungus is thought to be broadly distributed in tropical areas around the globe.
There could be tens or even hundreds of different Ophiocordyceps fungi species. This hint at biodiversity and specialization could indicate that there are a lot more fungi than expected. This could also imply that the fungus has been infecting ants before the current continents drifted apart.
The zombie-ant fungus is not the end of the parasitizing line. It meets its own death at the work of yet another parasite. A secondary fungus, a hyperparasite, can cover the original fungus and its stalk, preventing the fungus from ejecting its spores. The second-level parasite seems to sterilize the spores and these hyperparasites aren’t growing on anything else but the specific parasitizing fungi.
This could explain why the zombie-ant fungus has been so successful over the long term since it could severely damage an ant colony. The presence of a hyperparasite could curb infection rates and keep it in check, creating a sort of equilibrium, keeping it from completely destroying ant colonies.
There are also small insects laying their eggs into the infected ant corpses. Their larvae can eat the growing fungus.
Discovering more about both the fungus and the ant behavior and signaling dynamics could add to research about pest control for agriculture. “Lots of the pure discoveries we make have great import for food security and the challenges farmers in tropical countries face from insects and fungi that infect their crops.”
[via Scientific American]There was an interesting discussion yesterday on the Elixir Slack about how libraries should handle errors. This is a more thought-through and elaborate expression on my views on the matter. In the post, I’ll present an idealised version of how I think a public API for functions that may produce errors should look like.
Errors vs Exceptions
In most applications we can distinguish two kinds of situations where some error occurs:
actionable errors - i.e. expected errors. When those happen we need to handle them gracefully, so that our application can continue working correctly. A good example of this is invalid data provided by the user or data not present in the database. In general we want to handle this kind of errors by using tuple return values ( {:ok, value} | {:error, reason} ) - the consumer can match on the value and act on the result.
) - the consumer can match on the value and act on the result. fatal errors - errors that place our application in undefined state - violate some system invariant, or make us reach a point of no return in some other way. A good example of this is a required config file not present or a network failing in the middle of transmitting a packet. With that kind of errors we usually want to crash and lean on the supervision system to recover - we handle all errors of this kind in a unified way. That’s exactly what the let it crash philosophy is about - it’s not about letting our application burn in case of any errors, but avoiding excessive code for handling errors that can’t be handled gracefully. You can read more about what the “let it crash” means in the excellent article by Fred Hebert of the “Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good” fame - “The Zen of Erlang”.
Now comes the tough realisation - when we’re writing libraries, we often don’t know if something is an actionable or a fatal error - it’s not up to our library to decide, but up to the consumer. We could see this with the absent config file example - an absent file is hardly a fatal error, but an absent config file definitely is. Therefore, we need to design a flexible API that allows the user of the library to handle the errors the way they need to. The rest of the article focuses exactly on that.
Ok/Error tuples
We already mentioned those. They are extremely common in both the Elixir and Erlang libraries - and there’s a reason for that! They are, in a way, an elixir version of the Either or Result types present in many statically-typed languages. I will dare to say that functions returning ok/error tuples should be the main interface of libraries. Why?
It’s easy to pattern match on them in a case expression and act accordingly in case the reported error is of the “actionable” type.
expression and act accordingly in case the reported error is of the “actionable” type. It’s equally easy to convert the tuple return value into a crash if the reported error is, for our application, of the “fatal” type: e.g.
{ :ok, value } = YourLibrary. may_fail ( foo, bar, baz )
An important thing to consider here, is to not only make the entire return value easily matchable, but to apply the same rule to the error reasons. It might happen that one kind of error may be “actionable”, while another one is “fatal”. An easy way to achieve that is to return atoms or tuples with atoms and variables instead of returning strings. A string is the least structured type one can imagine, and it’s generally very hard to do something with it. Because of that, instead of returning {:error, "unknown value: :foo"} one would prefer to return {:error, {:unknown, :foo}}.
A common approach to solve the problem of returning easily-matchable errors and providing nice messages at the same time, that is found in Erlang libraries is for the module to export an additional format_error/1 function, where we can pass the reason from the {:error, reason} tuple and format it as a nice string. Continuing with the previous example, we would implement a function:
def format_error ({ :unknown, value }), do : " unknown value: #{ inspect value } "
Deeply recursive situations
I can almost hear some people ready to explode with things like: “Ok/error tuples are tedious in recursive functions” or “The constant wrapping and unwrapping is slow!”. And indeed, I fully agree that the wrapping and unwrapping can become tedious and that there are situations, especially in tight loops, where this could have a significant impact on performance.
Fortunately, Elixir has a feature that can help us here - catch and throw. We can wrap our call in a catch expression and use throw from our deeply nested code to signal errors. This allows us to gain the convenience the non-local error reporting gives, while maintaining the nice ok/error tuple interface in our public functions.
Let’s see a practical example - Ecto.UUID.dump/1 function:
def dump ( << a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8,?-, b1, b2, b3, b4,?-, c1, c2, c3, c4,?-, d1, d2, d3, d4,?-, e1, e2, e3, e4, e5, e6, e7, e8, e9, e10, e11, e12 >> ) do try do << d ( a1 ):: 4, d ( a2 ):: 4, d ( a3 ):: 4, d ( a4 ):: 4, d ( a5 ):: 4, d ( a6 ):: 4, d ( a7 ):: 4, d ( a8 ):: 4, d ( b1 ):: 4, d ( b2 ):: 4, d ( b3 ):: 4, d ( b4 ):: 4, d ( c1 ):: 4, d ( c2 ):: 4, d ( c3 ):: 4, d ( c4 ):: 4, d ( d1 ):: 4, d ( d2 ):: 4, d ( d3 ):: 4, d ( d4 ):: 4, d ( e1 ):: 4, d ( e2 ):: 4, d ( e3 ):: 4, d ( e4 ):: 4, d ( e5 ):: 4, d ( e6 ):: 4, d ( e7 ):: 4, d ( e8 ):: 4, d ( e9 ):: 4, d ( e10 ):: 4, d ( e11 ):: 4, d ( e12 ):: 4 >> catch :error -> :error else binary -> { :ok, binary } end end def dump ( _ ), do : :error defp d (?0 ), do : 0 # many more cases defp d ( _ ), do : throw ( :error )
Each of the d/1 calls could fail - handling this through wrapping and unwrapping tuples would be a nightmare - using throws gives us an elegant and efficient solution. Beware! When using throws, it’s important to be specific in the throws we’re catching and usually contain them locally, within one module. This allows avoiding accidental errors and lowers the complexity of understanding non-local returns.
Bang functions
Have you noticed, that until this moment, I have mentioned neither exceptions nor the bang functions ( foo! vs foo )? That’s because, I consider them to be an “additional” API a library can offer. They replace pattern matching on the return value and MatchError s that would be raised in case a {:ok, value} =... match, that I proposed couple paragraphs above, fails.
Provided we already defined the format_error/1 function mentioned above adding a “bang” version of a function in our public interface is fairly easy:
def foo! ( arg1, arg2 ) do case foo ( arg1, arg2 ) do { :ok, value } -> value { :error, reason } -> raise format_error ( reason ) end end
We could also consider defining a custom exception struct for our library and instead use raise YourLibrary.Error, format_error(reason), or pass the raw reason to the exception struct and format it only in the exception’s message/1 callback. This keeps the exception struct easily pattern-matchable, should such a need arise.
defmodule YourLibrary. Error do defexception [ :reason ] def exception ( reason ), do : % __MODULE__ { reason: reason } def message (% __MODULE__ { reason: reason }), do : YourLibrary. format_error ( reason ) end
Of course that kind of unwrapping of the errors in every function is rather repetitive - I agree with that. But something you need to consider, when devising solutions for this repetition - is the code you’re writing right now is going to be read or written more often? Especially in a library, the code will be read much more often, than it will be written - and some repetition in things like that, while a bit more laborious to write, can make the code much easier to understand when reading.
Ok/error unwrapping macro
So, you still want to avoid that duplication? Let’s see what is, in my opinion, the least bad way to do this. It’s important to use a macro here, instead of a function - here’s why. The unwrapping function is often called in a tail position. Because of Erlang’s tail call optimisation, this call would remove the current function from the stacktrace, so when we reach the real raise - the stacktrace wouldn’t include the function, where the real error actually happened (!) - only the unwrapping function. That’s not really helpful for the user. Using a macro solves that issue.
defmacrop unwrap_or_raise ( call ) do quote do case unquote ( call ) do { :ok, value } -> value { :error, reason } -> raise YourLibrary. Error, reason end end end # we now can implement foo! in terms of bangify and foo def foo! ( arg1, arg2 ) do unwrap_or_raise foo ( arg1, arg2 ) end
This still leaves a bit of repetition that could be further removed with some more complex macros, but I think this strikes a good balance between clear and not an extremely verbose code.
Composing ok/error tuples in with
One issue you may notice with the ok/error tuples and format_error function is: What happens in with pipelines, when you combine functions from different modules? How to decide, which format_error function to call?
That’s a valid concern, though for many use cases, I would say that handling this in the end-user code by wrapping groups of library functions is acceptable. Nonetheless, if you’re concerned about this, there are basically two paths you could take:
return errors in the shape {:error, {__MODULE__, reason}} - this tags the error with the module name, where you can find the formatting function. This is the approach taken, for example, by yecc, leex and rebar3.
- this tags the error with the module name, where you can find the formatting function. This is the approach taken, for example, by yecc, leex and rebar3. return exception structs instead of errors. For example, in the code above, we would return {:error, YourLibrary.Error.exception(reason)} and later use the exception struct to raise, so our unwrapping function would have a clause: {:error, exception} -> raise exception In this case the responsibility of the formatting function is taken over by the message/1 callback of the exception module. This is the approach taken, for example, by postgrex and db_connection.
Is this needed, or which approach is better? I’m not sure there’s one good answer that fits all. I leave this decision to you.
Full example
Let’s see how an example library, following all the rules specified above, would look like:
defmodule YourLibrary do defmodule Error do defexception [ :reason ] def exception ( reason ), do : % __MODULE__ { reason: reason } def message (% __MODULE__ { reason: reason }), do : YourLibrary. format_error ( reason ) end def get_one ( 1 ), do : { :ok, " one" } def get_one ( value ), do : { :error, { :not_one, value }} def get_one! ( arg ) do case get_one ( arg ) do { :ok, value } -> value { :error, reason } -> raise Error, reason end end def format_error ({ :not_one, value }), do : " #{ inspect value } is not one" end
Of course this silly example omits type-specs and documentation, both of which are required for a good library, but I think it serves as a good example of the ideas provided in this post.Editor’s note: WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, who has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, was under house arrest at a British estate in 2011 when he received a special visitor: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. Now Assange has a new book out, “When Google Met WikiLeaks,” that in part is about the meeting.
Below is one of the chapters, “Censorship Is Always Cause for Celebration,” reprinted here with the permission of OR Books, publisher of the book, which is available exclusively from OR Books and is copyrighted by Julian Assange. The chapter consists of the transcript of a conversation among Assange, Schmidt and three associates of Schmidt’s — Scott Malcomson, a book editor, writer and onetime member of the U.S. Department of State; Jared Cohen, a Google executive and a former member of the State Department; and Lisa Shields, a vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Click here to see an open letter to Google from Truthdig Publisher Zuade Kaufman concerning censorship.
Readers may purchase the book for 20 percent off if they enter the code TRUTHDIG at checkout. Click here to buy.
—
SM: I am just wondering, on the human side of this—you have such experience of the world that you described earlier. I had three hours’ sleep, so forgive me if I don’t remember exactly what you said, but the combination of technical and altruistic people, and what amounts to a kind of subculture that you’ve been involved in for some fifteen years now. So you know how that subculture works. And that subculture needs to either stay the same or expand in order to do the work that you are describing. And so, since our book is about ten years away—
JA: It has dramatically expanded.
SM: What are the patterns there in terms of the people part rather than the technical part?
JA: That’s the most optimistic thing that is happening—the radicalization of internet-educated youth. People who are receiving their values from the internet and then, as they find them to be compatible, echoing them back. The echo back is now so strong that it drowns the original statements completely.
The people that I’ve dealt with from the 1960s’ radicals who helped liberate Greece and fight Salazar in Portugal, they say that this moment in time is the most similar there has been to what happened in that period of liberation movements. 219 [See numbered footnotes at the end of the excerpt.]
SM: Do you see it scaling differently than it did in the sixties?
JA: I wasn’t alive in the 1960s, but as far as I can tell, in the West—because there are certain regions of the world I am unaware of—their statement is true. The political education of apolitical technical people is extraordinary. Young people are going from apolitical to political. It is a very, very interesting transition to see.
SM: This is your world. Why do you think that took place?
JA: Fast communication; critical mass of young people; newer generation; and then some catalyzing events. The attack on WikiLeaks was a catalyzing event, and our success in defending against this attack was a catalyzing event. Do you remember the PGP case, the grand jury with Zimmermann? 220
ES: He had a lot of fun with that.
JA: I wrote half a book on that. It was never published, because my co-writer went and had children.
[LS spills water all over her note-taking laptop. JA quickly grabs her laptop and turns it upside down.]
LS: Oh no, ha-ha-ha-ha!
ES: Ha-ha-ha!
JC: Why do I feel that has happened before?
LS: That was really funny.
SM: So much for the historical record!
JA: As I said, multiple copies!
[Laughter]
ES: Why don’t you save whatever you were doing?
SM: Get it into the name tree before everything goes wrong.
LS: Did you see how fast he was? It was like an impulse.
JC: Yeah, I almost feel like you were there before the computer even got water on it.
ES: Computers are important in our line of work.
[Laughter]
LS: That was sweet, thank you. Go right ahead.
SM: But young people aren’t inherently good. And I say that as a father and with regret.
[Laughter]
JA: Oh no, I think that actually... Well, I’ve read Lord of the Flies and I went to thirty different schools, so I’ve seen plenty of Lord of the Flies situations. 221 But no, I think that the instincts human beings have are actually much better than the societies that we have.
ES: Than the governments, basically.
JA: I am not going to say governments. The whole structure of society. The economic structure. People learn that simple altruistic acts don’t pay off, and they see that some people who act in nonaltruistic ways end up getting Porsches, and it tends to pull them in that direction. I thought about this a while ago when I saw this fantastic video that came out of Stanford in 1971 on nuclear synthesis of DNA. 222 Have you seen it?
SM: No.
JA: It’s on YouTube. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s explaining nuclear synthesis through interpretive dance. There are, like, 130 Stanford students out there in the middle of a sports field pretending to be DNA: a whole bunch pretending to be a ribosomal subunit, all wearing the hippy clothes of the day. But they were actually all very bright people. It was a very good bit of education; it is not that it was cool and unusual—rather it was extremely instructive, and before computer animation it was the best representation of how a ribosomal unit behaves. Could you see Stanford doing that now? Absolutely impossible. Stanford is far too conservative to do that now, even though it was extremely effective. You can bet that everyone who was in that dance remembers exactly how nuclear synthesis occurs, because they all had to remember their parts. And I remember it having seen it.
The period of peak earnings for the average wage in the United States was, what, 1977? 223 Then certain things happened. Those people who were altruistic and not too concerned about finances and fiscalization simply lost power relative to those people who were more concerned about finances and fiscalization, who worked their way up in the system. Certain behaviors were disincentivized and others were potentiated. That is primarily, I believe, as a result of the technology that enables fiscalization. So, fast bank transfers, the IRS being able to account for lots of people—it sucks people into a very rigid fiscalized structure. 224
You can have a lot of political “change” in the United States, but will it really change that much? Will it change the amount of money in someone’s bank account? Will it change contracts? Will it void contracts that already exist? And contracts on contracts? And contracts on contracts on contracts? Not really. So I say that free speech in many Western places is free not as a result of liberal circumstances but rather as a result of such intense fiscalization that it doesn’t matter what you say. The dominant elite doesn’t have to be scared of what people think, because a change in political view is not going to change whether they own their company or not; it is not going to change whether they own a piece of land or not. But China is still a political society, although it is rapidly heading toward a fiscalized society. And other societies, like Egypt, are still heavily politicized. Their rulers really do need to be concerned about what people think, so they expend proportionate efforts on controlling freedom of speech.
But I think young people actually innately have fairly good values. Of course it’s a spectrum, but they have fairly good values most of the time and they want to demonstrate them to other people, and you can see this when people first go to university. They become hardened as a result of certain things having a payoff and other things not having a payoff.SM: But let me tease out some of this. It sounds like you’ve got a view of the globe with certain societies where the impact of technology is relatively slight, certain societies where politically the impact of technology could be quite great, and certain societies where it would be a sort of middling way. And you would put China into, I guess, the middling category. Since our book is all about technology and social transformation ten years down the line, what’s the globe that you see given the structure you are describing?
JA: I am |
.3 trillion.[90] This rising student debt is contributing to the expanding wealth gap.[91]
With each passing year, student debt continues to rise. Nearly two-thirds of undergraduates are in debt. By graduation, their student loan debt averages around $26,600. One percent of graduates leave college with $100,000 or more of student loan debt. In 2013, the federal debt had grown to $16.7 trillion. Six percent of that debt comes directly from student loans making student loans only second to mortgages in consumer debt. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported that as of May 2013, federal student loan debt had reached $1 trillion bringing the total number for outstanding student loan debt to $1.2 trillion. However, this amount does not include what students take from savings accounts, borrow from parents, or charge to their credit cards in order to pay for their education. In actuality, the burden of student debt is much greater than these numbers indicate.[92] The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's February 2017 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit reported that 11.2% of aggregate student loan debt was 90 or more days delinquent in the final quarter of 2016.[93]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]There are some good vibrations in the classic-rock world: Brian Wilson is finally reuniting with the remaining Beach Boys, it was announced Friday morning.
Also read: Fox 2000 Wins Bidding War for Musical Set to Beach Boys
After months of negotiations, Wilson rejoins two other founding members, Mike Love and Al Jardine, as well as Bruce Johnston and David Marks. Together, they will release a new album and stage an international tour in celebration of the band's 50th anniversary.
Also read: River Road to Make Brian Wilson Biopic
The stage-wary Wilson last toured with the group in 1965, though they continued to record together through the release of their landmark album "Pet Sounds" in 1966, and sessions for the aborted, experimental "Smile" album, meant to compete with the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
The album was partially finished in 1967; its failure to be completed, and Love and Jardine's displeasure with the direction of the band, is widely regarded as the flash point for Wilson's descent into depression and drug use. It was officially released earlier this year — though Wilson released his own version in 2004.
Relations between Wilson and band co-founders Love and Jardine have been contentious ever since.
Wilson's two brothers, also founding members of the group, have both died: Dennis in 1983 from drowning and Carl in 1998 from cancer. Love is Wilson's cousin.
“This anniversary is special to me because I miss the boys and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again," Wilson said in a statement.
Wilson has performed Beach Boys material over the years as part of his solo sets, and Love, Jardine and Johnston have continued touring without Wilson as the Beach Boys.
The Beach Boys' 50-date tour kicks off in April with a headlining stint at Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Other dates and locations have yet to be announced.
The group has already recorded multiple songs for its new album, which is yet-untitled.
Singer Mike Love — who has been with the band since it formed in 1961 — said the group recently re-recorded one of its hits, "Do It Again," at Capitol Records' headquarters in Hollywood.
"Brian paid me a compliment saying, ‘How can a guy sound that great so many years later?’ " he said in a statement. "Later on, while working out some harmonies on a new song Brian had written, I got a chance to return the compliment."
Capitol/EMI plans to reissue catalog material in addition to the new album.
“It's no exaggeration to say that the Beach Boys are one of the greatest and most loved bands that the world has ever produced, and true American icons," EMI Group CEO Roger Faxon said of the group, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 1988.The Minister for Foreign Affairs has accused Israel of kidnapping Irish citizens in international waters.
Micheál Martin is furious after Israel announced it would deport all foreign nationals seized from a convoy of ships carrying aid to Gaza.
Israel launched an attack on the flotilla overnight, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more.
Seven Irish passport holders have been taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod from where it is planned to deport them. One has already signed papers agreeing to the move.
But Minister Martin said he has told the Israeli Ambassador Dr Zion Evrony that the Government wants these Irish citizens released immediately.
"The Israeli government requires people to sign papers so that they can be deported," Minister Martin said. "But of course these people did not enter Israel illegally.
"They were essentially kidnapped from international waters, taken into Israel.. And now they are being asked to sign a document almost confirming that they entered illegally.
"And we think that is unacceptable.
"I have said this to the Ambassador - it makes no sense. These people should be released unconditionally."
The Israeli Ambassador defended his country's actions.
Dr Evrony said he is neither ashamed nor embarrassed by what happened, but he stated that he would convey the views of the Irish Government to his country's government.
He made the remarks after meeting Minister Martin at Iveagh house this evening.
Dr Evrony said he did not belive relations between Ireland and Israel had been damaged.A popular Jamaican radio disc jockey is devastated this afternoon after he got a letter from a DNA agency informing him that the two kids he had fathered with two Jamaican women were not his biological children.
The disc jockey, who migrated to the US several years ago, had filed for both his children, aged nine and seven years old, but the results of the paternity testing for the immigration-related application showed that the kids who he had supported since birth were not his biological children.
"I am devastated, mi mash up, not even one of them is mine. I can't believe Jamaican women are so wicked," he told Loop Jamaica reporter Claude Mills.
He said that he had spent close to US$300,000 on both his children since their birth. One of the kids, a nine year-old girl has a learning disability and is not a good reader, while the other is a boy.
"The girl is not a great reader, she has a disability, that's why I was pushing to bring her up, for her to benefit from a first world education. My son really loves me, he looks like one of his brothers, so I wasn't focused on that but this has hit me hard. I look at my phone everyday and want to call them but I can't, how do I tell them that I am not their father?" he asked.
The disc jockey's blood pressure rocketed sky high in recent days and he had to go to the doctor on Tuesday.
"I didn't feel well, my pressure gone through the roof. He said he was thinking about admitting me to the emergency but he gave me medication instead. I am so stressed out," he said.
The DJ said he informed both women of the results.
"One of them broke down and apologised, that is the mother of my daughter, but the other one, the one who claimed that she was a virgin, is angry and in denial, she is blaming me and saying I must have done something. These women are wicked and destroying lives, maybe the other men had wanted their babies and now my name is on the kids' birth certificate and the DNA test proves that I am not their father. Boy right now, tears are in my eyes," he said, his voice choked with tears.
DNA tests are required by the US Embassy in Kingston as a vital part of its immigrant visa process. Over the years tests have confirmed that a number of women are assigning the paternity of their children to the wrong man, a term called 'jackets' in the Caribbean vernacular. The number of 'jackets' in Jamaica was contained in a diplomatic cable captioned 'fraud summary' and covered the period March 2009 to August 2009.
According to the leaked diplomatic cable, the US Embassy in Kingston "often requests applicants to undergo DNA testing because their fathers' name is either not on the birth certificate at all, or was added many years after their birth".
However, one in every 10 men who turns up at the US Embassy is often told the DNA test proves that he is not the biological father of the child.
A section of the cable in October 2009 said: "Approximately 10 per cent of all cases where DNA is done result in no biological relationship. This percentage does not include those applicants that choose to abandon their case rather than undergo DNA testing".
Every year, thousands of Jamaicans apply for non-immigrant and immigrant visas.
"The US Embassy needs to stop the DNA testing, it destroys lives and splits up families. I wouldn't care even if is not mine, what you don't know will [not] hurt you. This result was the furthest thing from my mind. I am so stressed, my kids' dem future blighted. What is going to happen to them now? I don't know if i can continue to support them. I want to call them but I can't, this is just so confusing," the DJ said.Mashable Choice highlights the best of everything we cover, have experienced first-hand and would recommend to others.
2016 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Sedan review
Tesla isn't the only carmaker with a high-performance luxury sedan that can (almost) drive itself. Mercedes has one, too.
It's called the Mercedes-AMG C63 S Sedan — the most extreme version of Mercedes-Benz all-new C-Class compact sedan that has been tuned by AMG, the German automaker's performance arm.
With its twin-turbocharged V8, clean but well-appointed interior, and semi-autonomous tech, the C63 S Sedan is more than a well-rounded sports sedan; it's a powerful glimpse into the future of high-performance luxury cars.
Steering Assist
While other driving enthusiasts will sing the praises of the C63 S for its driving prowess (don't worry; I will, too), what really struck me about Mercedes' latest compact performance sedan was its well-roundedness. It easily played the role of high-tech commuter, luxury family hauler, and four-door supercar — as exemplified by its expert handling on Angeles Crest Highway outside of Los Angeles.
Out on Angeles Crest highway, the C63 S sedan came alive. Image: Nick Jaynes/Mashable
Before I could take the C63 S Sedan out to Angeles Crest, I had to traverse through 40 minutes of LA traffic, traveling many freeways, including the 10 and the 405. Even on a Sunday, the traffic was stop-and-go — sometimes getting up to 80 miles per hour before slamming back to a near-halt. This, combined with the gradual curves of the LA freeway system, made it a perfect place to test Mercedes' DISTRONC PLUS with Steering Assist. So that's exactly what I did.
Rather than spend 500+ words explaining the semi-autonomous driving system, let's instead leave that job to the Mercedes video below.
With DISTRONIC PLUS set to 80 mph, my feet off the pedals, and only one hand lightly resting on the steering wheel, I was ready to put the system to the veritable acid test. And it met the challenge...kind of.
Unlike the Tesla Autopilot system, which confidently held the middle of the lane, or the Honda Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS) that ping-pongs between lane markers, the Mercedes system held the lane...up until the point it couldn't. I found the Mercedes was mostly capable of keeping a solid place in the lane until something threw it off — like run of deteriorated lane markings, scars left in the pavement from roadwork or sharp turns in the road. Once it encountered one or more of those, the system would simply cut out with little warning, which was more than a little unnerving.
Keep your hands on the wheel or the car will give you a stern warning. Image: Nick Jaynes/Mashable
Also distinguishing it from Tesla's Autopilot was the system's insistence that I keep my hands on the wheel at all times. Without making small steering inputs, the system would display warnings on the instrument cluster prompting me to return my hands to the wheel. This was probably for the best, though, since at any moment I could be required to take over steering at a bend in the road or if the lane markings became ambiguous.
As expected, however, the DISTRONIC PLUS portion of the system worked without flaw. It safely kept pace with traffic, slowing as needed and accelerating back to my preset cruise speed when it had chance to.
Angeles Crest
Out on Angeles Crest Highway, which runs over the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, the C63 S showed its sporting side. And rightfully so: It's powered by one of the finest performance V8s on the market.
Built by hand, the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 makes 503 horsepower. Image: Nick Jaynes/Mashable
Underneath the muscular hood lies a hand-built 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 that produces 503 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. Churning through the AMG 7-speed automatic sport transmission and out to the rear wheels, that power will push the C63 S to do 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds on the way to an electronically limited top speed of 180 mph.
Straight-line speed really tells only a small portion of the C63 S story. While it's very, very quick, and sounds like B52 Bomber flying into an erupting volcano, its handling capabilities are what set it apart in the sport sedan world.
Historically, German sport sedans have usually felt very heavy during high-speed cornering. That's because luxury appointments add extra weight — leather, wood, and sound deadening aren't light. With the soft and sophisticated suspension that has long defined the luxury segment, drivers felt like they were wrestling an Asian elephant on a river raft during spirited outings rather than piloting a cutting-edge European power wagon.
Alternately, carmakers would sometimes affix very stiff, unforgiving suspension systems borrowed from their racing devision to the most extreme versions of their sport models in order to counteract the weight of the vehicle. These made drivers feel like they weren't recklessly wielding a wood-encrusted sports sedan but rather taking part of a cruel experiment that converted bone into sand.
Note the youthful yet decidedly Mercedes interior. Image: Nick Jaynes/Mashable
Thankfully Mercedes-AMG has fallen victim to neither performance luxury pitfall. Instead, for the C63 S, it has carefully crafted a suspension that is both sporty but sophisticated and mated it to a crisp but forgiving suspension. The result is a four-door family car that handles like a quarter-million-dollar supercar but cruises like a Cadillac (OK, it's better than a Caddy; I just liked the alliteration).
This allowed me to comfortably and competently carry extremely high speeds through the turns on Angeles Crest while the car made sounds that nearby hikers likely mistook for the mating cries of a mountain loin. Suffice it to say, the C63 S is a next-generation road-taming dynamo that makes more than its fair share of auditory splendor. Oh and the brakes are good, too.
Just a glimpse
To be fair, these are only a few of the standout features of the 2016 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Sedan — and it wasn't without a few failings. The sport seats, for example, are a bit uncomfortable and its fancy-looking Burmester speaker system lacked both clarity and oomph. However, none was enough of a drawback to sway my feelings toward the car.
As I alluded to earlier, when not trying to drive itself or being driven on the razors-edge on rural highways by a lunatic like me, it's also a top-notch commuter.
More than a sports sedan, the C63 S can (kinda) drive itself. Image: Nick Jaynes/Mashable
The C63 S Sedan has been fitted with auto start-stop that shuts down the engine at stoplights, saving precious premium fuel. On the open road, the cabin is quiet and youthful while remaining decidedly Mercedes. And when not feeling exceptionally shout-y, thanks to electronically controlled valves in the exhaust, drivers can even quiet down the exhaust with the push of a button.
It's also quite tech-savvy. The Mercedes COMAND infotainment system, which now looks like a floating tablet glued the dashboard, is easy to use and can be operated with either a knob or a touchpad that recognizes letters and symbols drawn by fingertip. And, should I have cared about such things, I could have monitored the vehicle speed on Angeles Crest by way of the bright and high-res head-up display (HUD) projected onto the windshield.
All of this wondrousness comes at a price, though. While the 2016 C63 S Sedan starts at $71,900, my press demonstrator carried a sticker of $87,155. Honestly, though, for such a pleasant, well-rounded car, that price is a virtual pittance.CINCINNATI -- A man who escaped FBI custody near Fountain Square around noon Thursday is still missing.
Mekahale Lamb, 31, is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall and 160 pounds with tattoos on his neck. He was wearing a gray hoodie and salmon pants when he escaped at Fifth and Walnut streets at about 11:45 a.m., Cincinnati Police Lt. Steve Sanders said.
After viewing surveillance video, police said Lamb was able to get out of his handcuffs. Authorities are not sure how he was able to do this.
Matthew Bertron, a representative from the FBI National Press Office, said there are no statistics in regard to individuals escaping FBI custody since it is an “extremely rare occurrence.”
Cincinnati police have not said what charges Lamb faces, but the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's website states he was charged with two counts of having a weapon under disability and one count of drug trafficking in 2013 -- all felonies.
An all-county broadcast alert has been issued to find Lamb. Cincinnati police have contacted authorities in areas of Northern Kentucky advising them to remain alert in case Lamb has crossed the bridge into Kentucky.
Between the FBI and the Cincinnati Police Department, about 50 officers spent Thursday looking for Lamb and interviewing potential witnesses. Search efforts continued through the night and into Friday.
A statement released by the FBI said Lamb should be considered dangerous and should not be approached.
Officers expect Lamb may have changed his appearance. Cincinnati police are asking the public to be on the lookout for tattoos on his neck and upper body.
Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts should contact the FBI at 513-412-4310 or call 911.
WCPO is following this story and will update information as soon as it becomes available.A security services watchdog, Sir Mark Waller, has been summoned to appear before MPs after he repeatedly refused to appear to answer their questions over the Edward Snowden leaks and other counter-terrorism issues.
Waller, who is the intelligence services commissioner, has refused to appear before the Commons home affairs select committee in a rare clash over the parliamentary accountability of Britain's intelligence agencies.
The summons was issued at midday on Thursday and is a rare move by a parliamentary committee which has the power to send for people and papers. The order to appear on 18 March was approved without a vote on the committee.
Waller is one of two former senior judges charged with the oversight of the security services, including MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, which have been at the centre of disclosures over the US National Security Agency's mass digital surveillance programmes.
The other retired judge, Sir Anthony May, is responsible specifically for oversight of the interception capabilities of the security services. He told the committee earlier that the 570,000 requests a year for communications data by public authorities was "possibly too large".
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the committee, said: "The intelligence services commissioner plays a vital role in keeping under review the way in which the home secretary and the intelligence services use the powers which they have been granted by parliament. This function was conferred on the commissioner by act of parliament, and Sir Mark must be accountable to parliament for the way in which he carries them out.
"Both the information commissioner and the interception of communications commissioner have accepted invitations to give evidence to the committee in the last few weeks. We do not see why the intelligence services commissioner should be any different and the committee was disappointed by his refusal to attend.
"Sir Mark has referred us to his published report. While the information in this report is useful to the committee, effective parliamentary scrutiny requires the opportunity to ask questions and receive full answers.
"We have therefore taken the unusual step of summoning Sir Mark. This happens only very rarely, where an essential witness declines to appear in response to an invitation. Indeed, it is the only time that this committee has summoned a witness in this parliament," he said.
The clash comes a fortnight after the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, called for a major overhaul of the oversight of Britain's intelligence services, including reform of the commissioners' roles as part of his campaign against "unaccountable power".For Hollywood movies distributed in China, a day-and-date release—that is, a theatrical opening date that falls on the same day as the domestic debut—is generally a very good thing to have. A same-day rollout in China helps to boost box office activity, because it gives Chinese moviegoers the opportunity to see a film at the same time that the rest of the world sees it, and it diminishes the negative financial impact of pirated viewings.
Foreign companies that wish to distribute their movies in China don’t get to choose their own release dates. That right falls to China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), to whom Hollywood’s studios petition for the dates they feel will best position their films in the marketplace.
Very often a day-and-date release is what’s requested. Sometimes the studios are granted their requests, but more often foreign films are delayed in China to accommodate the preferred status of domestic films, which always get the choice releasing slots at holidays and during certain “blackout” periods when Hollywood movies are shut out. That’s why pictures like Valerian: City of A Thousand Planets, Dunkirk, Baby Driver and Spider-Man: Homecoming released in September even though they had opened earlier in the year in North America.
So it came as a surprise this week when word got out that SAPPRFT had offered Disney (NYSE:DIS) a cherished day-and-date December 15th release for its Rian Johnson-written and directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the studio had turned it down (I contacted Disney for confirmation and comment on this story, but have not yet received a reply from the studio).
Disney has been on a tremendous roll for the past few years in China, so rather than second-guess the company’s decision, I’ll instead take a shot at explaining it.
On the surface, December 15th, 2017 looks like a darn good release date to me. There’s no other major studio film set to open on that date. And the only domestic Chinese competitor opening at the same time—the Tsui Hark-scripted and Woo Yuen-Ping directed The Thousand Faces of Dunjia—doesn’t appear to be a match for the Star Wars picture.
I suspect there are a couple of factors at play that caused Disney’s execs to choose to delay their film’s Middle Kingdom release date. For one thing, the company went for early January releases of its Star Wars: The Force Awakens on January 9, 2015 and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which opened on January 6th this year. Both pictures did decent-to-strong business, partly owing to the fact that there wasn’t much domestic or foreign competition at the multiplexes in those early weeks of the year. It’s only when Chinese New Year arrives— next year it falls on February 16th—that the PRC’s theaters get commandeered almost entirely by Chinese films.
Another reason is that the December 15th date may be a good one for scooping up box office revenue for the week, but the next weekend brings a slew of pre-Christmas local Chinese films that would chew into the Disney movie’s showtimes. One of those December 22nd releases is a Jackie Chan action-sci-fi-thriller, Bleeding Steel, which would probably dampen The Last Jedi’s grosses, and other openers, which include Genghis Khan and the Chen Kaige-directed Legend of the Demon Cat, would also bring a collective wallop to Star Wars 8’s prospects.
Disney is probably less concerned about the impact of piracy than it might otherwise be, because many Chinese filmgoers will want to see the picture in 3D and/or IMAX, which obviously aren't options that would be available for pirated viewings.
Rejecting the day-and-date release offer does carry some risk for Disney. It could conceivably get a worse date than the one offered. Last year Dreamworks Animation took the weekend before Chinese New Year for Kung Fu Panda 3—oddly enough, at the studio's own misguided insistence—and while it had a solid opening week, it crumbled the following week as the big Chinese New Year's releases snatched up most of its screens. That was a blow from which Dreamworks never recovered, and it wound up selling itself to Universal not long after.
Read More: 3 Reasons Why Mel Gibson Got To Have A Career Reboot, And Why Kevin Spacey Won'tTepojaco, Mexico: Mexican soldiers have set up a safety perimeter around a cancer-treating device containing dangerous radioactive material that was stolen along with a truck from a petrol station.
The people who stole the truck and removed the device from a steel-reinforced wooden box and left it in a rural area north of Mexico City are probably already dead or dying, the national nuclear safety board said.
Deadly cargo found... Police secure the area after dangerous radioactive medical material was located near a stolen truck in the town of Hueypoxtla, Mexico. Credit:Reuters
But the danger of contamination is minimal because the area where the device was found is so uninhabited, it added. No evacuations were necessary.
There was no immediate word on who might have stolen the truck. It was on its way to dispose of the disused medical device at a nuclear storage facility.Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 2016 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said so-called “hawks” like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are responsible for creating ISIS by flooding arms into the Middle East.
Host Joe Scarborough asked, “A guy that works closely with John McCain will be running against you, we think. He’s going to be a heat-seeking Rand missile throughout the entire campaign, Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham would say ISIS exists because of people like Rand Paul who said let’s not go into Syria. What do you say to Lindsey?”
Paul shot back, “I would say it’s exactly the opposite. ISIS exists and who is stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately. Most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS. These hawks wanted to bomb Assad, which would have made ISIS’ job even easier. The created these people. ISIS is all over Libya because these same hawks in my party, they loved Hillary Clinton’s war in Libya. They just wanted more of it. Libya is a failed state. It’s a disaster. Iraq really is a failed state.”
He continued, “So everything they’ve talked about in foreign policy they’ve been wrong about for 20 years, yet they somehow have the gall to point the finger otherwise.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNENThis gold lunala, homed at The National Museum of Ireland, has a fascinating more recent history as well as its ancient past.
Among the many rare and precious items at The National Museum of Ireland sits a lunala, as worn by the early kings of Ireland.
Among the many rare and precious items at The National Museum of Ireland sits a 4,000-year-old necklace and two discs which were found in a dumpster. The necklace, called a lunala, was worn by the early kings of Ireland. It is thought to date from between 2,300 and 1,800 BC. It was first discovered in March 1945 in Coggalbeg, County Roscommon by farmer Hubert Lannon. He found it in a bog while he was cutting turf and kept it in his home.
Two years later he passed the necklace on to a local chemist Patrick Sheehan, in Strokestown, who kept the priceless piece of history in his shop's safe. There it remained until February 2009, when two thieves grabbed the safe during a burglary.
In March 2010, two men pleaded guilty to the burglary and were given three-year suspended sentences. Working with the police, curators from the National Museum’s Irish Antiquities Division found out that the jewelry along with other documents and papers from the Sheehan’s safe had been left in a dumpster in Dublin.
By the time the police had received this information they literally had hours to locate the dumpster before the trash would be collected. The detectives who waded through the dumpster of trash to find the delicate jewelry, which weighs just 78 grams, were rewarded on the retrieval of the treasures.
The three pieces, the necklace, and two discs are thought to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries for many years. As the Museum director Pat Wallace said, “There is a whole lot of conjoined freaks of good luck to make it possible.”
Read more: Top ten archaeological discoveries in Ireland - PHOTOS
* Originally published in 2013.States must expand Medicaid all the way if they want to receive full Obamacare funding, federal officials said Monday.
The health care reform law enacted in 2010 calls for Medicaid to be offered to anyone who earns up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $14,856 this year. Under the law, the federal government would pay the full cost of enrolling newly eligible people from 2014 to 2016, after which the share would gradually shrink until it reached 90 percent starting in 2022.
States have been slow to embrace this aspect of Obamacare, despite the unprecedented level of federal financing for Medicaid. Texas, South Dakota, and seven other states have said they won't expand Medicaid. Officials in Indiana, New Mexico, Wisconsin and other states questioned whether they could offer benefits to fewer people by extending eligibility to some level of income below 133 percent of poverty.
After months of waiting for an answer about partially expanding Medicaid under health care reform, states received a simple reply from the Obama administration Monday: no. States that partially expand will not receive the enhanced funding that would come with a full expansion.
"The law contemplated that every American would have a way to get health insurance coverage, and Medicaid expansion to 133 percent of poverty to low-income adults was the method identified in the law," Cindy Mann, the director of the Center for Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program Services, said during a conference call with reporters.
"Some states have asked whether they could get the 100 percent federal match and expand Medicaid coverage to less than the 133 percent of poverty level specified in the law," Mann said. That amount is "a rate that Congress reserved for the full expansion, and so we are going to remain true to that intent of Congress," she said. There is no deadline for states to decide on the Medicaid expansion, and they can join at any time, she said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote a letter to governors Monday about the Medicaid expansion and other aspects of the health care law and included a question-and-answer document touching on details.
Taking the partial Medicaid expansion off the table could encourage more states to take the federal money and offer new Medicaid benefits to everyone eligible under health care reform, said Jocelyn Guyer, the co-executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
"Most states are going to look at this and eventually decide it's a good, smart investment for them to do the expansion," Guyer said. "Those states that stay out of the expansion are most likely ideologically driven."
In a statement released by the Republican Governors Association, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called the decision to not allow states more flexibility on Medicaid "as disheartening as it is short-sighted."
"The administration’s answer will make a state’s decision on Medicaid expansion more difficult," he said.
When the Supreme Court upheld the health care law in June, it allowed states to opt out of the Medicaid expansion, opening the door to uncertainty about whether Obamacare's expansion of health coverage to as many as 30 million people would reach all of the poorest uninsured people.
Governors have expressed concern about their share of the cost to expand Medicaid to more poor people despite the fact that it won't exceed 10 percent. According to an analysis of a nationwide Medicaid expansion by the Urban Institute and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, overall state spending on Medicaid would rise $76 billion between 2013 and 2022, a 2.9 percent increase, while more than 20 million people would gain coverage.
In addition to the Medicaid expansion, the health care reform law starting in 2014 will provide tax credits for private health insurance to people earning between the federal poverty level, which is $11,170 this year, and four times that amount. Residents of states that don't expand Medicaid won't gain access to health care coverage if their incomes are below poverty.
Because the tax credits will be available to people with incomes between 100 percent and 133 percent of the poverty, proponents of a partial expansion saw it as a way to reduce state Medicaid costs by enrolling fewer people in that program and instead having the federal government provide them with tax credits.
States can still seek partial Medicaid expansions under pre-Obamacare rules but would receive less federal money, Mann said. The federal government pays an average of 60 percent of the costs for people already eligible for Medicaid and the states pay the rest. The health care reform law may allow states to obtain the higher federal funding starting in 2017 but only as part of comprehensive overhaul of a state's health care system that must cover at least the same number of people as Obamacare at the same cost to the federal government and to patients, she said.
Many states also are resisting another key element of the health care reform law's coverage expansion. To date, 21 states have told federal authorities they won't create health insurance exchanges, which will be the online marketplaces for people to comparison shop for health plans and learn whether they qualify for tax credits or Medicaid benefits. The federal government will have to operate exchanges in states that don't build their own.About 10,000 fans are expected to travel to the city without tickets Manchester United fans are being urged to avoid Rome's tourist areas when they visit for the Champions League final. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is warning the expected 30,000 supporters to stay away from areas where they may be targeted by gangs. Supporters are advised not to take the metro to the Piazzale Flaminio or to use one of the Eternal City's bridges, the Ponte Duca D'Aosta. About 10,000 ticketless fans are due at next week's game against Barcelona. The FCO also issued guidance to stay "as far away as possible" from the Campo dei Fiori square, where there has been trouble in previous years. Rome welcomes the British fans with open arms and we look forward to celebrating this great sporting festival together
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno Alastair Mackie, FCO sports liaison officer, said: "This is a once in a lifetime trip for many fans and we want them all to have a fantastic time but it is important to make suitable preparations before travel. "We have been working closely with the Italian authorities and the British Embassy in Rome to ensure that fans have support in Rome and access to all the information they need to ensure a safe trip. "We would encourage fans to visit www.fco.gov.uk/football before their departure." Free transport has been organised to and from the Stadio Olimpico for official fans and between Villa Borghese and the stadium for independent fans. Pierluigi Puglia, Rome Embassy press officer, said: "We have worked closely with the Italian authorities in preparation for the event and we appreciate their excellent co-operation in developing the necessary safety measures for British fans." A 0-0 draw with Arsenal on Saturday gave United their 18th league crown, and equalled the record of rivals Liverpool. Mayor Gianni Alemanno said: "Rome welcomes the British fans with open arms and we look forward to celebrating this great sporting festival together."
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionThe legendary producer sued the artist's estate and Sony in 2013, claiming he was shorted royalties from posthumous releases.
A $10 million lawsuit filed by producer Quincy Jones over projects made after Michael Jackson's death will proceed to trial this summer, after a judge denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment on Thursday.
In 2013 Jones sued Sony Entertainment and MJJ Productions, a song company controlled by the King of Pop's estate, claiming master recordings he worked on were wrongfully edited and remixed to deprive him of backend profit participation on works including the This Is It film and soundtrack album and the 25th anniversary edition of Bad.
Jones' attorney Henry Gradstein argued the movie "couldn't have been made without these recordings" and said tracks the Jackson Estate does not control were licensed at fair market value, but the ones they did were licensed for $50,000 despite being worth much more.
Judge Michael L. Stern said there are two basic contracts at issue and both sides' arguments are rely on fundamental contract law that "you learn in the first six months of law school" without any "diversions or frills."
Despite the simplicity of the arguments, Stern said there are factual disputes that are going to require extrinsic evidence — including how to define musical terms like "remix" and "coupling."
Many of Jackson's mega-hits, including "Thriller," "Beat It" and "Billy Jean," were re-edited for the projects. Jones says MJJ breached his contract by allowing third parties to exploit the works "without first providing a reasonable opportunity to Jones to perform such remixes and/or re-edits."
Defense counsel Zia F. Modabber argues "their position is they have the perpetual right to not have anyone else touch it without Mr. Jones' permission," although for years Jones did not complain about others remixing songs he produced for Jackson.
Modabber asked the court to remove Sony from the lawsuit on the grounds that any money paid to Jones would come from MMJ, |
the stronger the commitments from the U.S.
The Gulf states got it right — the more contracts with America agreed by Saudi Arabia, the stronger the commitments from the U.S.
Poles understood as well — they agreed to buy Patriot missiles and enthusiastically supported the idea of replacing Russian gas with American liquefied natural gas, at whatever the cost. Polish President Andrzej Duda went even further and offered Poland as a hub to dispatch U.S. gas to the whole of Eastern Europe, including Ukraine. Maybe this is a reason why the Trump administration has turned its attention to Ukraine and recently started to demonstrate much more interest than before.
Trump has also transformed the trans-Atlantic ties of NATO. The Article 5 obligation for America to come to defense of any member seems no longer to be a value-based and solidarity-driven arrangement but a mere service delivered by the U.S. to its distinguished clients. And for this service, America should be paid not only by increased European defense spending but by customer loyalty as well.
Russia is confused by such an approach and is trying to figure out how to cope. Others are embarrassed too. The temptation is to ascribe this change to the peculiar characteristics of one U.S. president. Trump’s personality does indeed play a role. But looking back, it is difficult not to notice a longer trend of American disengagement from previous relationships and alliances. We’ve seen this starting from George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, with their ideas about a “coalition of the willing” and an “old” and “new” Europe, to Barack Obama’s modest interest in European affairs combined with his pivot to Asia. Trump is just taking it to the next level.
Compared to Trump's overtly mercantilist approach, Russia’s old-fashioned realism seems almost romantic.
After the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia strove to restore its statehood, its economic and political system, and its international stature. Russia felt defeated and wished to make up for its Cold War losses; the West, led by the U.S., was engulfed in euphoria and self-admiration.
But between 2008 and 2016 — from the world financial crisis to Brexit and Trump’s election, the West’s delight gradually gave way to anxiety. Eventually, it became clear that things had not gone the way they were intended to go at the end of the last century.May 14, 2014
Cecily McMillan, a leading activist in the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, has been unjustly convicted of felony assault of a police officer who assaulted her during a March 2012 demonstration, when protesters attempted to reoccupy Zuccotti Park, the site of the Occupy encampment.
Police claim that Cecily elbowed an officer in the face during her arrest. But Cecily says she merely reacted when the officer--who was dressed in plain clothes and didn't identify himself--sexually assaulted her by grabbing her breast from behind. Far from the cop being assaulted, it was Cecily who was brutalized--she suffered a seizure while lying on the sidewalk, while the ring of police around her stood and watched.
Despite video evidence and eyewitness testimony corroborating her side of the story, a jury convicted Cecily of felony assault after a trial where a plainly biased judge tipped the balance for the prosecution. Cecily has been denied bail and now sits in the Rikers Island jail awaiting her sentencing, which could include imprisonment of up to seven years.
In a statement from Rikers, Cecily wrote: "Admittedly, I was shocked by the jury's verdict on Monday, but was not surprised by the events that followed. An overreaching prosecutor plus a biased judge logically adds up to my being remanded to Rikers. I was prepared then, as I am now, to stand by my convictions and face the consequences of my actions--namely that of refusing to forsake my values and what I know to be true in exchange for my 'freedom.'"
On May 13, the University Student Senate (USS) at The New School, where Cecily is a graduate student, passed the following statement of support.*The closest thing to a Next Jordan this league has ever seen.
None of that, of course, happened immediately. Bryant started only seven games in his first two seasons on Harris’s veteran-laden, win-now squad. Even before that, shortly after draft night in 1996, Vlade Divac tried to short-circuit the agreed-upon trade that would send Bryant from the Charlotte Hornets to the Lakers by threatening to retire at age 28 rather than leave Los Angeles.
Divac ultimately came to terms with swapping Hollywood for Charlotte and consented to joining the Hornets. Bryant went on to lead or colead five Laker teams to championships, clash with O’Neal throughout their eight seasons together and tune out critics of his often shot-happy approach to finish his career as the league’s No. 3 career scorer (33,643 points).
With or without O’Neal at his side, Bryant logged a 20-season run in Lakerland that was a constant roller coaster marked by alternating glory and turbulence.
Yet as he reflects on it now, as the general manager of the Sacramento Kings, Divac said: “I wasn’t happy leaving L.A., but if I was Jerry West, I would have traded me for Kobe, too.”
As the Lakers’ longtime roster architect, West was famously smitten by the predraft workout performance that Bryant, then 17, unleashed against the longtime Lakers defensive standout Michael Cooper, who was an assistant coach by that point. As Harris tells it, Tracy McGrady had an even more impressive audition for the Lakers one year later, prompting West to make a brief but serious push to try to acquire McGrady’s draft rights and team him with O’Neal and Bryant.
“I don’t think anybody can look at an 18-year-old and say he’s a Hall of Famer,” Harris said. “You couldn’t even do that with Jordan. And Kobe was a young 18 in his first season. He was still in a pretty normal teenage body, compared to when LeBron James came in and had a man’s body.
“McGrady came in the next year with a more mature body and worked out so well that Jerry kind of tooled around with the idea that maybe we should just go ahead and make a deal for whatever it took to get this guy — even though it’d be a step back in the short term — to have two guys like this on the same team.”Infant mortality addressed by outreach Alameda County: Campaigns that focus on education and support are yielding encouraging results
Sandra Tramiel (l to r), public health nurse, Improving Pregnancy Outcomes Program, and Vanessa Moore, 14 months, hold hands during a home appointment on Thursday, October 13, 2012 in Oakland, Calif. Sandra Tramiel (l to r), public health nurse, Improving Pregnancy Outcomes Program, and Vanessa Moore, 14 months, hold hands during a home appointment on Thursday, October 13, 2012 in Oakland, Calif. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 47 Caption Close Infant mortality addressed by outreach 1 / 47 Back to Gallery
In the roughest neighborhoods of Oakland, Sandra Tramiel carries a baby scale in her knapsack as she undertakes a profound mission: saving Alameda County's black children from death before their first birthday.
Tramiel is a public health nurse, a foot soldier in a decades-long battle waged here and across the country to reduce the disproportionately high death rate of African American newborns.
In Alameda County, which has the highest proportion of African Americans in the state, there is new evidence that efforts like Tramiel's home visits are paying off. The rate of black infant deaths is on the decline, having dropped to 8.05 per 1,000 live births between 2007 and 2010, one of the lowest rates in the state.
The statewide black infant mortality rate of 9.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, is still agonizingly high, but for the first time the number is below double digits. The state saw a 21 percent drop from 2008 and 2010.
While researchers say they want to see the statewide decline sustained for several years before declaring it a trend, these gains - and other similar declines across the country - could have powerful health and social significance for the state's African American population.
"It's exciting around the country to see these places that have been successful. Boston has seen success. Washington, D.C., has seen success.... Alameda County has certainly been a major leader," said Fleda Mask Jackson, a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality.
Still many deaths
State health officials are proud that California's infant mortality rate now ranks fourth-best among all states in the nation.
Yet they also point out that California's black infants continue to die more than twice as frequently as white children, whose infant mortality rate stands at 4.1 deaths per 1,000 live births.
And in a global context, California's improved African American death rate is roughly the same as that in Sri Lanka, Botswana and a host of other developing nations.
Convinced that their work is helping to erase the long-running racial disparity, Alameda County deploys Tramiel and 14 other staff members as part of a federally funded, $2 million-a-year campaign to educate and support at-risk mothers and mothers-to-be.
Tramiel remembers her first case nearly a decade ago. A 2-month-old girl named Tatiana died of sudden infant death syndrome as she slept in her mother's bed.
"I'd never seen a tiny coffin before. I remember how hard it was for the family to pull together," she said while driving through Oakland on her rounds.
Tramiel was assigned to work with the grieving mother, Laurie Lawson, now 28. Among the topics they discussed: the importance of cribs. Due to some traditions and sometimes the cost, use of cribs has lagged in the African American community. Although there is some debate, SIDS has been linked to babies sleeping in parents' beds.
Tramiel, 66, said she told Lawson about how she had lost a child six months into her pregnancy when she was in her 20s.
"It wasn't coming from a place where I was applying book and theory to the situation," she said.
Lingering success
The bond the two women formed continues. Lawson says she changed her sleeping habits, and now she has two healthy children: Amaya, 8, and De'jon, 5.
Recovering from the loss of Tatianna was difficult; dealing with the blame from her family only compounded her grief, Lawson said.
"I had my husband and my mother-in-law saying, 'You killed my daughter, my granddaughter,' " said Lawson, whom authorities cleared of any wrongdoing. "Even to this day, sometimes I still have this fear of sleeping."
With Tramiel's support, Lawson stayed with her husband, Thurmond Hollins, through their daughter's death and even as he served five years in prison for robbery. Since his release, Hollins has found a union construction job. He credits Tramiel, marriage counselors and his incarceration to changing his perspective.
He no longer blames his wife.
"I really can't do her like that," said Hollins, 31. "She already has a lot of guilt, stress, hurt and blame."
These outreach programs are only one reason infant mortality rates have dropped. In the 1930s, death rates were almost 10 times higher. Medical advances, improved prenatal care, fewer mothers who smoke, child safety seats and reductions in teen pregnancy have led to significant declines in infant deaths.
The national rate for all infants, which topped 50 deaths per 1,000 births in 1935, has fallen to 6.8. Yet gains have slowed over the last decade, and the United States' rate has fallen to 50th in the world, one of the worst among developed countries, according to U.N. data.
Moreover, the racial disparity in the United States has been growing for much of the last century. In the 1930s, black infant deaths were 50 to 60 percent higher than white deaths; by the end of the 20th century they had become 150 percent higher.
Experts like Mask Jackson say that infant mortality rates reflect a community's access to health care, and its social, economic and environmental well-being.
"This is really is one of the barometers of equality," added Mask Jackson, who is also president and CEO of Majaica, an Atlanta think tank focused on America's uneven birth outcomes. "Each community is not going down at the same rate. There is still a disparity."
Federal assistance
Alameda County has chipped away at the black infant mortality rate since 1991, when 17.7 deaths per 1,000 live births the previous year qualified it for the national Healthy Start program.
The Healthy Start program, established by President George H. W. Bush with 15 startup programs including Alameda's, now encompasses 105 projects nationwide. The programs focus on reducing barriers to health care, providing prenatal care and promoting better health behaviors. They address needs like nutrition, housing, counseling and career support.
"Certainly, we're very hopeful," Dr. Michael Lu, the federal administrator of Healthy Start, said of reductions in infant mortality. "But on the other hand, there's still a lot of work to be done. There's still more than a two-fold gap" in racial disparities.
Known as the Improving Pregnancy Outcomes Program, Alameda County's Healthy Start effort is financed with about $2 million a year from the Department of Health and Human Services.
With a staff that includes nurses, community outreach workers, health educators and support workers, it reaches as many as 400 families a year.
"I think that where our program has been set apart from other programs of this ilk is we are very grounded in the community," said Kiko Malin, Alameda County's director of maternal child health programs.
"We're listening to women, and responding to their needs," she added.
In-home care offered
Malin's nurses enter homes in black neighborhoods with the highest infant mortality rates, an area that covers nine Alameda County ZIP codes. Office visits are also part of the program.
Aminah Robinson, an Alameda County Community Health Outreach worker, meets regularly with Mori Franklin, 22, whose obesity and diabetes puts her pregnancy at risk.
Like a stern sister, Robinson prodded Franklin about her diet during a recent session in San Leandro.
Franklin has a way of smiling and agreeing in a singsong voice, implying she is following the nutrition plan outlined for her. But with a few extra questions, Robinson discovered that the chicken she's been having for dinner was covered in gravy, and the greens she's been eating were fried.
Robinson reminded Franklin that she's not just eating for herself. She turned to a section from "Life Unto Life," a pamphlet health workers give to mothers so they can understand how a fetus develops, week to week. She reads from weeks 28 to 30:
"The fetus has the ability to breathe air in and out of its lungs," Robinson read. "The brain enters a period of rapid growth... The eyes can now open, close, and blink."
Franklin promised to work on her diet.
Baby showers
The Alameda County program identifies its mothers though referrals from other public agencies, but more often locates them through contacts with churches, hair salons and walking the sidewalks.
Three times a month, the county health department holds Club Mom baby showers for pregnant women.
The showers can draw more than 60 women on a weekend day. They are advertised with flyers and other means, but mostly through the work of "peer health leaders." These community ambassadors make $125 a month for finding and documenting contact with 20 women. They are expected to attend two meetings a month as well, and receive their payment in grocery store gift cards.
Many of the ambassadors have attended the showers, which often draw repeat visitors.
At the gatherings, baby games are played. Men are discussed. There's laughter, and a few tears.
There are also sessions on new ways to track the health of your child. A recent one showed expecting mothers how to "kick count."
The women placed their hands over their bulging bellies and were told to find a quieter setting later, then feel for 10 fetal kicks, rolls or other movement within a 2-hour period. The American Pregnancy Association reports that kick counting is important for women with high-risk pregnancies and could prevent stillbirth.
Tramiel led a recent session. She asked the women, many of them newcomers:
"How many of you are doing kick counts?"
None raised their hands.
She took note, then followed up:
"How many of you are going to do kick counts?"
Every expecting mother raised her hand.TARPON SPRINGS — A psychic was arrested Tuesday after police said she scammed two clients out of more than $150,000.
Gina Wilson, 31, ran a psychic and palm reading business out of her home at 1845 S Pinellas Ave. She is charged with scheme to defraud.
Investigators started looking into Wilson in November after a 33-year-old military veteran told police he'd been scammed by her while seeking her services to help with his post-traumatic stress disorder after two combat tours in Iraq. The man went to Wilson's home for more than 15 months. She promised to help with "the darkness surrounding him," according to an affidavit.
Wilson told the man to keep their visits a secret and persuaded him to quit taking his medications, stop seeing his doctor and therapist and told him not to speak to his mother. Before he realized he had been scammed, the man had paid Wilson roughly $92,000.
A 61-year-old woman from Palm Harbor told investigators Wilson had scammed her while she sought help to cope with the death of her husband. For months, the woman visited Wilson, who claimed she could help the woman's husband "pass on to the other side." The woman realized what Wilson was doing after Wilson asked her for more money to perform a ceremony at her husband's grave site, police said. The woman had paid Wilson more than $63,000.
Wilson was released on $50,000 bail on Wednesday.For the scientific journal, see Chemosphere (journal)
The Chemosphere is a modernist house in Los Angeles, California, designed by John Lautner in 1960. The building, which the Encyclopædia Britannica once called "the most modern home built in the world",[1] is admired both for the ingenuity of its solution to the problem of the site and for its unique octagonal design.
Design [ edit ]
The building stands on the San Fernando Valley side of the Hollywood Hills, just off Mulholland Drive. It is a one-story octagon with around 2,200 square feet (200 m2) of living space. Most distinctively, the house is perched atop a 5-foot-wide (1.5 m) concrete pole nearly 30 feet (9 m) high. This innovative design was Lautner's solution to a site that, with a slope of 45 degrees, was thought to be practically unbuildable. Because of a concrete pedestal, almost 20 feet (6 m) in diameter, buried under the earth and supporting the post, the house has survived earthquakes and heavy rains.[1] The house is reached by a funicular.[1] Chemosphere is bisected by a central, exposed brick wall with a fireplace, abutted by subdued seating, in the middle.[2]
History [ edit ]
The lot had been given to a young aerospace engineer by his father-in-law; despite his own limited means, the engineer, Leonard Malin, was determined to live there.[1] Malin had US$30,000 to spare.[2] The cost to build Chemosphere, US$140,000 (equivalent to $1.19 million in 2018), was subsidized partly by barter with two sponsoring companies, the Southern California Gas Company and the Chem Seal Corporation. Chem Seal provided the experimental coatings and resins to put the house together and inspired the name Chemosphere. (Lautner originally wanted to call the house Chapiteau.)[3] In the end Malin paid US$80,000 in cash. The Malins and their four children lived there until rising costs and the demise of the aerospace industry forced them to sell in 1972.[3]
In 1976, the house's second owner, Dr. Richard Kuhn, was stabbed to death at his home in a robbery by two men, who were subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[4]
By 1997, the interior had become run down; for over 10 years it had been rented out and used for parties and as a result the interior finishes had undergone major and anachronistic alteration.[1] Because of its unique design it proved to be a difficult sell and had sat on the market for most of its time as a rental property.[1]
Since 1998, it has been the Los Angeles home of Benedikt Taschen, of the German publishing house Taschen, who has had the home restored; the only current problem with the home is the relatively high cost of maintenance.[1][5] The recent restoration, by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, won an award from the Los Angeles Conservancy.[1] Preservation architect Frank Escher wrote the first book on Lautner a few years after moving to Los Angeles in 1988, and oversees the John Lautner Archives. During restoration the architects added details that were unavailable 40 years before, as the technology simply did not exist. The gas company tile was replaced by random-cut slate, which could not be cut thin enough in 1960, despite Lautner's desire for such a finish. The architects also replaced the original thick framed windows with frameless glass. The owners commissioned a pastiche rug by German painter Albert Oehlen and a hanging lamp of bent plexiglas strips by Jorge Pardo, a Los Angeles artist.
The Taschen family planned to commission Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to build a large new guesthouse at the base of Chemosphere on the site once owned by Leonard Malin's in-laws. The new house was intended to hold an art collection and library and to provide rooms enough for the four children the Taschens have between them.[3] The plans were later cancelled due to fears the annex would visually compete with the main house.[2] During the first few years the Taschens lived there, the house became locally famous for their parties, where photographer William Claxton and his model wife Peggy Moffitt would carouse with porn stars, jazz musicians and director Billy Wilder.[2]
Recognition [ edit ]
The Chemosphere was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2004.[6] It was also included in a list of all-time top 10 houses in Los Angeles in a Los Angeles Times survey of experts in December 2008.[7]
The house forms part of a retrospective of Lautner's work which was shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles between August and October 2008.[8]
Filming location [ edit ]
The building was first used in a dramatic film as a futuristic residence in "The Duplicate Man", a 1964 episode of the ABC TV-program The Outer Limits, based on a science fiction story by American author Clifford D. Simak. Exterior scenes for the television episode were shot on location; a detailed sound stage set of the house's interior was built. It was also used in the 1984 film Body Double, directed by Brian De Palma.[2]
It appears in the end credits of the 2015 Disney fantasy film, Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney.[9]Education in the Soviet Union was organized in a highly centralized government-run system. Its advantages were total access for all citizens and post-education employment. The Soviet Union recognized that the foundation of their system depended upon an educated population and development in the broad fields of engineering, the natural sciences, the life sciences and social sciences, along with basic education.[1]
History [ edit ]
In Imperial Russia, according to the 1897 Population Census, literate people made up 28.4 percent of the population. Literacy levels of women were a mere 13%.
In the first year after the Bolshevik revolution the schools were left very much to their own devices. People's Commissariat for Education directed its attention solely towards introducing political propaganda into the schools and forbidding religious teaching. In the autumn of 1918 the Uniform Labour School Regulations were issued. From October 1, 1918 all types of schools came under Commissariat for Education and were designated by the name Uniform Labour School. They were divided into two standards: the first for children from 8 to 13, and the second for children from 14 to 17. During the 8th Party Congress of 1919, the creation of the new Socialist system of education was said to be the major aim of the Soviet government. After that, Soviet school policy was the subject of numerous radical changes.
Russian Civil War and War communism years led to a sharp drop in the number of schools and enrolled students. Whereas in 1914, 91% of the children were receiving instruction in the schools, in 1918 figure dropped to 62%, in 1919 to 49% and in 1920 to 24.9%.[2] As a result, illiteracy grew rapidly.
In accordance with the Sovnarkom decree of 26 December, 1919, signed by its head Vladimir Lenin, the new policy of likbez ("liquidation of illiteracy"), was introduced. The new system of universal compulsory education was established for children. Millions of illiterate adult people all over the country, including residents of small towns and villages, were enrolled in special literacy schools. Komsomol members and Young Pioneer detachments played an important role in the education of illiterate people in villages. In the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the women's literacy campaign was largely carried out by members of the Ali Bayramov Club, a women's organization founded by Azeri Bolshevik women in Baku in 1920.[3] The most active phase of likbez lasted until 1939. In 1926, the literacy rate was 56.6 percent of the population. By 1937, according to census data, the literacy rate was 86% for men and 65% for women, making a total literacy rate of 75%.[4]
An important aspect of the early campaign for literacy and education was the policy of "indigenisation" (korenizatsiya). This policy, which lasted essentially from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s, promoted the development and use of non-Russian languages in the government, the media, and education. Intended to counter the historical practices of Russification, it had as another practical goal assuring native-language education as the quickest way to increase educational levels of future generations. A huge network of so-called "national schools" was established by the 1930s, and this network continued to grow in enrollments throughout the Soviet era. Language policy changed over time, perhaps marked first of all in the government's mandating in 1938 the teaching of argarian[clarification needed] as a required subject of study in every non-Russian school, and then especially beginning in the latter 1950s a growing conversion of non-Russian schools to Russian as the main medium of instruction.[5] However, an important legacy of the native-language and bilingual education policies over the years was the nurturing of widespread literacy in dozens of languages of indigenous nationalities of the USSR, accompanied by widespread and growing bilingualism in which Russian was said to be the "language of internationality communication."[6]
In 1923 a new school statute and curricula were adopted. Schools were divided into three separate types, designated by the number of years of instruction: "four year", "seven year" and "nine year" schools. Seven and nine-year (secondary) schools were scarce, compared to the "four-year" (primary) schools, making it difficult for the pupils to complete their secondary education. Those who finished seven-year schools had the right to enter Technicums. Only nine-year school led directly to university-level education.
The curriculum was changed radically. Independent subjects, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, the mother tongue, foreign languages, history, geography, literature or science were abolished. Instead school programmes were subdivided into "complex themes", such as "the life and labour of the family in village and town" for the first year or "scientific organisation of labour" for the 7th year of education. Such a system was a complete failure, however, and in 1928 the new programme completely abandoned the complex themes and resumed instruction in individual subjects.
All students were required to take the same standardised classes. This continued until the 1970s when older students began being given time to take elective courses of their own choice in addition to the standard courses.[7]
Since 1918 all Soviet schools were co-educational. In 1943, urban schools were separated into boys and girls schools. In 1954 the mixed-sex education system was restored.
Soviet education in 1930s–1950s was inflexible and suppressive. Research and education, in all subjects[8] but especially in the social sciences, was dominated by Marxist-Leninist ideology and supervised by the CPSU. Such domination led to abolition of whole academic disciplines such as genetics.[9] Scholars were purged as they were proclaimed bourgeois and non-Marxist during that period. Most of the abolished branches were rehabilitated later in Soviet history, in the 1960s–1990s (e.g., genetics was in October 1964), although many purged scholars were rehabilitated only in post-Soviet times. In addition, many textbooks - such as history ones - were full of ideology and propaganda, and contained factually inaccurate information (see Soviet historiography).[10] The educational system’s ideological pressure continued, but in the 1980s, the government’s more open policies influenced changes that made the system more flexible. Shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed, schools no longer had to teach subjects from the Marxist-Leninist perspective at all.[11]
Another aspect of the inflexibility was the high rate at which pupils were held back and required to repeat a year of school. In the early 1950s, typically 8–10% of pupils in elementary grades were held back a year. This was partly attributable to the pedagogical style of teachers, and partly to the fact that many of these children had disabilities that impeded their performance. In the latter 1950s, however, the Ministry of Education began to promote the creation of a wide variety of special schools (or "auxiliary schools") for children with physical or mental handicaps.[12] Once those children were taken out of the mainstream (general) schools, and once teachers began to be held accountable for the repeat rates of their pupils, the rates fell sharply. By the mid-1960s the repeat rates in the general primary schools declined to about 2%, and by the late 1970s to less than 1%.[13]
The number of schoolchildren enrolled in special schools grew fivefold between 1960 and 1980. However, the availability of such special schools varied greatly from one republic to another. On a per capita basis, such special schools were most available in the Baltic republics, and least in the Central Asian ones. This difference probably had more to do with the availability of resources than with the relative need for the services by children in the two regions.[14]
In the 1970s and 1980s, approximately 99.7% of Soviet people were literate.[citation needed]
Classification and terms [ edit ]
The Soviet educational system was organized into three levels. The names of these levels were and are still used to rate the education standards of persons or particular schools, despite differences in the exact terminology used by each profession or school. Military, militsiya, KGB and Party schools were also graded according to these levels. This distinguishes Soviet system from the rest of the world, where educational levels of schools may differ, despite their similar names.
Elementary schools were called the "beginning" level (Russian: начальное, nachalnoye), 4 and later 3 classes. Secondary schools were 7 and later 8 classes (required complete elementary school) and called "incomplete secondary education" (Russian: неполное среднее образование, nepolnoye sredneye obrazavaniye). This level was compulsory for all children (since 1958-1963) and optional for under-educated adults (who could study in so-called "evening schools"). Since 1981, the "complete secondary education" level (10 or, in some republics, 11 years) was compulsory.
10 classes (11 classes in the Baltic republics) of an ordinary school was called "secondary education" (Russian: среднее образование—literally, "middle education").
PTUs, tekhnikums, and some military facilities formed a system of so-called “secondary specialized education” (Russian: среднее специальное, sredneye spetsialnoye). PTU's were vocational schools and trained students in a wide variety of skills ranging from mechanic to hairdresser. Completion of a PTU after primary school did not provide a full secondary diploma or a route to such a diploma. However, entry to a tekhnikum or other specialized secondary school could be started after either 8 or 10 classes of combined education in elementary and secondary school. Graduation from this level was required for the positions of qualified workers, technicians and lower bureaucrats (see also vocational education, professions, training).
“Higher” (Russian: высшее, vyssheye) educational institutions included degree-level facilities: universities, “institutes” and military academies. "Institute" in the sense of a school refers to a specialized "microuniversity" (mostly technical), usually subordinate to the ministry associated with their field of study. The largest network "institutes" were medical, pedagogic (for the training of schoolteachers), construction and various transport (automotive and road, railroad, civil aviation) institutes. Some of those institutes were present in every oblast' capital while others were unique and situated in big cities (like the Literature Institute and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology ). Colloquially these universities and institutes were all referred to by the acronym "VUZ" (ВУЗ – высшее учебное заведение, "higher educational institution").
Students who wanted admission to a VUZ had to have graduated from either a general secondary school (10 or 11 years) or a specialized secondary school or a tekhnikum. Those who completed only vocational school (PTU) or "incomplete secondary school" were not certified as having completed secondary education (they lacked an аттестат зрелости – maturity certificate – or equivalent diploma from a specialized secondary school) and were thus not eligible to attend a VUZ.
Numerous military and militsiya (police) schools (Russian: высшее училище/школа, vyshee uchilische/shkola) were on the same higher level. Note that Soviet military and militsiya facilities named "Academy" (Russian: Академия, Akademiya) were not a degree-level school (like Western military academies such as West Point), but a post-graduate school for experienced officers. Such schools were compulsory for officers applying for the rank of colonel, see Soviet military academies.
KGB's higher education institutions were called either "schools" (like "Higher School of KGB") or "institutes" (like "Red Banner Institute of KGB" - training specifically intelligence officers).
CPSU's higher education institutions were called "Higher Party Schools" (Russian: Высшая партийная школа, vysshaya partiynaya shkola).
The spirit and structure of Soviet education is mostly inherited by many post-Soviet countries despite formal changes and social transitions.
See also [ edit ]
Citations [ edit ]
^ M. L. Spearman, "Scientific and technical training in the Soviet Union," NASA, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, AIAA-1983-2520, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Aircraft Design,Systems and Technology Meeting, Fort Worth, TX, Oct 17-19, 1983. ^ Russia U.S.S.R.: A Complete Handbook New York: William Farquhar Payson. 1933. p. 665. ^ Heyat, F. 2002. Azeri women in transition. London: Routledge. 89-94. ^ Stalin's peasants: resistance and survival in the Russian village after collectivization. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 225-6 & fn. 78 p. 363. 28293091. Fitzpatrick, S. (1994).. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 225-6 & fn. 78 p. 363. OCLC ^ American Political Science Review 78 (December 1984): 1019-1039. For literature concerning policy change over time, see the article on Russification. For an analysis of changes over time in the extent of native-language schooling, see Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934-1980,"78 (December 1984): 1019-1039. ^ See the essay on Russification ^ Grant, Nigel (1979). Soviet Education. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 39–40. ^ Grant, Nigel (1979). Soviet Education. Harmondsworth: Penguin. p. 27. ^ See the articles on Trofim Lysenko and Lysenkoism ^ The Use and Abuse of History: Or How the Past Is Taught to Children. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN Aspects and variations of Soviet history. Ferro, Marc (2003).London; New York: Routledge. 978-0-415-28592-6. See Chapter 8, ^ Brodinsky, Ben (1992). "The Impact of Perestroika on Soviet Education". Phi Delta Kappan. 73 (5): 379. JSTOR 20404646. ^ The generic category (школы для детей с дефектами [недостатками] физического и умственного развития — schools for children with defects (deficiencies) of physical and mental development – included schools for children who were deaf, hearing impaired, speech impaired, partially sighted, orthopedically handicapped, or mentally retarded but educable. Com |
] => 1 [is_free] => 0 [views] => 0 [view_count] => 4841731 [comments] => 0 [comment_count] => 7 [votes] => 0 [vote_count] => 0 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 443 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.572009 [community_tier_list_rank] => 3 [score] => 0 [lastpost_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [last_comment_ts] => 2018-01-29 03:57:15 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 737 [create_ts] => 2014-12-11 00:00:00 ) ) [2] => Array ( [champion_id] => 106 [rank] => 4 [description] => Decent matchup. Dodge her E and you're sweet. Also very squishy. [display_order] => 3 [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 106 [display_name] => Elise [url_str] => elise [title] => The Spider Queen [key] => [description] => Elise's entrancing beauty and grace conceal the pitiless, black heart of a deadly predator. With ruthless cunning, she lures the unsuspecting with promises of favor from the spider god. Having exchanged her humanity to become something far more sinister, Elise sacrifices the innocent to maintain her power and seemingly eternal youth. No one can fathom how many have been caught in her web, slain to feed her insatiable hunger. [spotlight_embed_url] => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOz4uDKs2dM [role] => Mage [defense_rating] => 5 [magic_rating] => 7 [attack_rating] => 6 [difficulty_rating] => 9 [damage_rating] => 2 [mobility_rating] => 2 [cc_rating] => 2 [toughness_rating] => 2 [utility_rating] => 1 [health] => 529 [health_increase] => 0 [mana] => 324 [mana_increase] => 0 [movement_speed] => 330 [armor] => 22.1 [armor_increase] => 0 [magic_resistance] => 30 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 47 [attack_damage_increase] => 0 [critical_strike] => 0 [critical_strike_increase] => 0 [health_regeneration] => 5.7 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0 [mana_regeneration] => 6 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0 [attack_range] => 550 [attack_speed] => 0.625 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 0.811 [health_18] => 1889 [mana_18] => 1174 [movement_speed_18] => 330 [armor_18] => 79.1 [magic_resistance_18] => 38.5 [attack_damage_18] => 98 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 15.9 [mana_regeneration_18] => 19.6 [attack_range_18] => 550 [tip_playing_as] => *Spider Form is most effective at finishing off enemies with low health; Human Form's Neurotoxin does more damage to healthy foes. *When in Spider Form, Spiderlings will attack the target that Elise uses Venomous Bite on. *Elise's Spider Form and Spider Form abilities do not cost mana and can be prioritized when you are trying to conserve mana. [tip_playing_against] => *Elise's Spider Form is more dangerous when you are at low health, and her Human Form more potent when you are at high health. *Rappel will only move Elise straight up and down unless she can descend upon an enemy unit. *Rappel has a long cooldown. Elise is vulnerable after she has used it. [client_id] => 60 [riot_points] => 880 [influence_points] => 4800 [icon] => [is_published] => 1 [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_free] => 0 [views] => 0 [view_count] => 8868832 [comments] => 0 [comment_count] => 16 [votes] => 0 [vote_count] => 0 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 505 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.493465 [community_tier_list_rank] => 2 [score] => 0 [lastpost_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [last_comment_ts] => 2013-02-10 16:19:22 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 606 [create_ts] => 2012-10-26 00:00:00 ) ) [3] => Array ( [champion_id] => 45 [rank] => 2 [description] => Really don't like this matchup. It's hard to R his E (most of the time you'll get hit by it even if you time R perfectly), he's usually tanky, and does good damage because we build no MR. [display_order] => 4 [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 45 [display_name] => Gragas [url_str] => gragas [title] => The Rabble Rouser [key] => Gragas [description] => The foothills of the Great Barrier are home to the hardiest people found anywhere on Valoran. Only those with great fortitude and endurance dwell in what is perhaps the most rugged and unforgiving environment anywhere on the face of Runeterra. It is here that the mighty Gragas keeps permanent residence, living south of Noxus. This behemoth of a man has long eschewed the rigors of civilization for what he calls his ''slice of paradise;'' he has no neighbors to bother him and plenty of space to pursue his life's ambition - brewing. Grogs, ales, meads, and wine - nothing is beyond his skill to brew. What makes Gragas a truly special brewmaster, however, is his proximity to a large and powerful nexus. The magic of this nexus has seeped into his fermented creations, and Gragas has consumed enough of his own poison over the years to slake the thirst of an army. This arcane alcohol has caused Gragas to swell both in height and girth; he looms over the tallest of men and boasts nearly twice their width. To complement his immoderate size, Gragas has developed an ornery temper - one fueled by liquor and raw magic. His infrequent sojourns into Noxus for supplies always unfold the same way: Gragas enters a Noxian tavern, Gragas gets into several fights, Gragas lays out countless citizens, and finally Gragas flees for the foothills with Noxian constables in hot - though reluctant - pursuit. His misadventures have garnered him the attention of several summoners in the League of Legends, and he is now a willing champion in the arenas... doling out hard liquor and harder fists. The Rabble Rouser leaves a path of drunken destruction in his wake, both in the Fields of Justice and off. [spotlight_embed_url] => [role] => Fighter [defense_rating] => 7 [magic_rating] => 6 [attack_rating] => 4 [difficulty_rating] => 5 [damage_rating] => 2 [mobility_rating] => 2 [cc_rating] => 3 [toughness_rating] => 3 [utility_rating] => 1 [health] => 584 [health_increase] => 84 [mana] => 400 [mana_increase] => 44 [movement_speed] => 330 [armor] => 26.1 [armor_increase] => 2.56 [magic_resistance] => 32.1 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 61.4 [attack_damage_increase] => 3.222 [critical_strike] => 2 [critical_strike_increase] => 0 [health_regeneration] => 5.5 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0.147 [mana_regeneration] => 6 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0.05 [attack_range] => 125 [attack_speed] => 0.625 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 0.843 [health_18] => 2097 [mana_18] => 1199 [movement_speed_18] => 330 [armor_18] => 87.2 [magic_resistance_18] => 53.4 [attack_damage_18] => 120.9 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 14 [mana_regeneration_18] => 19.6 [attack_range_18] => 125 [tip_playing_as] => * The buff from Drunken Rage is applied at the end of the channel, so try to use it before going into fight. * Try to knock enemies back into towers with Explosive Cask. * Try to combo Body Slam with Explosive Cask to set up kills for your team. [tip_playing_against] => * Gragas can knock everybody away with his ultimate. Be careful that you don't get knocked into him or, worse, an enemy tower. * Body Slam is on a very low cooldown, making it difficult to pursue Gragas. Don't overextend yourself chasing him. [client_id] => 79 [riot_points] => 790 [influence_points] => 3150 [icon] => [is_published] => 1 [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_free] => 0 [views] => 19060 [view_count] => 6941450 [comments] => 2 [comment_count] => 9 [votes] => 6 [vote_count] => 6 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 475 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.474947 [community_tier_list_rank] => 2 [score] => 6 [lastpost_ts] => 2011-03-20 13:07:46 [last_comment_ts] => 2011-07-17 20:47:22 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 139 [create_ts] => 2010-02-02 00:00:00 ) ) [4] => Array ( [champion_id] => 85 [rank] => 1 [description] => The worst matchup for Shaco imo. Can never stay on him in skirmishes and he can turn and one-shot us. [display_order] => 5 [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 85 [display_name] => Graves [url_str] => graves [title] => The Outlaw [key] => [description] => Malcolm Graves was born in the back of a Bilgewater tavern and left there with a bottle of spiked milk. He survived a childhood in the pirate-run slums using every dirty trick in the book. Intent on building a new life for himself, he stowed away on the first ship to the mainland he could sneak aboard. However, the grim realities of the world forced him to eke out an unsavory living in the underground of various city-states, jumping the border whenever things got too hot. At a particularly high-stakes game of cards, he found himself seated opposite Twisted Fate. They both flipped four aces on the final hand. It was the first time either conman had met his equal. The two formed an alliance, swindling marks at the tables and scrapping back-to-back in the alleys afterward. Together, they ran the streets � stacking chips, decks, and charges. Unfortunately Graves made the mistake of hustling a hefty sum from Dr. Aregor Priggs, a high-ranking Zaunite official and businessman. When Priggs discovered how he'd been played, he became obsessed with revenge. He learned about Twisted Fate's all-consuming desire to control magic and he promptly offered him a trade: serve Graves up in exchange for enrollment in a procedure which would grant his wish. Twisted Fate took the deal � both he and Graves knew the stakes of their arrangement, but the offer was too good. Once acquired, Priggs had Graves taken to a special location built to hold men whose crimes � or more precisely their punishments � were meant to stay off the books. Graves endured years of captivity at the hands of Zaun's most unscrupulous wardens before he managed to escape. One of his fellow detainees introduced him to an eccentric gunsmith who modified a shotgun exactly to his specifications. After he paid a visit to Priggs, Graves joined the League of Legends with two targets in his sights: Twisted Fate and payback. ''They got a saying in the locker: ain't got nothin' but time to plan.'' -Graves [spotlight_embed_url] => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWzyB4xe7Y8 [role] => Marksman [defense_rating] => 5 [magic_rating] => 3 [attack_rating] => 8 [difficulty_rating] => 3 [damage_rating] => 3 [mobility_rating] => 2 [cc_rating] => 1 [toughness_rating] => 2 [utility_rating] => 2 [health] => 551 [health_increase] => 0 [mana] => 322 [mana_increase] => 0 [movement_speed] => 340 [armor] => 24.4 [armor_increase] => 0 [magic_resistance] => 30 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 66 [attack_damage_increase] => 0 [critical_strike] => 0 [critical_strike_increase] => 0 [health_regeneration] => 8 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0 [mana_regeneration] => 7.9 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0 [attack_range] => 425 [attack_speed] => 0.625 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 1.016 [health_18] => 2115 [mana_18] => 1002 [movement_speed_18] => 340 [armor_18] => 82.2 [magic_resistance_18] => 38.5 [attack_damage_18] => 117 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 19.9 [mana_regeneration_18] => 19.8 [attack_range_18] => 425 [tip_playing_as] => [tip_playing_against] => [client_id] => 104 [riot_points] => 880 [influence_points] => 4800 [icon] => [is_published] => 1 [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_free] => 0 [views] => 0 [view_count] => 8120222 [comments] => 0 [comment_count] => 8 [votes] => 0 [vote_count] => 0 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 481 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.445322 [community_tier_list_rank] => 2 [score] => 0 [lastpost_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [last_comment_ts] => 2014-02-16 04:00:44 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 147 [create_ts] => 2011-10-19 00:00:00 ) ) [5] => Array ( [champion_id] => 96 [rank] => 5 [description] => Find this easy. You can evade his E and R easily. Squishy as well so invade/fight! [display_order] => 6 [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 96 [display_name] => Hecarim [url_str] => hecarim [title] => The Shadow of War [key] => [description] => Hecarim is a towering, armored specter whose name is whispered fearfully across the length and breadth of Runeterra. He patrols the Shadow Isles, running down anyone foolish enough to set foot upon its cursed soil. As the vanguard of undeath, Hecarim rides forth from the Black Mist, laughing mockingly as he tramples the living beneath his iron-shod hooves. [spotlight_embed_url] => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DVGJm-u6To [role] => Fighter [defense_rating] => 6 [magic_rating] => 4 [attack_rating] => 8 [difficulty_rating] => 6 [damage_rating] => 2 [mobility_rating] => 2 [cc_rating] => 2 [toughness_rating] => 2 [utility_rating] => 1 [health] => 600 [health_increase] => 0 [mana] => 327 [mana_increase] => 0 [movement_speed] => 345 [armor] => 26.7 [armor_increase] => 0 [magic_resistance] => 32.1 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 58 [attack_damage_increase] => 0 [critical_strike] => 0 [critical_strike_increase] => 0 [health_regeneration] => 7 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0 [mana_regeneration] => 6.5 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0 [attack_range] => 175 [attack_speed] => 0.67 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 0.955 [health_18] => 2215 [mana_18] => 956 [movement_speed_18] => 345 [armor_18] => 94.7 [magic_resistance_18] => 53.4 [attack_damage_18] => 112.4 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 19.8 [mana_regeneration_18] => 16.7 [attack_range_18] => 175 [tip_playing_as] => * Spirit of Dread restores health when nearby enemies take damage, including damage dealt by allies. Cast this during a large fight to maximize Hecarim's survivability. * Devastating Charge deals more damage based on the distance travelled. Try using Onslaught of Shadows or Summoner Spells such as Ghost or Flash to maximize this damage. [tip_playing_against] => * Hecarim gains life from nearby enemies with Spirit of Dread but lacks durability, use burst damage. * Hecarim's ultimate causes opponents to flee in terror. Spread out to reduce his power in fights. [client_id] => 120 [riot_points] => 880 [influence_points] => 4800 [icon] => [is_published] => 1 [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_free] => 0 [views] => 0 [view_count] => 5107409 [comments] => 0 [comment_count] => 8 [votes] => 0 [vote_count] => 0 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 433 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.543649 [community_tier_list_rank] => 3 [score] => 0 [lastpost_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [last_comment_ts] => 2018-02-13 11:44:43 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 590 [create_ts] => 2012-04-18 00:00:00 ) ) [6] => Array ( [champion_id] => 133 [rank] => 3 [description] => All about the first couple of levels. Can be annoying playing from behind but easy playing ahead. [display_order] => 7 [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 133 [display_name] => Ivern [url_str] => ivern [title] => The Green Father [key] => [description] => Ivern Bramblefoot, known to many as the Green Father, is a peculiar half man, half tree who roams Runeterra's forests, cultivating life everywhere he goes. He knows the secrets of the natural world, and holds deep friendshipswith all things that grow, fly and scuttle. Ivern wanders the wilderness, imparting strange wisdom to any he meets, enriching the forests, and occasionally entrusting loose-lipped butterflies with his secrets. [spotlight_embed_url] => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-gsY5oAsL0 [role] => Support [defense_rating] => 5 [magic_rating] => 7 [attack_rating] => 3 [difficulty_rating] => 7 [damage_rating] => 1 [mobility_rating] => 2 [cc_rating] => 3 [toughness_rating] => 1 [utility_rating] => 3 [health] => 580 [health_increase] => 0 [mana] => 450 [mana_increase] => 0 [movement_speed] => 330 [armor] => 22 [armor_increase] => 0 [magic_resistance] => 32.1 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 50 [attack_damage_increase] => 0 [critical_strike] => 0 [critical_strike_increase] => 0 [health_regeneration] => 2.9 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0 [mana_regeneration] => 6.2 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0 [attack_range] => 125 [attack_speed] => 0.644 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 1.016 [health_18] => 2110 [mana_18] => 1470 [movement_speed_18] => 330 [armor_18] => 81.5 [magic_resistance_18] => 53.4 [attack_damage_18] => 101 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 21.4 [mana_regeneration_18] => 18.9 [attack_range_18] => 125 [tip_playing_as] => *Try to help allies follow up a good Rootcaller hAn anime adaptation of Shiden Kanzaki's Black Bullet novel was announced at the Dengeki Bunko Fall Festival 2013 event on Sunday.
Masayuki Kojima (Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, The Piano Forest) will be directing the anime at Kinema Citrus from scripts by Tatsuhiko Urahata (Saki Episode of Side A, Cardfight!! Vanguard). Senbon Umishima is designing the characters, while Shiro Sagisu (Bleach, Neon Genesis Evangelion) is composing the music. Leading the cast for the anime will be Yuuki Kaji (Attack on Titan, Guilty Crown) as Rentarō Satomi, Rina Hidaka (Ro-Kyu-Bu!, Accel World) as Enju Aihara, and Rikiya Koyama (Utawarerumono, Fate/Zero) as Kagetane Hiruko.
The story of Black Bullet revolves around the high-schooler Rentarō, a young man who has a superior, mysterious ability in an age of humans that fight against the Gastrea, a race of viral parasites. The story describes Rentarō's actions in a not too distant future.
Kanzaki began publishing the story under the Dengeki Bunko label with illustrations by Saki Ukai in July 2011, and Ascii Media Works is shipping the sixth volume of the light novel series on Thursday.
[Source: Dengeki Online via 0takomu]Show full PR text
Northrop Grumman Unveils Newest Intel Gathering Aircraft System
Allows Users to Operate Multiple Sensor Payloads Simultaneously
SAN DIEGO, May 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Military users will be able to get real-time high-definition video, view infrared imagery, use radar and even listen in on communications signals – all at the same time – using a new intelligence-gathering aircraft system unveiled today by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC).
Firebird offers a large internal payload bay and an ability to operate multiple intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and communications payloads simultaneously through a universal interface. The system is designed to be flown as a manned or unmanned aircraft.
As lead for the Firebird program, Northrop Grumman developed the unmanned systems architecture, control and mission systems. The company chose Scaled Composites to design, build and test the aircraft – with first flight occurring just 12 months after the initial concept discussions.
"We've harnessed the innovative techniques of Northrop Grumman and Scaled Composites to deliver an unprecedented information-gathering capability," said Paul Meyer, vice president and general manager of advanced programs and technology for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "Firebird addresses future budgetary constraints by combining the best of our piloted and unmanned ISR systems into a single solution ready for a variety of ISR missions."
Firebird's universal interface is similar to plugging a memory stick into a personal computer that is automatically recognized without needing to load additional software.
"Not only have we increased the number of ISR sensors working simultaneously in an aircraft of this size, but we can also incorporate various sensors that complement each other – greatly enhancing Firebird's information-gathering value for warfighters," said Rick Crooks, Northrop Grumman's Firebird program manager. "Firebird is an adaptable system that makes it highly affordable because of the number of different missions it can accomplish during a single flight. It's a real game changer."
From inception, Firebird was designed to be flown as a manned or unmanned aircraft and can be quickly modified for either option.
"Military users will also find it much easier to exploit intelligence data from Firebird because the information is put into a single tool that allows them to easily make decisions," said Crooks. "The internal payload bay also does away with the need to carry external pods to house sensor payloads that can cause drag and affect how long the aircraft can stay in the air."
Firebird is set for an operational demonstration in an optionally-piloted configuration from May 23 – June 3, 2011, during Empire Challenge 2011, a military exercise run by U.S. Joint Forces Command.United States
Silicon Valley
Pew Research Center
USA
America
Bangalore University
By Dr N PrabhudevMany Indians fantasize about their life in the, and desire to live the American dream. Today,NRIs are the second largest Asian group in the US.One in every nine Indians in the US is a millionaire. One-third of the engineers inare of Indian descent, while 7% of valley hi-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs. Many people in India are proud of the successes of their 3.1 million kin who have immigrated to the US. According to the, the median income for Indian-American families in 2010 was $88,000, nearly twice the national average.Hundreds of us Indians emigrate every year: for higher education, lucrative jobs, better lifestyle propelling us into the orbit of success. In this process, we leave behind our biggest treasure - our parents. Parents who toiled away several years of their youth, spent a chunk of their retirement savings, and made sure they left no stone unturned to get us to our destination. It is on these stooped shoulders that we stood tall so we could reach unimaginable heights. No, they don’t remind us of this. Empty nest syndrome is a feeling of grief and loneliness parents may feel when their children leave home, such as to live on their own or go abroad. Since young adults moving out from their families’ house is generally a normal and healthy event, the symptoms of empty nest syndrome often go unrecognized. This can result in depression and a loss of purpose for parents, since the departure of their children from “the nest” leads to adjustments in parents’ lives.But between the broad smiles, behind the cheerful exterior and in those moist eyes lies an untold story - A tale of loneliness, anxiety, fear and uncertainty that they would rather leave untold. After the initial euphoria has settled, realization dawns that one’s children are miles away, thousands of miles. Worry for the safety and wellness of their children takes over their minds. Regular phone calls are reassuring but knowing that one cannot aid or be aided bothers. The anxiety of being away from one’s children in times of illness and emergencies sets in.What about our duty as their children? What do we give them beyond materialistic happiness and intermittent bouts of satisfaction? They are happy for us, proud of our achievements and watch our progress from a distance. They are not going to complain and will continue to take things in their stride. Although, the fear of ageing without their children and uncertainty of how life will unfold is at the back of their minds, they will rarely, if ever, give us a glimpse of this unease. Parents love their children and children love their children. Old parents love their children and children’s children too equally. Life inis just related to your profession. The madness to achieve and excel is overbearing. The loans taken to study are huge and it affects your entire family. When it’s payback time after getting a job, it takes 4–5 years to financially settle and build on savings. Moreover, the work here is contracted where you can be terminated at anytime. Your life is heavily dependent on money in USA. Getting a job as you age may be difficult. Initially, they are home sick. Office, family and children take their time. Then they form a intimate group for festivities and functions virtually on weekends. This life goes on. Bringing up children without family ties would make them individualistic and they would accept that they have to do everything for themselves with no one to trust/take care.Spending time with grandchildren can be challenging too as they may not understand their ‘foreign’ accents and have a hard time communicating if the grandchild does not speak their language. After high school, most likely they would move out of the house and settle somewhere else and end up in the same cycle as us. They would be left with some stranger throughout their childhood. Raising children from birth to 7 years is next to impossible.Children need not only the love and guidance from their parents, but also the role-modeling necessary to make them strong. The children go to daycare. Our children wouldn’t be connected to their family (as we can afford to go to India only once in 1–2 years). We would not be able to spend time with them as we would be busy earning money for their education, college, and necessities of life; we are busy in the office. This process is neither helping our parents, nor our children and us. There are no easy solutions for some issues. We made a choice in leaving our home and our parents. We learn that money cannot buy our parents’ happiness and our own children’s security of joint family. The children may remain disconnected. NRIs have a love hate relationship with America. They love it for what it has given them; they loathe it for what it is giving to their children. Indian Americans love the unfettered freedom of, but when their kids start loving it too, they panic. There is glorification in a vain to insulate the child from the decadence of an American adolescence. The result is a generation gap - a rift that widens with every passing birthday. When we go to USA and start life, we buy a house which would be extremely expensive. There is no domestic help and sharing chores with family after a tiring day can be killing. This is the story of three generations: Parents in old age homes, children in daycare, and we in the office.(The author is a former Vice-Chancellor ofThe wheel has turned full circle for Wayne Rooney. He once doubted whether Manchester United were good enough for him - now the question is whether he is good enough for Manchester United.
It was in October 2010 that Rooney left United manager Sir Alex Ferguson "dumbfounded" by announcing he wanted to leave Old Trafford, suggesting fears about the strength of the squad and the club's ability to attract world-class players were at the heart of his decision.
Rooney will have been equally dumbstruck when Ferguson revealed at a squad meeting ahead of the Champions League defeat against Real Madrid that he was surplus to Tuesday's requirements.
Adding irony to Rooney's injury is that it was the arrival of the sort of world-class player he craved, in the shape of Robin van Persie, that will have made Ferguson feel more comfortable in pushing the England striker to the margins.
Media playback is not supported on this device Football Focus Big Interview - Wayne Rooney
Ferguson hinted at fitness issues amid ongoing concerns about Rooney's condition. It was a subtle reference but not necessarily a flattering one.
United were also playing to a tactical framework that the Scot felt would be more suited to Danny Welbeck - a plan, it should be stressed, that was working perfectly until Nani's 56th-minute red card unnerved and unsettled United to such a degree that Real were able to turn the game around.
This, in itself, poses serious questions about Rooney's status and his future at Old Trafford.
It was not so long ago that the idea of Rooney being left out for one of United's biggest games for years would have been unthinkable, irrespective of any questions about his fitness or any gameplan Ferguson was planning to employ.
Rooney was also fit enough to make an outstanding contribution to United's 4-0 win against Norwich City just days before he was a substitute against Real Madrid, scoring a brilliant goal and setting up others for Shinji Kagawa.
At one time, he was as close to indispensable as it was possible to be at Old Trafford. Not any more, after Ferguson's decision to drop him from a game of such scale as one against Real Madrid.
Rooney stats 2012-13 Games: 26 Goals: 12 Assists: 12 2011-12 Games: 38 Goals: 29 Assists: 4 2010-11 Games: 37 Goals: 15 Assists: 13 2009-10 Games: 39 Goals: 31 Assists: 5 2008-09 Games: 43 Goals: 16 Assists: 10 2007-08 Games: 38 Goals: 15 Assists: 10 2006-07 Games: 47 Goals: 18 Assists: 11 2005-06 Games: 40 Goals: 16 Assists: 9 2004-05 Games: 35 Goals: 14 Assists: 3
The question now is whether Ferguson, as he has done before, is preparing the ground to dispense with Rooney on a permanent basis.
A measure of perspective is required. Rooney may not be the player many thought he would become when his career was in its electrifying infancy with Everton, Manchester United and England but he is still a formidable talent capable of moments of game-changing brilliance.
Not the force he could have become perhaps - but no busted flush either.
The statistics still stack up for Rooney. He has scored 12 goals in 26 games this season and added 12 assists. According to statisticians Opta, his scoring and assist rate of 0.92 per Premier League/Champions League game is equal to his best.
His overall tally since moving to Old Trafford in 2004 stands at 166 goals in 343 games, while he has scored 33 times in 79 England internationals.
This is why any decision to sell Rooney will be taken only after careful contemplation, but the signs are ominous for those, probably including the player himself, hoping he will have a long-term future with United.
Ferguson has history for using exclusion from a showpiece game as the final warning signal. As far back as dropping Jim Leighton, the trusted goalkeeper he brought from Aberdeen to Manchester United, from the 1990 FA Cup final replay against Crystal Palace through to David Beckham being left out of a Champions League game against Real Madrid in 2003 and onto Ruud van Nistelrooy being omitted for the 2006 League Cup final, a pattern emerges. Exclusion followed by departure.
And could it be that Ferguson's elephantine memory still recalls those uncertain days in 2010 when Rooney uttered the truth that dare not speak its name at Old Trafford, or to his manager, when he appeared to question the club's ambition and the quality of his colleagues?
All this could simply be building up to another bad day for Chelsea's interim manager Rafael Benitez in Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final, with the prospect of a wounded Rooney being released to work out his frustrations on Ferguson's old adversary.
But no-one should play down the significance of Rooney being sidelined for such a high-profile Champions League game.
Rooney is on a reported £250,000-a-week contract at United, awarded in the wake of his public insubordination in 2010 and is 28 in October. The £50m valuation talked about at that time can be halved now but might still be enough to tempt United to do a deal.
Ferguson has been linked with Borussia Dortmund's Robert Lewandowski, although Bayern Munich may have something to say about that, and he also has Van Persie, Javier Hernandez and Welbeck to call upon.
Further complications also lie along the road that may lead to Rooney's departure. The list of clubs he would regard as a comfortable fit for his talents is a very select one - and the number of clubs who feel they might actually wish to buy him may be even more select.
Paris Saint-Germain have been strongly linked with Rooney but would he want to play in the French league and would even their Qatari owners sanction such a high-finance deal in his current circumstances? They would want a rich return on this expensive investment |
Proponents of the gas tax say the money will go toward necessary repairs to infrastructure, such as bridges that fall apart on top of you when you drive under them.
By the way: No matter how you vote, that three-cent rise from 2013 to 2014 will stay in place. As, most likely, will some of those potholes.
Outcome: Question 1 was approved by voters on Election Day.
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Full text of the question
QUESTION 2: THE WATER BOTTLES
Here’s the deal: The year is 1983. Journey is on the radio, everyone’s drinking Tab and Miller Lite, and no one is recycling their cans and bottles. A solution emerges: make people put down a tiny ‘deposit’ when they buy sodas and beers (in Massachusetts, it’s five cents). If the shopper returns the bottle or can for recycling, he or she gets the deposit back. It’s called ’incentive.’ Cut to 2014, and we’ve evolved beyond soda and beer. Now bottled water and sports drinks are popular. Oh, and juice, too. As anybody who’s ever brought a barbecue’s worth of recycling to a redemption center can acknowledge, you don’t get anything for bringing ‘em back. Nothing, nada, bupkus. The committee pushing Question 2 wants to broaden the law to include those other bottles in the redemption system.
If you vote YES: The five cent deposit will apply to bottled water, juices, sports drinks, and most other beverage containers, in addition to the soda and beer bottles and cans.
If you vote NO: Nothing changes. Your water bottles will cost the same as they do now, and you still won’t get five cents for recycling them.
Who cares?: Environmental activists (yes) vs. Bottling and grocery industry (no)
Why you might vote ‘yes’: In addition to encouraging further recycling, the law would provide more money to deal with environmental issues. Right now, unclaimed deposits go into the state’s general fund. Under the new law, unclaimed deposits (which, with a broader bottle base, would likely increase) would go to a fund specifically for green issues, such as waste management and air quality protection—though where, exactly, the money would go under the environmental umbrella would be determined by the legislature.
Why you might vote ‘no’: Your added costs at the register could come out to more than just five cents per bottle. The bottle deposit has been five cents since its inception, but this bill will increase it every five years according to inflation. The law also includes increased handling fees that beverage distributors and bottlers must pay per returned container, which could ricochet through the supply chain and be passed onto the consumer. (State research, however, has found that there isn’t much of a difference between the prices of bottled beverages in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where there is no bottle redemption program.)
By the way: When bottle deposit laws were passed, we didn’t have things like curbside recycling that made the process much easier. Many communities do now, so we may not need the monetary incentive to recycle the way we did back in 1983. However, recycling isn’t so easy for everybody: Though bottle deposit law opponents’ ads say 90 percent of the state’s residents have access to curbside recycling, The Boston Globe found that percentage is actually 64 percent, with 47 percent of cities and towns offering the service. Beware political advertisements.
Outcome: Question 2 was rejected by voters on Election Day.
Full text of the question
QUESTION 3: THE CASINOS
Here’s the deal: In 2011, a new law allowed for three casinos and a slots parlor located throughout the state. But that law was passed by legislators. This question will let the voters decide whether or not casinos are right for the state.
If you vote YES: Yes means no: no more casino law and no more casinos. Approved plans for resort casinos in Everett and Springfield would be put on ice. Construction that has already begun on the Plainville slots parlor would stop. The state would not move forward with future plans to award a third casino in southeast Mass., which currently won’t happen before next summer.
If you vote NO: Nothing changes. The Plainville slots parlor, from Penn National Gaming, opens next spring. The Springfield and Everett casinos, from MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts, open as soon as 2017. No one knows when the casino in southeastern Mass. will open because the Massachusetts Gaming Commission keeps delaying the application deadline.
Who cares?: Community activists and religious leaders (yes) vs. Casino industry and union workers (no)
Why you might vote ‘yes’: While residents of the communities that will host casinos may be happy enough to usher them in, their neighbors haven’t gotten a vote in the matter and might not feel the same way. This is their chance to tell Steve Wynn to get off their lawn (and out of the state). Proponents of repeal also argue that casinos hurt society, and that promised gaming revenues may never pan out: some casinos in Atlantic City, for example, are flailing, suggesting that the industry itself is weakening as more states build casinos of their own and saturate the market.
Why you might vote ‘no’: The communities getting casinos already voted to have them, and are expecting big payments from the casino companies and a whole lot of new jobs. The state would also get a share of gaming revenue: 25 percent from the casinos, and 49 percent from the slots parlor. Casino proponents also note that even if the market is getting saturated, Massachusetts residents are going out of state to gamble anyway, and we might as well keep those dollars at home (thus generating more revenue for the state).
By the way: Even if voters say no to casinos, Republican candidate Charlie Baker has said he would try to find a way to keep the Springfield MGM project on track if elected governor. Martha Coakley, his Democratic challenger, has also said she is open to that idea…though, in fairness, she says she’s open to pretty much everything this campaign cycle.
Outcome: Question 3 was rejected by voters on Election Day.
Full text of the question
QUESTION 4: THE SICK DAYS
Here’s the deal: Thanks to their benefits packages, many employees have the option of taking a day or two away from work when they’re sick. Many other workers, however, do not get that benefit. This proposed law would require almost all employers to give employees sick leave based on hours worked.
If you vote YES: You are voting to give workers paid sick time, which can be used when sick, going to a medical appointment, caring for a sick family member, or to deal with domestic abuse situations. Workers would get a paid hour of time off for every 30 hours worked, with a maximum of 40 paid hours in a year. The law would require employers with 11 or more employees to provide that paid time off.
If you vote NO: Nothing changes, and the issue remains in employers’ hands.
Who cares?: Worker activists (yes) vs. Retail and restaurant associations (no)
Why you might vote ‘yes’: Without mandated paid sick days, employees have to choose between going to work sick or calling out of work and not getting paid. If you simply can’t afford to miss a day’s pay, then you’re going to work sick. Do you really want a sick person handling your food, or working in a hospital where your loved one is a patient? The law also limits the number of paid days workers can take a year, to reduce the possibility that they’ll take advantage of the law by faking illness.
Why you might vote ‘no’: Fake sick or no, this is an added expense for businesses at a time when the economy is still plenty fragile. This could be particularly burdensome for restaurants, which generally pay waiters and waitresses less than $3 per hour (they make more in tips) but would have to pay an employee who takes a sick day the full minimum wage.
By the way: Our southern neighbors already have a similar sick leave law. Connecticut enacted its sick leave legislation in 2012, and only 6.5 percent of companies in the state said costs rose more than 5 percent as a result of the law. Nearly half said it had no effect at all. Connecticut’s law, though, includes a number of exemptions–for instance, it only applies to companies with 50 or more employees. The threshold in Massachusetts would be just 11 employees for paid sick leave.
Outcome: Question 4 was approved by voters on Election Day.
Full text of the question
Click here for election results, updated live.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that the campaign against Question 2 claims 90 percent of cities and towns have access to curbside recycling. In fact, the advertisement says 90 percent of residents have access, a figure that is still specious, as noted in this version of the article. We regret the error.Television 360, Endemol Shine Studios and publisher Diogenes are teaming to bring the five-book series to the small screen.
A version of this story first appeared in the June 5 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
As Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt adaptation Carol is making waves in Cannes, the late author's Tom Ripley series could be headed for the small screen.
Television 360, Endemol Shine Studios and publisher Diogenes are teaming to bring the late author's five-book series to television, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Television 360's Guymon Casady (Game of Thrones) and Ben Forkner (Good People) will executive produce. Philipp Keel of Diogenes, the late Highsmith's Zurich-based publisher and agency, is also on board as an EP. Endemol Shine Studios exec vp Jeremy Gold will oversee the project for Endemol Shine Studios — the scripted division of Endemol Shine North America. Producers hope to put the property together with a writer — or major filmmaker — as well as an actor before shopping it to premium cable networks or streaming services.
See more Broadcast TV's New Shows 2015-16
Highsmith's Ripley was the focal point of five novels over four decades in the series known as the "Ripliad": The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), Ripley Underground (1970), Ripley's Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980) and Ripley Under Water (1991).
Casady and Forkner — longtime fans of the Ripley books — built a relationship with Keel that ultimately evolved into a partnership to develop the novels as a series, with 2015 marking the 60th anniversary of the internationally recognized character.
The trio's vision for the TV series is to expand on Rene Clement's 1960 feature Purple Noon and Anthony Minghella's Matt Damon starrer The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) — both of which were based on the first book in the series — and explore the depth, sophistication and complexity of the character of Tom Ripley. In total, five films have been made from the Ripley novels, with no actor playing the character more than once.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @SnooditWhen I come home, it's usually just a big living room connected with the kitchen, my bed just by the window so that I could see the garden down below outside. Imagine it as a certain Imagine Breakers dorm, only much bigger, and you got my home. So when I come home from whatever the hell I'm doing, like buying groceries for dinner, its very quiet and nothing much going on. Therefore, I did not expect a busty blonde beautiful woman to be sitting in front of my TV playing games online.
"Oh, welcome home dear!" Vert greeted me as she for a second looked away from the TV screen before turning her attention towards it again. I react with suspicion as to the Goddess who just welcomed me home as if she were my wife. When she noticed my suspicious grin, she let out a cute little laugh, as if her sentence was merely a rouse.
"How did you break into my house?" I asked, rather casually as I took of my shoes and went to the kitchen with the grocerie bag to make some dinner. I should probably sound more forceful, but I am to hungry to care about that.
"We goddesses have our ways," Vert answered, still focused on the game. "I hate to admit, but Lowee have some very impressive online multiplayer games."
"Yeah, and it's much better than Lastations variant of it," I answered as I cut the meat that would be my, and apparently Verts, dinner.
As Vert indulged herself in Smash Brothers for about an hour, the dinner of cooked meat, steamed vegetables and rice was prepared. "Alright, dinner time!" I announced. There was no need to raise my voice, since she was a few meters in front of me.
"Coming. Oh my, this looks fantastic!" she marvelled at the rather well made meal laid in front of her. Hearing her praise my cooking boosted my ego by quite a lot.
"Hehe, well I'm glad you like it mademoiselle!" I snickered as I bowed like a butler. She seemed to enjoy being treated like royalty, even if it was merely a playful act, and took a bit of the food I made for her.
"This is quite the exquisite meal. I'm impressed that a young man like you living alone could make something this good!"
"Well, living relatively alone and being a gamer, I have to eat something healthy once in a while, and not just pizza and hamburgers all the time," I answered as I myself digged in to the delicious food.
"Well, my diet is usually just quick sandwiches, so that I can spend more time online, she said as she continued on with the diet tangent as she ate her meal elegantly, making her seem out of place in a cheap apartment eating meat that was cut half-prize due to expiring soon.
"Huh, is that the reason for her hourglass figure?" I thought for myself.
While being essentially what Blanc said, a "manwhore", even I knew of what to and not bring up while talking with a lady over a meal.
"Why yes, the sandwiches I eat are very nutritious, so you can say they are the reason for my curvaceous figure!" she explained happily, as if I said my thoughts out loud.
"...can she read my mind?"
After our meal, I joined her in smash brother, and the two of us spent hours on various online tag matches.
"Ok, you take Little Mac, I take Dedede!" I said as my Greninja spinning-bird-kicked the floating penguin balloon.
"Very well! Witness a goddess's power!" she said as her Lucina smashed Little Mac of the edge, killing him and securing our victory.
"Victory!" I fistbumped, raising a high-five.
"Excellent coordination!" she high-fived me, her boobs bouncing as our hands clapped.
...*gulp* I gulped as I looked at them jiggling. I just now noticed how many hours has passed since dinner; it was midnight now. And I was starting to feel a bit pent up from not masturbating for weeks. When you play videogames for extended periods of time, it tends to build up over time.
I could use the convenient ploty-thing that surprisingly fits in my pocket without being noticed to make Vert horny as fuck...
...but we were having a lot of fun right now, smashing people online. It can wait.
"Alright, I think I'm going to pick Roy next.
"Which one?" she joked, making me laugh a bit lightly.
And so we continued to play the entire night, beating the various players online. It was a lot of fun to play together with Vert, but I couldn't help but take quick glances at her beautiful bosom. I think I finally truly understood the concept of sexual frustration, as my breath became louder and I began to feel really pent up from sitting next to a sexy lady with a revealing outfit. I think it was time now. While I tinkered with the plot device, I saw the clock and was surprised by the time.
"4 o clock in the morning? Damn, we played a lot!"
"Hmhmhm, that is the way of online gaming: spending unfathomable amount of hours on gaming. While humans may think of it as a waste of time, we goddesses are ageless, as such there is no such thing as a waste of time for us!" she declared proudly, moving her arms so that her boobs bounced, which caught my attention and reminded me of the pent up feeling inside me, exhaling air like a fucking steam engine. Noticing were my eyes were, instead of the usual "my eyes are up here, jackass" response from any other woman, Vert giggled in pride, bouncing them even more as I gulped loudly, blushing a bit.
"Well then, shall we get started?" she asked as she put down to controller and turned the console off.
"You sure? I actually wouldn't mind if we played games the entire night.
I didn't lie. While having sex with such a beautiful woman was more preferable and desirable, I had quite a lot of fun playing games with her, and I don't think I've ever had fun playing video games with another girl before like now. We would've probably been great gaming buddies under different circumstances, Im sure of it. But at the same time, while I didn't lie I wasn't actually entirely truthful, as I did wanna rock her like a hurricane.
"No need to keep your desires in check, I can tell that you're quite sexually pent up from the way you've been gazing at me, " she said in a very sexy voice. "Now, hurry up and get undressed!"
And with that, I took of my clothes with enthusiasm and a pounding heart, my 4/4 erect penis dangling in the air. I then noticed Vert hadn't taken off her clothes yet, which was somewhat embarrassing as I was butt naked in front of a beautiful lady with a hard erection. I was gonna call her out on that, but she giggled, and suddenly burst in a flash of light. She was transforming, and I expected her to be in her skimpy goddess outfit. However, what appeared before was the naked beautiful goddess of Leanbox.
"Well? You like what you see?"
My jaw dropped to the ground as her voluptuous breasts bounced in freedom. But disregarding her breasts, it was a true beauty standing in front of me, looking at me with lustful purple eyes. Her long green hair mixed well with her white beautiful skin, and the pink nipples on the big well-rounded breasts was like a glance of paradise, her curvy waist and long beautiful legs... I was about to fall on my knees and thank God for the wonderful gift standing in front of me, but she knelt first before my 8/4 erect dick.
"My, you got hard so fast. Well, it is my naked body you're seeing, so it is to be expected." She said as she grabbed and stroked my penis, kissing its head with her soft mature lips, giving me shivers. "It got so hard from just looking at me. Hmhmhm!" she giggled before slowly taking the whole thing in and sucking on it. "*Hm* *Hmmmmmmmm* *slurp* *suck* *hmmmmmm*"
An adult beautiful woman, who was on top on that a goddess over a nation, was on her knees sucking my dick. That thought circled my head, it almost felt unreal. But it was really happening. A woman who would easily pass for a top model was pleasuring me with her mouth.
"Does it feel good when I suck your penis?" she stopped and asked. I quickly answered yes, which made her happy, and she continued to suck it. She twisted her head a bit as she sucked, grabbed my testicles and gently fondled with them. Her smooth lips and her skilful use of her tongue were amazing on my dick. The warm feeling of her tongue twisting around and licking me cock, while her saliva drenched it was fucking amazing. She then stopped sucking and instead sucked on my balls, while masturbating my wet dick. "Ahhhhn, your penis is quite delicious, and it grew while I performed a fellatio. My, you are quite the perverted deviant, no?" she asked while masturbating my giant wet twitching dick. Again I answered yes with a haggard breath, signalling I was not far from cumming.
"Now here comes a special service, available only from the goddess of Leanbox herself!" She then let go and lifted her boobs and squeezed them tightly together to sandwich my dick.
"! Ahhhhh..." I gasped from the incredible feeling.
"Hehe, this is something only I can do, so enjoy!" she said as she began clamming her enormous tits and stroking them up and down.
This was truly only this goddess could do. Purple Heart and Black Heart had moderately sized breasts in the same size, and I did get a titfuck from Purple Heart and Noire. But Green Hearts titfuck completely enveloped my dick with her enourmous breasts, it popped up and disappeared into her cleavage. Her skin was also incredibly smooth, but she let some saliva drop from her tongue to further lubricate my penis. However, her eyes stared into mine while her face was bent down as she licked my penis while moaning sexily. She was obviously skilful with utilizing her breasts, and with her mouth just about any man would fall before her. The size of her rack was enough to make wanna blast my cum on her face and on her tits. The sound of her warm saliva on my dick making smacking noises against her tits, while she moaned asking me If I wanted to cum…
"Do you want to ejaculate on my face?" she asked as she increased the pace, making slurping noises and moans as she sucked the glans. "If so, then do it!"
!
"Ah, oh God, Im gonna cum! Im gonna cum on your face…!" I moaned before my semen spouted out from her cleavage on to her face, which she smiled about as she was endlessly bombarded with cum.
"Ahhh! So this is how it feels to have cum on your face!" Vert said as the white semen ran down her radiant face, smaller shots erupting and now landing on her cleavage.
She wiped of the cum from her face with her fingers, and licked it of her index finger like chocolate, and swallowed it with a satisfied and sexy smile. Looking at how she drank it up all sitting on the floor with her knees got me hard again.
"That was quite the experience. I have only heard about it from the various VN's I've been playing, but the real thing is quite different from fiction!" she continued on with glee. "Although I see that you're still rearing to go. That's good, I like men with a lot of stamina when it comes to playing games!" she said with a deep tone as she stood up.
She then turned her back and leant forward, supporting herself on her knees, and with one hand she spread her butt cheeks revealing her pink, dripping vagina.
"Come now, give it to me. Show me how it's done!" She said as she looked at me with a seducing stare, but her cheeks showed hints of embarrassment, but her calm and mature composure managed to hide it.
I walked towards the leaning goddess almost like a zombie. Slowly, I caressed her ass, feeling the smooth skin of her ass on my hands, breathing heavily. None of the other goddesses hade a booty this nice, a body so delicious. I fell to my knees as I beheld the beauty, before I began licking it. Vert was quite surprised as she let out a high-pitched moan as I continued to lick her wet and pink vagina while furiously masturbating till my hard cock became a rock-hard cock again. When I was satisfied, I stood up and positioned my dick against Verts pussy with bathed breath, feeling warmth and moist at the tip of my dick. With that, I launched my dick towards her like a hungry dog, and my penis slide in inside her vagina.
Her boobs wasn't the only thing that was big; her ass was quite plump, and wiggled as my crotch slammed onto her.
"Oh yes, this feels good! Go on, do it more!"
Her beautiful voice moaned with each of my thrusts, and I could somehow see her boobs sway back and forth together with her body. I closed my eyes and let pleasure of her warm vagina and the sound of her erotic voice steal my consciousness for a while, and when I opened my eyes and looked down on her beautiful ass, I noticed some blood on my crotch.
"She must have been a virgin too…" I thought. When I asked her, she moaned in an affirmative tone.
"I don't really spend time with many men in real life, being a goddess and an online gamer. To be honest, I was really looking forward to this, and it didn't disappoint," Vert said happily while she moaned as I fucked her slower. "So please, don't be hesitant, come at me like you would the other three."
The thought of this being her first time excited me, and I began to pick up the pace, which made her moan even louder. She seemed to have lost strength to support herself, so she raised her back up and put her arms behind her and my neck. She turned her head and looked at me with lustful eyes, as I took this chance to support her by grabbing her tits as she stood up in an erotic way being fucked from behind. Feeling how soft they were, I wondered why I didn't touch them sooner. But when I looked at her face, staring at me with pleasure, I moved my mouth closer, and gave the goddess her first kiss. As we continued on while kissing, I moved one of my hand down to her clitoris, stimulating her that way. She moaned, but our French kiss muted it. She then moved her face away, and said that she was about to cum. I said that I also felt very close to cumming.
"Ahh! Ahhh! You're so good at this, I- I don't know how much I can handle!" she moaned as she struggled at my grip.
"Vert, you're so fucking hot, I'm gonna cum anytime!" I said as my voice became more tense.
As I continued fondling her breast, stimulating her clitoris and slamming into her pussy, she finally reached nirvana, and screamed a beautiful scream as she orgasmed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Her shriek was so beautiful. I couldn't see it, but her face when she climaxed from a mans penis was a wonderful sight (It was like the facial expression of a girl getting creampied in a Black Dog doujin). "I'm cumming! Your penis is just so good, I'm cumming all over it!" she moaned as she tensed up, trembling.
"Fuck! Fuck Vert, you're pussy is so fucking nice! Ohhh God, Im cumming!"
The feeling of something raining down on penis while inside her vagina, as well as the walls clenching, I too let go and came inside. Both of us moaned as we came, her vagina convulsing while my cock twitched. I clenched her tits harder and she pinched my neck as I came inside her. I could feel the semen pouring out like a stream inside her, and as we let go, we fell to the floor, me on my knees and her on all four, both of us panting and sweating.
As Vert panted on the floor, her well rounded ass was raised in front of me. Seeing it was slightly moving as she panted was alluring, almost hypnotic. The pleasure of that booty grasping my cock was still fresh in my mind, and I desired more. I grabbed her soft ass and raised her hips, surprising her.
"Wait, I just…" she tried to say, but I didn't listen and slammed my still erect penis inside her, and we were fucking again doggy style.
"No! If you do it so suddenly after I just… I will…" she tried to resist, but the pleasure broke her mind and her ability to speak properly.
She only moaned from pleasure, probably because she was fatigued from our previous round, so I just slammed it in her while she enjoyed the feeling of a hard dick inside her. I took hold of her hands and dragged them towards me, using them as support so that she wouldn't fall on the floor with her chest first. This way, her upper body's support was me pulling her arms behind her back, as her huge boobs were freely bouncing around above the floor in rhythm to my thrusts. By the grace of God, a mirror were in front of us the whole time, so that even I could see Verts smoking hot pleasure filled face, as well as her voluptuous shining breasts bouncing freely.
"My God Vert, you feel so good!" I screamed as I fucked her awesome vagina. "You're so fucking hot! You're gonna make me cum again!"
"Please, use my body to pleasure yourself however you like. It's the least I can do for all you've done for me!" she said, managing to form words as her mind was melting from the pleasure
The immense pleasure of sex, as well as lack of sleep made our minds kinda hazy, and we started acting more intimate like actors in a porno. Me more so than Vert since she had more stamina than me, but it was noticeable that she was a bit out of character. Her usual elegant lady behaviour were replaced with a more porn star like behaviour, as she started calling me 'baby'.
"AAAAHHNNN! AHHHHHHH! AHHHHH BABY YOU'RE REACHING DEEP!"
Fatigue invaded our lustfilled minds, and sweat started to trickle down and hit the floor, as well as a pool of pre-cum. My cock began to feel like it was gonna burst, and I quickly let go of her hands and grabbed her waist, tightly pulling it to my body as I increased the speed.
"Baby, I'm gonna cum!" I moaned behind her neck, enjoying the sensation of her smooth skin against my chest. "Tell me where you want it! Your pussy, your ass, your face...?
"Ahhh... Ahhhhh..." Vert moaned, before she screamed. "Ahhh... my face! Shoot your hot semen on my face baby! she moaned while smiling.
Letting the most evil smile form on my face, I decided to grant her wish as I was about to come into a point of no return. So I pulled my penis out and moved it to the front of her face. Understanding, she sat on her knees, and placed her hands between her legs and her arms so that they pushed her boobs together. Still moaning in pleasure, she looked at me eagerly to cum while I masturbated the rest of the way. "Come on baby, give it to me," she looked pleading like a hungry little girl wanting food.
"*hah* Open your mouth," I said as she did, and reached out her tongue as her sexy mature voice moaned as she did. "*hah*, *haah*! Ahhh...!" I groaned as I ejaculated while furiously masturbating to the smoking hot woman on her knees. Cum poured into her mouth, defiled her face and spilled on her body as I jerked of the final semen in my body that continuously fired cum like a rocket launcher.
She tasted it for a while, licked some around her mouth before swallowing it. She then looked at me with a cumstained face with satisfied eyes.
Early in the dawn, me and Vert in her human form were passionately kissing on my bed. She was below and I was on top, fondling her enormous titties as I gently plowed my dick in her. Our moans were muted by our kiss, and I relished the taste as I felt a boiling sensation. I raised my head from our kiss, and a strong of saliva formed between our tongues as I looked at the blonde goddess in her eyes.
"Be honest with me…" Vert asked while her body moved slightly from my thrusts. "Do you think of me as a loose woman who flaunts her breasts?" she asked me seriously, with hintfull tones of pleasure.
"No"
"I see. Im glad," she smiled brightly as she pulled my head towards her for another deep kiss. I couldn't fondle her anymore as there was no distance between our bodies, so I lay on her soft boobs like cushions, and rested on the beautiful goddess as I continued to thrust my penis until I ejaculated inside her again.
Even after I came insider her again, I didn't bother to take out my dick. I let our bodies be one, as I continued to kiss her.The recent announcement from Parse.com to shut down it’s services has created lot of confusion among the app developers about how to handle this situation. We are helping lot of our existing clients to find the alternatives of Parse platform. In the process we found that there is a pressing need to create awareness about the far reaching implications of moving to a managed backend by in-house team of developers.
The first tutorial in these series of articles will provide you a detailed picture of your new environment in AWS/Google/Azure cloud. These three are infrastructure platforms and give us the complete control over the computing and networking aspects of deployment. The resultant power also puts a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of individual handling migration. One has to be careful at every step of migration. We hope that this guide will help you in considering the business continuity and security aspects of the migration along with the technical details.
1. Analysis
The first question that we need to ask before migration is which Parse services do we use? Some parse services have viable alternatives some don’t. Here is the list of all of the services/features provided by parse.
1. Parse push notifications:
Parse does not provide us dashboard. Which means the notifications needs to be sent from the some form of code. In case of Parse push notifications, we need to remember that Parse server does not support
Delivery reports
Scheduled pushes
Client push
2. Check if Parse database is used. If you are not sure, check the core->browser section of the app. Download copy of DB to understand the size of DB.
3. Check if we are using any cloud code. The cloud code can be seen at Core-> cloud.
4. Check if there are any webhooks configured. They can be found at Core->webhooks.
5. Check if the app uses scheduled jobs The scheduled jobs are present at Core->jobs.
6. For Push notifications, check the audiences. They are configured at Push->Audiences. We might need to note that these audiences may not be directly available for us.
7. Check if we are using analytics. The analytics are not part of the open source Parse server. Basic analytics can be easily migrated to Google or Flurry.
8. Check the slow queries analytics. It is not possible to migrate this as it is. However we can configure slow query logs in MongoDB.
9. Note down the user sessions settings. Again, some of these settings can not be migrated. We will note them down for future reference.
10. Check if the app uses custom domains. We would need to point the domains to the new servers.
11. Check if “Verify user emails” is set. It means we will have to setup email verification module.
12. Check email templates of verification and forgot password.
13. Check the default web pages setup for password, email verification and 404
14. Take note of the security keys section, we are going to need these keys for configuration. Even after you migrate the app to your own servers, the same keys would be used by the new servers for access control.
You should also know that following features are not supported by the open source Parse server.
Major things which are not supported yet.
1. In User sessions
a. Expire inactive sessions
b. Revoke session on password change
2. User authentication
a. Anonymous users can’t be disabled
b. New methods can’t be disabled by default
3. The ability to restrict to one Facebook App is not available in Parse Server
4. Analytics: we need to use Google analytics as an alternative
5. Dashboard: We all are used to the Parse dashboard but it is not supported out of the box.
6. iOS in-app purchase verification is not supported.
7. There is no Job functionality in Parse Server, we need to setup cron jobs or use kue.
8. Schema API is not supported
9. Twitter login is not supported
10. Welcome email and verification emails are not supported out of the box.
2. Preparation
After analysing the services being used and choosing the alternatives it’s time to prepare for migration. We will gather elements, bits & pieces required for migration in this phase.
1. If you are using Android push notifications:
Enable GCM for your Android project in the Google Developer Console. Take note of your project number. It should be a large integer like 123427208255. This project number is your GCM sender ID.
To get your GCM API key, go to the Google developer credentials page, and either create a new API key or reuse an existing one.
You wouldn’t have used any of these for Parse as it uses it’s own GCM sender ID.
2. If you are using iOS push notifications:
Keep the P12 certificate ready (P12 certificate creation process is given at this link, but an existing certificate must be present while migrating. Make sure that you do not create new certificate if your app is already running in production. In that case existing app server (Parse.com) must use the new certificate to continue to support push notifications. The same certificate would be required for configuration of Parse server in EC2.
3. Download the cloud code. If you are using any of the following native modules, then replace them with alternatives:
App Links: There is no exact alternative for app links, but we can create the tags ourselves.
There is no exact alternative for app links, but we can create the tags ourselves. Buffer: It is part of native nodejs installation. We will have to remove the require(‘buffer’) calls.
It is part of native nodejs installation. We will have to remove the require(‘buffer’) calls. Mailgun: Use the official npm module: https://www.npmjs.com/package/mailgun-js
Use the official npm module: https://www.npmjs.com/package/mailgun-js Mandrill: Use the official npm module: https://www.npmjs.com/package/mandrill-api
Use the official npm module: https://www.npmjs.com/package/mandrill-api Moment: Use the official npm module: https://www.npmjs.com/package/moment
Use the official npm module: https://www.npmjs.com/package/moment Parse Image: This module is also not part of the new Parse |
,” Carney said in a statement, later adding that the White House was pleased that Wheeler “is keeping all options on the table.”
Obama expressed support for the concept of net neutrality during the 2008 election campaign, criticizing the idea that “gatekeepers” could someday “charge different rates to different websites.”
All the protesters started filtering out after the vote, some dejected — and the green patch where they had camped outside was nearly empty.
Columbia University professor Tim Wu, who coined the term net neutrality, carried some hope as he headed out of the meeting.
Wheeler “said he feels net neutrality in his bones,” he said, “so I hope he acts on that.”
Jessica Meyers and Tony Romm contributed to this report.A 21-year-old Egyptian student has been sentenced to three years in jail for insulting Islam after he announced on Facebook that he is an atheist, his lawyer said Sunday.
Karim al-Banna’s own father testified against him, alleging his son was “embracing extremist ideas against Islam.” He was jailed by a court in the Nile Delta province of Baheira on Saturday, the Agence France-Presse reported.
“He was handed down a three-year prison sentence, and if he pays a bail of 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($140), the sentence can be suspended until a verdict is issued by an appeals court,” Banna’s lawyer, Abdel Nabi, said.
An appeal is scheduled for March 9.
Banna said his neighbors had been harassing him after finding out in a local newspaper that he was an atheist. He went to his local police station in November to file a complaint, but was arrested for insulting Islam after revealing his beliefs, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights told AFP after following Banna’s case.
Egypt’s constitution outlaws insults against the three recognized monotheist religions — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — AFP reported.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
The C-SPAN call-in line is a hotbed of opinionated Americans eager to have a say and every once in a while they have something useful.
During an interview with Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a caller alleged that the media simply reported what Donald Trump had actually said during the course of the last two years.
“Donald Trump brings a lot of this on – they’re just reporting what he’s saying,” Cramer repeated the caller. “If, in fact, I were to give her that, you know, the question isn’t for me so much, as I said earlier, how much negative coverage Trump gets as they protected Hillary Clinton. Again, getting back to the email scandals, as the best example, way more news coverage about was Jim Comey out of line as opposed to what is in these emails.”
Cramer said that Democrats managed to manipulate the media into believing that the emails were stolen, therefore they shouldn’t be legitimate.
Extensive coverage of Clinton’s emails dates back to well before the Democratic primary, which prompted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to say during a debate that the “American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”
You can see the full video below:Despite near-consensus by the scientific community that processes of global warming and natural selection are real, Americans continue to be skeptical, according to a new poll released Monday.
Following its publication, Nobel Prize winning scientists said that the research highlights the "force" of those politicians and special interest groups working to thwart scientific truths.
More than half of respondents to the Associated Press-GfK poll (pdf) said they were "not at all confident" that the universe began with the Big Bang. Further, 42 percent said they were skeptical that "Life on Earth, including human beings, evolved through a process of natural selection."
When asked to rate their confidence in the statement, "The average temperature of the world is rising, mostly because of man-made heat-trapping greenhouse gases," 37 percent responded "Not too/ not at all," compared with 28 percent saying "Somewhat," and 33 percent identifying as "Extremely/ very confident."
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2013 Nobel Prize in medicine winner Randy Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley lamented to the Associated Press that the results reveal how "Science ignorance is pervasive in our society."
The poll highlights how one's religious beliefs and political affiliation are closely tied to their views on science. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to express confidence on such scientific facts as evolution, the Big Bang and climate change. And, according to the AP reporting on the poll, confidence in those concepts also declines "sharply" as "faith in a supreme being rises."
Schekman added that these viewpoints are only "reinforced when some of our leaders are openly antagonistic to established facts." Robert Lefkowitz, 2012 Nobel Prize winning Duke University biochemistry professor, credited the "force of concerted campaigns to discredit scientific fact," citing political, business and relgious interest groups for their attacks on scientific truths such as climate change and evolution.
The poll was conducted March 20-24, 2014 and surveyed 1,012 adults selected to be representative of the U.S. population.
_____________________One of the key components to Miami Dolphins head coach Adam Gase’s offenses in the past has been the tight end position. Largely due to injury and ineffectiveness, Gase’s first year with the Dolphins did not see the level of production from tight ends that his offenses with the Denver Broncos and the Chicago Bears experienced. As a result, the Dolphins are welcoming a new pair of tight ends to the team when training camp opens later this month.
Julius Thomas comes to Miami after an injury-plagued tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Thomas played in only nine games in 2016, making 30 catches for 281 yards and four touchdowns. Those are small numbers when compared to the gaudy statistics Thomas put up in 2013 and 2014 under Adam Gase, then the Denver Broncos offensive coordinator.
The 6-5, 256-pound Thomas will look to regain the Pro Bowl form he demonstrated playing in Denver. Over the course of those two seasons, Thomas racked up 108 receptions, 1,277 yards, 24 touchdowns, and two Pro Bowl selections. Thomas has already started to fit in with the Dolphins and his familiarity with the offense should provide for a seamless transition to Miami.
Another offseason arrival for the Dolphins is a returning player. Anthony Fasano signed a one-year $3 million contract last March, returning to the team where the 33-year-old tight end some of his best seasons.
With Miami from 2008 to 2012, Fasano averaged 35 receptions and 420 yards over those five seasons and caught 23 touchdowns during his Dolphins career. At 6-4, 258 pounds, Fasano is still considered one of the league’s best run-blocking tight ends. The sure-handed Fasano enters his 12th NFL season as a dependable addition to the tight end group and will certainly mentor the young players around him.
MarQueis Gray began 2016 as a journeyman looking to latch on to a team. But by December, Gray’s play had earned him a new, two-year contract extension with the Dolphins.
Injuries to Jordan Cameron and Dion Sims pushed Gray into service last season, and although his countable stats were meager (174 yards on 14 receptions), those numbers belie Gray’s effect on the running game as an active edge blocker.
Gray is one of the young members of the tight end group that is looking forward to Fasano’s leadership. The 6-4 255-pound versatile tight end went undrafted in 2013 out of the University of Minnesota, where he played quarterback and wide receiver. Gray provides intriguing and athletic depth at tight end should Thomas or Fasano go down with an injury.
Although the Dolphins are unlikely to carry more than three tight ends on the active roster, there are a pair of hopefuls who will push the incumbents ahead of them for a spot on the team.
Thomas Duarte spent the majority of 2016 on Miami’s practice squad, but after a concussion sidelined Dion Sims in November, Duarte was promoted to the active roster.
Duarte was drafted by the Dolphins in 2016 out of UCLA in the seventh-round (231st overall) after a junior year that saw the tight end finish with 53 receptions, 872 yards, and 10 touchdowns. At 6-2 241 pounds, Duarte features the build and skill-set to be a potential playmaker at the position.
Chris Pantale signed a reserve/futures contract with the Dolphins last January. The 6-5 254-pound tight end went undrafted out of Boston College in 2013. He had spent time with the New York Jets, Chicago Bears, and Philadelphia Eagles, seeing the field for only five games with the Jets back in 2014.
Pantale provides some versatility at the tight end position, having also spent time at fullback for both the Jets and Eagles. Pantale comes to Miami with some familiarity with head coach Adam Gase’s offense, having spent the 2015 training camp with the Chicago Bears where Gase was the offensive coordinator at the time.Traces of a Lost Language Discovered
(Cambridge, August 23, 2010) Sometime in the early 17th century in Northern Peru, a Spaniard jotted down some notes on the back of a letter. Four hundred years later, archaeologists dug up and studied the paper, revealing the first traces of a lost language.
“It’s a little piece of paper with a big story to tell,” says Dr. Jeffrey Quilter, who has conducted investigations in Peru for more than three decades, and is director of the archaeological project at Magdalena de Cao Viejo in the El Brujo Archaeological Complex, where the paper was excavated in 2008. Quilter explains this simple list offers “a glimpse of the peoples of ancient and early colonial Peru who spoke a language lost to us until this discovery.”
The writing is a set of translations from Spanish names of numbers (uno, dos, and tres) and Arabic numerals (4–10, 21, 30, 100, and 200) to the unknown language. Some of the translated numbers have never been seen before, while others may have been borrowed from Quechua or a related language. Quechua is still spoken today in Peru, along with Spanish, but in the early 17th century, many languages were spoken in the region, such as Quingnam and Pescadora. Information about them today is limited. Even so, the archaeologists were able to deduce that the lost language speakers used a decimal system like our own.
“The find is significant because it offers the first glimpse of a previously unknown language and number system,” says Quilter. “It also points to the great diversity of Peru’s cultural heritage in the early Colonial Period. The interactions between natives and Spanish were far more complex than previously thought.”
The name of the lost language is still a mystery. The American-Peruvian research team was able to eliminate Mochica, spoken on the North Coast into the Colonial Period but now extinct, and point to Quingnam and Pescadora as possible candidates. Neither Quingnam nor Pescadora, however, have been documented beyond their names. There is even a possibility that Quingnam and Pescadora are the same language but they were identified as separate tongues in early Colonial Spanish writings, so a definitive connection remains impossible to establish.
The research is detailed in the cover story of American Anthropologist published today. Read the article, Traces of a Lost Language and Number System Discovered on the North Coast of Peru, Volume 112, Number 3, September 2010.
Watch a short video of Dr. Jeffrey Quilter about the discovery. Dr. Quilter, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, is available for selected interviews on request.
Article Authors
Jeffrey Quilter, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Marc Zender, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Karen Spalding, Department of History, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT & Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Régulo Franco Jordán, Fundación Wiese, Lima 27, Peru
César Gálvez Mora, National Institute of Culture, Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru
Juan Castañeda, Murga National University of Peru, Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru
About the Peabody Museum
The Peabody Museum is among the oldest archaeological and ethnographic museums in the world with one of the finest collections of human cultural history found anywhere. It is home to superb materials from Africa, ancient Europe, North America, Mesoamerica, Oceania, and South America in particular. In addition to its archaeological and ethnographic holdings, the Museum’s photographic archives, one of the largest of its kind, hold more than 500,000 historical photographs, dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and chronicling anthropology, archaeology, and world culture.
Hours and location: 9 A.M. to 5 P.M., seven days a week. The Museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Admission is $9 for adults, $7 for students and seniors, $6 for children, 3–18. Free with Harvard ID or Museum membership. The Museum is free to Massachusetts residents Sundays, 9 A.M. to noon, year round, and Wednesdays from 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. (September to May). Admission includes admission to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. For more information call 617-496-1027 or go online to: www.peabody.harvard.edu. The Peabody Museum is located at 11 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Museum is a short walk from the Harvard Square MBTA station.
Find us on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube
Media Contact:
Faith Sutter
Communications Coordinator
Peabody Museum
Tel: 617-495-3397
[email protected] is making tens of millions of dollars a year selling drivers’ personal information, raising concerns among some motorists and privacy experts who said they weren’t aware of the practice.
The records include gender, license class, expiration date and up to 10 years of traffic violations, all of which is available to insurance companies, credit businesses and employers at a price of $9 per driver.
Stephen Chesney, 41, an attorney from Brighton Heights, said he had no clue. “It’s definitely concerning,” he said. “No one likes their information being sold.”
Annual collections from the practice hit a five-year high of $41 million in June, according to the most recent figures, up from $30 million the year before. The increase is mostly because of a fee hike to $8 from $5 in April 2014 to raise money for state transportation projects; the fee increases to $9 this summer.
“For the state, it’s a revenue stream, but for the drivers, it’s a privacy concern,” said Mark Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Pennsylvania has about 8.9 million drivers. Insurance companies can use their histories to validate what customers are reporting on their policies. Jonathan Greer, vice president for the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, said the federal Driver Privacy Protection act governs what kinds of records can be requested, and companies aren’t permitted to sell them to third parties.
Raising concern
Paying for the information does not concern the industry, Greer said. Neither did the fee increase.
“It’s the cost of doing business,” he said.
Lorrie Cranor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who runs its privacy engineering program, said it’s the state’s profit that’s bothersome.
“In general, people don’t like it when companies, or in this case, government agencies, sell their data,” Cranor said. “It’s, ‘Why should you be able to make money off of my data?’ ”
The profit factor shocked Mary Lechok, 58, of Ross. “People don’t know that,” Lechok said. “They make money off everything.”
PennDOT maintains contracts with wholesale companies to purchase driver information in bulk, defined as at least 5,000 transactions per month. Those include LexisNexis, Acxiom, American Driving Records, Explore, Hireright, Insurance Services Office and TML Information Services. Drivers or their attorneys can request their information.
David Thaw, an information security expert at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, said the kinds of records that can be obtained don’t necessarily pose a threat of identify theft.
“I would not place this on the high-risk end of the spectrum,” he said, “providing the department and the insurance companies are following the rules.”
A proposal from state Sen. Don White, R-Indiana County, that passed 46-3 in June would allow companies to acquire driver records for all residents in a household without having all the drivers’ names to determine who isn’t paying correct premiums.
Privacy issue
Gov. Tom Wolf opposes the proposal, citing privacy concerns, said PennDOT spokesman Michael Moser. But White said the practice is used in two dozen other states.
“This is routine information that PennDOT already has,” White said. “This will help with a small segment of the uninsured drivers in a household that aren’t added to a policy when they should be.”
Moser said the agency requires applicants to supply names, addresses and license numbers for drivers whose records they are requesting. They must declare they will use the information for one of several lawful purposes and sign an affidavit under penalty of two years in prison or a $5,000 fine.
Frank Zuber, 43, of West View, said he accepts that private companies sell consumer information for millions of dollars.
“That’s quite a scam,” Zuber said. “I expect it from a lot of things, but from the government, I don’t know.”
Then he paused and chuckled.
“Well,” he said. “I guess that’s sort of a stupid statement.”
Melissa Daniels is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-380-8511 or [email protected]’s go back in time to when Hillary Clinton said this in October of 2015 at a town hall event in Keene, New Hampshire. The voter’s question was about gun control:
VOTER: Back to handguns. Recently, Australia managed to get away, or take away tens of thousands, millions of handguns. In one year, they were all gone. Can we do that? If we can’t, why can’t we? HILLARY CLINTON: Australia is a good example, Canada is a good example, the U.K. is a good example. Why? Each of them have had mass killings. Australia had a huge mass killing about 20-25 years ago, Canada did as well, so did the U.K. In reaction, they passed much stricter gun laws. In the Australian example, as I recall, that was a buyback program. The Australian government, as part of trying to clamp down on the availability of automatic weapons, offered a good price for buying hundreds of thousands of guns. Then, they basically clamped down, going forward, in terms of having more of a background check approach, more of a permitting approach, but they believe, and I think the evidence supports them, that by offering to buyback those guns, they were able to curtail the supply and set a different standard for gun purchases in the future. Communities have done that in our country, several communities have done gun buyback programs. I think it would be worth considering doing it on the national level, if that could be arranged. After the terrible 2008 financial crisis, one of the programs that President Obama was able to get in place was Cash for Clunkers. You remember that? It was partially a way to get people to buy new cars because we wanted more economic activity, and to get old models that were polluting too much, off the roads. So I think that’s worth considering. I do not know enough detail to tell you how we would do it, or how would it work, but certainly your example is worth looking at. [Applause]
Let’s not kid around here and dispense the pleasantries—Australian-style gun control, which Clinton said “is worth looking at,” means gun bans and confiscation. Period. Now, Stephen Gutowski of The Washington Free Beacon reported that new polls show overwhelming majorities oppose such policies, especially when it comes to handguns and rifles:
A poll published on Wednesday shows record opposition to gun bans from the American public. The survey, conducted by Gallup, found 76 percent of respondents thought there should not be a law banning civilian ownership of handguns, a four-point increase from last year and an all-time high in the 57 years the question has been asked. The poll also found that 61 percent of respondents are “against” a ban on certain semi-automatic rifles—often referred to as “assault weapons”—, a ten-point increase since the last time the poll was taken and an all-time high since Gallup began asking the question in 1996. Support for the gun bans are at all-time lows. The poll shows only 27 percent support for a ban on handgun ownership, a three-point drop from last year. It also shows support for an assault weapons ban at 36 percent, an eight-point decline from the last time the question was asked. […] The survey was taken between October 5-9 and collected responses from 1,017 adults.
So, if Clinton (should she win the election) wants to waste the very little political capital she’s going to gain after November on this issue, which will likely end in defeat—we of course shouldn’t stop her. At the same time, all of this could be rendered moot if the GOP unites and elects Donald Trump, but we seem to be incapable of maximizing on that end.DHAKA, Aug 1, (Agencies): The bodies of five Islamists behind a deadly attack on a Bangladesh cafe have still not been claimed a month later, police said Monday, as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest against extremism. Relatives of the men have spoken of their shock and horror at learning of their involvement in the siege in Dhaka’s Gulshan neighbourhood, in which 20 hostages were killed — many of them hacked to death.
On Monday tens of thousands of university and college students across the country stood in silence and formed human chains in front of their schools. “No terrorism, we want peace. We want life without fear,” read one banner at a women’s college in Dhaka. Authorities have launched a nationwide campaign to shame those behind the attacks.
Sermons
Clerics at the mainly Muslim country’s more than 300,000 mosques have been asked to give sermons on why Islam forbids killing. Police said the bodies of nine other men allegedly from the same group who were shot when police launched a raid on a militant hideout on July 26 are also still being stored at a state hospital. “No relatives came to us or officially applied for the bodies of the 14 extremists,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP. Sohel Mahmud, a forensic doctor at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said several families had come to identify the bodies. “But no one wanted to take them home for burial,” he said.
Police gave no official reason, but officers speaking on condition of anonymity said the parents of the extremists were overwhelmed with guilt. Six of the young men were from well-off Dhaka families, among them 18-year-old Rohan Imtiaz. His father Imtiaz Khan Babul told AFP he was “stunned and speechless” to hear of his only son’s involvement in the carnage and apologised to the nation.
Betrayed
Abdus Salam said his brother Mohammad Abdullah, one of the nine killed in the shootout with police, had betrayed the family and his country. “That’s why we don’t want to take his body,” he told reporters last week. The students from hundreds of colleges and universities in Dhaka and other cities took part in the protest as part of a campaign to create awareness about the rise of Islamic extremism in the country. Protesters carried banners that read “Bangladesh stands against terrorism” and “We want peace; no place for terrorism.”
The organizers said they particularly wanted students to lead Monday’s protests because the suspects in last month’s attacks were mostly students and young men. “We stand against any sort of extreme form of ideology. We denounce terrorism,” said Tanvir Shakil Joy, one of the organizers.
“I feel encouraged to see that so many students, both male and female, have joined the protest today.” Joy, a former ruling party lawmaker, said the students gathered at about 50 locations in Dhaka, and similar protests were held in all district headquarters and major cities. A signature campaign against extremism was also launched at all educational institutions, he said by telephone. Suspected Islamist militants killed 20 people, including 17 foreigners, in an attack on a popular restaurant in Dhaka a month ago.
That was followed by an attack on an Eid congregation in central Bangladesh that left three people dead. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Bangladesh authorities blamed the banned group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.
In a police raid last week, nine other suspected militants, mostly young men, were killed in Dhaka. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to fight extremism and urged citizens to build awareness about its dangers. Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people, is a parliamentary democracy based on British common law. Many local Islamist groups want to introduce Islamic Shariah lawTerrible TV shows that are saved by great characters are rare. After all, it's great characters that make shows worth watching in the first place. Showrunners that get everything else wrong usually don't have the good taste to give us even one person to care about.
There are exceptions, however, and we're currently trying to create a Marvel-style shared universe that includes all of them in one show. Wish us luck.
Now, we're not necessarily telling you to binge every single series on this list, but the following character creations are definitely worth hunting out on YouTube at the very least.
1. Gotham – Jerome (Cameron Monaghan)
Gotham might be notorious for being a Batman show that doesn't actually feature Batman, but at least it has a Joker – and not just any Joker, one of the best Jokers in any medium.
Cameron Monaghan's Jerome might not have the bleached skin or bright green hair, but he's the perfect Clown Prince of Crime in every other way. We're not going to bang on too much about him (because we'd only be repeating ourselves) but if you haven't given Gotham a chance, it really is worth it – for Jerome alone.
2. The League – Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas)
Let's face it, unless you watch American football religiously, there are huge sections of The League (about a group of friends who bet on the sport) that are completely impenetrable. Also, pretty much all of the main characters are super annoying.
Thank goodness, then, for Jason Mantzoukas's creation Rafi – the most inappropriate, violent, disgusting and hilarious character on this (or pretty much any) sitcom.
We've seen every episode of the show, and we've spent each minute of viewing time counting the seconds until Rafi shows up, an event that makes us punch the air, bellow his name and cry laughing... before he goes away again and we patiently wait for him to come back.
You may recognise Mantzoukas from his bad movie podcast How Did This Get Made, which is also ace, but it's Rafi that has our heart (and our pocket hot dogs).
3. Under The Dome – Big Jim (Dean Norris)
We'll take any excuse to express our love for Dean Norris, even if that does mean discussing the insufferable Stephen King adaptation Under The Dome. Still, it's worth catching for Norris's take on Big Jim, which turns one of the most unlikeable villains in King's book into what it would be like if Hank from Breaking Bad turned into Heisenberg.
The show – about a community cut off from the world by a big alien dome – is guff, but Norris's councilman / meth dealer is good. Because he always, always is.
4. The Killing (US) – Sarah Linden / Stephen Holder (Mireille Enos / Joel Kinnaman)
So technically this is two great characters in one booooooring show, but Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman are so great (and work so closely together) that we find it very hard to separate them.
They're literally the only reason to stream The Killing on Netflix (well, that and if you're suffering from insomnia); both leads turn in layered, magnetic performances as a pair of po-faced detectives investigating murder – if only the cases they had to investigate were as mesmerising.
5. My Family – Nick Harper (Kris Marshall)
Originally intended to be a radical new kind of sitcom, utilising a US style mega-team of writers, My Family basically ended up being 2point4 Children 2point0.
Still, at least it brought us Kris Marshall's naturalistic Hugh Grant-style charm, which lifted pretty much every scene he was in (even if that scene was crammed wall-to-wall with nonsense).
The character was so popular, Marshall was given his own sitcom called My Life In Movies. Sadly, despite the fact it also starred Andrew Scott and Alice Lowe, it was cancelled after six episodes.
6. Robin Hood – Guy of Gisbourne (Richard Armitage)
This off-target attempt to make Robin Hood edgy and cool (via a lead that looks like he got lost on the way to a boyband audition) certainly has its fans, and that's probably almost entirely down to Richard Armitage's brooding portrayal of Guy of Gisbourne, who's so good on the show that he could probably walk straight onto the set of Game of Thrones without anyone noticing the difference. He was one of the few characters to experience an actual narrative arc, turning from a villain we loved to hate into a character we loved to love.
7. Babylon – Finn (Bertie Carvel)
Oh, Babylon – so much promise, so disappointing. Despite a production pedigree that included director Danny Boyle and Peep Show geniuses Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, the drama / comedy about a US media guru tasked with bringing the UK police into the modern world never found its audience.
Still, the folks who did stick with it mostly stayed onboard for Bertie Carvel's Finn, who was basically this show's Malcolm Tucker – with slightly less charm (if you can imagine such a thing). Forget Batman v Superman, we want Tucker v Finn.
He's one of the best telly baddies you've never seen, but don't let Bertie hear you say that...
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.Jamie Briggs: Unions urge Government to protect privacy of woman who filed complaint after photo leaked to media
Updated
Unions have called on the Federal Government to ensure a public servant who complained about former minister Jamie Briggs has her privacy protected.
A pixelated photo of a woman with Mr Briggs's chief of staff has been published by News Limited papers, several days after the frontbencher's resignation.
According to News Limited, Mr Briggs said he took the photo in question and then distributed the image to colleagues before and after she made an official complaint.
It is unclear who then leaked the photo to the media.
Information about her age, her university degree and her job title has also been published by media outlets. Her name has not been revealed.
The assistant national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, Michael Tull, said the public servant's privacy had been breached.
"It's never easy for a person who works in the public sector to raise inappropriate behaviour, especially when a politician is involved, which is why we need genuine protections for people who do make complaints," Mr Tull said.
"One of the most important protections is the right to privacy.
"That's clearly not happened in this case and that's disgraceful."
He called on department officials to contact the Special Minister of State "seeking the protection of their employee" and ensure it follows procedures that protect the privacy of the complainant.
Education Minister defends Government's handling of issue
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham told reporters in Adelaide he did not know how the image was leaked to the press, but defended the Government's handling of the issue.
"I think it's unfortunate that the photo was leaked to the papers, but I think in terms of this issue and this incident, Jamie made a mistake, he owned up to the mistake, he's paid a high price and it's time we moved on," he said.
Mr Birmingham said "extremely thorough processes were followed" once the complaint was made.
Mr Briggs resigned as Cities Minister last week over what he described as an "error of judgement" while on an official overseas trip.
"We interacted between the three of us and with others in what I believed at the time was an informal manner," he said.
"However, in the days following the evening, the public servant... raised concerns about the appropriateness of my behaviour towards her at the venue.
"I've apologised directly to her but after careful reflection about the concerns she raised and the fact that I was at a bar late at night while on an overseas visit I have concluded this behaviour has not met the particularly high standards for ministers."
He will stay on as a Liberal backbencher for the seat of Mayo east of Adelaide.
Mr Briggs's office has been contacted for comment.
Topics: federal-government, government-and-politics, australia, sa
First postedSPRINGFIELD — The United Way of Pioneer Valley Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) will host its second annual Wine and Beer Tasting and Silent Auction on Wednesday, Oct. 7 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the TD Bank Center in Springfield. The event will raise money to support WLC membership; financial literacy; and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) initiatives for middle-school girls.
“When women in the WLC connect around an idea to improve lives, anything is possible,” said Kathryn Dube, senior vice president of TD Bank and event co-chair.
Wednesday’s event will bring together local wine and beer distributors and restaurants offering a variety of food and beverage options that attendees can enjoy while browsing a selection of auction items donated by local companies. Sponsors for the event include African American Point of View, Berkshire Bank, BusinessWest, Comcast, Health New England, the Markens Group, Springfield Technical Community College, TD Bank, and WEIB Smooth Jazz.
For more information about the Women’s Leadership Council, visit www.facebook.com/wlcpv.“I’ve got midgets everywhere, man.” Josh Homme’s chasing his kids around the kitchen of his Los Angeles home, drinking in a few more days of domestic bliss before a tour bus whisks him away for the foreseeable. “Let me pass my midget to my wife,” he says, handing his 22 month old boy over to mother and part-time Australian punk rock queen Brody Dalle as he sits down to chat. “Yeah, there are short people living in my house,” he fondly remarks of their growing brood. “I’m gonna have like ten, I want people to think I’m Mormon.”
Returning to the fray with their long-awaited sixth studio album this month, “an audio documentary of a manic year” according to Homme, it seems a lifetime ago since the desert dwelling kings of peyote-laced psychedelic rock played it fast and loose with 2007's Era Vulgaris. As a sombre, accomplished and at times uncomfortable record that carries the scars of a band determined to shed its own skin once more, don’t expect …Like Clockwork to plunge its fangs into your neck on the first date in quite the same way as its predecessor. Had Homme shaken his demons once recording was complete? “As soon as the record was done, I was done,” he still exhales with a sigh of relief. “It’s almost like it’s your monkey now," he laughs. "It’s a good monkey, but also you should spank it every once in a while.”
Why so keen to get it off his back? By the band's own account, the genesis of...Like Clockwork was heavy. Heavy, because of Homme’s surprise showdown with his own mortality when he briefly “died on the operating table” during what should have been routine knee surgery in 2010; a profound experience which left him recuperating, bed-ridden for four months. In an effort to reclaim his mojo, the band embarked on a year-long lap of honour for its rough-hewn but fully formed 1998 self-titled debut in 2011. Homme speaks candidly about the mission statement: “I really wanted to make almost like a trance blues James Brown record, but that just wasn’t there for me. I was hoping that playing the first record would really inspire me and make me fall in love with music again. But I think I was just lost, looking for something in the dark. In that dark I found this record. I wish I had enough control over what I do, to sort of wield it around. And there’s been moments when I have, but this is not really one of them.”
Heavy, because Joey Castillo – a rigid fixture in the band since joining the ranks in late 2002 – made an abrupt exit in the middle of …Like Clockwork’s recording sessions. Back to the proverbial drawing board, then? “Yeah, we were maybe about a third of the way in, so there was still a lot of work to do,” recalls band multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita. “That was an emotional thing for us – we love Joey to death.”
“chaos needs to be at the forefront of what happens here" – Josh Homme
“It was a rough week,” Homme concedes. “So I called my friend Dave [Grohl].” With Castillo out and Grohl back in the drum stool, Sir Elton John – introduced to the band via his chauffeur, another friend of Homme’s – also came knocking on the studio door. “Three days later, Elton was there, so that was a big come together moment for a lot of reasons,” says Fertita. “It refocused us and our commitment to seeing [this album] through. He made the comment when he came in: ‘so have you got a ballad for me?’ We |
or only part of the screen will appear illuminated. This is also true when the backlight comes on. The pixels in the left and center are well defined, but the pixels on the right are sometimes slightly faded. The technology is tuned for smaller screens, so it's to be expected.
Also, if the light is coming from a steep angle in front of you as you type, it can cast a shadow that can make reading of small fonts a little more difficult at certain light levels. Outdoors, performance is great in direct sunlight, a little dim in shade; again depending on light levels. In any case it's far more useable outdoors than the average backlit color notebook display.
I mention all these factors because the different mission of the Dana makes screen performance more important. Unlike a small Palm device, you can't just tilt the screen this way or that to eliminate glare or gather more light. A lap and tabletop offer fewer options. But the good news is that I've been able to write this entire story on the device in a wide range of lighting situations with little trouble.
Many of the programs included with the Dana have been modified to work with the wide screen, including the four main applications and the word processor. But the main applications window appears in the center of the screen, with the Graffiti area on one side and the word "dana" on the other.
The screen is vulnerable to direct impact with a pointed object, but was carefully mounted to deflect and absorb case impact when the unit is dropped from most any angle, according to Glenn Weyhausen of AlphaSmart.
Front
The front I/O bezel is translucent red with more I/O ports than any other Palm OS device. We're talking two USB slots, IrDA, and two SD/MMC slots. The SD slots can be locked in place with optional covers that screw in place. This is so students can't remove the cards, and also to secure them from flying out if the unit is dropped. Two other screw mounts are for an optional handle or flip cover, to be released in a few months. The power input port is also here.
Bottom
On the bottom is the reset button, easily activated with the tip of the stylus (a trend started by HandEra and now becoming standard on many other devices), and the battery door. Opening this door reveals the proprietary NiMH rechargeable battery. It can be replaced with three AA batteries should they run down. I charged this unit two weeks ago and have used it for probably six hours, most of them with the backlight on, and the battery level is currently reported at just above 3/4 charged. I have not recharged it since that first charge. That should give some perspective. The Dana offers battery performance worthy of a Palm OS device.
Rubber feet on the bottom are mounted only in the back, and do a decent job of keeping the Dana from sliding around while typing.
Software
The primary application that the Dana was designed for--word processing--is enabled by a modified version of one of the best programs on the market: WordSmith. Renamed AlphaWord, the program's primary modification allows text to be displayed across the wide screen. It maintains the simplicity and power of WordSmith, complete with multiple fonts, spell check, and thesaurus. By default it is mapped to activate with the Memo button, and files are synced with the AlphaWord conduit. When the Dana is plugged into the computer, it can also serve as an offline typewriter, releasing text into the computer when the Send button is pressed.
When in AlphaWord, the eight function buttons across the top of the keyboard serve as document quick links. On the AlphaSmart 3000, these buttons were used to store applications so kids can quickly find and work on their files without having to first understand directory structures or even typing. Because the AlphaSmarts are often shared between classrooms, the files can be password protected so that no student can see or modify another's work. This feature is present in the Dana as well.
As an aside, when I showed the AlphaSmart 3000 to three children, between ages 8 and 12, each of them was completely familiar with it, and began using it immediately. "I only have to remember which number computer I used and which number button to press," said eight-year-old Joshua Atwater. As they each quickly composed documents of their whimsy, it became clear to me that the AlphaSmart concept has merit in the education field, offering a simple solution for beginning computer users.
Cutting Edge Software's excellent Quickoffice is also bundled with the Dana. It offers word processing, spreadsheet, and charting, excellent features for most business travelers. These applications have also been tweaked to work on a wide screen. Naturally, you can map the Memo key to launch Quickword instead of AlphaWord. Both offer conduits to sync either Word or Excel documents to and from the Dana.
Email
Sending and receiving email requires some kind of modem or network device, since none is built into the Dana. But they did include some good email software, Aileron Mail. Also modified to work wide-screen, it meshes with the Dana nicely, offering a more laptop-like email experience. The full-size keyboard makes it nothing like as tiring as it can be with smaller-screened Graffiti or thumb-board devices can be for longer emails. Another benefit is the ability to remain online while responding, since it's far quicker typing on a full-size keyboard.
I used one of three methods to connect the Dana to my dialup ISP: the Psion Travel Modem. It's both a good functional and aesthetic match, since connection is through IrDA and the color of the Psion is just a slightly darker shade of blue/violet, with the same texture on the ABS casing as the Dana's. The Psion Travel Modem can still be purchased from a few outlets, including CDW, and HP Shopping (of all places) for US$120 to $149. An IrDA-enabled cell phone can also work, and a few USB modems will be able to work with it as soon as some drivers are written for the purpose, according to AlphaSmart.
PrintBoy from Bachmann Software is also bundled as a 30-day free trial. It comes with standard HP drivers that will work with many printers, and other drivers can be downloaded and synced to the Dana. Printing is through USB or via IrDA.
PalmReader is included for reading books. Interestingly, because the screen can be rotated on the Dana, the screen rotation feature has been removed from the bundled version of PalmReader. That could cause come confusion indeed; it's a good indication that the folks at AlphaSmart pay attention to detail.
A great inclusion in the Dana's OS is HandEra's CardPro file manager. The Dana's special mission in life requires such software, especially given its two SD slots. Frankly, the Palm OS needs an application like this as well, but it's clearly more necessary on a device with two expansion slots.
Special stuff
AlphaSmart has long sought to address the needs of all students, so there are many interface enhancements built in, with more in the works. Currently in Dana are multiple alternate keyboard layouts, including DVORAK, and right- and left-hand-only layouts. "Sticky keys" make key combinations easier to enter for the one-handed typist by making shift and control keys remain pressed while the accompanying keystroke is found. "Slow keys" make it take longer for a character to register, an option that can be controlled with an onscreen slider. Soon to be released are screen enhancements to make text easier to read for those with impaired vision.
Dana Admin
In a classroom setting teachers will need to control just which features are enabled on a student's device, so AlphaSmart offers Dana Admin separately. Sounds and beaming can be turned off until needed, for example. Eventually AlphaSmart Manager in conjunction with AlphaHub will allow teachers to set an entire classroom full of Danas at once via IrDA. Dana is also expected to be able to use the Palm Bluetooth card as well as upcoming 802.11b SD cards.
Augmented with eWallet, BackupBuddy VFS, and only the included software, the Dana has been a good companion for the last two weeks. Phone number lookup is as quick as any similar Palm, and alarms are good and loud. It was a bit strange at first trying to translate certain Graffiti concepts into keyboard format, like Command T to go to the top of a document, or Function + OK to press the OK button.
Typing on the Dana is a dream. I honestly think I'm faster on the Dana than on any other of my many computers, including the iBook. Odd, but true. As a writing computer, I don't think it can be surpassed. The Dana is proof that you don't need the heavy horsepower of a Pentium 4 or G4 multipipelined microprocessor/lap warmer sucking amps from the wall or high-tech battery to type a document, nor even to crunch numbers in a small spreadsheet. The power of Dragonball is more than sufficient, and far more efficient. Perhaps the best way to express my enthusiasm about the Dana is to say that most of the stories written in this and following issues will be written on none other than an AlphaSmart Dana. US$399.
Back to Palm SectionA new study highlights the 'parasitism by theft' of bumblebees that invade birds' nests and claim them as their own. Their warning buzz helps bumblebees to "scare" the bird away from the nest. The work by Piotr Jablonski and colleagues, from the Laboratory of Behavioral Ecology and Evolution at Seoul National University in South Korea, is published online in Springer's journal, Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology.
Conspicuous warning signals - visual, auditory or mixed - help prey to deter predators by signaling the presence of defenses (chemical, mechanical, etc). These warning signals help the predator to remember how to recognize the distasteful or poisonous prey that should be avoided.
Birds are predators of bumblebees. In temperate forests, birds and bees use tree cavities for their nesting activities. Because bumblebees prefer cavities filled with plant materials for insulation, they may benefit from stealing freshly built nests from the birds.
Jablonski and team studied the interactions between bumblebees and cavity-nesting Oriental and Varied tits in nestboxes. They were particularly interested in whether bumblebees attempted to settle in those boxes to which the birds brought fresh nest materials, and whether their warning signals provided an advantage in taking over the nests from birds.
In the slopes of the Gwanak Mountain that surround Seoul National University Campus, the researchers observed that bumblebees were detected in up to 21 percent of freshly built nests of tits and were not detected in nestboxes without any bird nests.
The researchers conducted experiments in which they played a bumblebee buzz to the incubating birds. To do this, they built a little device through which they could play the buzzing sound inside of a tit nest. They glued a dead bumblebee onto a toothpick, and they glued the toothpick onto a flat miniature speaker. The device was then hidden inside of the nest material with the bumblebee just under the upper layer of mosses. When a bird arrived at a nestbox, the researchers played the bumblebee buzz and observed the bird's response through a small camera inside the nestbox.
The birds were distressed and often flew out of the nest. For control, they played songs of common birds. Incubating birds were less stressed by the control sound, indicating that the bumblebee buzz indeed may help the insects to take over the nest.
The authors conclude: "The bumblebees' buzz appears to help them oust birds from their freshly built nests. We have provided evidence that a warning signal, known to help deter predatory attacks on a potentially harmful prey, may also help the prey to win ecological competition with its predators."
###
Reference
Jablonski, P.G. et al (2013). Warning signals confer advantage to prey in competition with predators: bumblebees steal nests from insectivorous birds. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology; DOI 10.1007/s00265-013-1553-2
The full-text article, a photo and video clip are available to journalists on request.The pound held its longest run of declines in six months versus the euro before the release of the first UK inflation data that cover the period since the country’s decision to quit the European Union.
Sterling, the worst-performing G10 currency this year, rose for the first time in four days against the dollar. Consumer prices rose 0.5 per cent in July from a year earlier, according to the median forecast of economists.
That’s unchanged from the June reading, and below the Bank of England’s 2 per cent inflation target, which was last reached in December 2013.
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.
The report will provide insight on whether Britain’s shock vote to leave the world’s biggest trading bloc has prompted a slowdown in the economy, as some purchasing managers’ surveys and estimates have indicated.
Traders are also waiting for the release of unemployment-benefit claims and retail-sales data due later this week.
The pound was up marginally at 87.10 pence per euro as of 8:33am London time, holding a six-day decline versus Europe’s shared currency, its longest losing streak since February and the weakest level since August 2013. Sterling rose 0.3 percent to $1.2915, after falling to $1.2866 Monday, the lowest level since July 11.
The currency has borne the brunt of the Brexit decision, falling to a 31-year low versus the dollar last month in the aftermath of the referendum. It also declined after the BOE’s decision this month to cut interest rates and boost monetary stimulus.
© Bloomberg
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 nowD a night appearance on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, political commentator Ann Coulter used the term "Mandarins" to describe Asian-Americans — and didn't back down after MSNBC anchor Joy Reid challenged her.
Coulter described a pro-Trump rally in San Diego, California, as being "omost diverse crowds anyone has ever seen." According to Coulter, the crowd comprised of both Latinos — Coulter used the term "Hispanics" — and "Mandarin Chinese with signs for Trump" written in Mandarin.
Coulter also claimed that the "Hispanics" chanted "Build the wall."
Source: Mic/YouTube More
When MSNBC anchor Joy Reid challenged Coulter's repeated use of the term, Coulter sniped back at Reid, saying "You're not gonna police my "
Coulter once again described the audience as having both "Hispanics" and "Mandarins," which spurred Reid to respond: "What does 'Mandarin' mean? You mean Asian-Americans."
R said Coulter's use of the term "mandarin" was "throwback language" and "arcane."
Source: Mic/YouTube More
Source: Mic/YouTube More
As blogger Angry Asian Man points out, Coulter's use of "Mandarin" is by definition arcane — the term fell out of use in 1912 after China was no longer under imperial rule.
Angry Asian Man also points out that Coulter seems intent on causing hysteria.A female bodybuilder has recently confessed to having acquired male 'bits' and facial hair after excessively taking steroids, according to Daily Mail.
Candice Armstrong, 28, has developed a man's body because of her steroid abuse. Some of the side effects she has experienced include an excessive growth of hair on certain parts of her body, acne, a small penis instead of a clitoris and even liver damage. However, despite these serious health issues, Armstrong has expressed that she won't stop taking the drugs because it has actually improved her life. Candice used to be a slender, blonde female who has now transformed into a hulking brunette packed with muscles, body hair on her back, chest and upper lip.
She expressed her thoughts about steroids and said that it wasn't really her intention to bulk up this much and 'transform' into a man but says that now is too late for her to stop. "No, it wasn't my plan,' she tells Marsh in a scene from the documentary. You could argue that when I wanted big arms and broad shoulders, a bigger back and small hips that that was a masculine look but I didn't consciously decide I want to change from a woman into a man."
Candice also said that she is still the same woman with female feelings, according to In2EastAfrica. "It happened gradually. People began to assume I was a man in drag. Now if I go out with a handbag someone will shout, 'you dirty pervert!' So I've had to start wearing men's clothes. I have to avoid ladies loos. And one man I slept with said, 'I've never been with a man but you're the next best thing'." Other than Candice, there are also a lot of celebrities who make use of steroids either for a role they are preparing for or simply for personal gains. Veteran personal trainer, Happy Hill, confirmed that up to 20 percent of today's leading men use performance-enhancing drugs to attain a buff physique,Photo: Frederick Breedon
There was a time when it was all so innocent.
Back on April 11 and 13, 2004, it didn’t matter that the Nashville Predators had lost the first two games of their playoff series with the Detroit Red Wings. It meant nothing that the fledgling franchise had little (if any) chance to win the best-of-seven series against a team less than two years removed from its most recent Stanley Cup championship. Who cared that player for player, there was no comparison between the rosters in terms of talent, experience and reputation?
The Predators were in the playoffs after six seasons of evolution. That alone was cause for celebration.
“It was amazing,” says Greg Johnson, captain of the 2003-04 team and an original Predator. “We lost two close games in Detroit. We came home and there was a buzz. To this day, that was the loudest arena I’ve ever been in — that first home playoff game. … I never won a Stanley Cup, but that was special for me, being here from Day One.”
With each passing season, “Day One” moves further and further into the past. As it does, perceptions and perspectives change.
So do the expectations. It’s no longer good enough just to make the playoffs. Nashville delivered its best postseason run to date last year, and followed that with a blockbuster offseason trade that brought charismatic star P.K. Subban to Music City in exchange for captain Shea Weber, the rock upon which the team’s attitude on and off the ice was built.
Hockey observers across North America took notice. The Predators made virtually every list of preseason Cup contenders. At the start of the offseason, odds on Nashville winning the Stanley Cup in 2017 were 18-to-1. Following the Subban trade they were 16-1. Only a handful of teams were considered better bets.
Now it is March. The league’s trade deadline was Wednesday afternoon, which means the current roster is the one with which Nashville will launch its next run at the Cup a little more than a month from now (provided the team remains among the Western Conference’s top eight, that is).
Predators fans are, unfailingly, an optimistic bunch. They want to believe the best of their team, which means they believe the best is still to come for this bunch. But should they? Should anyone think these Nashville Predators are legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, or are they just another team good enough to make the playoffs that then will need a big break or two to do something really special?
Here are some things to consider.
Photo: Southcomm
The Man in Charge
There is no gentle way to say this: The facts are as harsh as they are undeniable, and they give no indication that David Poile is capable of putting together a Stanley Cup champion.
From 1982 until 1997, Poile was general manager of the Washington Capitals. The Predators hired him a short time later, and he remains the only person ever to oversee their hockey operations. He is the only general manager in NHL history with more than 1,000 games and 500 wins with two different franchises. He is also a three-time finalist for NHL General Manager of the Year and has a well-earned reputation as a thoughtful and reasoned voice on league-wide matters. That’s the good news.
In more than three decades as an executive, the man whose birthday is on Valentine’s Day has always ended up brokenhearted, as have the fans of his teams. Poile never has put together a roster that made it to the Stanley Cup finals, let alone gotten his name etched on one of the most recognizable trophies in all of sports. In fact, only one of his teams even made it beyond the second round of the postseason — and that one, the 1989-90 Washington Capitals, was swept in the conference finals, outscored 15-6.
The one season Poile did not have a team on the ice (he spent the 1997-98 campaign building an operation in preparation for Nashville’s inaugural season), Washington finally made it to the Cup finals. Had Poile’s efforts finally paid off, or was it a fresh set of eyes and a few key roster moves by his replacement that made a difference? No one can say for sure, but there are 33 seasons in which his influence on a roster is obvious.
On top of all the work Poile has done in the NHL, he was also general manager of the 2014 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a task that carried sizable expectations following a silver medal performance in 2010. That bunch narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth.
To be fair, Poile didn’t always work for men who had the wherewithal of many of their peers. Former Washington owner Abe Pollin had a well-established reputation as a penny-pincher, and Predators founder Craig Leipold constantly struggled against the financial constraints of having a team in a nontraditional hockey market. Add to that the fact that the current Predators lineup was assembled in a manner atypical of the draft-heavy player-development model Poile followed for most of his career. The Subban deal followed other notable transactions in which homegrown talent such as Weber, Seth Jones and Patric Hornqvist were shipped off for the likes of James Neal, Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg.
If an accepted definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing and expect different results, Poile’s fresh approach means it is not so crazy to think Nashville can win it all.
Photo: Frederick Breedon
Goal-Oriented
The common thread among the recent trades is a desire to improve the Predators’ offensive ability — and it has paid off.
Forsberg has led the team in goals and points each of the past two seasons, with Neal second. Johansen is likely the most gifted playmaking center ever to wear a Nashville uniform, and the Predators are on pace for one of the highest-scoring seasons in franchise history. There are scoreboards at sporting events for a reason, after all.
While there are now more Predators capable of producing points than at any time in franchise history, trying to figure out who is going to do so on a game-to-game basis this season has been, at times, maddening. Forsberg had eight goals and two assists in four games last week (he was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week) and became the first NHL player in more than seven years with hat tricks in back-to-back games. He is the same player who had one goal in the first 18 games. Neal and others have had similar swings in production.
Says Poile, “I say this all the time: ‘If you can just give us your A game as many games as possible,’ but we’ve had a lot of guys that have gone into long, long slumps this year without any production. That’s hard to consistently win when your offense is sputtering or certain guys aren’t scoring.
“It’s no different than your car,” he says. “If you have an eight-cylinder car and one or more of your cylinders go down, your car doesn’t go very fast.”
Filip ForsbergThe inconsistency shows up in the standings. If you break the season down into seven-game segments (Wednesday’s contest at Buffalo was No. 63, so there have been exactly nine), Nashville has won just five, and never more than two in a row. The playoffs, of course, consist of best-of-seven series, and a team must win four straight in order to hoist the Cup.
In the Predators’ case, they’re also likely going to have to win on the road — a daunting proposition for a team that has the worst road record among Western Conference teams currently in possession of a playoff spot. Their struggles have relegated them to a battle for third place in the Central Division and/or one of the two Western Conference wild card spots. That makes it unlikely they will have home-ice advantage in any playoff series.
By early February, oddsmakers saw Nashville as a 25-1 pick to win it all.
Maybe the law of averages means the time is coming when everybody will play well at the same time. Or maybe if it hasn’t happened by now, it never will.
Photo: Frederick Breedon
Too Good to Be Good
The enhanced overall skill of the roster is notable for more than just the fact that it is a departure from what was the long-established norm.
It has been 11 years since NHL owners locked out players and wiped out an entire season. When business resumed in 2005-06, some new rules were implemented and others were emphasized, to open up the game and create more opportunity for the most skilled players to showcase their abilities. Those efforts were largely successful, and the resulting creativity and overall entertainment value remain.
All but one of the teams that have won the Stanley Cup since then included at least one player selected first or second overall in the draft. A number of them had two taken in the top five. For example, the reigning champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins (they also won in 2009), got Sidney Crosby first overall in 2005, a year after they got Evegni Malkin with the second pick. Chicago has won three Cups (2010, 2013 and 2015) with lineups that featured Patrick Kane (first overall, 2007) and Jonathan Toews (third overall, 2006). Los Angeles won a pair with 2008’s second-overall choice Drew Doughty.
That run kicked off with Carolina, coached at the time by current Nashville boss Peter Laviolette. His team then included Eric Staal (second overall, 2003) and Andrew Ladd (fourth overall, 2004).
To be in position to select those types of players, a team has to be among the league’s worst for a season or more. Nashville simply never has been that bad. Poile, who has produced 23 playoff teams in his 33 seasons as a general manager (that’s 69.9 percent), selected Jones fourth overall in 2013 but otherwise has had only one other top 10 pick with Nashville (Colin Wilson was seventh overall in 2008) since the first postseason appearance.
When the Predators began play in 1998, they kicked off the latest round of NHL expansion, which included four teams. Their nine playoff appearances are the most of the bunch and nearly as many as the other three combined (11). Go back to the previous round of expansion (San Jose, Tampa Bay and Florida from 1991-93) and only one of those teams — the Sharks — has made more playoff appearances than Nashville.
“Chicago — with all due respect — was a bad, bad team for a lot of years,” Poile says. “For being really bad, they have franchise players like Toews and Kane. … That is a route to do it. Edmonton and Toronto have been very poor, and now they have the two best young players in the league in Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. They’re already competitive, and they’re teams that certainly are going to be top teams very shortly.
“But we were better than they were, and we’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment out of winning hockey games, making the playoffs, playing the playoff rounds,” he continues. “We just have to do it a different way.”
Nashville’s expansion era ended more than a decade ago when it earned its first postseason berth. There have been eight more playoff appearances since that first series with Detroit, which the Red Wings won in six games. There have been some dramatic victories and heartbreaking defeats. Players like Jerred Smithson and Nick Spaling emerged as unlikely heroes. Others, such as Wilson and Joel Ward, built their professional reputations on their postseason performances.
Things have changed. The innocence is lost, but Predators fans still want to believe it can happen eventually — and there is reason to do so, for those who are so inclined.
“It’s amazing where it is now,” former Predators captain Johnson says. “The players are so much better than we ever were. But to make the playoffs and to build some expectations — I’d love to see them go to a conference final or a Stanley Cup final.”
Those are the only things no one has seen the Predators do. And as with all things unseen, they require faith.
Email [email protected]
Photo: Frederick BreedonHow To Help
Volunteers are key to the success of gNewSense. This is a community effort -- we do not have the support of corporations behind us like many other distributions do, and so it depends on YOU to make things happen.
Read below to learn more about how you can help.
Get familiar with the gNewSense Processes that interests you most.
Become a contributor.
How can I help the most right now?
Currently our greatest need is for Developers, so if you fit this and other roles you should consider applying for this one.
Development Team
Description of this role
Hack the Builder scripts and package management.
Skills you possess or want to learn
Python, C, bash, GNU tools, DEB/Packaging, Bugfiling
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Development Team home page
Bug forwarding
Description of this role
Forward gNewSense bugs upstream.
Skills you possess or want to learn
'reportbug', Debian bug reporting.
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Forwarding bugs from our BTS to Debian's BTS
Go to the Bug forwarding Team home page
Website Team
Description of this role
Improve gNewSense's image creating the best possible web interface for users and contributors on the Internet.
Skills you possess or want to learn
Moinmoin, python, CSS, HTML, PHP
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Web Team home page
Artwork Team
Description of this role
Creating artwork and designs for the gNewSense community on request.
Skills you possess or want to learn
Inkscape, GIMP, OO.org, design, usability/interaction
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Artwork Team home page
Documentation Team
Description of this role
Write documents, guides, how-tos, FAQs, marketing material, process/methodology docs, release notes.
Skills you possess or want to learn
Writing, editing, grammar (wordsmith), technical, explaining complex ideas well.
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Documentation Team home page
Translation Team
Description of this role
Localize software and documentation into other languages.
Skills you possess or want to learn
You are able to translate English into other language or languages.
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Translation Team home page
Package Freedom Verification Team
Description of this role
Verifying the license of each package to ensure it is a free license.
People who update the LibrePlanet Software Blacklist page with all the apps we remove from gNewSense.
Skills you possess or want to learn
free licenses
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Package Freedom Verification Team home page
Packaging Team
Description of this role
To package and maintain software that is not included in our repositories
Skills you possess or want to learn
packaging
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Packaging Team home page
Marketing Team
Description of this role
Through the development of processes and content, this project aims to spread gNewSense and to provide a central repository of ideas and information that can be used to deliver gNewSense to new audiences.
Skills you possess or want to learn
Strong writing, editing, grammar, ability to explain benefits of gNewSense to new users.
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Marketing Team home page
Volunteer Coordinators
Description of this role
Help recruit project contributors, be a point of contact for the community members and channel the feedback to gNewSense developers.
Skills you possess or want to learn
community management
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Volunteer Coordinators Team home page
Local communities
Description of this role
Support the spread and development of gNewSense in different locations around the world.
Skills you possess or want to learn
community management, Languages, programming, writing, etc.
Examples of where and how you can contribute in this role
Go to the Local Communities home pageby Sad Man’s Tongue, Photos by Celeste Giuliano Photography
“Servin up the best cheesecake in town!”
Philadelphia is famous for many things, but what comes to mind is not the liberty bell, it’s my love of a good Philly Cheese Steak sandwich, and my love of the Cheese Cake photography of Celeste Giuliano Photography. I also saw Mike Ness do his solo act on South Street in Philly many years ago, which is also a very fond memory. I think you will agree after you take a look at these marvellous modern girls posing as if for a Gil Elvgren Vintage pin up poster.
According to her;
I graduated with a BFA in Photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia where during my senior year, I was named the top studio photographer. After graduating I became a Photo Editor for a weekly newspaper in the Philadelphia area. During the day I worked as a photojournalist and on evenings and weekends I photographed portraits for my own clients. About four years ago I started Celeste Giuliano Photography/Lunar Light Studios and have been photographing pinups and theatrical styled portraits ever since. I love what I do and am ecstatic that so many women share my love of pinups and are so eager to pose as one themselves. While at the studio my stylists and I pamper our clients with professional hair, makeup and photos. Our goal is to not only provide you with amazing and classy images but also to make you look and feel like the beautiful, sexy,confident woman you are!
And here is a great cheese steak recipe from Rick’s Original Philly Cheese Steaks
INGREDIENTS
Per sandwich, you will need:
• 5oz Sliced Chip Steak. For the authentic cheese steak it is recommended that you use real steak from a butcher, NOT a processed meat product.
• 8” long Italian loaf or hoagie roll
• 1 oz. cheese. American, Provolone, Pepper Jack or Cheez Whiz
• 1/4 cup of sweet onions
Salt/Pepper
If you desire cooked onions on your sandwiches, you should start them first! Dice approximately 1/4 cup of onions per sandwich. Sautee them in a small amount of vegetable oil until carmelized (about 10 minutes).
If you desire cooked vegetables on your sandwich, heat thoroughly before adding to the finished sandwich for best taste.
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
For best results use a stove top or electric griddle. Start with a cold griddle. Spray with non-stick vegetable spray. Heat grill until hot, then reduce heat to Med/High. Lay partially frozen (easier to separate) whole steak slices on the griddle in columns. Add a small amount of water to the griddle around the meat. After 30 seconds, flip each piece of steak over and cook until meat is no longer pink. Do not add more water unless the meat is sticking to the griddle. Remove promptly, so as not to overcook the meat. Lay 5oz. of steak on each roll in WHOLE slices. Top with cheese, and any other toppings that you desire. Note: If you’re using Cheez Whiz, don’t use too much or it can overpower the sandwich’s taste. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dig in!!While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been playing “victim” all week and spinning the release of an audio recording from a Feb. 2 meeting between him and his aides debating the use of smear tactics against actress Ashley Judd’s mental health, views on religion and attitudes about family while she was debating a Kentucky Senate run now the tables have tuned and McConnell and his staff may very well be investigated over the incident.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit government watchdog group, has asked the Senate ethics committee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe whether aides and McConnell improperly conducted political opposition research on federal government time and property.
McConnell can be heard on the recording telling his campaign aides they are in “the Whac-A-Mole period of the campaign,” saying to hit anybody who sticks their head up.
One aide can be heard describing Judd as “clearly … emotionally unbalanced.” with the aide leading the strategy meeting stating that Judd “views [traditional Christianity] as sort of a vestige of patriarchy” and said she is “anti-sort-of-traditional American family.”
Senate ethics rules forbid legislative assistants and other Senate employees from participating in political activities on government time.
The FBI is currently investigating how the tape of the McConnell was made. But in the past few days it has come to light that two men Curtis Morrison and Shawn Reilly from the small progressive Democratic PAC Progress Kentucky recorded and leaked the taped. But more shockingly is that they and were exposed by Jacob Conway, a Democratic county official who says that the duo told him about the recording shortly after they made it. Said Conway “I’m an honest person,” Conway said. “If you’re going to ask me an honest question, I’m going to give you an honest answer.”
What Conway did not say is that the current |
13 percent, from 1.3 million to 1.5 million. As of 2013, sub-Saharan Africans accounted for a small but growing share (4 percent) of the 41.3 million total immigrants in the United States; they also constituted 82 percent of the 1.8 million immigrants born anywhere on the African continent.
Click here for an interactive chart that highlights migration trends to the United States from individual sub-Saharan African countries.
The contemporary wave of sub-Saharan migration is diverse and includes both skilled professionals and less-educated refugees. In 2013, 78 percent of sub-Saharan Africans came from Eastern and Western Africa, with Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa representing the top sending countries. Together, these five origin countries accounted for more than 52 percent of all sub-Saharan Africans in the United States.
Immigrants from several Anglophone African countries (Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe) were more likely to have at least a four-year degree, while those born in Cape Verde, Eritrea, Liberia, and Somalia, though accounting for a small share of the total sub-Saharan population, were disproportionately refugees and less likely to have a college degree.
Most sub-Saharan African immigrants who obtain lawful permanent residence in the United States (also known as receiving a green card) arrive as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, refugees, or through the Diversity Visa Lottery. Compared to the total foreign-born population, sub-Saharan African immigrants were among the best educated and less likely to be Limited English Proficient (LEP). Sub-Saharan Africans also had a higher rate of health insurance coverage.
{snip}
Distribution by state and key cities
Most immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa settled in New York (9 percent), Texas (8 percent), and Maryland (8 percent). The top four counties with sub-Saharan immigrants were Montgomery County in Maryland, Bronx County in New York, Prince George’s County in Maryland, and Hennepin County in Minnesota. Together, the four counties accounted for about 12 percent of the total sub-Saharan immigrant population in the United States.
Click here for an interactive map that shows the geographic distribution of immigrants from top sub-Saharan African sending countries by state and county.
In the 2008-12 period, the U.S. cities with the greatest number of sub-Saharan immigrants were the greater New York, Washington D.C., and Atlanta metropolitan areas. These three metropolitan areas accounted for about 26 percent of sub-Saharan immigrants in the United States.
Click here for an interactive map that highlights the metropolitan areas with the highest concentrations of immigrants from top sub-Saharan African sending countries.
{snip}
Immigration pathways and naturalization
In 2013, approximately 1.5 million sub-Saharan African immigrants resided in the United States, comprising about 4 percent of the total U.S. foreign-born population. Most sub-Saharan immigrants arrived between 2000 and 2009 (44 percent), about 40 percent came before 2000, and 17 percent arrived in 2010 or later. In contrast, 61 percent of all immigrants to the United States arrived prior to 2000, 29 percent between 2000 and 2009, and 10 percent in 2010 and after.
Forty-nine percent of the 1.5 million sub-Saharan immigrants were naturalized U.S. citizens, compared to 47 percent of all immigrants. In fiscal year 2013, almost half of all sub-Saharan immigrants who became lawful permanent residents (LPRs) in the United States were immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (45 percent). Sub-Saharan African immigrants were much more likely to have been admitted as refugees (21 percent) or through the Diversity Visa Lottery (17 percent) than immigrants from most other world regions. Sub-Saharan immigrants were much less likely to gain a green card via employment pathways (5 percent) compared to the overall LPR population (16 percent).
{snip}
Remittances
Global remittances sent to sub-Saharan Africa via formal channels equaled $31 billion in 2013, representing about 2 percent of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to data from the World Bank. Remittances received by sub-Saharan African countries have seen a seven-fold increase since 2003.
{snip}
Original Article
Share ThisBreitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow told CNN that his website's attempts to discredit the sexual assault allegations against Roy Moore aimed to protect President Trump against similar claims. Marlow said, "I think part of it is because it's not just about Judge Moore, it is not even just about establishment, anti-establishment. It's about what's coming next for President Trump."
Marlow further blamed mainstream media coverage of the Moore allegations for creating an environment that left Trump vulnerable:
"I think they want to create a standard where President Trump either from past or future accusations, will not be able to match whatever standard is now in place for who can be a United States senator. Based off not any sort of conviction or any sort of admission of guilt, but based off of purely allegations."The House Intelligence Committee issued seven subpoenas on Wednesday for testimony, documents, and business records from former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, as part of an investigation into the interference of Russia in the 2016 presidential elections. According to The Hill, one subpoena seeks information about Susan Rice, President Obama’s former national security adviser, and activities related to documents that included the names of members of the Trump campaign.
Four of the subpoenas are related directly to Russian meddling, which is also the subject of probes from the Senate Intelligence Committee and FBI. Representatives Mike Conaway and Adam Schiff, who are leading the House Intel’s inquiry, made a joint statement.
“As part of our ongoing investigation into Russian active measures during the 2016 campaign, today we approved subpoenas for several individuals for testimony, personal documents and business records… We hope and expect that anyone called to testify or provide documents will comply with that request, so that we may gain all the information within the scope of our investigation. We will continue to pursue this investigation wherever the facts may lead.”
A separate FBI probe that was led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller and the latest actions of the committee prove lawmakers have not given up their own Russia investigations. Mueller was appointed as special counsel by Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein on May 17.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 10: White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice, shakes hands with incoming White House National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn, during the 2017 Passing The Baton conference at the United States Institute of Peace, on January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
In addition to approving subpoenas for Flynn and Cohen, the committee also approved them for their companies, Flynn Intel Group LLC and Michael D. Cohen & Associates PC. Congressional sources described the action as “separate” from the committee’s Russia probe.
Chairman Devin Nunes issued subpoenas to the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Agency for information about how the names of Trump campaign officials were “unmasked” in classified intelligence reports from those agencies. Specifically, the subpoenas issued by Nunes seek information about requests made by former CIA Director John Brennan and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice for the campaign aides’ names to be disclosed in those classified reports.
A portion of the letter from former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's attorneys to the Senate Intelligence Committee is photographed in Washington, Monday, May 22, 2017. In the letter, Flynn invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination and declined to hand over documents sought under subpoena by a Senate panel investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
According to a senior committee aide who was not authorized to speak publicly, Nunes issued those subpoenas without agreement from Democrats. In April, Nunes stepped aside from the Russia probe, which is now being led by Conaway. Nunes was criticized for speaking publicly about classified surveillance reports he reviewed during his time at the White House.
Three of the subpoenas were directed to the CIA, FBI, and NSA over the unmasking claims.
null
The “unmasking” issue has been raised by the White House and by Trump supporters that the investigation has been politically motivated. However, Democrats have largely dismissed this issue as an attempt to divert attention from possible collusion by Trump campaign officials with the Russians.
On Tuesday, Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, acknowledged that he is resisting a request from congressional investigators seeking information from him about possible contacts with Russia. Cohen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday about the House committee’s latest action.
Cohen’s name surfaced last year in an unsubstantiated dossier prepared by a former British intelligence agent, alleging that the lawyer attended a meeting in Prague to discuss Russia’s targeting of Democrats for hacking operations.
null
On Tuesday, Cohen gave the following statement in a text message to USA Today:
“To date, there has not been a single witness, document or piece of evidence linking me to this fake Russian conspiracy… This is not surprising to me because there is none! I declined the invitation (by the Senate and House Intelligence panels) to participate as the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered.”
On Tuesday, it was reported by CNN that Flynn would provide documents requested by the Senate intelligence committee. The initial batch is due by June 6, a person close to Flynn said Tuesday.
Two subpoenas were sent to his businesses. Flynn will also provide personal documents sought via a separate subpoena after Senate investigators narrowed the scope of the request.
[Featured Image by Win McNamee/Getty Images]Photo courtesy of False Flag
The Indian metal (and adjacent hardcore punk) scene has picked up an immense amount of steam over the past few years, and continues to be a crucial one to watch, whether your poison of choice is doom, sludge, black metal, death, grind, or something in between. Pune's False Flag is the latest band from the region to catch my ear, and honestly, they're so far up my alley it's almost absurd. It's not every day a scintillating debut EP from an Indian black metal-tinged neocrust band with anti-misogynist, anti-casteist lyrics based around societal oppression, existentialism, and the Marxist critical theories of the Frankfurt School lands in your inbox out of the blue—but I guess Santa thought I've been good this year.
False Flag has its roots in pure grind, but, as young bands are wont to do, have rapidly accelerated their search for the perfect sound since the original four members saw Napalm Death lay waste to a Bangalore festival stage in 2015. A demo and several live gigs followed, and now, the current lineup—guitarists Shaunak and Rohit, vocalist Pushkar, bassist Kamran, and drummer Rakshith—are readying the release of their (extremely well-produced) first EP, which we're streaming in full below.
False Flag live / Photo courtesy of the artist
Sonically, they're far more Oathbreaker than Anti Cimex, but songs like "Sisyphus' Lament" show off a good solid whack of crust amidst the more atmospheric moments. A good dose of His Hero Is Gone and 90s screamo bubble up there, too, especially on EP opener "Spectrum Disorder," where they come juxtaposed with melodic black metal and pissed-off barks. Closing track "Unbroken" is textured, aggressive, and fast, with a hefty melodic midsection—textbook stadium crust, executed faithfully and will passion. It's only three tracks long, so False Flag is really more of an appetizer than a main course, but I absolutely can't wait to get my grubby paws on more.
"The songs on this EP are reflections on alienation—ideological, societal and existential," guitarist Shaunak told Noisey. "The words here are informed by the experiences I've had during what proved to be the most difficult and crucial years of my intellectual, ideological, and personal growth. It's not difficult to see that they are also informed by ideas of Albert Camus and the Frankfurt School. [The song] 'Unbroken' was composed around the words written by a very dear friend of mine."
Listen to the full EP below, and snag it from the band come December 25—preorders are up now.
Kim Kelly is waving black flags on Twitter.Coming Soon
Tall Girl
Standing 6-foot-3, 16-year-old "tall girl" Jodi has never had a boyfriend. But that could change when a tall exchange student enrolls at her school.
THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME
Desperate to save his dying wife, a man turns to prayer -- and more extreme measures. A gothic drama starring Tom Holland and Chris Evans.
Tuca & Bertie
Two bird women -- a carefree toucan and an anxious songbird -- live in the same apartment building and share their lives in this animated comedy.
Huge In France
Famous comedian Gad Elmaleh moves to LA to reconnect with his son and must learn to live without the celebrity perks he's accustomed to in France.
Love, Death & Robots
Terrifying creatures, wicked surprises and dark comedy converge in this NSFW anthology of animated stories presented by Tim Miller and David Fincher.
Osmosis
In Paris of the near future, a dating app matches singles with their soul mates by mining their brain data. But decoding true love comes at a price.
Followers
After an aspiring actress hits it big thanks to a candid Instagram, her life intersects with many other Tokyo women as they follow their dreams.
Wu Assassins
The last in a line of Chosen Ones, a wannabe chef teams up with a homicide detective to unravel an ancient mystery and take down supernatural assassins.The B.C. government says Ottawa is interfering in an independent review connected to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, just days after Alberta Premier Rachel Notley called on Ottawa to intensify its efforts to defend the project.
"It's both a highly unusual and a highly troubling intrusion on a province's right to enforce its own permits, its own regulations and the interests of its own citizens," B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman said in an interview on Wednesday. "We do not take kindly to this intervention."
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr announced in a statement on Wednesday that Canada has filed a letter to the National Energy Board supporting a process to quickly resolve conflicts with local and provincial governments that could slow down construction on the pipeline.
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Both Ms. Notley and Mr. Carr are scheduled to speak in Vancouver on Thursday to defend the pipeline expansion project that will help Alberta oil producers expand their export route to Pacific markets. Last week, the Alberta Premier said Ottawa needed to "step up" its support for the pipeline expansion.
The NEB is hearing a complaint from Kinder Morgan, which has already begun construction, that the city of Burnaby, B.C., is blocking the project by refusing to issue four permits. The city, which opposes the project, denies any unreasonable delay.
The company – now with Ottawa's support – wants a standing panel to allow any future permit disputes to be resolved quickly.
That proposal anticipates new conflicts that could arise with local governments or the B.C. government: The B.C. government granted approval for the pipeline expansion prior to the last provincial election in May, but the new NDP government has vowed to use every legal tool it can to stop the project.
"The [federal] government is supportive of establishing a process that would assist in resolving any conflicts over the issuance of municipal or provincial permits and avoid unnecessary delays to project construction or regulatory compliance," Mr. Carr said in his statement.
However Mr. Heyman said the concern is not justified.
"The federal government should not be intruding on provincial rights and authority," he said.
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"I would expect the National Energy Board, which in this case has the powers of the federal court, to understand that we as a province have a responsibility and a right to both permit and enforce our own standards. "
Mr. Heyman said the province is following due process in its permit process and he noted the company has agreed that there is no sign of political interference at the provincial level. At the same time, the B.C. government has joined a legal challenge by environmentalists and some First Nations of the federal approval of the $7.4-billion project.
A federal official said Mr. Carr's statement is not directed at the company's dispute with the municipality of Burnaby.
However, Kinder Morgan has filed another application asking the NEB to establish a standing panel to deal on an expedited basis with future disputes between the company and the province or municipalities over permits. It is that proposed "expedited process" that B.C. is objecting to.
B.C. has already issued hundreds of permits, but there are hundreds that have yet to be issued, the official said, before Kinder Morgan can complete the project. The official stressed that the statement does not amount to a formal intervention in the case.
In Calgary on Wednesday, the NEB heard Mike Davies, Trans Mountain's senior director of marine development, say the company's dealings with Burnaby have been difficult for some time.Hertha Berlin made a winning return to continental football with a slender 1-0 victory over Danish side Brondby in the first leg third qualifying round of the Europa League.
The German side had been without European football since the 2009/10 season, but showed no signs of nerves as they took early control of the game at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadion, chosen as the venue ahead of the more familair Olympiastadion.
Brondby were well organised and Hertha had to be patient to break them down, but when the opening goal came on 28 minutes it was well worth the wait.
Former Bayern Munich midfielder Mitchell Weiser found some space on the right and dug out a cross for Vedad Ibisevic, who unleashed a ferocious bicycle kick that slammed into the bottom corner of the goal. It was a stunning goal by the Bosnian, which raised the roof in Berlin.
Brondby offered only fleeting glimpes as an attacking force as they looked to keep Hertha in their sights ahead of next Thursday's second leg.
Instead it was Hertha who pushed for a second and came close to getting it on more than one occasion. Early in the second half Marvin Plattenhardt raced clear down the left and put the ball across to Weiser, who couldn't quite reach the pass.
Salomon Kalou went close from the edge of the box after Weiser was the provider again from the right, but the Ivorian's shot was tipped over the bar by brondby goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow.
The home fans thought Ibisevic had scored his second of the night when he turned the ball in from close-range on 81 minutes, but the strike was chalked off after the striker was adjudged to have used his arm to control the ball.
The result gives Hertha the edge going into next week's second leg, but Brondby will be looking to make Hertha pay for failing to score a second.
The winner of the tie will enter a two-legged play-off scheduled for August 18 and 25, with the winner entering the group stage of the competition.(Updated) Iris Mittenaere of France won the crown as the new Miss Universe to succeed the Philippines’ Pia Wurtzbach, ending a 64-year drought for her country.
Mittenaere was announced as the Miss Universe 2016 during the coronation at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Monday.
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She the second from France to win the title since Christiane Martel in 1953.
During the question and answer portion, Mittenaere was asked which failure made a mark in her life and how she learned from it.
Mittenaere said she has her failures as she pursues her studies in medicine, but said she learned to keep on trying and keep going.
IN PHOTOS: Miss France’s journey to Miss Universe crown
“I failed several times in my life… When you fail you have to be elevated and you have keep going,” Mittenaere said in French and translated by an interpreter.
She said if she would not win the crown, she would still be honored for the opportunity.
“If tonight I will not be the winner I am still honored that I’m still one of the three finalists. For me this is a great opportunity,” Mittenaere said.
Raquel Pelissier of Haiti was named first runner up, while Colombian Andrea Tovar was named second runner up.
Maxine Medina of the Philippines and Thailand’s Chalita Suansane finished in the Top 6 with Kenya’s Mary Esther Were.
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READ: No back-to-back for Philippines in Miss Universe
USA’s Deshauna Barber, Mexico’s Kristal Silva and Canada’s Siera Bearchell comprised the Top 9.
Indonesian Kezia Warouw, Brazil’s Raissa Santana, Peru’s Valeria Piazza and Panama’s Keity Drennan made the top 13.
Outside, a group of French waved their flag and belted out their celebratory chant.
Scores of smiling Filipinos parted and extended their congratulations, showing their warmth and compassion by sending their regards to the new Miss Universe.
Mittenaere’s mother was among the cheering crowd who marched outside the gate jumping up while waving the French flag.
She said this was the first time for France to win the crown after 64 years.
She said she was proud that her daughter was crowned the new queen.
“I was a little bit shocked, and I felt I was dreaming. But it’s true, it’s a dream come true,” she said in an interview with reporters.
“She was gorgeous, I feel very proud of her, because she’s marvelous, fantastic, and an amazing daughter. She will be a very fantastic Miss Universe, I’m sure. She’s beautiful inside and outside,” she added.
At 23 years old, the newly crowned queen is pursuing a degree in dental surgery.
Besides dental school, Mittenaere is also fond of extreme sports, traveling the world and cooking French dishes, according to her profile at the Miss Universe website.
She said her primary advocacies are dental and oral hygiene. IDL/rga
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Follow @MJcayabyabINQ on Twitter(NationalSentinel) Corruption: The House Intelligence Committee is looking into whether former President Obama’s national security advisor, Susan Rice, violated any laws when she requested members of the Trump campaign be unmasked in intelligence reports.
As reported by the Washington Times, a Justice Department rule from 2008 is at the center of the panel’s overall investigation into Russia election interference:
Justice Department rules limit supplying politically sensitive information to the White House, a review of attorney general guidelines for domestic FBI intelligence investigations has found.
A prohibition contained in the 2008 guidelines is a central focus of the ongoing House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence probe into Russian election meddling and unauthorized disclosures of sensitive U.S. intelligence communications intercepts.
The prohibitions in guidelines may explain why the FBI so far has refused to cooperate with the House committee’s investigation. Specifically, as of Wednesday, the FBI still has not responded to a request for documents that could explain how the White House was able to “unmask” the names of Americans incidentally spied on during a foreign electronic intelligence operation that ran from November to January — the same months the Trump transition team was working.
The committee is attempting to find out if Rice’s activities were part of a clandestine political operation to undermine the incoming Trump administration, using legitimate foreign surveillance as cover.
Rice is expected to appear before the committee in the coming weeks to explain the unmasking in what the chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has described as improper surveillance of the Trump campaign.
AdvertisementsU.S. Rep. Kay Granger won’t be holding a congressional town hall meeting in Fort Worth this summer because she said it’s too dangerous.
“I wish we could have a town hall meeting and engage with others,” said Granger, R-Fort Worth, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. “There are so many threats going on.”
This comes just weeks since a gunman opened fire during an early morning practice of Republican congressmen trying to get ready for the charitable Congressional Baseball Game in Virginia. And it comes six years after U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot at a Tucson grocery store during a “Congress on Your Corner” constituent event.
U.S. House members recently learned there have been 980 threats against them.
“Obviously we are living in a time where incivility has kind of run rampant,” said Jim Riddlesperger, a political science professor at TCU. “Ninety-seven percent of people have perspective and don’t go crazy. But it’s that one rogue person.
“Members of Congress have the right to be concerned.”
At the same time, he and others wonder how one can balance safety concerns with the need to interact with constituents from all walks of life.
Even in these politically turbulent times, some lawmakers such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas continue to hold public meetings.
But Granger said she doesn’t believe typical town hall meetings are effective right now.
Read more from our media partners at the Star-Telegram
Copyright 2016 WFAAStill, some education leaders are hesitant to fully back the proposed legislation. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined several charter school leaders from across the country in writing a letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to adopt proposed amendments to the House bill that would enhance accountability and transparency.
"We know that when public charters are held to the same standards of accountability, equitable access and transparency as traditional public schools, all our students receive a better education," the letter says. "But when public charters are not held to these standards, student learning suffers and taxpayer money is wasted."
[MORE: New York and Illinois Head in Opposite Directions on Charter Schools]
The group pointed to a report released Monday that claimed charter school operators in 15 states were responsible for "losing, misusing or wasting over $100 million in taxpayer money."
"All institutions that receive public education dollars should be held to the same high standards, and we urge you to support improvements to this legislation that would ensure better financial oversight of charters, transparency with charter finances, and equitable access for and treatment of all students," the teachers continue in their letter.
One amendment to increase the accountability and transparency of charter schools – from Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla. – failed to pass. It would have required Education Secretary Arne Duncan to develop and enforce conflict-of-interest guidelines for any charter school receiving funds under the bill.
"The conflict-of-interest problems afflicting charter schools across the country endanger the outstanding work being done by many charter schools," Castor said Friday. "If charter schools are going to effectively carry out their mission for students using public funds, it is clear we need more accountability and better procedures in place to protect taxpayer investments." But Kline strongly opposed the amendment, saying it would be a federal overreach and that the bill sufficiently addresses concerns about conflicts of interest. [READ: AFT, Advocacy Group Want More Accountability for Charter Schools] "Simply put, this amendment is unnecessary," Kline said. "W "Simply put, this amendment is unnecessary," Kline said. "W
e do not need the secretary of education getting more involved in these schools by layering on more burdensome requirements. These are issues best addressed at the state and local level, and the underlying bill already provides support for these efforts."The third version of my prototype (and probably the last) includes several new features and ships. Also 3 new levels and many fixes.
Posted by Autarca on Apr 8th, 2015
Why a new version?
I wanted to give a better example of the variety of scenarios the player can find during the game, that's why I added 3 new maps that go from a simple trading encounter to finding a valuable new ship in an abandoned outpost.
There's still combat but for that I added a new class of ships: corvettes. These are weaker and faster than the capital ships but are very good for their specific purposes (for example, the missile corvette is really good at dealing with fighters).
You can also load and save new games (I really want to see how this works across all three platforms so any feedback is welcome). Now, this feature is limited to the galactic map, you can't save in the middle of combat.
I have many more points that I will address in detail so please keep reading.
What's new?
- New trading mechanic: buy new technologies from a trade convoy. Use this tech to unlock new ships.
- Abandoned outpost scenario: decide to salvage an abandoned pre-war outpost or risk activating it for greater rewards.
- Save games in the galactic map and load them from the main menu.
- Quicker way to move ships in a horizontal way by double right clicking (you can still move them in three dimensions by using the movement guide). Updated tutorial to show movement orders in detail.
- Added new ships: escort corvette, missile corvette and dreadnaught.
- Hide the UI with backspace key.
- Better looking explosions.
- Changed skyboxes of most scenarios.
- Fixed error where two ships could get stuck in a single direction forever (added logic so they can break off).
- Fixed error where a fighter would lose its numbered group after docking.
- Fixed vertical movement guide, now it only moves in a vertical axis.
- Many more fixes to errors found by me during development and testing.
What now?
Well, now I need to start thinking in Greenlight, I hope to have a website and a trailer very soon so I could start a proper Greenlight campaign. I will also hire freelancer(s) to help me with some nice 2D art that I want to have for the intro and ending of the game, I will also need new icons to replace the placeholders I'm using right now.
Now regarding the actual development, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about my quick progress so I think I could have a real game in the next 3 to 6 months including many more levels, ships and finished the core features of random encounters, AI and dealing with neutral factions. I will also be using Early Access but I hope that only for a few months in order to get a stable and fun product with the help of the community (sadly I cannot afford proper QA and I rather not release a broken product that will ruin my reputation when I'm just getting in the industry).
That would be all for the moment, please check the downloads section to get the latest versions and as always I welcome any feedback.
Regards and thanks for reading.
Jorge Pacheco
Future Indie Developer
Santiago de ChileWe are just 33 days away from the start of the 2016 NFL Draft in Chicago, ladies and gentlemen...let me tell you, it can't possibly get here soon enough for my liking. I'm sure that most of you feel the same way. This is our sixth iteration of our Mock Draft Database for this season (though it's only "Version 5.0" because the Pre-Combine version doesn't get a numerical designation), and though we've expanded the number of mocks appearing in our Database, the overall pattern of things remains largely unchanged.
Yes, this week we are up to a total of 80 mocks, so we've almost gotten to the ultimate goal of 100. Once we get to 100, the versions after that will be spent weeding out the older ones and replacing them with fresh perspectives. Not all of these drafts are by the talking heads you see on TV or what have you every day, but they're all pretty good perspectives, and hopefully this gives some folks that might not otherwise get a lot of exposure to have an opportunity to get some eyes on their product.
With that, here are the 80 mocks that comprise our Database for this week.
One position continues to be the dominant force for our Database this season, and they've opened up even more of a lead in this week's update.
That position, of course, is the wide receiver position, as more and more of the mock drafts we're sampling recognize the upgrades the Vikings have made to the offensive line in free agency and shifting more towards pass catchers. Of the 80 selections in this week's Database, a full 62 of them are going to wide receivers (77.5%). That's more than three out of every four pundits that feel the Vikings will be selecting a receiver in the first round of next month's selection meeting. Josh Doctson of Texas Christian continues to lap the field, as he hears his name called 29 times this week (36.3%). If you added the totals of any three other players in the Database at this point, they wouldn't have as many selections combined as Doctson has by himself. The name you'll see in second place this week is a bit of a surprise, as Notre Dame wide receiver Will Fuller has leapfrogged several names to take the second spot. After only four selections last week, he's all the way up to ten this time around (12.5%). Last week's second-place finisher, Corey Coleman of Baylor, held steady with eight selections this week (10%), but that pushed him down into third place. Laquon Treadwell of Mississippi and Michael Thomas of THE...dramatic pause...Ohio State University are tied for the fourth spot with seven selections apiece (8.8% each). Tyler Boyd of Pittsburgh continues to hold steady with one selection this week (1.3%).
For what it's worth...and, at this point, it doesn't appear to be worth much...offensive linemen are still in second place in our Database this week. They combine for just 11 selections this week (13.8%), as a couple of names that had been in our Database previously are now out. Taylor Decker of Ohio State leads the way for the linemen, as he garnered five selections this week (6.3%). Cody Whitehair of Kansas State hangs in with four selections (5%), while Jack Conklin of Michigan State has dropped to just two selections this time around (2.5%). Indiana offensive tackle Jason Spriggs and LSU guard Vadal Alexander both fell out of our Database for this week.
Linebackers are back into the third spot this week, and they do so even though they only collected three selections (3.8%). Darron Lee of Ohio State moved up this week after a couple weeks of downward movement, as he was selected two times this week (2.5%). Leonard Floyd of Georgia holds steady with his one selection from last week (1.3%).
Defensive backs and defensive linemen bring up the rear this week, with both positions picking up two selections (2.5% each). For the defensive backs, the Ohio State duo of cornerback Eli Apple and safety Vonn Bell each appear one time this week (1.3% each). Along the defensive line, Shaq Lawson of Clemson is holding things down all by himself, as he picked up two selections in this week's Database (2.5%). Emmanuel Ogbah of Oklahoma State has dropped out this week after making his debut last week.
We no longer have any running backs in the Database, as Derrick Henry's one selection that he's held the past couple of weeks has disappeared.
Debuting This Week: None
Dropping Out This Week: Jason Spriggs, Vadal Alexander, Emmanuel Ogbah, Derrick Henry
So, what does the visual look like for Version 5.0 of our Database? Let's move on to the charts, starting with this week's Donut Graph. The Donut Graph breaks down what we're seeing in this week's Database only.
If the chart there is too small for you to see, you can find the full-sized version right here. As you can see, and has been the case since the beginning, there's a whole lot of purple on the chart and not a whole lot of anything else.
Second, we have this week's "Jell-o Salad" graph, which shows how different players have appeared, disappeared, and trended in all of the versions of our Database so far this year.
Again, if the picture is too small, you can see the full-sized picture right here.
There you have the Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database for this week, ladies and gentlemen. We will be back here again next Saturday for the latest update with even more mock drafts for your reading pleasure.Like others in the subprime industry, NovaStar used aggressive accounting that obscured its increasingly precarious finances. As far back as the 1990s, it had to underwrite loads of new loans to offset losses on older mortgages.
But unlike many of its peers, NovaStar had already survived at least one brush with death. Now, in 2003, Mr. Cohodes was betting that it would not be so lucky again.
Although NovaStar was not a household name in lending, in 2003 the company boasted 430 offices in 39 states. With headquarters on the third floor of an office building in Kansas City, Mo., it was fast becoming one of the top 20 home lenders in the country.
NovaStar was also becoming a Wall Street darling, its shares trading at $30, up from $9.50 in late 2002. Typing NovaStar’s stock symbol into his Bloomberg machine, Mr. Cohodes did a double take. Thirty dollars? Must have used the wrong stock symbol, he thought.
He hadn’t. NovaStar was on a trajectory that would take the shares above $70. Thanks to aggressive management, unscrupulous brokers, inert regulators and a crowd of Wall Street stock promoters, NovaStar’s stock market value would soon reach $1.6 billion.
A beefy, street-smart man fond of sports and sports metaphors, Mr. Cohodes knows every trick executives use to make their companies look better than they are. He prides himself on being able to spot trouble.
Photo
Most investors are optimists and believe that companies will increase in value. Short-sellers are the opposite.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
And because they challenge company spin, short-sellers are often criticized and refused access to management.
RARE is the corporate executive with an appreciation for naysayers, and NovaStar’s founders were no different. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Hartman had contempt for short-sellers. A Web site sponsored by NovaStar backers, called NFI-info.net, published a picture of a cockroach next to a discussion about investors who had bet against the company’s stock.
But Mr. Cohodes was relentless, and he often shared his research with regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He figured that if he was right about NovaStar, and he was certain he was, investors everywhere would be better off if he shared his findings with investigators. The sooner the S.E.C. put a stop to improprieties, the better.
The short-sellers would benefit too, of course, if an S.E.C. investigation and civil suit confirmed what Mr. Cohodes and others had found. Even the simple disclosure that an investigation into a company’s practices had been started could crush its stock.
So in February 2003 |
Telegraph declared "the end of the bitcoin experiment".”
But these are really only a drop in the sea.
Website 99bitcoins.com also set up a collection of all the Bitcoin “early deaths” quotes they can find. The page lists 83 posts at the moment, and they only keep track of english news. This collection, of course, only represents a fraction of the whole.
Even after the MtGox “scandal” in December 2013, which spawned countless death sentences, Bitcoin emerged victorious: it was priced around 130$ before the bubble, and after it exploded at its top of 1100$, the Bitcoin price only slowly declined, reaching 450$ after 6 months. It has never fallen below 200$ since.
MtGox was a bad thing for many, but surely it wasn’t Bitcoin’s death. If anything, MtGox was for Bitcoin a huge advertising campaign (Bitcoin was cited together with MtGox on media everywhere) that pumped its value like nothing ever did before.
One of the last “expertises” I found was released just a couple of weeks ago from J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon who stated that:
“Bitcoin is going to be stopped!”
Thus declaring a war from banks to cryptocurrencies (like nobody was expecting this).
The Point Of View Of Bitcoin Evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos
As time passes by, Bitcoin keeps penetrating the financial system and human society, and while it’s still not mainstream, its solidity grows day by day thanks to capital being invested, infrastructures built for its use and more people becoming aware of its existence and reliability as an ever growing, quick, economic method of payment.
We are giving you the point of view of Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos, a California-based information security expert, tech-entrepreneur, author of the book Mastering Bitcoin, and renowned speaker at important conventions, about the resilience of Bitcoin:
Cointelegraph: Hi Andreas, thank you very much for your time. I know you are very busy, so let’s start: why do you think so many experts in the field of finance, politicians and journalists keep giving Bitcoin for dead, month after month? Where do they fail at interpreting the system? Is it a problem of ignorance, of lack of technical competence or just plain fear of the new? Or is it a mix of these or something else?
Andreas Antonopoulos: Bitcoin works despite breaking all the "rules" of orthodox currencies. For those steeped in an institutional understanding of finance, the idea of network-centric money can't possibly work.
The fact that it does work forces many to undergo uncomfortable cognitive dissonance. If this works then the dominant economic hypotheses must not be correct.
CT: I love the fact that you cite cognitive dissonance, it’s a mechanism that often prevents people from accepting a reality that is too different from the vision they have already in their minds.
Leaving apart the Blockchain technology, what do you think are the main factors of resilience of Bitcoin? Why even with such a small user base in relation to world population and, after all, big “hits” like criminality scandals, bans from countries like China and Russia, BTC value still holds well up and Bitcoin keeps spreading?
I have identified three main points that are of good importance for why Bitcoin is holding up:
(1) Almost 800 millions of dollars have been invested in it to build infrastructures for its use, and the trend seems to beat investments that were made on the Internet at its beginnings.
(2) Bitcoin is not only kept as a medium of speculation, but it’s actually used because it gives advantages that nothing else gives.
(3) As a consequence of (2), there will always be somebody that will want Bitcoin, for the simple reason that it works, because it brings an advantage to the user in respect to traditional methods of payment and it definitely has a value because it has a use.
What do you think about these and what are other possibly important factors?
AA: Bitcoin is useful. It has intrinsic utility. It does things no other currency or payment network can do. It's also architected as a dynamic, adaptable and de-centralized system which makes it “anti-fragile”. As long as bitcoin serves a need and can be used by simply installing an app, it will refuse to go away, no matter what the price or the legal environment. In the longer term, that very resilience will emerge as a basis of value.
CT: Do you think Bitcoin has already reached a “point of no return” where only dramatic events could really kill it, or do you think there’s still a certain percent of chances that the system will just collapse and make it disappear?
AA: Bitcoin is the proof-of-concept for decentralized network-centric money and finance. That concept is now established and shown it can scale and thrive. Whatever form it takes in the future, whether it is Bitcoin, something different called Bitcoin or something called something else, the concept of network-centric money happened. It will continue to disrupt the global financial system for decades. In the long run it cannot be stopped because it is an idea based on math that can't be uninvented.
CT: Do you think that the fact that governments are taking measures against Bitcoin after the Paris attacks and following ones represents a menace?
AA: No, these measures are misguided, ineffective and ultimately damaging only to the countries that take them. The currency of terrorism is oil and the biggest funding source is our "ally" Saudi Arabia. Every time there is an attack, the same cynical authoritarians roll out the same tired and ineffective measures and try to persuade us to give up more freedoms, hoping we ignore the fact that the last round of "measures" failed to stop attacks or even lead to more extremism. While they're busy blaming Snowden, encryption, civil rights, refugees and Bitcoin, we should all focus on the real causes - endless western wars in the Middle East, drones, state terrorism, funding of militias, coddling of dictators and alliances with brutal religious fanatics like Saudi.
If governments try to ban or suppress bitcoin, they are only feeding the development of far more stealthy systems.
CT: By another point of view, some people talk about a “lack of adoption of Bitcoin”, that killed it (again) or companies that simply reconfigure their position about it. Do you find this right, or are these people expecting too much? After all, Bitcoin was introduced to the mainstream around 3-4 years ago, it’s a new monetary system, something never seen before, and it’s unnatural for many to accept that money can be different, and on top of this, the real point of power of Bitcoin: the fact that it’s not controlled by a central authority makes people think that it’s not reliable. But I wouldn’t call Bitcoin dead, when a single operator like Bitpay is making one million a day of traffic since 2014, and was founded in 2011, while eBay was founded in 1995 and is making 89 million a month now.
AA: We're in the 6th year of this technology. It's like giving up on the Internet in 1992 because there were not enough users. It's ridiculous to expect a six years old radically disruptive technology to simply become an "overnight success". The secret of overnight success is 10-20 years of development. The important trends in Bitcoin are all showing fantastic results: innovation, tech development, investment, transaction volume etc. People need to have more realistic expectations and a bit of patience. The blockchain bandwagon is about as interesting as the development of corporate intranets in the late 90s. It doesn't lead anywhere revolutionary, it's just a distraction for banks trying to avoid disruption by taking half-measures.
CT: I couldn’t have said it better, Bitcoin is still spreading, slowly maybe, but not shrinking. The fact that these companies struggle with it and widen their field of action probably only shows that there was a bit of market saturation.
But what do you think is the biggest danger for the Bitcoin ecosystem? What could really damage it so much to destroy its reputation and sink its value to zero? For example I was a bit scared by the recent block size debate that spawned a fork of the Blockchain. That seemed an internal fight that damaged the reputation of Bitcoin, to me.
AA: I don't think anything can take the value to zero. As long as bitcoin works and is useful, it will survive. It's funny but we no longer wonder if the Internet can "fail", but in the early days that was a common fear. Now it's embedded everywhere. Bitcoin is following the same path. If its reputation suffers a catastrophic problem, we will invent a new name for it or move to a new currency on the same model. You will of course be able to buy this new currency... with Bitcoin. I don't see any scenario that creates a dead-end. Too many people invested in time, skills and money in it, it means that any problems will have plenty of motivated people trying to solve them. Centralized systems are much more prone to collapse. We should be worried about the Euro and USD…
CT: Now give me a number: the chances you think Bitcoin has to disappear at current time, at current status of things. The real, effective risk percentage that Bitcoin will disappear before 2020.
AA: 0%.
CT: Ahah I kind of expected it!
AA: That's just 4 years from now…
CT: Yes that's only 4 years. But if it holds up these 4 years, it will become completely armored and invulnerable.
AA: It already is. Bitcoin became inevitable and unstoppable once it went over $1.
CT: Considering I’m a big supporter of Bitcoin and the whole technology, I still have some doubt, however small, about its invulnerability, I’m scared of banks and governments.
AA: They are far more fragile and powerless than they want us to believe.
CT: That’s much possible! Thank you for this chat, I’m sure our readers will have a cue to think about what really is going on with Bitcoin and possibly review their worries about its future.
This is all for now. However, Cointelegraph will write another article interviewing an expert of the traditional financial/banking system that does not believe much in Bitcoin. This too could be a good cue to see Bitcoin from a different point of view.Who knew? Ireland are the 8th healthiest eaters in the world
Rashers and sausages for all! OK, maybe not.
Despite the Irish obsession with the morning fry-up, the more than chipper chips and tubes upon tubes of nutritious Refreshers, we’re still the 8th healthiest eaters in the world.
Who knew?
A report by Oxfam claims that The Netherlands has the world’s most balanced diet, followed closely by both France and Switzerland.
Western Europe dominates the top 20, with only Australia making its way in there to equal Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Luxembourg in 8th spot.
Of the 125 countries measured, Chad is the worst given the cost and availability of fresh food compared to income and other factors.
The US ranks 21st in the world, alongside Japan, despite having the most ‘cheap food’ available.
"Food is very, very cheap in the U.S. compared to most countries," Oxfam spokesman Max Lawson explained.
"But the fact is you end up with people malnourished in one of the richest countries because they don't have access to fresh vegetables at a cheap enough price to make a balanced diet.
"Basically, if you arrive from Mars and design a food system, you probably couldn't design a worse one than what we have today on Earth," he added.
"There is enough food overall in the world to feed everyone. But 900 million people still don't have enough to eat, and 1 billion people are obese. It's a crazy situation."It looks like we may have a race on Sunday at Mugello. In fact, it looks like we might have two races, looking at the times set in MotoGP and Moto2. The last two races of the day at Mugello promise to have battles for the lead and for the podium, and could well provide some top flight entertainment.
There won't be much of a race in Moto3, however. Mugello's artisans are probably already engraving Maverick Vinales' name into the winner's trophy to save some time, such is the advantage of the young Spaniard. Vinales is basically four tenths a lap faster than anyone else in Moto3, with nobody capable of matching his pace. Even Jonas Folger's pole position was Vinales' by proxy, the German acknowledging in the qualifying press conference that he wasn't able to make that lap time alone and that he had a tow from Vinales to thank for it. The battle in Moto3 will be for the remaining podium places, and it would take a brave man to lay money against Alex Rins and Luis Salom making it an all Spanish podium.
Such a podium is unlikely to be repeated in Moto2. Scott Redding is increasing his vice-like grip on the Moto2 class, thanks in small part to the inconsistency of his rivals, but in much, much larger part to the confidence he has been showing all season. Redding is acting like champion, and by acting like a champion, beating a path to his first title, and a thoroughly deserved one, though the road is still very, very long.
His attitude is paying off twofold. First, his confidence is allowing him to not sweat the small stuff, and stay calm when others might get flustered. After feeling uncomfortable on the bike on Friday, he completely destroyed his machine on Saturday morning on his third lap out of the pits. Instead of getting flustered, he jumped on the back of a scooter, got back to the pits, changed his leathers and sat calmly watching as his crew busily repaired his bike. Had he been worried? "No. I just did my part to be ready to go, and the guys were doing their part. Watching the guys going round, when I looked at the time yesterday when I wasn't feeling comfortable, and I was still within half a second, I knew, OK, I was sure I could get half a second on them." Instead of worrying about what others were doing on the track, he concentrated on what he was capable of, and then went out and did it in the afternoon.
That confidence is also helping him disrupt his opponents. Pol Espargaro had not been particularly fast on Friday when Redding was on the track, but as soon as he dropped out of FP3, the Spaniard went straight to the top of the timesheets, setting his fastest time of the weekend. Once Redding returned for qualifying, and started leading the session, Espargaro was struggling again, qualifying a lowly tenth. His speed in the morning proved that he is easily capable of doing the lap times, and it is only his focus on Redding which is causing him to struggle. When Redding was asked about this, his answer was simple: "You work it out." He also returned a little dig which Espargaro had flung at him via the Spanish press. "There was a quote from Pol [Espargaro] last week about me being weak and inconsistent," Redding said. "But for me it's not true. To have a crash in the morning, and put it on pole, it's giving the words back."
Tire life, often a problem for Redding, is not an issue for him at Mugello, but Takaaki Nakagami and Tito Rabat might be. The Italtrans rider and the Tuenti HP 40 rider have both been consistently fast throughout the weekend, and look capable of matching Redding for race pace. Mugello looks like being a similar story to Jerez, with Redding, Rabat and Nakagami all being pretty close together. Rabat ended up running away with that race, but it is hard to see any of the three running away in Italy.
In MotoGP, it is a different story. Two men are head and shoulders above the rest, two or three tenths a lap better than everyone else. Picking a winner between Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa is hard, though, as there is nothing to choose between them. Lorenzo has been fast from the opening session, while Pedrosa has got progressively quicker as the weekend has gone and grip levels have improved. Right now, Lorenzo looks in better shape, and the Spaniard said as much in the press conference, claiming that he had the better race pace. But if Pedrosa and his crew continue to exploit the ever-improving grip at Mugello, as the weather improves and temperatures rise, Pedrosa could end up with the edge.
What we hope for is a repeat of Brno 2012, and Mugello has all of the ingredients to provide it: a track which allows riders and bikes with different styles to be fast, two rider/bike combinations which are evenly matched, and two men with a point to prove. Dani Pedrosa wants to press home the early advantage he has built up over in the last three races, while Jorge Lorenzo wants to seize back the initiative.
Picking a rider to be third is another matter altogether. There is a large group of riders all closely matched for pace, making it almost a toss up as to who will come out on top. Cal Crutchlow, Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez, Stefan Bradl, Andrea Dovizioso, and maybe even Nicky Hayden and Alvaro Bautista. Of that group, Bradl, Crutchlow and Rossi would appear to have the strongest hand, with Rossi and Bradl perhaps boasting the strongest race pace.
Rossi himself was confident that his pace in the race would be strong. Not enough to match Pedrosa and Lorenzo, but good enough to battle for the podium. He was feeling comfortable on the bike, and though he was still not perfectly happy with the performance on the brakes, it was good enough for a podium, he said. What made it hard, though, was his poor qualifying position. This time he did not feel that his team had got the strategy wrong, but he had still ended up giving others a tow. In this case, Marc Marquez, who managed to use Rossi's slipstream to post a quicker time than him ("Rossi is the best person to follow here," he said wryly). Why didn't Rossi try the same? "When I let them go past, they roll off the throttle," Rossi said. At Mugello, Rossi was the locomotive, not the carriage.
Of the others, Stefan Bradl looks to have the strongest credentials. Marc Marquez is surprisingly quick, and has bounced back astonishingly well after his massive crash on Saturday. The first time he crested the hill at the end of the straight on Saturday morning, he was a little cautious, and he continued to lose several tenths a lap in that one section alone. But little by little he regained his confidence, upping the speed and perfecting his braking for the corner. Having to come through Q1 helped, as it gave him a little extra track time, enough to build on his confidence some more. By 2pm on Sunday, he should be plenty fast enough, but his fitness may not necessarily be enough to withstand 23 laps of Mugello. He has a slight fracture in his right arm, and pain in most places. Marquez has proven to be a fighter, though, and give all he can to remain on the podium.
Cal Crutchlow was quick too, but a qualifying crash left him struggling. The problem was caused by hay fever, a common problem at rural Mugello. Along the long front straight, the combination of wind and pollen conspired to leave Crutchlow's eyes streaming, and by the time he got to Poggio Secco his eyes were streaming. "Normally, I can blink it away but I actually touched a kerb at turn three because I was unsighted. That made me twist the gas and I ended up falling off the side of the bike," the Tech 3 man said. There is every chance that Crutchlow will have a similar problem tomorrow. Treating it is difficult, as so many of the available remedies either make you drowsy or are on the banned substance list. The anti-doping list is there for a reason, but it can sometimes have an adverse effect.
Pleasing the home crowd was Andrea Dovizioso's second front row start in two races, but Dovizioso was under no illusions for the race. He had made his qualifying time following Dani Pedrosa, and it was not a time he could manage on his own. Tire wear and his neck problems will make a podium difficult, but at least he should be fighting at the front for a while. A little physiotherapy and help from the Clinica Mobile had helped, but Dovizioso was uncertain how his neck would hold up for the duration of the race. The problem is that he cannot bend his neck backwards, which is precisely what he needs to do to get into a racing crouch. On Saturday, it was just about bearable, where it had been impossible on Friday. With another night's rest and some more physio, it might improve a little more. But with a painful neck and the tire wear Ducati still suffer late in the race, a podium seems a little far fetched.
The weather, at least, looks favorable. The weekend had threatened to be a washout, but the outlook has improved day by day. It should stay sunny and dry right up to race day, and throughout all of the race. It will rain on Sunday, but probably not until the racing is done. That is an outcome the fans will willingly accept.Cut from the same cloth as NPR’s acclaimed Serial podcast, Netflix’s Making a Murderer is a true-crime documentary that prompts its audience to legitimately question whether or not the justice system ended up sending an innocent man to prison.
But what separates Making a Murderer from similar programs is that the show’s focus, Steven Avery, had already been wrongly convicted and sent off to prison. Back in 1985, Avery was sent to prison for a rape that he didn’t commit, only to be released 18 years later thanks to conclusive DNA evidence pointing to another culprit. What makes Avery’s 1985 conviction so infuriating is that the local police handling the investigation all but railroaded Avery, actively ignoring strong evidence which may have pointed to another suspect from the get-go. Shockingly, it wasn’t until 2003 that Avery was finally exonerated and released.
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Flash forward to 2005 and Avery is once again caught up in the justice system, this time for murder. There’s no question that the evidence pointing to Avery’s guilt in this case is compelling. At the same time, it’s also hard to ignore the incredibly unscrupulous behavior of law enforcement officials, attorneys, and investigators who were involved in sending Avery and his 16-year old nephew Brendan Dassey to prison for first degree murder. If you thought Serial lent itself to a “did he or didn’t he?” debate, Making a Murderer is Serial on steroids.
As a quick example, Avery’s DNA was found on the hood of the victim’s car. Sounds incriminating, right? That is, of course, until we learn that the DNA technician who inspected the car didn’t change his gloves after conducting an examination of Avery’s trailer, thereby raising the possibility that Avery’s DNA was accidentally transferred over to the car.
Perhaps the most appropriate summation of the show comes from former Avery attorney Dean Strang who, while appearing on CBS This Morning last week, said that while he isn’t entirely convinced of Avery’s innocence, he’s not entirely convinced of Avery’s guilt either.
This haziness and reasonable doubt surrounding Avery’s guilt is precisely what makes Making a Murderer such a riveting and addictive program. Seemingly every single piece of evidence is counterbalanced by other considerations. As another prime example, the murder victim’s car keys were found in Avery’s trailer. Again, this sounds incredibly incriminating. But at the same time, it’s important to mention that the keys were only found after the seventh search of Avery’s trailer (which is bizarre and questionable in and of itself). Further, the officer who happened to conveniently discover the incriminating key just so happened to play a role in Avery’s prolonged prison stay for rape and shouldn’t have even been involved in the murder investigation in the first place.
Making a Murderer has understandably sparked a vigorous debate about Avery’s alleged guilt and the fairness of the justice system as a whole. While some look at the program as concrete proof that Avery was set up and the victim of an elaborate frame-job, others contend that the filmmakers behind Making a Murderer only presented one side of the story. Those who stake their flag in this particular camp contend that the documentary was told exclusively from the perspective of Steve Avery and that it was purposefully edited to make Avery appear more like a victim than a cold-blooded killer.
Using this as a jumping off point, Kathryn Schultz of The New Yorker writes that the show “seems less like investigative journalism than like highbrow vigilante justice.”
Schultz writes:
Making a Murderer” raises serious and credible allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct in the trials of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey. It also implies that that misconduct was malicious. That could be true; vindictive prosecutions have happened in our justice system before and they will happen again. But the vast majority of misconduct by law enforcement is motivated not by spite but by the belief that the end justifies the means—that it is fine to play fast and loose with the facts if doing so will put a dangerous criminal behind bars. That same reasoning, with the opposite aims, seems to govern “Making a Murderer.”… [Filmmakers] Ricciardi and Demos instead stack the deck to support their case for Avery, and, as a result, wind up mirroring the entity that they are trying to discredit.
There are a few things to consider here. One, Making a Murderer isn’t a piece of journalism. It’s a documentary. It has a perspective, and while perhaps one-sided at times, the filmmakers note that they unsuccessfully tried to interview those involved in the prosecution of Avery. Second, the documentary is a little more than 10 hours long, which is to say that condensing down a trial that went on for weeks into just a few episodes will of course result in footage being left on the cutting room floor. Third, while there’s no doubt that some of the state’s evidence against Avery was left out, so too were important parts of Avery’s defense.
All that aside, I think Schultz’s position takes on a holier-than-though approach, thereby making it all too easy to nitpick at things she thinks the filmmakers should have tried to accomplish.
The petition points to another weakness of “Making a Murderer”: it is far more concerned with vindicating wronged individuals than with fixing the system that wronged them. The series presents Avery’s case as a one-off—a preposterous crusade by a grudge-bearing county sheriff’s department to discredit and imprison a nemesis. (Hence the ad-hominem attacks the show has inspired.) But you don’t need to have filed a thirty-six-million-dollar suit against law enforcement to be detained, denied basic rights, and have evidence planted on your person or property. Among other things, simply being black can suffice. While Avery’s story is dramatic, every component of it is sadly common. Seventy-two per cent of wrongful convictions involve a mistaken eyewitness. Twenty-seven per cent involve false confessions. Nearly half involve scientific fraud or junk science. More than a third involve suppression of evidence by police.
All valid points, but the documentary was uniquely concerned with the plight of Steven Avery. Guilty or innocent, looking at the justice system through a more expansive lens was never the intention of the documentary. If anything, the impressive work the filmmakers did in putting Making a Murder together can, in the future, serve as a useful resource and foundation for other filmmakers who decide to approach the issue as Schultz would have preferred. Indeed, almost every one of the topics Schultz brings up – the reliability of eye witnesses, videotaped interrogations, forensic testing issues, ethically challenged attorneys – could easily be the subject of its own feature-length documentary.
For what it’s worth, the creators of Making a Murderer remain steadfast in their belief that they adequately represented all sides in the documentary. In an interview with the National Post, creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos explain:
Rather, “our goal was always to reach as wide an audience as possible and to start a dialogue,” Demos explains during a recent phone interview. “Obviously there’s a very loud debate about guilt and innocence, but that was not really our driving question in making this. We were using Steven’s story as a window into the system; as a way to really pull back the curtain on the American criminal justice system.” … Ricciardi firmly believes Making A Murderer to be an unbiased account of what transpired in the Avery case. “We included as many points of view as were available to us, including Mike Halbach. Including Ken Kratz’s and the state’s. These were people that decided for themselves not to sit down with us and give a sit down interview but we used our original and acquired footage to tell their point of view as accurately and fairly as we could. We think multiple points of view are represented in the series.”
Schultz, however, is clearly not convinced, and concludes with the following statement.
Toward the end of the series, Dean Strang, Steven Avery’s defense lawyer, notes that most of the problems in the criminal-justice system stem from “unwarranted certitude”—what he calls “a tragic lack of humility of everyone who participates.” Ultimately, “Making a Murderer” shares that flaw; it does not challenge our yearning for certainty or do the difficult work of helping to foster humility. Instead, it swaps one absolute for another—and, in doing so, comes to resemble the system it seeks to correct.
I’m not quite sure that Schultz’s sweeping declarations here pass muster. In fact, I’d venture to say that the series is incredibly captivating precisely because it does not offer up any absolutes. The debate surrounding Avery and Dassey’s alleged innocence is vigorous and heated. In other words, it’s not as if 90+% of viewers are so quick to assume that both Avery and Dassey are innocent. On the contrary, many viewers come away from the documentary exceedingly confident that the right people went to prison. This is hardly the mark of an overtly one-sided production. If anything, the show is extremely popular not because it deals with absolutes, but because it engenders conflicting and passionate viewpoints on any number of important issues.
The proclamation that the documentary is more akin to ‘highbrow vigilante justice’ than to ‘investigative journalism’ makes for a sexy soundbite, but I’m not so sure that it really encapsulates what Making a Murderer truly achieves.
Make sure to hit the source link for Schultz’s full critique on the show. I may not agree with the entirety of her position, but she nonetheless raises a number of thought-provoking and insightful points. At the very least, it’s productive and reassuring to see people at the very least talking about some of the problems that currently plague the criminal justice system and individuals who suffer immensely as a result.Image caption The top civil judge in the country has said filming should be allowed in courts such as the Old Bailey
The government is considering whether to allow some sentencing in English and Welsh courts to be televised.
A government spokesman said it was considering proposals to allow limited recording and transmission from courts.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said televising judges' comments was a good idea which would help demystify the legal process.
Critics have said prisoners could be at risk if personal information and previous convictions were revealed.
Under the proposals, the trials themselves and the verdicts delivered by the jury would not be filmed.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said sources at both Downing Street and the Ministry of Justice had confirmed the government was "seriously considering" the plans in the interests of greater transparency.
He said an announcement would be made in due course however sources had denied reports that the announcement would be made by the prime minister in a forthcoming speech on crime.
Mr Clarke said said there was "no good reason" why televising courts could not happen.
But he added that he favoured proceeding cautiously, starting with the Court of Appeal and including the Crown Courts later.
He said: "I think what we need is public information, public confidence and above all transparency in the way the system works.
There are all sorts of dangers which have to be carefully examined and a balance obtained, and that balance is not an easy one because all you're concentrating on is the judge Julian Young, Solicitor advocate
"There's a lot of misunderstanding on how the criminal justice system works. What we don't want is theatre and we don't want to alter the behaviour or the conduct of the trial. We want to encourage people to have confidence in it.
"But, I can see no good reason why we shouldn't have television cameras allowed to record and give to the public the remarks of the judge."
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the Lord Chancellor was consulting with senior judges on the proposals after renewed calls from broadcasters for filming to be allowed.
'Very cruel'
BBC News legal correspondent Clive Coleman said the director of public prosecutions, many judges and some lawyers were cautiously enthusiastic; however, some had argued that not seeing the trials themselves would hamper viewers' understanding of sentencing.
Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan said: "I believe that public understanding of and confidence in our legal system would improve if judges' verdicts were televised.
"However, it will be extremely important to ensure that careful controls are in place to protect jurors, victims and witnesses, particularly in complex and high-profile cases."
In March, the top civil judge in England and Wales suggested televising hearings to increase confidence in justice.
Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger said broadcasting some cases could boost public engagement in the court process.
Filming ban
But Julian Young, a solicitor advocate - a solicitor qualified to represent clients in the higher courts - said prisoners could be put at risk if all the judge's remarks, including personal information and previous convictions, were televised.
"The general prison population can be very cruel towards other prisoners they may see as being weak," he said.
TELEVISED COURTS Scotland: Some court cases are televised; they included proceedings involving Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
Some court cases are televised; they included proceedings involving Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. United States: Some courts allow the use of camera equipment, but not federal or supreme courts.
Some courts allow the use of camera equipment, but not federal or supreme courts. South Africa: Trials involving government officials are televised
Trials involving government officials are televised International Criminal Court in The Hague: Proceedings involving alleged war criminals are broadcast
Mr Young said there could be difficulties in that the public would not be hearing what the prosecutor or defence lawyer had said.
He told BBC News that problems could arise if, for example, "the public gallery decided to erupt" half way through the judge's speech or if people misbehaved in court in order to gain publicity.
"There are all sorts of dangers which have to be carefully examined and a balance obtained, and that balance is not an easy one because all you're concentrating on is the judge," he added.
Filming in English courts has been banned since 1925. Cameras have been allowed in Scotland's courts since 1992 but only if all parties involved have given their consent.
Acquittal concerns
This is not the first time such plans have been considered. In 2000 there were reports that a committee headed by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, was looking at something similar. But the then government denied this was the case.
Peter Lodder QC, chairman of the Bar Council, told the Today programme that there has been "mounting pressure for what is described as transparency, but which is really simply a wider communication of the way courts operate.
"And I don't think in the vast majority of cases, and with some care, that that's necessarily a bad thing."
But Charles Harris, last year's president of the Council of Circuit Judges, also told Today: "A trial is actually an entity of various parts, and you can't legitimately split it up into bits and pieces.
"What about a defendant who doesn't agree to [filming], is sentenced in the full light of publicity and then appeals and is acquitted?"Following President Trump's "calm before the storm" comments last night, reporters tried to ask him once again what he meant today, to which he responded "you'll see." However, during The White House Press Briefing, Sarah Sanders replied to questions suggesting the President's comments were "extremely serious," however without offering an explanation.
Sarah Sanders suggested POTUS "calm before the storm" comments are "extremely serious." But offered no explanation what they meant. — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 6, 2017
When asked if Trump was referring to military action when he said "calm before the storm." Sarah Sanders replied "We're never going to say in advance what the president's going to do. You'll have to wait and see."
Then, in a follow up question "how seriously should America's public or America's adversaries take these comments", the White House press secretary said "I think you can take the president protecting the American people always extremely seriously. He's been very clear that that's his number one priority."
Press Sec. to @CeciliaVega: "I think you can take the president protecting the American people always extremely serious." pic.twitter.com/QKdSacSgYr — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 6, 2017
Earlier in the day, Trump continued the cryptic mystery: shortly after signing a manufacturing executive order, a reporter asked what he meant when he said that a gathering of military leaders at the White House the evening before was "the calm before the storm," U.S. President Donald Trump did not elaborate, and said again, "You'll find out."
And then he winked.Transit format: An interactive tutorial - better than JSON (part 1)
What is Transit?
Transit is a format and set of libraries for conveying values between applications written in different programming languages.
Transit provides:
a set of basic elements
a set of extension elements for representing typed values.
The extension mechanism is open, allowing programs using Transit to add new elements specific to their needs. It constrats with traditional formats where usually users of data formats must rely on one of the following:
schemas
convention
context
to convey elements not included in the base set, making application code much more complex.
Transit is designed to be implemented as an encoding on top of formats for which high performance processors already exist, specifically JSON and MessagePack. Transit uses these formats’ native representations for built-in elements, e.g., strings and arrays, wherever possible. Extension elements which have no native representation in these formats, e.g., dates, are represented using a tag-based encoding scheme. It makes Transit a self-describing and extensible format.
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the experience has been varied. Her first major television appearance was on Chopped, where she says that a revelation that she was trans caused a bit of a stir.
“The vibe of some of the other contestants changed,” she says. “Not the females, but from the males. Chefs, staff, tech people — they didn’t really know what to do.”
Sobreidad began her show self-identifying as a gay male doing drag. However, as time went on, she became more comfortable, and began to open up to other possibilities for her identity. “As I began to get a better understanding of who I was, my cooking took off,” she says. “There was a lot more creativity.”
Both Byxbe and Sobreidad feel their style of cuisine is directly related to their identity and comfort levels. Byxbe’s role as a vegan chef, he believes, makes it easier for him to gain acceptance. “Since [vegan people] are already open to new ways of living, new ways of living like being trans aren’t as shocking.”
Sobreidad has been supplementing her knowledge with classes, but she did not go to culinary school, and learned through the women of her family. Sobreidad says that growing up learning to cook from female family members in a Latin American culture impacted her identity and her self-acceptance. “I saw passionate cooks. All of them were female,” she says. “They were great cooks and they nurtured through food. A strong, feminine, nurturing vibe is what I came up with in the kitchen.”
Many argue that professional kitchens remain the sort of work-hard-get-far environments that rarely exist in many other work environments in this day and age; one of the few places where people can still apprentice and rise in the ranks, no matter who they are, with a good enough work ethic. In a lengthy discussion of the topic of trans chefs on a forum on Cheftalk.com, almost all of the respondents, though most of them were not trans, assured the trans chef in question that she could do well in any kitchen with a strong dedication to the tasks at hand. (“Skill trumps everything else,” one chef declared.)
But a fourth transgender cook I spoke to, Jess Lebron, worked in the industry for 10 years. “I gave it up in fall 2015, because of how hostile the restaurant environment can be for trans folks,” Lebron says. “I wasn't even out yet, but I would always hear transphobic BS in the kitchens I worked for, be it co-workers ‘jokingly’ saying how they'd kill trans folks if they had the chance, or using trans folks as the brunt of their jokes. It was disgusting. I still cook, but for private events and clients now.”
In that same Cheftalk discussion, another gay-identified chef suggested, “Don’t go around telling everyone you are trans.” The comments show the level to which many chefs believe deeply in the don’t-ask-don’t-tell model of operation when it comes to gender identity and the ability to do one’s job in a “masculine” environment.
The fact that no other trans chefs responded to the original post pointed to another thing I found through my interviews. Most of the trans chefs I spoke to did not know many other, if any other, transgender chefs. From personal experience, I would say that having another transgender person in any given work environment makes it clearer when situations are bordering on unfair or biased against trans people in general. It leaves me wondering if many trans chefs tolerate things in many kitchens that they would never tolerate if they had more people like themselves nearby for support.
Trapani feels that kitchens are a wonderful place to be trans — though his masculine presentation may have something to do with this, and it is clear from speaking to others that feminine-identified people have very different experiences. “I think the kitchen is a great place for trans people to be to express their creativity,” Trapani says. “Kitchens are always so diverse and accepting, in my opinion. Kitchen folk always feel oppressed or behind the scenes while the front of house gets all the thanks and attention, which makes them unite.”
The numbers on how many transgender chefs there are working in professional kitchens have not yet been explored in any of the major kitchen-employment surveys. While it might make sense for many transgender chefs to, as one of the respondents on the trans chef thread on Cheftalk.com suggested, keep their identity a secret, chefs like Byxbe think advocacy and openness in the kitchen are as important as anywhere else.
“I out myself as much as possible. I hate when people think they don’t know any trans people,” Byxbe says. In an environment known for its stereotypical masculinity and gender disparity, this visibility may be even more important in a restaurant kitchen.
Alex DiFrancesco is a writer and storyteller. They have recently moved from NYC to Ohio, where they are still trying to wrap their head around "Sweetest Day." Kyle Griggs is an animator and illustrator based in Sydney, Australia.
Editor: Erin DeJesusAvi Benlolo is president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center
In the coming weeks and months, prime-minister-designate Justin Trudeau will consider a renewed and re-energized policy regarding Canada's position vis-à-vis Israel. Undoubtedly, he will want to differentiate his government's approach from that of the Harper administration. However, the test of leadership for Mr. Trudeau will be one of ethics and morality, as he ponders the pressure which is certain to arise from left of centre.
I would urge Mr. Trudeau to refrain from taking the increasingly popular route of blaming the Jewish victims of ongoing violence, and of holding those who have been murdered by rocks, cars, knives, guns and rockets as culpable in their own slaughter. This approach is no different than blaming the victim of any criminal act for inviting the attack.
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The modern State of Israel has been threatened with annihilation from the day it was proclaimed by the United Nations; while the methods may change to reflect changing circumstances, the narrative of "Death to the Jews" and incitement to murder has not. These threats against Israel come not only from Iran, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Authority but also from United Nations staff, who were recently suspended for inciting violence against Israelis and Jews on social media.
It is important for our new prime minister to acknowledge the anti-Semitism at the heart of this decades-long campaign against the Jewish homeland. The preamble to the charter of Hamas states: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." Interestingly, those who criticize and demean Israel almost always ignore the matter of Hamas and how a future Palestinian state would include Gaza. Indeed, the very reason the Palestinians have been unable to establish a state is because of a violent and fanatical leadership in Gaza and a vindictive leadership in the West Bank.
The leader of the Palestinian Authority continues to chant the narrative of the "Dirty Jew" with "filthy feet"; the mere presence of a Jew in Jerusalem is condemned by Mahmoud Abbas as a desecration. Schoolchildren appear on Palestinian TV speaking about the glory of martyrdom and their hopes of killing Jews. The promotion of anti-Semitic hate on social media is pervasive and growing.
This anti-Jewish hate, undiminished by decades of attempts at unrequited peace, must be acknowledged and named by our elected leaders for what it is. The campaign of violence launched against the Jews must never be justified or validated; should Canada adopt this position, we would be complicit in aiding and abetting terror.
Additionally, I would caution Mr. Trudeau against accepting the questionable views of journalists like Amira Hass (banned from speaking at the Palestinian Birzeit University for the crime of being an Israeli Jew) who do not represent mainstream Jewish opinion. Ms. Hass does appeal, however, to those who often condemn Israel and wish to push forward the anti-Semitic boycotts against the Jewish state.
Canada can play an important role in the Middle East peace process, but if it chooses a "balanced" approach, as has the Obama administration, it will become rudderless in the region. Worse, the vacuum created by our silence will give voice to extremists.
Here is what I would recommend to Mr. Trudeau: Encourage the Palestinian people to accept the Jewish people and the state of Israel as partners in the Middle East; we are not interlopers, but indigenous people with a well–documented history in the land dating back thousands of years. Urge them to stop trying to kill the Jews. Urge them to stop incitement to violence against the Jews. Urge them to stop praising terrorists for killing Jews. Urge them to teach their children about tolerance, not hatred. Urge them to view Israelis as actual people, not "the sons of apes and pigs." Urge them to accept us – and peace will follow.PoliZette Shock Study: Trump’s Wall Would Pay for Itself New analysis finds stopping even fraction of border-crossers would save taxpayers billions
If a border wall along the Mexican border stops only a fraction of illegal immigrants, taxpayers could save more money than the barrier would cost, according to a study released Thursday.
The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors stricter border control, crunched figures from last year’s landmark report on the costs and benefits of immigration conducted by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
“It pays for itself in the big picture … It doesn’t have to stop everyone to pay for itself.”
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That study did not differentiate between legal and illegal immigration. But based on other data, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that on average, every person who crosses the southwest border illegally costs taxpayers at all levels $74,722 more than he pays in taxes over the course of his life.
If a wall were to stop between 160,000 to 200,000 illegal crossers over a decade — just 9 percent to 12 percent of the projected total — the savings over their lifetimes would equal the estimated $12 billion to $15 billion cost of the wall.
It is important to note that the impact on taxpayers measures spending at all levels of government. Since only the federal government would be on the hook for the wall, a success rate in the 12 percent range would not fully reimburse the federal government. But Steven Camarota, who wrote the report, said residents pay taxes to all levels of government.
“From the taxpayer’s standpoint, it may not matter,” he said. “It pays for itself in the big picture … It doesn’t have to stop everyone to pay for itself.”
[lz_table title=”Fiscal Impact of Border Crossers” source=”Center for Immigration Studies”]Estimated lifetime fiscal costs
|Education,Share,Cost
< high school,57%,-$66.8K
High school degree,27%,-$15K
Some college,10%,+$3.66K
Bachelor’s,4%,+$1.6K
Advanced,2%,+$1.9K
Total,,-$74.7K
[/lz_table]
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The reason for the savings has everything to do with the background of the typical border-jumper. Those immigrants skew heavily toward low skills and less education. An estimated 57 percent have not finished high school, and another 27 percent never went beyond high school.
Camarota, director of research at the think tank, said there is not much dispute that people without advanced education — both immigrants and natives — struggle economically in the United States. They pay relatively little in taxes and receive far more in government services.
Camarota added that those immigrants also are the least likely to get into the country in some other way. Poor residents of Mexico or Central American countries usually cannot qualify for tourist visas to the United States or employment-based visas. Crossing the border often is the only plausible path to America, he said.
“The fiscal drain is enormous for unskilled immigrants, and those are the immigrants most likely to illegally cross the border,” he said.
The study released Thursday is somewhat conservative in its cost estimates. It does not count the costs of U.S.-born children. Doing so would dramatically increase the burden on government, at least in the short run. Illegal immigrants mostly are ineligible for government assistance, but their American children are. And the federal government disproportionately bears those costs.
Camarota said he did not include those costs because it is difficult to determine if those first-generation Americans ultimately might pay more taxes as adults to make up for the assistance the received as children. The National Academies study includes 75-year projections, but Camarota said he considers that timeline too long to be reliable.
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The other factor that made the taxpayer costs of illegal immigration more conservative is a discount that economists generally apply to future projections. The idea, Camarota said, is that a liability or a benefit in the future is not the same as one today. A promise to pay $10,000 in 10 years, for instance, is not as valuable as a $10,000 payment up front.
Camarota said there is a good argument that the discount — called “net present value” — does not make sense when estimating the taxpayer burdens of illegal immigration. Without that discount, the average lifetime taxpayer cost per illegal immigrants is $97,759 instead of $74,722.
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The study deals with many hypotheticals. The National Academies report, for instance, includes eight different scenarios on the fiscal costs and benefits of immigrants at various education levels. Camarota said he used an average of those eight to make his projections. But he noted that all eight scenarios conclude that high school dropouts impose a net burden.
Camarota said there could be other, less expensive ways to slow illegal immigration without building a wall. President Donald Trump has proposed tracking down people who overstay their visas, ramping up interior enforcement, and making it harder for illegal immigrants to work in America.
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But a wall might not only stop people from crossing border but deter them from even trying.
“That’s the group, from a fiscal impact, that you really want to stop,” he said.LONDON (Reuters) - The world’s first laboratory-grown beef burger was flipped out of a petri dish and into a frying pan on Monday, with food tasters declaring it tasted “close to meat”.
The world's first lab-grown beef burger is seen after it was cooked at a launch event in west London August 5, 2013. REUTERS/David Parry/pool
Grown in-vitro from cattle stem cells at a cost of 250,000 euros ($332,000), the burger was cooked and eaten in front of television cameras to gain the greatest media coverage for the culmination of a five-year science experiment.
Resembling a standard circular-shaped red meat patty, it was created by knitting together 20,000 strands of laboratory-grown protein, combined with other ingredients normally used in burgers, such as salt, breadcrumbs and egg powder. Red beet juice and saffron were added to give it colour.
The two food tasters were reserved in their judgement, perhaps keen not to offend their host at the London event, noting the burger’s “absence of fat”.
Pressed for a more detailed description of the flavour, food writer Josh Schonwald said the cultured beef had an “animal protein cake” like quality to it, adding that he would like to try it with some of the extras often served with traditional burgers - salt, pepper, ketchup and jalepenos.
Even the scientist behind the burger’s creation, vascular biologist Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, was relatively muted in his praise of its flavour.
“It’s a very good start,” he told the hundreds of reporters who had gathered to watch the meat being cooked and served.
The Dutch scientist’s aim was to show the world that in the future meat will not necessarily have to come from the environmentally and economically costly rearing and slaughtering of millions of animals.
“Current meat production is at its maximum - we need to come up with an alternative,” he said.
MASSIVE SCALE
The World Health Organization (WHO) says meat production is projected to rise to 376 million tonnes by 2030 from 218 million tonnes annually in 1997-1999, and demand from a growing world population is expected to rise beyond that.
According to a 2006 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), industrialised agriculture contributes on a “massive scale” to climate change, air pollution, land degradation, energy use, deforestation and biodiversity decline.
The meat industry contributes about 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, a proportion expected to grow as consumers in fast-developing countries such as China and India eat more meat, the report said.
Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, who was not involved in the research, said it was “great pioneering science” with the potential to ease environmental, health and animal welfare problems.
But, he added: “whilst the science looks achievable, the scalable manufacturing will require new game-changing innovation”.
Post said he was confident his concept can be scaled up to offer a viable alternative to animal meat production, but said it may be another 20 years before lab-grown meat appears on supermarket shelves.
He also conceded that the flavour of his meat must be improved if it is to become a popular choice.
Slideshow (5 Images)
Post resisted requests from journalists from all over the world eager to try a morsel of the world’s first cultured beef burger, saying there was not enough to go around.
Instead, he said, his children would be offered the leftovers.
($1 = 0.7528 euros)Low water levels on Mozambique’s Lago de Cahora Bassa betrayed signs of stress in late July 2016.
Southern Africa has been suffering from a prolonged drought, exacerbated by the 2015-2016 El Niño. Roughly 18 million people there urgently need food assistance, leading the United Nations World Food Programme to declare the region its highest-level emergency. Plunging water levels also threaten the area’s key power source: its hydroelectric dams.
Images from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 satellite show water levels dropping in the Lago de Cahora Bassa between July 2014 and August 2016. The lake is part of the Zambezi River Basin, which also supplies water to Zimbabwe and Zambia. Water levels on Lago de Cahora Bassa have dropped more than than five meters below capacity.
The light-colored “bathtub ring” around the reservoir’s shores and islands in 2016 indicates exposed sediments that were underwater in 2014 before the water receded. Pronounced changes in water depth also show up in the lake’s color, with deep, emerald shades turning milkier as the reservoir empties. Some features have emerged from the lake as water levels has receded; in the second image, a former island has filled out into a peninsula.
There is no bathtub ring visible around Lake Kariba (to the west) because the lake is much narrower and deeper. But that reservoir now stands just 31 percent full. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a wide view (below) of Kariba and Cahora Bassa on August 1, 2016. Both reservoirs are home to massive hydropower dams that supply the region with electricity.
While the power plant on Cahora Bassa is not in imminent danger of shutting down, its operator has announced it will reduce energy production following below-average rainfall in 2016. The decision comes after Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric saw its highest recorded output in 2015—more than 16,000 gigawatt hours.
Even as the waters recede in 2016, demand for electricity remains high. Projects to expand the Cahora Bassa dam and the connecting electric grid continue because they play an important role in the nation’s economy. Mozambique exports nearly three-fourths of the dam’s energy to South Africa.
Further upstream, Zambia’s Lake Kariba dam generated just 25 percent of its energy production capacity in April 2016, The New York Times reported. The lake reached critical lows in February 2016.
“Part of that is lack of rain,” said Jeppe Kolding, a fisheries researcher at Norway’s University of Bergen who studies the Zambezi River Basin. “But it’s not only drought—at least for Lake Kariba—they’re taking out too much water to [create] energy.”
Researchers predict that the flow of the Zambezi River, which supplies both man-made lakes, will decrease by 40 percent or more as climate changes, according to a recent IPCC report. They expect precipitation to fall by roughly 15 percent, while evaporative losses could rise by 15 to 25 percent, and runoff could fall by about 30 to 40 percent.
“The situation right now is precarious,” Kolding said of Kariba. “At one point they’ll just have to stop some turbines, which means they’ll have to ration the electricity.“
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using MODIS data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) and Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Pola Lem.Renowned Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster is being recognized by one of North America's largest folk music organizations.
Folk Alliance International has chosen MacMaster to receive its Lifetime Achievement Award. He joins past winners like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie and Canadian Stan Rogers.
Other honourees this year include Dock Boggs and the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Natalie MacMaster, another fiddling icon, said she’s excited for her uncle.
“He’ll be very, very grateful and very proud,” she told CBC’s As it Happens.
“[Fiddling] is a way of life for us. It’s not done on the side. It’s part of how we live. It’s part of our joys, it’s part of what we seek and desire.”
She said the award is proof that fiddling music isn't dead.
'It’s part of our joys, it’s part of what we seek and desire. - Natalie MacMaster on the art of fiddling
“This doesn’t define Buddy, he’s already been defined.”
MacMaster said her uncle, who turns 90 this year, has the same qualities as Rita MacNeil.
“So gentle with such Cape Breton demeanor,” she said
A member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, MacMaster was born into a Celtic-speaking, musical family in the northeastern Ontario mining town of Timmins. His family, however, was originally from Cape Breton and returned there when he was a toddler, moving to the town of Judique.
MacMaster began playing the fiddle as a teen and, although he worked for the Canadian National Railroad for about 45 years, he built a career performing his Cape Breton-style fiddle at concerts, dances, benefits and on CBC-TV shows like Ceilidh and The John Allan Cameron Show.
MacMaster began recording albums in 1989 — at the age of 65 — after he retired from his rail career.Don Cherry believes Patrick Roy's outburst of frustration in his first game as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche last week was a good thing.
Roy got into a screaming match with Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau during Colorado's home opener on Wednesday, pushing over a glass partition between the two benches.
While the league fined Roy $10,000 (U.S.) for the display, Cherry said on his Coach's Corner Segment of Hockey Night in Canada that he believes the incident sparked the players on the Colorado bench.
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"Everybody's saying, 'what a bad thing.' Are you crazy? All the players love this," Cherry said over video footage of Roy's outburst. "Look at the players looking in the background. They're smiling. They love it. They're in the game."
Cherry then showed footage from a 1997 game in which Roy exchanged blows with Detroit Red Wings goalie Mike Vernon.
"What you think they're talking about in Colorado after that game? You really think he wouldn't act like that?" Cherry said. "He's a fighter."
Cherry also mentioned the $10,000 fine imposed on Roy, saying "that's nothing" for the Colorado coach.
Earlier in his segment, Cherry said he believed that Daniel Alfredsson would have remained with the Ottawa Senators, and that general manager Bryan Murray was prepared to give him what he wanted.
But Cherry said Murray had to negotiate with him, that was all it took for Alfredsson to decide to go to Detroit. He added that one of the benefits Alfredsson had in signing with Detroit was there would be less pressure there being captain and answering everything, and that he would be with all the Swedes.Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has called on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott to show their worth, insisting the English duo have had enough time to reach their potential.
Oxlade-Chamberlain scored his first ever away league goal for the Gunners in a 2-0 win at Bournemouth but he has struggled to take advantage of the opportunities he's been granted this season.
Graeme Souness of Sky Sports was scathing in his assessment of Oxlade-Chamberlain's Arsenal career, suggesting that the 22-year-old does not take his job seriously.
“’Does he take it seriously enough? He always seems to be a bit of a joker," Souness said (h/t the Mirror).
“There is a player in there. It’s stand up and be counted time.
“He’s 22 - he should not be accepting, with the quality he has, sitting on the bench and being a bit-part player.
"You’ve got to be banging down the manager’s door and saying ‘I’m ready for this’. Is he prepared to do that? I see him laughing and giggling a lot [in interviews]. I’d want him to be a bit more serious and angry and upset with me if I was the manager leaving him out.
“There’s no doubt about it he has quality. When [Arsene Wenger] doesn’t use him the other night, is it because he doesn’t trust him? At 22, it’s time to stand up and say ‘this is my moment’."
Arsenal legend Henry shared his view that Oxlade-Chamberlain isn't the only Englishman to be facing make-or-break time at the Emirates.
Henry said: “I [try] to see what was going on, the view of the manager. He must [say] to himself ‘Is the Ox going to win me this game?’
“And he must [say to himself] ‘No! Let’s not try to lose it.’ It might sound crazy, I know, but does Oxlade-Chamberlain do enough to be a starter at Arsenal?
“How long are we going to say he’s a prospect? He’s been there for four-and-a-half-years. Enough now. You have to be a starter. The same goes with Theo Walcott.”
Federal Crime Bill Will Cost Ontario Taxpayers More Than $1 Billion
McGuinty Government Calls On Ottawa To Pay For Its New Crime Legislation
January 23, 2012 9:25 A.M. Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services
The federal government's new crime bill will cost Ontario taxpayers more than $1 billion according to a detailed analysis done by the provincial government.
Ontario has determined that the federal legislation will have serious implications for Ontario's justice system. The changes could add as many as 1,500 additional inmates to provincial correctional facilities by 2016 and may require a new 1,000 bed facility to be built. As well, police services will see police officers spending much more time in court instead of patrolling Ontario neighbourhoods. Ontario will make this issue a priority and call on the federal government to offset the more than $1 billion at this week's meeting of federal, provincial and territorial justice ministers in Prince Edward Island.
Quick Facts On January 19, 2012, there were approximately 8,500 inmates in provincial correctional facilities in Ontario
Bill C-10 passed Third Reading in the House of Commons on December 5, 2011
The legislation is now being reviewed by the Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Standing Committee
Background Information Federal Crime Bill Creates Heavy Burden For OntarioI recently came across a company about to file for dissolution and liquidation, Gleacher & Company. Until a little over a year ago it was a broker dealer with fixed income trading and investment banking operations. I presume, without doing all the homework involved, it began to run out of capital after losses during the 2008/9 financial crisis. In any case, last year at the end of May the old management, including both the operating management and a majority of the Board of Directors, stepped down or was replaced. A chief restructuring officer was brought in from Capstone Advisors and, after a period of reviewing strategic alternatives including acquisitions, a business combination, the sale of the company or liquidation, new management concluded that liquidation was in the best interest of shareholders. A proposal to liquidated the business was approved by the Board in March of this year and a vote was scheduled for the May Annual Meeting, where it was overwhelmingly approved. The dissolution certificate will be filed at the end of June and the company’s shares likely delisted thereafter.
I’m always interested in liquidations because, well, most investors aren’t. Generally fund managers shy away or simply can’t invest in liquidations as 1) the company falls outside their defined investment universe, or 2) the shares are too illiquid (especially if the company delists), or 3) the timeframe is too unclear (often liquidations take 3 years or more), or the market cap becomes too small, etc. So there is generally an exodus out of the stock when a liquidation is in the offing.
In addition to being a stock shunned by a large proportion of potential investing universe, liquidations have other endearing characteristics. One of these is that management has to actually tell shareholders what they think company is worth! Most times they give a range of projected liquidation distributions, and in general, my experience is, management is extremely conservative when they provide these numbers. Of course management isn’t omniscient, and the estimates are only their best (conservative) guess as to what the payouts might be; adverse things can and do happen that negatively impact the ability of management to deliver projected payouts. But think about it. Usually in a liquidation scenario new management has been brought in to wind down the company. What possible incentive do they have to OVER-estimate future payouts? Much better to under-estimate and over-deliver than the other way around as this obviates any potential lawsuits that might assert management misled investors as to the value of the company. In the case of Gleacher, new management was indeed brought in last year to determine the best strategy to adopt to maximize shareholder value: restructure, sell or wind down the company. As part of this analysis management prepared estimates of likely liquidation proceeds which were presented to the Board along with the suggested liquidation strategy. These were subsequently incorporated these into the Proxy statement provided to shareholders for their approval at the Annual Meeting: an initial distribution of $3.23 per share shortly after filing the dissolution certificate with subsequent distributions of between $6.47 and $11.32 per share. Now, I really like to invest in liquidations when the stock is trading at or below the low-end of management’s estimate of total distributions. That, however, is not the case here, and in fact I’ve rarely come across this situation, as estimates are, as I said before, VERY conservative and market pricing generally reflects this. When an opportunity like that presents itself, take it! It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Our current liquidation, unfortunately, requires a bit more analysis as the shares are currently trading at $11.45, almost 20% above the low-end of management’s total payout estimate of $9.70. On the positive side, shares are trading somewhat below the middle of the management’s range, say at the 36th percentile, where 50% would be the exact middle. What makes this situation interesting is that 2/3 of total assets are in already in cash, and shares are trading below book value ($12.27 as of 3/31/14). So lets take a deeper dive and see if we can get comfortable with potential valuation upsides and downsides.
First, let’s take a ‘big picture’ view. Below is the schedule included in the March 31 10Q detailing the estimated initial liquidating distribution payable to shareholders.
Estimated Initial Liquidating Distribution to Shareholders (000s except per share amounts) Total per share Cash and cash equivalents (incl. segregated cash) $62,466 $10.10 Expenses and Cash reserves (est.) Cash operating expenses (excluding comp) after March 31, 2014 ($9,296) ($1.50) Compensation ($3,664) ($0.59) Reserves for claims and contingencies ($29,506) ($4.77) Estimated cash to distribute to shareholders $20,000 $3.23 Assumed shares outstanding 6,184
The above calculation simply takes current cash plus segregated cash less estimated operating expense and compensation during the liquidation period, $13 million, less a reserve for any and all contingencies. Of course, I don’t know exactly what these ‘operating expenses’ include as neither the 10Q nor the proxy provide any detail for this line item. I will assume they include fees for Capstone’s Chief restructuring officer (not an employee of the company), office space and as-needed professional fees, Board of Director fees, and other expenses that I have not been able to identify. The Compensation line includes salary and retention payments for the General Counsel ($1.8 million) and Controller ($1.1 million) plus support staff through 2014. As you will notice there is no line item in the above analysis for other assets which might be monetized. This, along with potential savings in operating expenses during liquidation, will be our primary upsides.
Let’s look at the largest of the expense line above, the Reserves. What exactly are these reserves? A footnote to the 10Q defines them as follows “DGCL 281(b) requires the Company to pay or make reasonable provision for the payment of all claims and obligations (including all contingent, conditional or unmatured contractual claims), claims that are subject to pending actions, suits or proceedings against the company and claims that have not arisen or been made known to the Company but are likely to arise or become known within 10 years of dissolution.” It then goes on to specify them for Gleacher as follows: “The Company and its subsidiaries have set aside reserves associated with (i) ClearPoint, (ii) claims made by Thomas J. Hughes (our former Chief Executive Officer) and John Griff (our former Chief Operating Officer), (iii) potential tax exposures and (iv) general reserves for other potential claims.” I am assuming that general reserves include net accruals not yet paid as of 3/31/14, i.e. those liabilities showing on the company’s 10Q 2014 balance sheet that have no offsetting assets associated with them. The assumption is based on exclusion, as the definition of ‘operating expenses’ is those expenses “..incurred after March 31, 14”.
Below is my breakdown of what the expense, compensation and reserves line items might include:
(In thousands) Cash operating expenses (excluding comp) after March 31, 2014 ($9,296) Capstone Advisors ($4,950) Capstone – office space ($216) BOD ($650) Other (mostly professional fees) ($3,480) Compensation ($3,664) General Counsel & Sec. ($1,817) Controller ($1,117) Other/support staff ($731) Reserves for claims and contingencies ClearPoint ($7,500) ($29,506) former CEO/COO claims ($7,900) Legal fees related to CEO/COO ($1,000) Other accrued compensation B/S ($532) Restructuring reserve B/S ($2,023) A/P and Accrued expenses B/S ($2,346) Other accrued payables B/S ($647) Accrued taxes net B/S ($2,954) NY State tax claim and other general claims ($4,604)
Let’s look to where the upsides might be from the above schedule before we move on to other assets that might be monetized.
It’s possible but unlikely that Capstone will charge less than its entire fee (do you see any incentive for this?), but the Board could be terminated early if the assets are place in a liquidating trust, though I won’t include this. However, savings most likely will be achieved in other (unidentified) operating expenses (most likely professional fees): I will assume 50% of these can be saved. Regarding compensation, it is unlikely that savings can be achieved here as both the General Counsel and the Controller were offered retention contracts which were signed in the 4th quarter of 2013 and run through the 4th quarter of this year, so these are primarily contractual payments which can only be reduced if the company is sold between now and the end of summer (quite unlikely at this point). The ‘Reserves’ line item hold the greatest potential upside. The Company has accrued nothing for potential indemnification regarding the ClearPoint transaction under GAAP so I conclude that any liability is unlikely. Likewise, the Company accrued nothing for the CEO and COO claims regarding compensation due on a ‘change of control’, which the company denies. These claims will be heard before FINRA this summer, but I will conclude that it is likely to result in no monetary payment to these former officers (let’s hope not as they are the characters that presided over the firm’s demise!) Together, these two items make up more than half the Reserves! Other items in the Reserves that I can identify include balance sheet liabilities. These are primarily accruals which, except for the Restructuring accrual, show little promise of upside. The Restructuring accrual relates to payment of vendors for termination of contracts, and here, since little has been paid over the past 6 months, I estimate we might see a 50% savings as a potential upside, though not necessarily likely. Then I’ll estimate that 50% of the other unidentified claims is likely with a further 50% possible..
Potential upsides from liabilities Total per share Cash operating – other 50% $1,740 ClearPoint indemnity 100% $7,500 CEO/COO compensation claims 100% $8,900 Restructuring reserve 50% $1,012 Other general claims 100% $4,604 Total from liabilities $23,756 $3.84
Next let’s consider upsides from the monetization of unencumbered assets. I am going to categorize these into two buckets, likely and possible. In the likely category I would put receivables and deposits from clearing organizations (in fact these may have already been collected |
lbs (November Rank 4): Monahan was #3 on my preseason top 10, and number 4 in my November ranks. So why has he dropped to 6? Well with 64 points in 46 games for the Ottawa 67s, its nothing he has done, as Monahan has performed up to my expectations. It has been the great play of Drouin, Barkov, and Lindholm that have moved themselves up, rather than poor play by Monahan pushing him down. Monahan has been everything he was advertised to be this season for Ottawa and missing some time dealing with a 10 game suspension for a check to the head is the only thing that is keeping him out of the OHL’s top 10 scorers. Monahan is a pure powerforward in the middle of the ice, who drives the net hard, and is able to contribute both goals and assists to his team. He makes his linemates better and this ranking shows the great high end talent at the top of this draft class.
7. Valeri Nichushkin, Centre/Right Wing, Traktor Chelyabinsk (KHL) 6’3″ 195lbs (November Rank 9) – Nichushkin continues to impress every time I see him on the ice, whether its scoring a great goal to beat the US in the prelims of the World Juniors, or to clinch bronze for Russia with a similar goal against Canada, or with his performance in the Subway Super Series. He’s a dynamic skater, who has a great stride, very good top end speed, and outstanding acceleration. He is able to use quick changes of pace to attack defenders off the rush and is especially effective driving wide on defenders (as seen in the two big goals he scored). He is a big forward who can use patience, great puck protection and stickhandling skill to create play, and also has a good shot which he uses to put the puck in the back of the net. He’s shown versatility playing at Wing in the World Juniors, and at Centre in the Subway Super Series. On pure talent, he makes this years group a “big 7” at the draft board, however he could fall on draft day as he’ll face the “Russian Factor.” Nichuskin is signed to a three year KHL contract (this season and two more), and this could really hurt his final draft position depending on interviews, but on talent alone, Nichuskin is an easy top 10 pick. Given what is happening with Vladimir Tarasenko (a steal of a pick at 16 for the Blues, who fell due to the Russian factor) and Evgeni Kuznetsov (a top prospect in the World who choose to stay in Russia rather than join the Capitals this season), NHL teams still struggle with decisions due to the lack of a formal KHL/NHL transfer agreement.
8. Ryan Pulock, Defence, Brandon Wheat Kings, 6’1″ 211 lbs (November Rank 8): Pulock returned from an upper body injury that had him out for part of January, but hasn’t really missed a beat. With 42 points in 49 games he’s 7th among WHL defensemen in scoring (and trails only Seth Jones amongst draft eligible players. Pulock’s biggest asset is an absolute rocket of a slapshot and fantastic one timer which make him an extremely feared shooter on the Powerplay. Other teams are certainly shading their PK to try to minimize Pulock’s shot at this point, but despite that, he still has 14 goals this season. A natural PP Quarterback, Pulock makes smart crisp passes and sees the ice extremely well. Pulock is an above average skater with good mobility on the blue line and loves to join the rush. He can be the lead man with the puck or can join the attack as the trailer, ready to unleash his rocket slapper.
9. Rasmus Ristolainen, Defence, TPS Turku, SM-Liga (6’3″ 200 lbs) (November Rank 11): A November 1994 birthdate, Ristolainen is a little more mature, and is now playing his second season against men in Finland’s top league, where he has 13 points in 44 games. He has also been a player on the international stage as he played in the last two World Junior Championship and the last two Under 18 World Championships. Ristolainen has NHL ready size and he uses it effectively combining very good positioning, and effective defensive play, with a healthy mean streak in his own end of the ice. His strong skating, good speed, acceleration, agility, and lateral mobility on the blue line help him greatly, and contribute to Ristolainen’s strong two way game. He moves the puck well, either leading the rush through his skating and stickhandling, or getting plays start with a strong first pass. The combination of size, and all around game certainly has scouts salivating at the potential of the young Finnish blueliner.
10. Hunter Shinkaruk, Left Wing, Medicine Hat Tigers 5’11” 175lbs (November Rank 7): Another player who has fallen a bit from his preseason rank where I had him number 4. However this is also of no fault of his own, but more a reflection of how good this draft has become for forwards. Here is a player who is 13th in WHL scoring with 70 points in 52 games this year (and he could be in the top 10 if not for an injury). Shinkaruk is a shifty, and agile skater, with good speed. He has a tremendous wrist shot and excellent release, particularly when coming in on a rush off the left wing. Not just a one trick pony, Shinkaruk also has very good playmaking skill and vision which makes him very difficult to defend. Currently holding a spot in our top 10, he’ll be in a dog fight to keep it the rest of the way, as their are some rising stars behind him.
Thanks for reading. Check back in later in the week for parts 2, 3 and 4 of the February Rankings.
Feel free to leave comments below and follow me on twitter @lastwordBKerr.
Main Photo credit: MR_53 via photopin cc[KTEST] 2017 Nov 8 Skill patch Greyhiem Nov 8th, 2017 ( edited ) 4,091 Never 4,091Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 3.68 KB Updated on 2017 Nov 9.Added video for New Krivis3 Daino attack speed buff..Corrected Hackapel grind cutter nerf.Added important mob change.Added musketeer sniper serenity nerf ============= Mob change: ALL joint penalty-resisting mobs will no longer resist joint penalty. Small item tooltip changes: Sparnas card, red vubbe fighter card, mothstem card, Gremlin card, rajatoad card --> will only apply on/with Main Hand weapons. ---Skill Changes--- Matador Paena attribute: risky: SP cost +30%. Matador Ole attribute: duration: SP cost +10%. Matador Capote attribute: SP cost +20%. Matador Muleta attribute: duration: SP cost +10%. Warlock3 Demon Claw: Overheat = 3 (OLD: no overheat). Featherfoot3 Kundela Slash attribute: cursed curse: SP cost +50%. Sage2 Dimension Compression: AoE size increased to 100 (OLD: 80). Will now affect elite mobs. Musketeer3 Sniper's Serenity attribute: Armour break: SP cost +10%. Mergen Triple arrow attribute: triple: SP cost +20%. Hackapel Grind cutter: Hitbox Width range +25%, hitbox vertical range -33%. -NEW: deals 5 hits of 655%, +45.8% damage per skill level (OLD: 5 x 1637%, +114.6% damage per skill level). Hackapel Hackapelle: NEW: decreases SP cost of hackapel skills by 5% per skill level. -NEW: decrease stamina cost by 30%. -NEW: attack speed +10, +1 per skill level (OLD: +10). Hackapel attribute: bonus movespeed. NEW: name changed to Mounted Dash (OLD: bonus movespeed). Musketeer3 sniper's serenity: NEW: the buff will cancel when you jump (OLD: buff will not cancel when jumping to a new spot). Note: the buff will still cancel when you move Krivis divine stigma: NEW: damage 146%, +10.2% per skill level (OLD: 52%, +3.6%). Krivis3 NEW daino attribute: extra damage: -Increase attack speed by +10 per skill level (yes, it reads per SKILL level, NOT attribute level). -When using basic attacks, adds a bonus attack line, with damage equal to your base attack. -Daino SP cost +50% Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXLL8JBTEe4 Plague doctor2 Pandemic attribute: increase range: SP cost +100% (OLD: SP cost +200%). Taoist Stormcalling attribute: zaibas: SP cost +50%. Taoist2 Raise magic tiles: NEW: overheat = 3 (OLD: no overheat). Zealot Immolation REWORK: Will now apply instantly as an AoE attack around the caster when activated. -NEW: CD 40s (OLD: 60s). -NEW: overheat = 2 (OLD: no overheat). -NEW: AoE range = 100 (OLD: no AOE range). -NEW: target limit = 10 targets (OLD: unlimited targets). -NEW: debuff duration = 5s (OLD: 10s debuff duration). -NEW: debuff damage tick every 0.5s (OLD: tick every 1s). -NEW: self-damage duration = 5s (OLD: self-damage duration = 40s). -NEW: self-damage tick every 0.5s (OLD: every 1s). -NEW: damage = 236% damage, +13% per skill level (OLD: 346%, +19%). Note: healing factor can still be used with this skill Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOGkmfngcL0&t=300 Zealot Fanaticism: NEW: will no longer be based on your Remaining HP. (OLD: based on your remaining HP and max HP). Note: healing factor canNOT be used with this skill, and all HP recovery is still disabled during Fanaticism. Zealot2 Blind Faith CHANGES: -NEW: duration = 40s (OLD: duration 10s). -NEW: cooldown 40s (OLD: 60s). -NEW: applies to max 40 hits (OLD: applies to unlimited hits). Zealot2 Fanatic Illusion: NEW: damage 585%, +40.9% per skill level (OLD: 273%, +19.1%). -NEW: no longer consumes HP (OLD: consumes %HP per 0.5s). -NEW: deals damage every 1s (OLD: deals damage every 0.5s). -NEW: consumes SP every 1s (OLD: no SP consumption per second, but fixed SP cost). Note: healing factor can be used with this skill Please message greyhiem on TOS forums if there is a mistake.
RAW Paste Data
Updated on 2017 Nov 9.Added video for New Krivis3 Daino attack speed buff..Corrected Hackapel grind cutter nerf.Added important mob change.Added musketeer sniper serenity nerf ============= Mob change: ALL joint penalty-resisting mobs will no longer resist joint penalty. Small item tooltip changes: Sparnas card, red vubbe fighter card, mothstem card, Gremlin card, rajatoad card --> will only apply on/with Main Hand weapons. ---Skill Changes--- Matador Paena attribute: risky: SP cost +30%. Matador Ole attribute: duration: SP cost +10%. Matador Capote attribute: SP cost +20%. Matador Muleta attribute: duration: SP cost +10%. Warlock3 Demon Claw: Overheat = 3 (OLD: no overheat). Featherfoot3 Kundela Slash attribute: cursed curse: SP cost +50%. Sage2 Dimension Compression: AoE size increased to 100 (OLD: 80). Will now affect elite mobs. Musketeer3 Sniper's Serenity attribute: Armour break: SP cost +10%. Mergen Triple arrow attribute: triple: SP cost +20%. Hackapel Grind cutter: Hitbox Width range +25%, hitbox vertical range -33%. -NEW: deals 5 hits of 655%, +45.8% damage per skill level (OLD: 5 x 1637%, +114.6% damage per skill level). Hackapel Hackapelle: NEW: decreases SP cost of hackapel skills by 5% per skill level. -NEW: decrease stamina cost by 30%. -NEW: attack speed +10, +1 per skill level (OLD: +10). Hackapel attribute: bonus movespeed. NEW: name changed to Mounted Dash (OLD: bonus movespeed). Musketeer3 sniper's serenity: NEW: the buff will cancel when you jump (OLD: buff will not cancel when jumping to a new spot). Note: the buff will still cancel when you move Krivis divine stigma: NEW: damage 146%, +10.2% per skill level (OLD: 52%, +3.6%). Krivis3 NEW daino attribute: extra damage: -Increase attack speed by +10 per skill level (yes, it reads per SKILL level, NOT attribute level). -When using basic attacks, adds a bonus attack line, with damage equal to your base attack. -Daino SP cost +50% Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXLL8JBTEe4 Plague doctor2 Pandemic attribute: increase range: SP cost +100% (OLD: SP cost +200%). Taoist Stormcalling attribute: zaibas: SP cost +50%. Taoist2 Raise magic tiles: NEW: overheat = 3 (OLD: no overheat). Zealot Immolation REWORK: Will now apply instantly as an AoE attack around the caster when activated. -NEW: CD 40s (OLD: 60s). -NEW: overheat = 2 (OLD: no overheat). -NEW: AoE range = 100 (OLD: no AOE range). -NEW: target limit = 10 targets (OLD: unlimited targets). -NEW: debuff duration = 5s (OLD: 10s debuff duration). -NEW: debuff damage tick every 0.5s (OLD: tick every 1s). -NEW: self-damage duration = 5s (OLD: self-damage duration = 40s). -NEW: self-damage tick every 0.5s (OLD: every 1s). -NEW: damage = 236% damage, +13% per skill level (OLD: 346%, +19%). Note: healing factor can still be used with this skill Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOGkmfngcL0&t=300 Zealot Fanaticism: NEW: will no longer be based on your Remaining HP. (OLD: based on your remaining HP and max HP). Note: healing factor canNOT be used with this skill, and all HP recovery is still disabled during Fanaticism. Zealot2 Blind Faith CHANGES: -NEW: duration = 40s (OLD: duration 10s). -NEW: cooldown 40s (OLD: 60s). -NEW: applies to max 40 hits (OLD: applies to unlimited hits). Zealot2 Fanatic Illusion: NEW: damage 585%, +40.9% per skill level (OLD: 273%, +19.1%). -NEW: no longer consumes HP (OLD: consumes %HP per 0.5s). -NEW: deals damage every 1s (OLD: deals damage every 0.5s). -NEW: consumes SP every 1s (OLD: no SP consumption per second, but fixed SP cost). Note: healing factor can be used with this skill Please message greyhiem on TOS forums if there is a mistake.Jigga Jay Z, riding high from his induction in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and possibly bouncing two new babies at his knee, took on a far more somber topic in a recent Father’s Day essay.
With a byline that reads “Shawn Carter,” Jay strongly spoke out in Time magazine against the current U.S. bail system, which on any given day jails over 400,000 people convicted of no crime “because they cannot afford to buy their freedom.”
Though Jay Z is by all measures a genius, the words do not seem to be quite his (especially if you read his tweets during the Hall of Fame induction), but no matter; the sentiment is pure.
Jay begins talking about how he came to really see the devastation of the current U.S. bail system through the story of teen Kalief Browder, who spent more than three years in jail—without being convicted of a crime, mostly in solitary confinement—because his family could not afford to bail him out. Jay Z produced a recent six-part documentary on Browder for Spike TV.
He also says he is going to support the National Father’s Bail Out Day campaign this year. He continues:The 36-year-old, named as Sabrina Z. by the newspaper La Stampa, appeared in court on Monday, charged with coercion.
The incident dates back to June 2010, when the teacher, who worked at a technical college in Ivrea, a town in Piedmont, took the girls to a swingers' club in Turin, where they were reportedly subjected to “bodies entwined on the sofa”.
The teacher was charged with coercion after allegedly threatening one of the girls if she told anyone about their night out.
An accomplice, Michele, 46, who drove the girls to the club, also appeared in court.
He told the judge he didn’t know that one of them was underage. The other girl was 19 at the time.
“I never ask a woman’s age,” he reportedly said, while winking at the judge.
Rumours of the night out soon started circulating within the school, prompting the principal to report the teacher to the police and then later fire her.
Claudio D'Alessandro, the lawyer representing the older girl, said the case was not about the night spent at the club, but what happened afterwards between the teacher and the girl.
“It was the coercion that triggered the case,” he was quoted by La Stampa as saying.
The charge is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Don't miss a story about Italy - Join us on Facebook and Twitter.Twenty-three NSW tribunals will be integrated into one overarching tribunal in an attempt to simplify a currently “complex and bewildering” system.
On Friday (26 October), NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith (pictured) announced a plan to develop the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT): “a one-stop shop” for almost all of the state’s tribunals, including the Consumer, Trader & Tenancy Tribunal.
“Enabling tribunals to exist as a network, rather than in isolation, will improve the quality, consistency and transparency of services,” he said.
The move is a response to a Legislative Council Standing Committee on Law and Justice report, which recommended the NSW Government establish a new tribunal to consolidate existing tribunals “where it is appropriate and promotes access to justice”.
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The report, titled Opportunities to Consolidate Tribunals in NSW, was released in March and claimed many stakeholders viewed the current system as “complex and bewildering”.
Due to begin operating in January 2014, the new integrated body will be divided into five specialist divisions: Consumer; Administrative and Equal Opportunity; Occupational and Regulatory; Guardianship, and Victims. A Supreme Court judge will be appointed president of NCAT and deputy presidents with relevant experience will head the five divisions.
“The NSW model will be structured to preserve existing specialities rather than taking a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach,” Smith said. “In that way, the NCAT will be different from the super-tribunals operating in Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT and we are hoping to learn from their experiences.”
The Industrial Relations Commission is not one of the bodies that will operate under NCAT.
Judge Kevin O’Connor AM, president of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal, welcomed the integration of tribunals, claiming it would strengthen their professionalism and versatility.
“NCAT will have greater flexibility to move resources to areas of greatest need. The sharing of facilities will mean that people in both metropolitan and regional areas will have access to tribunal services through one point of access,” he said.Opposition supporters shout slogans as they protest in front of the Senate building where a debate continues before a crucial vote to approve legislation that would give politicians substantial influence over the country's Supreme Court, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, July 21, 2017. The bill on the Supreme Court has drawn condemnation from the European Union and has led to street protests across Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Senate approved a contentious law on Saturday that gives politicians substantial influence over the Supreme Court, in defiance of European Union criticism.
The bill proposed by the populist ruling party only needs the signature of President Andrzej Duda to become binding. Duda has so far followed the ruling party line.
The vote was 55-23 with two abstentions.
It was met with boos from protesters gathered in front of the Senate building.
EU leaders say the bill would kill judicial independence and threaten the rule of law in the EU’s largest member in Central and Eastern Europe. The U.S. Department of State voiced concern on Friday.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, contends the judiciary still works along a communist-era model and harbors many judges from that time. Communist rule ended in 1989. He says the justice system needs “radical changes” to become efficient and reliable.
Prime Minister Beata Szydlo says the legislation is an internal matter and the government will not bow to any foreign pressure.
The legislation calls for firing current Supreme Court judges, except those chosen by the justice minister and approved by the president. It gives the president the power to issue regulations for the court’s work. It also introduces a disciplinary chamber that, on a motion from the justice minister, would handle suspected breaches of regulations or ethics.
In anticipation of the vote, crowds gathered Friday night for yet another protest in front of the Supreme Court building in Warsaw and in some other cities. About 200 protesters also gathered in front of Duda’s vacation home in Jurata, on the Baltic coast, to demand that he doesn’t sign the bill.
The president has 21 days to sign it, and is not expected to do it before his meeting Monday with the head of the court, Malgorzata Gersdorf.
Two other bills on a key judicial body and on regular courts also await Duda’s signature.
Duda won election as a Law and Justice member but has left the party in accord with Poland’s tradition of a nonpartisan presidency. He is expected to sign the legislation.
The U.S. Department of State on Friday urged all sides to “ensure that any judicial reform does not violate Poland’s constitution or international legal obligations and respects the principles of judicial independence and separation of powers,” and urged dialogue.
Duda has so far not accepted an invitation for talks on the issue from European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister.
Speaking to Poland’s TVN24, Tusk repeated his readiness for talks and said he was a “little disappointed” there has been no meeting.
“Poland’s president should be concerned about a situation that is, let’s say, serious,” Tusk said.
Tusk said the steps the Polish government is taking toward the judiciary would allow it to limit social freedoms if it wants. He said they are in conflict with the EU’s principles and are damaging to Poland’s international standing.
But he conceded that, during his seven years as Poland’s prime minister, he did encounter some resistance against judicial reform.
“The price for judicial independence, which is a value, was a lack of compulsory reform,” Tusk said.
European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans has warned that Poland could face a proceeding under Article 7 of the EU treaty, which makes possible sanctions in case of a “serious and persistent” breach of the EU’s basic values. In theory, Poland could be deprived of its vote in the EU’s council of governments, but such a move would have to be unanimous.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said his government would never support sanctions against Poland.Russia has amended legislation on data retention to force social networks to store data about its citizens on home soil.
Bill number 553424-6, which translation engines tell us is titled “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation (to clarify the processing of personal data in information and telecommunications networks)” specifies that “when collecting personal data, including information and telecommunications network, the Internet, the operator must ensure that record, systematization, accumulation, storage, updated, modified, removing the personal data of citizens of the Russian Federation, in databases, of information located in the territory of the Russian Federation”.
The result of the bill looks to be that social networks, retailers and the likes will need to place servers within Russia if they want to do business with Russians. Which sounds like just the kind of thing a regime keen to track its citizens would like.
But as Russia Today points out, Russian businesses such as airlines that rely on hosted software aren't likely to appreciate the law. Nor, one imagines, are software-as-a-service providers who aren't always in a rush to create new data centres.
The Bill passed the Duma, the lower house of Russia's Parliament, last week. Vulture South lacks any nuanced understanding of Russian politics, but with 280 votes for and none against it doesn't look like Russia's Upper House will prove an obstacle to its passage into law.
The law comes into force on September 1st, 2016, giving Russian companies – and those in other nations that target them – plenty of time to adjust, or perhaps to build local bit barns.
Coping with the law may not require enormous effort, an assertion Vulture South makes in light of the Australian state of New South Wales Department of Education's adoption of Gmail for nearly a million students. The Department insisted that students' email be stored on Australian soil, a request Google happily accommodated. A local telco – Telstra – stepped in to do the hosting and Gmail reportedly didn't need much tweaking to work under these arrangements.
One last possibility: might the law leave a loophole that allows a copy of data to reside in Russia? If that's possible, lots of synchronisation might do the trick. ®WASHINGTON - In response to reports of a new Trump administration mandate for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Drew Courtney People for the American Way’s vice president for communications and research released the following statement:
“This weekend’s story about censorship attempts by the Trump administration shows the extreme lengths Donald Trump and his allies are willing to go to twist and distort the federal government to reflect their own ideology instead of the reality of Americans’ lives.
“Whether it’s discouraging scientists from using words like ‘transgender’ and ‘diversity’ in their research, or brushing aside analysis that shows how the Republicans’ tax scheme will harm the economy, Trump and his allies are living in a bubble that barely resembles the real world—and they’re trying to drag the rest of us in along with them. That’s profoundly dangerous, and again and again we see that the consequences will come down on the most vulnerable people in our communities.
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“No one should accept these Orwellian attempts to enshrine the wishful thinking of the far-right above the government’s obligation to work to make life better for all people—not just the wealthy and powerful.”Spread the love
This week, mainstream media, one of the most effective propaganda tools the government has at its behest, attempted to incite a race war — and very nearly succeeded. By obstinately focusing solely on yet more fatal police shootings of black men and race as a factor in the Charlotte riots — debating whether or not the real epidemic of law enforcement violence even exists — the media manipulated the public mind to pit whole populations of people against one another, fueling division which led to rioting in Charlotte, which further highlighted the growing chasm.
But the truth is, although police disproportionately target and brutalize minorities, state violence asserts itself on all of us — anyone not a member of either blue culture or the political elite can fall victim to its irrational and unreasonable belligerence at any time.
Rather than focusing on potential solutions to the acceptability of excessive force behind the thin blue line, corporate media subtly furthered victim-blaming and what it inaccurately surmised to be a matter of black versus white as the cause for rioting in Charlotte — rather than that overzealous officers stole yet another life for which justice almost certainly won’t follow.
In the few moments the mainstream wasn’t stoking the flames of race war, it shoved triviality down our throats — the divorce of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — as if someone’s personal life is of serious consequence to the rest of us because they hail from the upper economic echelons.
These ridiculous divisive tactics are precisely why alternative, independent media exists — and while corporate media bullhorned these narratives, indie journalists continued covering any number of issues of astonishing importance unfolding in the background.
Flint, Michigan — once the subject of constant mainstream news coverage — continues to rely on bottled water while politicians fight each other over which of them is responsible for poisoning the city’s water supply with lead, instead of acting swiftly to correct the unfathomably criminal mistake.
Worse, it was recently revealed the state of Michigan maneuvered red tape to make it impossible for the city of Flint to sue for damages over the lead contamination or resulting problems which still may occur.
Although the controversial emergency manager no longer makes decisions for Flint, enough state control still remains that when the city filed a letter of intent to sue — a pure formality undertaken as the deadline for the court filing came — bitter Michigan politicians changed the rules, requiring Flint to ask the state for permission to sue it.
Now, the residents of Flint — who must travel to designated drop off points to obtain water safe enough to drink, bathe, and cook with — cannot even sue for damages should they develop the harrowing effects of lead poisoning or if the city should need financial assistance to correct the problem the state’s emergency manager caused in the first place.
As Native American nations, indigenous peoples, activists, and advocates from around the world continue gathering in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect water and protest the unabashed corporate-government exploitation that is the Dakota Access Pipeline, politicians in Utah are affecting the first land grab from Native Americans in over 100 years.
The Free Thought Project’s Matt Agorist reports:
“Three years ago, Utah Congressmen Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz came up with a proposal called the Utah Public Lands Initiative. This proposal would turn more than a quarter of the Ute Tribe’s land into oil and drilling zones. Now, after pining away for three years, the initiative has transformed into HB5780 and will be pushed through the U.S. House of Representatives in just a few weeks.”
In typical fashion, the congressmen fashioned the legislation in the guise of public interest and conservation, when in reality, it marks another Big Oil handout and usurpation of the pathetically little land the U.S. government designated to the indigenous peoples from which it stole in the first place.
Despite the guise of conservation, the bill’s intended oil and gas development — of which Bishop is an ardent supporter — do not bode well for the Ute, considering the Standing Rock Sioux discovered to their horror Big Oil’s construction crews deliberately decimated sacred sites.
Apparently, the U.S. government harbors no intention of ending the exploitation of Native Americans — and instead wishes to inflict further inexcusable harm.
In a last ditch effort to save insects responsible for pollinating an estimated one-third of our entire food supply, on Wednesday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the rusty patched bumblebee as an endangered species.
Although the move is a vital necessity, it speaks to the utter decimation of the once prevalent species — if not the peril of our food supply. And after spraying to combat zika virus-carrying mosquitoes in South Carolina recklessly and suddenly left millions of bees dead, protecting the rusty patched bumblebee is an absolute imperative.
According to experts, the bumblebee contributes around $3.5 billion to farms growing everything from blueberries to tomatoes.
Behemoth Agrichemical companies like Bayer and Monsanto — whose recent merger set off blaring alarm bells — have pushed their pesticides as beneficial to agriculture for years. But in the first long-term study of its kind, neonicotinoid pesticides were linked to steady declines in bee populations — exactly as had been suspected — and that pesticide makers’ own studies proved long ago neonics were deadly to bees.
After an investigation by its watchdog Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, the FBI has now been permitted to continue impersonating journalists — essentially legalizing the CIA’s original propaganda campaign, Operation Mockingbird.
Begun during the chill of the Cold War, Operation Mockingbird employed journalists to parrot narratives the CIA found useful to its international and domestic goals. Such prominent outlets as the New York Times, Reuters, the Associated Press, NBC, CBS, and many others participated actively and willingly in the propaganda-pushing program. An investigation in the mid-1970s revealed much of Operation Mockingbird’s inner workings, and then-CIA director George H. W. Bush was pressured into ending the program — though many suspected the claim to be a false palliative to alleviate public concern about governmental control of the media.
From time to time, rumors Mockingbird continued gained support — CNN’s Anderson Cooper, for example, interned and trained with the CIA while in college, but did not train to be a journalist. It is widely suspected Cooper landed his prominent role for reasons other than journalistic talent.
In 2007, the FBI impersonated the Associated Press to identify and capture a teenager who had been emailing a series of bomb threats to his high school. After the agency’s plot came to light, the inspector general reviewed the controversial ploy to determine whether agents followed guidelines — and found such impersonation could be perfectly justified during future criminal investigations.
Although the FBI claims to have since put further restrictions on future impersonations of the media, constitutional rights and civil liberties advocates argue a free press depends on separation from government.
It would seem Operation Mockingbird continues deceiving the public over five decades since its inception.
While mainstream media furthers the racial divide and debates the finer points of the breakup of Brangelina, U.S. foreign policy continues wreaking absolute havoc in the Middle East — putting the entire world at risk for all-out war.
An attempted humanitarian ceasefire in Syria officially ended after U.S.-backed rebels violated the agreement over 300 times.
In fact, just before the ceasefire officially fell apart, the U.S.-backed, Saudi Arabia-led coalition struck Syrian government forces actively fighting the Islamic State — killing at least 80 — leading Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin to accuse the United States of supporting ISIS during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
John Kerry ironically called for de-escalation by grounding all aircraft in Syria — perhaps forgetting the U.S. has been responsible for continually escalating the conflict and indirectly causing the end of the ceasefire.
Escalating tensions between Russia, China, and the United States in Syria and elsewhere appear highly likely to set off an actual World War III.Critics of President Obama’s push for health care reform have been whipping up fear that proposed changes will destroy our “world’s best” medical system and make it like supposedly inferior systems elsewhere.
The emptiness of those claims became apparent recently when researchers from the Urban Institute released a report analyzing studies that have compared the clinical effectiveness and quality of care in the United States with the care dispensed in other advanced nations. They found a mixed bag, with the United States doing better in some areas, like cancer care, and worse in others, like preventing deaths from treatable and preventable conditions.
The bottom line was unmistakable. The analysts found no support for the claim routinely made by politicians that American health care is the best in the world and no hard evidence of any particular area in which American health care is truly exceptional.
The American health care system puts patients at greater risk of harm from medical or surgical errors than patients elsewhere and ranks behind the top countries in extending the lives of the elderly. It has a mixed record on preventive care — above average in vaccinating seniors against the flu, below average in vaccinating children — and a mixed record of caring for chronic and acute conditions.
Contrary to what one hears in political discourse, the bulk of the research comparing the United States and Canada found a higher quality of care in our northern neighbor. Canadians, for example, have longer survival times while undergoing renal dialysis and after a kidney transplant. Of 10 studies comparing the care given to a broad range of patients suffering from a diverse group of ailments, five favored Canada, three yielded mixed results, and only two favored the United States.
There is no doubt that American medicine at its best can be awesomely effective. But there is clearly room for improvement. Far from threatening a superb health care system, reform should be seen as a way to improve a system whose bright spots are undercut by its flaws.If there is one position that the Cincinnati Bengals are loaded with talent, it’s cornerback. The defensive secondary has a bright future in Cincinnati, anchored by a veteran who just got his signature contract and two first round draft picks.
Dre Kirkpatrick really performed well in 2016 and was rewarded with a five-year $52.5 million contract in the 2017 offseason. He’s earned his position as the No. 1 corner on the team and still has even more room to improve at only 27 years-old. Some may think he was overpaid, but his top-10 corner salary will likely look more like a top-25 salary once he enters the back half of the deal. When you have a chance to lock up your best corner, you have to jump on it.
Adam Jones returns to the team after a rocky offseason. In an effort to save space in the article, I won’t go into the entire story. However, Bengals owner Mike Brown |
. The other important thing with sahti is the use of yeast—in this case, baking yeast."
He adds, "Many who have tried sahti only once have bad memories, either because they drank sahti that already had gone bad or it was just poorly made and they got sick. Or they just drank too much of it. People should take their time to get to know sahti and like most great drinks it's best when served with food."
Pekka Kääriäinen puts juniper branches in the "kuurna," which gives a subtle herbal touch to his sahti.
The head brewer of Pyynikin Craft Brewery, Tuomas Pere, says that Finns should "pay more attention to sahti and make an effort to revive it, as it's truly one of the most unique beers in the world."
Pyynikin Craft Brewery produces a heavily hopped katajasahti. "Some people don't like the way we use hops in our sahti," Tuomas says. But for a sahti noob like myself, the crisp hops give it a nice edge and make it a bit more easier to approach. Tuomas, who looks like a beer-swigging rock 'n' roll Santa Claus, is hopeful about the future and plans to export sahti to the US.
"The problem is that sahti is alive and it doesn't keep very well. That is probably the main reason it hasn't conquered the world yet," he says.
Katajasahti from Pyynikin Craft Brewery.
The tradition of home-brewing sahti is so strong that it only makes sense to pit the best home-brewers against one another. With that in mind, I decide to attend the Finnish Sahti Championship, which takes place in Sastamala, very near to Finlandia Sahti where I started my journey.
Jury tasting the sahti samples at the Finnish Sahti Championship.
This year marks the competition's 25th anniversary, and 55 brewers from all over Finland have entered. Each brewer brings a judge to the competition and they taste the samples blind.
The winner gets bragging rights and a cool-looking wicker hat.
The sahti champion's wicker hat.
Although the competition takes place indoors, the real action is in the parking lot. At first, I can't believe my eyes: People are tailgating with sahti! Dozens of cars, vans, and buses with open trunks offering sahti—and for free. Each of them has their city or district written on a piece of paper, so people know what they were tasting.
Jugs from a trunk, a classic setting for sahti tasting.
On my way to my car, I see a man wearing a wicker hat and sitting between two vans. This man is Kauko Kuusikko. Kauko won the competition in 2007 but his sahti didn't make the cut this year. But his 26-year-old daughter Maria, who came third in last year's competition, is still waiting to hear how her sahti is doing after the first heat of the competition.
Sahti brewers Kauko Kuusikko and his daughter Maria.
Maria learned to make sahti from her father and she has been making sahti by herself since she was 16. She attended the competition for the first time in 2008.
"Our family has been making sahti for a hundred years or so. Me and my father have occasionally talked about forming a proper brewery. I haven't ruled it out, but it's not happening anytime soon. I want to finish school first," Maria tells me.
In the end, this year's wicker hat goes to Seppo Koskinen from Hartola.
A brewer showing his sahti from Ikaalinen in the parking lot.
It's quite possibly the most peculiar beer event I have ever been to, but definitely one of the most memorable. I cannot help but to admire the passion and enthusiasm these people have for sahti, not to mention the effort they make to keep this old tradition alive.
And even though I still have a hard time drinking an entire glass of sahti, my appreciation for it has only grown stronger.Adrienne Asch, an internationally known bioethicist who opposed the use of prenatal testing and abortion to select children free of disabilities, a stance informed partly by her own experience of blindness, died on Nov. 19 at her home in Manhattan. She was 67.
The cause was cancer, said Randi Stein, a longtime friend.
At her death, Professor Asch was the director of the Center for Ethics and the Edward and Robin Milstein professor of bioethics at Yeshiva University in Manhattan. She also held professorships in epidemiology and population health and in family and social medicine at Yeshiva’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
“She certainly was one of the pioneers in disability studies,” Eva Feder Kittay, a distinguished professor of philosophy at Stony Brook University and a scholarly colleague of Professor Asch’s, said in an interview. “She was a very strong voice, always bringing in the disability perspective, trying to change the view of disability as some tragedy that happens to someone, rather than just another feature and fact about human existence.”
Professor Asch, who was trained as a philosopher, social worker, social psychologist and clinical psychotherapist, produced scholarship that stood at the nexus of bioethics, disability studies, reproductive rights and feminist theory.A multi-million-dollar Rodin bust of Napoleon was discovered hiding in plain sight — inside a New Jersey borough hall, officials said Friday.
The 1908 sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, which art experts lost track of in the 1930s, was found in a corner of Morris County borough hall in Madison, city officials and art experts said.
It had been sitting there for nearly 85 years, Madison Mayor Robert Conley told The Post.
“I’ve held meetings in that room for 6 years. People basically leaned on it — like it was their aunt’s old furniture,” Conley said.
“Later we realized, Oh my God, this is a Rodin!” he said. “We didn’t know how valuable it was.”
The white marble bust — valued at between $4 million to $12 million — was donated to the borough hall by the Philanthropist Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge in 1933, he said.
But there was no official record showing the art was Rodin. It was rumored to be — but nobody bothered to authenticate it until two years ago. Officials kept the astonishing discovery a secret until Wednesday for fear it would be stolen, Conley said.
In 2015, the French Rodin expert, Jérôme Le Blay, traveled to New Jersey to verify the art was legitimate.
“He walked in and said, “There you are! Where have you been?” Conley said.
Le Blay told The Post, “The first pictures that they sent me by email immediately struck me.”
When he visited in person, “The inscription on the side of the marble [confirmed it],” he said.
The sculpture will soon be sent temporarily to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will then return to the borough hall, which will get beefed up security to protect it.
“The bust will not be treated like it has been for last 85 years,” Conley 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
LIVERPOOL legends Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have analysed England’s desperate failure at Euro 2016 - and delivered contrasting reasons for the failure of Roy Hodgson’s squad.
Carragher, who won 38 caps and played at the finals of the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, delivered a searing condemnation of the “Academy Generation” - a group of players who are too soft and have had it too easy.
While former England captain Steven Gerrard, who won 114 caps and played in several European Championship and World Cup finals, believes it is the weight of expectation on players’ shoulders which leads to damaging mistakes and creates a panic-stricken mindset.
Carragher, in his Daily Mail column, wrote: “Too soft. The more I think about England’s humiliation against Iceland, the more those two words come into my mind.
Full Jamie Carragher column
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“This is what England’s players have become. The Academy Generation — for that is what they are — are soft physically and soft mentally. We saw the end result in all its gruesome detail in Nice on Monday when another major tournament ended in calamity and blame.
“Roy Hodgson, inevitably, carries the can. There was no way he could continue as England manager after the results and performances at Euro 2016 and he cannot escape the spotlight, but don’t for one moment think the players should escape liability.
“I call them the Academy Generation because they have come through in an era when footballers have never had more time being coached. At this point I want to make it clear I am not pointing the finger at academy coaches, as others will do.
“But they get ferried to football schools, they work on immaculate pitches, play in pristine training gear every day and everything is done to ensure all they have to do is focus on football. We think we are making them men but actually we are creating babies.
“Life has been too easy. They have been pampered from a young age, had money thrown at them and, when things have gone wrong, they have been told it is never their fault. Some 12- and 13-year-olds have agents now. Why?
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“England were confronted by three pressure situations in Euro 2016 and each time they cracked. The first was in the final 10 minutes against Russia, when they conceded an equaliser, the second was Iceland’s throw-in and the third was when they chased an equaliser against Iceland. They had 72 minutes to get one goal but failed because of stupid decisions, stupid shots and stupid passes.
“To see it unfold was unbelievable.
“Why won’t they take responsibility? They live lives now with personal assistants, player liaison officers, nannies and agents organising every little detail for them. Some wouldn’t even know how to book a holiday or an appointment at the dentist for themselves.
“It strips character.”
Gerrard also explored the effects of psychology on players in a column for the Daily Telegraph.
He wrote: “I do not accept that the problem with English football is the players are not good enough. It is the same argument whenever we go out of a major tournament. The players are overrated, and the English Premier League is not as strong as it thinks it is.
“Nonsense. You are telling me we do not have the talent to beat Iceland? That we lost because their players and their league are better than ours?
“We were beating Germany a few months ago.
Full Steven Gerrard column
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“We failed so badly on Monday night because of our poor decision-making, an inability to respond to events as they unfolded and because we repeated too many of the mistakes of the past.
Roy Hodgson has paid the price. The criticism of him is intense and he lost his job, but there is no one coming home on that plane who will feel they did themselves justice.
“But I am not going to jump on board this bandwagon attacking English players and saying how overhyped and overrated they all are.
“I have been there on the receiving end of this. It was never to the same extent as a defeat like that against Iceland, but I know exactly how those players will be feeling after disappointing in a major tournament.
“I can imagine how they were feeling as the second half continued in Nice. They knew what was in store as soon as Iceland scored their second goal.
“When England went behind, many of those players will have been thinking of the consequences of defeat as much as what to do to get back in the game.
“I hate to say it, but your mind drifts to what the coverage is going to be like back home and the level of criticism you are going to get. You cannot stop yourself. ‘What if we don’t get back into this? What will it be like if we go out here?’
“Panic sets in. The frustration takes over. You freeze and stop doing those things you know you should be. You start forcing the game, making the wrong choices with your passes, shooting from the wrong areas and letting the anxiety prevent you from doing the simple things.
“Everything you said and prepared for before the game gets forgotten. I hear people say that is a sign of mental fragility. Maybe it is, but that is what we have got with the England team created by 50 years without winning a major tournament. It’s what happens.”The NCAA Committee on Infractions has ruled that Louisville coach Rick Pitino failed to properly monitor his men's basketball program and suspended the Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer for the first five ACC games of the 2017-18 season.
Louisville will not be banned from future postseasons. So that's a win. But the NCAA announced Thursday that Louisville must vacate all "basketball records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible from December 2010 [to] July 2014." That suggests Louisville's 2013 national championship is in jeopardy, which is something Louisville consultant Chuck Smrt subsequently confirmed. At a press conference, Smrt said that players the NCAA has deemed ineligible did play in the 2013 NCAA Tournament and acknowledged that Louisville's 2013 NCAA Tournament championship will be vacated unless the ruling is overturned on appeal.
No school has ever been forced to vacate a men's basketball championship.
Greg Postel, Louisville's interim president, said in a statement Thursday that the penalties -- which additionally include scholarship reductions, recruiting limitations, four years of probation, fees, etc., -- are "excessive" and go "beyond what we consider to be fair and reasonable." Postel added the university will appeal all of the NCAA's sanctions that were not self-imposed.
"Personally, I've lost a lot of faith in the NCAA... with what they just did," Pitino said.
Louisville's NCAA case dates back to August 2015.
That's when a self-proclaimed escort named Katina Powell alleged in a book that former Louisville staffer Andre McGee -- whom the NCAA hit with a 10-year show-cause penalty on Thursday -- paid for dances and sex on behalf of Louisville players and prospects. Louisville immediately launched its own investigation that resulted in the school self-imposing penalties in February 2016 that included a postseason ban for the 2015-16 team that finished 23-8 and ranked seventh at KenPom. In October 2016, the NCAA charged Louisville with four Level I violations. The case went before the Committee on Infractions in April. And now, two months later, the ruling is in.
Timeline: Louisville sex scandal
Here is the entire list of penalties announced by the NCAA on Thursday:
Public reprimand and censure for the university.
Four years of probation from June 15, 2017, through June 14, 2021.
A suspension from the first five ACC games of the 2017-18 season for the head coach. During the suspension, the head coach may not be present in the arena where the games are played and have no contact with the student-athletes or members of his coaching staff. The head coach also may not participate in any activities including, but not limited to, team travel, practice, video study and team meetings.
A 10-year show-cause period for the former operations director from June 15, 2017, through June 14, 2027. During that period, any NCAA member school employing the former coach must restrict him from holding any athletically related duties and from having any contact with prospects and their families.
A one-year show-cause order for the former program assistant from June 15, 2017, through June 14, 2018. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him can schedule an appearance before a panel of the COI to determine whether he should be subject to show-cause provisions.
A vacation of basketball records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible from December 2010 and July 2014. The university will provide a written report containing the games impacted to the NCAA media coordination and statistics staff within 45 days of the public decision release.
A reduction in men's basketball scholarships by two during the 2016-17 year (self-imposed by the university). Additionally, the university must reduce men's basketball scholarships by four over the probation period. The university may take the reductions during any year of that period.
A prohibition of men's basketball coaching travel during the April 2016 recruiting period, which resulted in a reduction of men's basketball recruiting opportunities by 30 (self-imposed by the university).
A reduction of recruiting travel during the July 2016 recruiting period by six days (self-imposed by the university).
A reduction in the number of men's basketball official visits to a total of 10 during the 2015-16 year. Additionally, the university will have no more than a total of 16 visits during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 years (self-imposed by the university).
During the probation period, men's basketball prospects on unofficial visits may not stay overnight in any campus dorms or school-owned property.
A disassociation of the former operations director (self-imposed by the university). The public decision describes the details of his disassociation.
A $5,000 fine (self-imposed by the university). The university must also return to the NCAA the money received through conference revenue sharing for its appearances in the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championships. Future revenue distributions that are scheduled to be provided to the university from those tournaments also must be withheld by the conference and forfeited to the NCAA.
A postseason ban for the men's basketball team for the 2015-16 season (self-imposed by the university).
Read the full NCAA report on LouisvilleIs the University of Wisconsin-Madison a patent troll?
The question is not as strange as it might seem. “Patent trolls” are entities that own patents that they use not to further innovation or manufacture a product but to conduct a kind of legal extortion racket. Holding patents that are sometimes absurdly vague, they send “demand letters” to the thousands of companies that use, for instance, bar scanners — to cite a legendary example — accusing them of patent infringement.
Many companies pay a fee to avoid litigation, but others decide to stand and fight. Sometimes they win; sometimes they lose. In either case, patent trolling is sand in the engine of commerce.
Now consider the University of Wisconsin-Madison, or more precisely, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which owns the university’s patents. Whenever the university’s scientists come up with innovations — which they rarely intend to use to manufacture a product — WARF applies for a patent and then seeks to license it, just as trolls do.
In higher education circles, WARF is known as a fierce defender of its patent portfolio. Just like the trolls, it does not back away when it believes companies have infringed on its patents, and it will litigate those claims if need be.What is the death toll of Hezbollah fighters in Syria?
This issue is still a matter of debate since the beginning of Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria on the side of the Syrian Regime. And the Party of God adds to this ambiguity, by not providing any numbers or other comprehensive information.
The only official statement from Hezbollah came in early December 2013, when its secretary general, Hasan Nasrallah, revealed that the number is less than 250. Around the same time, Syrian opposition(s) and anti-Hezbollah Lebanese groups claimed that the death toll is higher than 500, and even exceeds the 1,000 threshold. Only the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) was in range with Hezbollah’s declaration. It put the number of deaths at 232 on 1 December 2013. The latest SOHR count on 13 March 2014 stands at the number of 332. (Note that SOHR doesn’t provide any list or details.)
To know the real number of killed Hezbollah fighters, i decided to follow the funerals.
The official Hezbollah news agencies and sites are the primary source of this research. However, they do not cover all funerals, and their information are not categorized, thus making it hard to find all the required data. To complement this research, I looked also into Pro-Hezbollah websites, and cross-referenced the information. These websites are rife with mistakes, for example, citing the same killed fighter several times under different combinations of his name, his father’s name, his nom de guerre, etc.
I drew up a list of 322 killed fighter (which is close to the latest SOHR’s figure.) For 9 of them i couldn’t find funerals information. Usually a funeral takes place in the following days of the fighter’s death. But on several occasion, they were held months later pending the retrieval of the body. Most of the fighters were buried in the place of their origin or of their residency. However, several fighters were buried in the communal Hezbollah graveyard in Ghobeiri, while others were buried, according to their will, in Sayyidah Zaynab.
Of course this is not an exhaustive list, and the numbers can be higher, but for sure they are much less than what most anti-Hezbollah groups claim. In this sense, we have to congratulate the Party of God, since the figure advanced by his secretary general is the closest to reality … a reality that left dead young men in nearly every village and town in South Lebanon and Baalbek area.
To check the list and references, please follow this link.
Please click on the map for a larger view.
____________
Updates
This blog post was republished by al-Akhbar English on March 31, 2014.
This work was plagiarized by the London based newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed and their reporter Thaer Ghandour. For more details, please follow this link.
* * *
Follow me on Twitter: @hisham_ashkar.
Like on/off … but mostly off page on Facebook.The impetus that Opposition unity seems to have gained in the last few days might have been hard to imagine had Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati – the most powerful voice of Dalits in North India – not announced her willingness to join an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front on April 14. And it was Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad who played a key role in persuading Mayawati to give up her apathy to pre-poll alliances, a fact that has gone unreported and unnoticed all these weeks.
According to some leaders in the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lalu Prasad had a long telephonic conversation with Mayawati two days before she declared a shift in her party’s position on pre-poll alliances, which till then she dismissed as nothing but “politics of opportunism”.
“Mayawati agreed with Lalu’s arguments that if she accepts the idea of an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and becomes part of a grand secular alliance, all the constituents would succeed in augmenting their respective support bases and make a lasting political impact in the country,” a leader close to Lalu Prasad told Scroll.in.
That was not the only time Lalu Prasad spoke with Mayawati: he followed it up with several more conversations.
Members of the Bahujan Samaj Party confirmed the “frequent talks” between the two leaders in past weeks.
This was also underlined by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who said on Wednesday that his father, Lalu Prasad, had been in talks with several non-BJP leaders, including Mayawati. “Everyone knows we have set an example by forging an alliance under difficult circumstances and emerged successful [in Bihar],” Yadav said of the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s partnership with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). “RJD chief Lalu Prasad has been making serious attempts to replicate Bihar’s grand alliance at the national level.”
The grand alliance, or mahagathbandhan, of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United) and Congress had defeated a strong showing by the BJP in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls.
Clearing a major hurdle
Mayawati’s announcement on April 14, the birth anniversary of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, that her party “has no reservations in taking the help of anti-BJP parties in its fight against EVM [electronic voting machine] tampering and the BJP”, has set the ball rolling to give a formal shape to a grand secular alliance ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
The very next day, Akhilesh Yadav, who heads the Samajwadi Party – the Bahujan Samaj Party’s arch rival – advocated the formation of a mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country to take on the BJP. He also echoed Mayawati’s allegations of the rigging of electronic voting machines in the February-March Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, which the BJP won with a massive majority.
Simultaneously, senior leaders of the Congress, Janata Dal (United), Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties intensified their efforts to form a united front.
The flexibility shown by Uttar Pradesh’s traditional rivals, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, has removed one of the biggest hurdles in the way of a grand alliance, for which Opposition leaders had started informal discussions during Parliament’s budget session that commenced on January 31. Uttar Pradesh – with 80 Lok Sabha seats – is critical for the success of any grand alliance.
Building on Lalu Prasad’s efforts, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is expected to hold a meeting with Mayawati, as well as Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress and MK Stalin of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, in the course of the next few days, according to Congress leaders. Discussions will centre around evolving Opposition consensus on common candidates for the presidential and vice-presidential elections, scheduled in July and August, said media reports.
Many in the Opposition parties say the process of giving a final shape to the proposed grand alliance has to be slow so as to take along all secular forces. However, they agree that the presidential election in July will be a big stepping stone and a major test of the viability and scope of the secular front.European Council head Donald Tusk will next spring be questioned by a special Polish parliamentary commission probing a notorious investment scam, the commission’s head, Małgorzata Wassermann, has said.
The Amber Gold scheme saw thousands of Poles cheated out of their savings from 2009 to 2012 when Tusk was Poland’s prime minister.
Amber Gold had promised customers high returns on investments in gold, but the firm folded in August 2012.
According to criminal records, 19,000 customers were swindled out of a combined sum of PLN 851 million (EUR 200 million) at the time.
Wassermann told the PAP news agency that her commission would question Tusk in the final stages of its work, following hearings of Amber Gold employees, law enforcers and tax officials.
Tusk was the prime minister of Poland from 2007 until 2014, when he resigned to become president of the European Council, a key European Union leadership position.
(str/pk)
Source: PAPDeclassified CIA files show that in 1955, an informant boasted about meeting with Adolf Hitler in Colombia, and provided pictures of himself with the Fuhrer - over 10 years after the Fuhrer's suicide.
Declassified files show that in 1955, the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division (WHD) chief received a secret memo, boasting a subject line that no doubt caused him to jump up from his chair, and spew any liquid in his mouth across the room — "Operational: Adolf Hitler."
As the shocking title implies, the acting station chief in Venezuela claimed to have received a once in a lifetime tip from one of his contacts — a decade after his apparent death by suicide in the Fuhrerbunker, Hitler was in fact very much alive, and living in Argentina.
Hitler Oder Nicht?
In brief, one of the action station chief's informants, CIMELODY, was contacted by a trusted friend, former SS trooper Phillip Citroen, who claimed to have been in touch with Hitler — masquerading under the pseudonym Adolph Schuttlemayer — about once a month in Colombia, while there on a trip from Maracaibo as an employee of the Royal Dutch Shipping Company.
Citroen indicated to CIMELODY he had even taken a picture with the fallen Fuhrer, and a grainy snap is indeed included with the memo.
© AP Photo / German Chancellor Adolf Hitler during his address to 80,000 workers in the Lustgarten, Berlin, May 1, 1936, s part of the May Day Celebrations.
He also stated Hitler left Colombia for Argentina in around January 1955, and added that as ten years had passed since the end of World War II, the Allies could no longer prosecute Hitler as a criminal of war, suggesting erroneously the statute of limitations on war crimes are rather brief.
The message concluded that neither CIMELODY nor the CIA station itself was in a position to give an intelligent evaluation of the information included in the memo, but it was being forwarded "as of possible interest."
The no doubt flabbergasted WHD chief followed up on the memo by reviewing the agency's files, and found a year prior, there was indeed a report not only making the same claim regarding Hitler not being dead, but also suggesting there was a whole colony of Nazis in South America — again made by Citroen.
"Phillip Citroen told a former member of this base that while he was working for a railroad company in Colombia, he met an individual who strongly resembled and claimed to be Adolf Hitler. Citroen claimed to have met the indivdual at a place called 'Residencias Coloniales' in Tunja, Colombia, which is, according to the source, overly populated with former Nazis, following this alleged Adolf Hitler with an idolatry of the Nazi past, addressing him as 'der Fuhrer' and affording him the Nazi salute and storm-trooper adulation!" the memo said.
More Trouble Than It's Worth
A few days later, the station chief wrote to the WHD chief again, asking if they wished to make further investigations into the potentially still-extant Hitler or not.
"If Headquarters desires, Bogota Station can make inquiry concerning 'Adolph Schuttlemayer' in Tonga, Colombia," the memo said.
A week later, the WHD chief responded ambivalently.
© AP Photo / Adolf Hitler, left, Nazi chancellor of Germany, and Konstantin von Neurath, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, (right center) as they returned to Munich, Germany, from their meeting with Premier Benito Mussolini of Italy, June 25, 1934.
While he had no objections to undertaking further investigations into the matter, he felt "enormous efforts could be expended on this matter" without the possibility of establishing anything concrete.
As a result, he suggested the matter be dropped.Though Chain of Command, the forthcoming 8-part documentary series on National Geographic, isn’t slated to premiere until January, EW can exclusively reveal some news that will keep fans excited until then: Captain America himself, Chris Evans, will narrate the entire series.
Chain of Command plans to offer an intimate look at the war against violent extremism and the men and women devoting their lives to it.
Above, check out an exclusive clip from the series that not only previews the intensity that will radiate throughout all eight episodes, but showcases Evans in the narrator role as well. The two-and-a-half minute clip also depicts some of the roles of the different ranking officers in the chain of command.
Besides the sheer wow factor of landing a superhero like Evans as the narrator, he seems like a great fit for the gig. In addition to his recurring appearances as Captain America, he has also been a strong advocate for servicemen and servicewomen, serving as a spokesperson for Got Your Six — a nonprofit that works to empower veterans and their families — and participating in a United Service Organizations tour last year.
During the making of Chain of Command, the Pentagon gave National Geographic unprecedented access to people holding a wide range of duties. The documentary features a very rare sitdown with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph F. Dunford, but also focuses on the ground fight around the world against extremists (including being inside the room during drone strikes).
Chain of Command is set to premiere exclusively on Nat Geo in January 2018.Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. AP Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) unleashed on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ties to Wall Street during Saturday night's debate, prompting a quick counterpunch from the Democratic front-runner.
Sanders, asked what he thought of Clinton's Wall Street reforms, simply replied: "Not good enough!" "Let's not be naive about it. Why, over her political career, has Wall Street been a major — the major — campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton?" he continued. "Maybe they're dumb and they don't know what they're going to get, but I don't think so."
Sanders proceeded to make the case for why big banks should be broken up and the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment and commercial banks, should be reinstated. "Why do they make millions of dollars of campaign contributions? They expect to get something. Everybody knows that. Once again, I am running a campaign differently from any other candidate. We are relying on small campaign donors," he said. "That's who am I indebted to."
Clinton butted in.
"Wait a minute, he has basically used his answer to impugn my integrity. Let's be frank here," Clinton said. "No," Sanders interjected. "Wait a minute, Senator," Clinton shot back. "You know, not only do I have hundreds of thousands of donors, most of them small, and I'm very proud that for the first time, a majority of my donors are women."
Clinton then defended her record helping Wall Street "rebuild" after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "It's fine for you to say what you're going to say," she told Sanders. "But I looked very carefully at your proposal. Reinstating Glass-Steagall is a part of what very well could help. But it is nowhere near enough. My proposal is tougher, more effective, and more comprehensive because I go after all of Wall Street, not just the big banks."Surrey Easter egg hunters form human arrow to guide police to suspected burglars
Updated
An Easter egg hunt took an unusual turn after a group of around 30 adults and children suspended their quest for chocolate to help police find a pair of suspected thieves.
Members of the group formed a giant human arrow in the middle of a ploughed field in Capel, in south-east England, during the egg hunt on March 25, guiding the police helicopter in the direction of where the men were hiding.
The helicopter crew quickly relayed this information to officers on the ground and a short time later two men were arrested, Surrey Police said.
But, it was the story itself which drew close scrutiny after Surrey Police posted the story on their Facebook page on April 1.
Some Facebook users were suspicious, with Tracey N Poppy Harmer commenting on the post asking if it was "another April Fool".
"No. This actually happened," Surrey Police said in reply to the comment on Saturday.
"We were torn whether to wait until tomorrow to release it [because of the April Fool issue] but it was such a good story we needed to share it."
The clarification did not seem to stem the disbelief, however, with Surrey Police later sharing another post verifying the story's legitimacy.
"We seem to have spent most of the day reassuring people that the "human arrow" story is real (it is!)," they wrote.
The helicopter crew landed nearby after the hunt to thank the children and were treated with a few chocolate treats from the group, which "was an added bonus after a busy shift".
"'I'm sure the last thing the group of daring Capel residents expected when they set out on Friday afternoon was to abandon their Easter egg hunt to assist us in a police search but the initiative they demonstrated proved to be invaluable," NPAS Sergeant Paul Sochon said in the statement.
"The swift action taken by the group of parents and their children was the sort of thing you would usually associate with an Enid Blyton adventure but their ingenuity proved a great help for our crews."
The helicopter had been called by Surrey Police following a report of intruders at a disused building off Horsham Road in Capel, according to the statement.
The two men were arrested on suspicion of burglary following the incident.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, community-and-society, england
First postedImage copyright Reuters Image caption The internet has been down in several parts of Iraq
Iraqis have been turning to an app which allows group messages to be sent between phones, without the need for an internet connection, in an effort to circumnavigate government restrictions.
About 40,000 users downloaded Firechat last week, compared with 6,600 over the previous few months, the company says.
The internet has been blocked in some Iraqi provinces, as authorities seek to prevent militants from communicating.
Access to social media sites has also been severely restricted.
Firechat allows users to take part in group chats with between two and 10,000 people, without the need for an internet connection.
Using a technology known as "mesh networking", messages can be sent to people within the immediate vicinity, as long as they too have the app installed. However, discussions are not private, and can be seen by anyone in the area.
The software is available for both Android and iOS devices, and has a range of roughly 70m (230ft). However, if enough people use the app, messages can travel over far greater distances, hopping between intermediary devices in a chain-like effect.
The app was heavily used in Taiwan earlier this year, when protesting students intent on occupying the parliament were faced with the threat of internet restrictions and limited cell coverage.
Image caption A mesh network allows a single connection to the net to be shared between multiple devices, many of which can be removed without the network failing. The devices can still chat to each other even if the net connection is |
ach can hold out for another inning just fine.”
Hopper grunted approval. “What’d Joyce say?”
“She’s worried, Chief. Wants us to go look for him.”
“Tell her not to worry. He’s probably just waiting for a save situation. I’m going back to sleep. If Brach gets in trouble, call me back and I’ll come in.”
“Will do.”
The phone rang again five minutes later. Hopper had barely finished his cigarette.
“Hopper.”
“Sir, it’s Callahan. Donaldson hit a leadoff double and Brach intentionally walked Encarnación.”
Related MLB Playoff X Factors
“Jesus. And is there action in the pen?”
“Yes sir, but — and you’re not going to believe this — it’s Darren O’Day.”
Hopper bolted upright, jostling loose the residue that years of a pack-a-day smoking habit and a consistent five-cans-of-light-beer buzz had built up on the inside of his skull.
“OK, Callahan. I’ll be in in 10 minutes.”
Hopper tried to wave the stink of cigarettes and sweat off of himself as he half-jogged into the station.
“Chief!”
“I heard on the way in. Three inning-ending double plays in one game. Buck’s playing with fire here, Callahan. Call the surrounding towns and the state police, ask if anyone around has seen Zach Britton. He can’t have gone far.”
“Hopper, what’s happened to my closer?”
Hopper turned around and there she was: Joyce Byers, her comically large cardigan soaked with rain, an unlit cigarette perched between the fingers of her quivering right hand.
“Joyce, everything’s going to be fine. Buck’s probably just saving — ”
“ — Britton for a save situation? Come on, Hopper, you know Buck’s not that old-fashioned. He knows the season’s on the line!”
Hopper sighed. “Joyce, we can’t get any real search party together until morning anyway.”
“By morning it’ll be too late. Besides …”
“What?”
“It’s my phone.”
“Your phone? What the hell are you talking about, Joyce?”
“It’s been ringing unexpectedly. Making strange noises.”
Hopper leaned back on his desk. I wish I’d never gotten out of bed. “What kind of noises, Joyce?”
“It sounds like it’s coming from the Orioles’ dugout. It’s just been words like ‘Duensing’ and ‘Ubaldo.’”
Hopper’s blood ran cold. “Wait, someone from the Orioles’ dugout called and asked for Ubaldo?”
“I don’t know, Hopper. It’s just what it sounded like.”
Callahan ran back into the room. “Chief, it’s the bottom of the 10th and O’Day’s coming back out.”
“This is worse than I thought,” said Hopper. “OK, Callahan, keep working the phones. Joyce, come with me. We’re going to the ballpark.”
“What do you think we’re going to find at the ballpark, Hopper?”
“I really don’t know. But if this game stays tied long enough for Ubaldo Jiménez to come in, it won’t stay that way for long. He’s got nothing left, and against a team that hits as many violent dead-pull home runs as the Blue Jays, well … We’ll find Britton before it’s too late. We have to.”
Hopper slammed on the brakes outside Rogers Centre and leaped out of his truck.
“Joyce, stay behind me,” he said as he drew his revolver and checked the cylinder.
Hopper broke open the locked gate to the stadium’s back entrance and carefully paced through the deserted tunnel, Joyce a step behind him, until they reached the Orioles’ clubhouse.
“Can I see your badge?” asked the clubhouse security guard.
Hopper pointed to his police chief’s badge.
“No, I mean your credential. No admittance to the clubhouse without a pass for both of you.”
Hopper nodded. “Oh, I see. I’ve got my credential right here,” he said as he bashed the butt end of his pistol against the side of the guard’s head.
The inside of the clubhouse was completely deserted. Joyce rounded the corner to the trainer’s room.
“He’s not in there,” she said.
Hopper holstered his gun and placed his hands on his hips. “Well, if he’s not in there, he’s not hurt. And if he’s not hurt, then why the hell are they going to — ” Hopper looked at the clubhouse TV and saw an Orioles left-hander with a 5 on his jersey warming up to start the 11th inning.
“Hopper!” Joyce cried out. “That’s him! He’s OK!”
Then the pitcher turned around, showing the no. 50 on his back, not Britton’s 53.
Joyce gasped. “Oh my God, that’s Brian Duensing.”
Hopper placed his hand on the butt of his gun. “Come on. We’re running out of time.”
Hopper and Joyce reached the end of the tunnel to the Orioles’ dugout just as Duensing struck out Ezequiel Carrera and Showalter climbed the steps. Their hearts sank as Showalter tapped his right arm.
“Could be Bundy,” Hopper said, giving voice to the last strands of optimism in his heart.
It wasn’t Bundy. It was Ubaldo.
“Shit.”
Joyce and Hopper leaped out of the dugout at a dead run for the bullpen, crying out Britton’s name, but nobody on the field or in the stands even noticed they were there. Devon Travis roped a hard single to left, then Josh Donaldson hit another.
“Zach!” Joyce shouted as they opened the gate to the bullpen and ran inside. “Zach! Are you in here? Can you hear me?”
Hopper turned around, eyes darting to every corner of the bullpen in silent desperation. Nobody was even warming up as Encarnación strolled to the plate.
“Hopper! I’ve found him!”
Hopper spun on his heel to see Britton sitting silently on the bullpen bench, completely unable to hear Joyce as she shouted his name.
A sharp crack and a roar from the crowd got Hopper to turn around again, this time to face the field.
“Joyce,” he said, choking back tears. “Joyce, it’s too late.”
Encarnación raised his arms in triumph, and as a 2 changed to a 5 on the scoreboard, the stadium lights flickered.Our experience with UNIGINE Engine has proven that the work environment is convenient and the provided technical support is quick and of high quality. But most importantly, UNIGINE Engine allows us to get photorealistic image quality in real-time with excellent performance and scalability depending on the hardware resources. State-of-the-art real-time rendering technology found in UNIGINE Engine allows us to bring visual quality in our software complex to the top. Gregory Krasnozhenov, head of "Visualization" project at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Russia)
Over the time we have been using UNIGINE, we have been impressed with the regular feature updates and improvements to systems and visual quality. UNIGINE’s abilities to handle very large simulation environments make it a first class realtime simulation solution. Steve Brodie, CEO of Ai3D (Australia)
Amazing technology and people. So pleased to be working with. Murray Gamble, Director of Engineering at CogSim Technologies (Canada)
UNIGINE 2 offers the best cutting-edge visuals with incredible simulation features that exceeds all other simulation competitor products while being more affordable. Couple that with a team that is truly innovative and world-renowned for its technology and you get a product that will last the test of time. Here at UNISOL Technologies, all of our projects are focused on utilizing UNIGINE 2 as a core because we not only believe in pushing boundaries in various professional industries, but also believe in UNIGINE’s heritage, vision, and passion on delivering the best visual technologies the world has ever seen. Eric Liu, CEO of UNISOL Technologies (China)
Visualization in our project must be of the highest quality. We spent a lot of time choosing the 3D engine for this work [ISS spacewalk missions simulator], and in the end we found UNIGINE to be the most powerful graphics engine, so we decided to use this technology. Dmitriy Akhmerov, Lead EVA Engineer at Rocket and Space Corporation "Energia" (Russia)
The thing I have most appreciated when working with UNIGINE, is that it makes possible to develop any features our clients need and do it very fast. Bennet Holmes, Business Development Director of ACTISKU (France)
We have access to a lot of advanced 3D real-time technologies for our projects, but for all-new developments we have chosen UNIGINE Engine because of a comprehensive set of out-of-the-box capabilities, perfect quality and high performance. Tomasz Krosnowski, VP of Trinity Interactive (Poland)
We were using an open source real-time engine which lately did not develop fast enough to meet our expectations regarding a realistic look and usability. We could not find a way to solve the real programming issues, only forum questions did not help us.
We were looking for a real-time graphics engine with a realistic rendering and a fast and an easy-to-use editor at a reasonable pricing. We checked several engines and chose UNIGINE.
We are in a very early stage of the Project, but so far it seems to go in the right direction. The B2B model in our contract is a solid base to our company. We use a ticket system with the developers of UNIGINE and this is a well comprehensively way for both sides.
For us the visual quality that can be achieved in a short period of time via SSRTGI technology became a killing feature. Many thanks for good support, well-documented SDK and a fair license model.
We would recommend UNIGINE. Ralf Preininger, Co-owner, EngineRaum GmbH (Germany)Hybrid Cloud ambitions
Hybrid Cloud computing popularity is growing at enormous pace. Enterprises are reaping the benefits of hybrid cloud and all major cloud providers are aiming to deliver a unified, enterprise ready hybrid cloud experience to their customers. Microsoft is putting its money on Azure Stack, Amazon is focussing more and more on delivering enterprise ready hybrid cloud point solutions and VMware is looking to provide an ultimate architecture for Hybrid Cloud called Cross-Cloud Architecture.
VMware Cross-cloud Architecture
Cross-cloud Architecture is pitched as a ‘common operating environment across private and public clouds’. In VMware’s vision there should be no borders between cloud offerings. A workload should be simple to migrate between clouds, even when those clouds are running on different technology. In the private cloud space, VMware envisions a unified private cloud platform called Cloud Foundation. In the public cloud space Cross-Cloud Services aim to provide cloud consumers complete freedom and control. VMware has aptly rephrased it’s One Cloud, Any app, Any device into Any Cloud, Any app, Any device.
VMware Cloud Foundation
VMware has lots and lots of experience in the private cloud space with its renowned Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) approach. In the evolution of this approach VMware wants to standardise and integrate SDDCs into highly efficient building blocks that are easy and quick to deploy and manage. The VMware EVO family of products were the first ventures into this area and now VMware builds on that experience with VMware Cloud Foundation. Cloud Foundation is a fully functional SDDC building block: converging compute, storage, networking, the hypervisor and SDDC automation, management and provisioning into a single solution. Cloud Foundation can also be procured as a SaaS solution through a public cloud provider such as IBM. Cloud Foundation automatically provisions and manages the entire SDDC stack.
Cross-Cloud Services
VMware was relatively late to the public cloud IaaS game. It has proven difficult for VMware to successfully run vCloud Air as a Public Cloud offering. Going head to head against public cloud moguls Microsoft, Amazon and Google was a steep challenge to say at the least. With Cross-Cloud Services, VMware is approaching the ‘problem’ of being/staying relevant in the public cloud industry from a completely different angle. And a revolutionary angle it is!
Cross-Cloud Services are a collection of SaaS products aiming to provide workload visibility, security, and governance to public cloud applications. This means VMware is aiming for the cloud management layer in a very sophisticated way. You can now manage, govern, and secure applications running in large public clouds, including Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Cross-Cloud Services obviously also supports vSphere based data centers so a single sophisticated solution can be used to manage workloads across the private- and public cloud space. Cross-Cloud Services for example allow live migrations of Virtual Machines to and from Azure and AWS. How about that for a cloud exit strategy!
In conclusion: a unified hybrid cloud environment
So, in the ideal world Cloud Foundation is running in your private cloud environment (either on-premises or as a virtual private cloud at a public cloud provider) providing private cloud capabilities for workloads not suitable for the hyperscale mega cloud environments such as Azure or AWS and Cross-Cloud Services manages it all. VMware NSX provides network management across clouds and private data centers and cross-cloud network and security operations. Cloud management across clouds is provides through a single solution providing dashboards, policy based workload placement, service brokerage, discovery, billing and accounting and workload migration. A truly unified Hybrid Cloud environment!
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PocketEFF filed an amicus brief in an important case known as Du v. Cisco, where Chinese human rights activists have sued the US tech giant Cisco in Maryland federal court. The case alleges that Cisco knowingly customized, marketed, sold, and provided continued support and service for technologies used by the Chinese government to facilitate human rights abuses.
The case arises in part from the publication several years ago of a presentation in which Cisco confirms that the Golden Shield is helpful to the Chinese government to “Combat Falun Gong Evil Religion and Other Hostilities.” This shocking statement indicated not only that Cisco knew of the Chinese government’s strategy of repression of dissident groups, but that it was marketing and customizing its Golden Shield technologies to meet those goals. Shortly after this case was filed in August 2011, China detained the lead plaintiff, Du Daobin, and interrogated him about his involvement in the case. EFF called on Cisco to intervene to help protect the plaintiffs.
Over the past few years EFF has documented (here, here, here) the increasing use of sophisticated surveillance technologies from the U.S. and European companies to facilitate human rights abuses around the world. The Complaint in this case contains specific allegations that Cisco's Golden Shield technology was used to detect pseudonyms used by the plaintiffs and to track their publications on websites outside China.
Cisco is seeking to have the case dismissed at the outset. EFF’s brief, written with the assistance of our crack legal intern Colin Farlow, argues that, based upon the troubling facts asserted in the Complaint, the case should survive to discovery. First, EFF notes that the Complaint asserts sufficient activity by the American company, Cisco to survive as a case in the U.S. courts. Second, EFF points out that four key facts taken together would support a finding that Cisco aided and abetted or engaged in a conspiracy to violate international law. Specifically:
1) Marketing: The Complaint offers detailed allegations regarding the marketing, sale and support of the product for the facilitation of human rights violations by China against political dissidents. Most dramatically is the marketing presentation that asserts that the Golden Shield technology can help the Chinese government to “combat ‘Falun Gong’ evil religion and other hostilities.”
2) Customization: The Complaint alleges that Cisco customized its technologies for the purpose of facilitating human rights violations by China against dissidents,
3) Specific Knowledge: The Complaint highlights China’s well-documented practice of engaging in gross human rights violations against democracy activists, including Plaintiffs, and Cisco’s specific knowledge of China’s use of the technologies for those purposes,.
4) Ongoing Support: The Complaint offers detailed factual allegations confirming Defendants’ ongoing relationship with the Chinese government and ongoing support of the customized products.
The brief carefully notes that EFF does not believe that international human rights liability should attach simply for a company making a general purpose or dual purpose technology available to the public. What Cisco allegedly did here much more. Additionally, the brief notes that international human rights law is also limited in ways that will generally prevent growth of liability beyond sales to governmental entities and involvement with gross human rights violations.
EFF has long cautioned companies against becoming "repression's little helper," and have outlined "Know Your Customer" standards that can help companies avoid participating in human rights abuses. The allegations here are deeply troubling and should be sufficient to allow this case to proceed so that, ultimately, a court can make a complete factual determination of just how deeply Cisco has been involved in the human rights abuses committed against political dissidents in China.Former Commander of the International Security Assistance Force Gen. David Petraeus, center, who is now director of the CIA, tours the grounds of the U.S.-run Parwan detention facility near Bagram north of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sept. 27, 2010. (David Guttenfelder/AP)
The United States has for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, a bold effort to quell violence but one that U.S. officials acknowledge poses substantial risks.
As the United States has unsuccessfully pursued a peace deal with the Taliban, the “strategic release” program has quietly served as a live diplomatic channel, allowing American officials to use prisoners as bargaining chips in restive provinces where military power has reached its limits.
But the releases are an inherent gamble: The freed detainees are often notorious fighters who would not be released under the traditional legal system for military prisoners in Afghanistan. They must promise to give up violence — and U.S. officials warn them that if they are caught attacking American troops, they will be detained once again.
There are no absolute guarantees, however, and officials would not say whether those who have been released under the program have later returned to attack U.S. and Afghan forces once again.
“Everyone agrees they are guilty of what they have done and should remain in detention. Everyone agrees that these are bad guys. But the benefits outweigh the risks,” said one U.S. official who, like others, discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the program.
The releases have come amid broader efforts to end the decade-long war through negotiation, which is a central feature of the Obama administration’s strategy for leaving Afghanistan. Those efforts, however, have yielded little to no progress in recent years. In part, they have been stymied by the unwillingness of the United States to release five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay — a gesture that insurgent leaders have said they see as a precondition for peace talks.
Unlike at Guantanamo, releasing prisoners from the Parwan detention center, the only American military prison in Afghanistan, does not require congressional approval and can be done clandestinely. And although official negotiations with top insurgent leaders are seen by many as an endgame for the war, which has claimed nearly 2,000 U.S. lives, the strategic release program has a less ambitious goal: to quell violence in concentrated areas where NATO is unable to ensure security, particularly as troops continue to withdraw. The releases are intended to produce tactical gains but are not considered part of a grand bargain with the Taliban.
U.S. officials would not say how many detainees have been released under the program, though they said such cases are relatively rare. The program has existed for several years, but officials would not confirm exactly when it was established.
The process begins with conversations between U.S. military officials and insurgent commanders or local elders, who promise that violence will decrease in their district — or that militants will cease fighting altogether — if certain insurgents are released from Parwan. The value of the tradeoff and the sincerity of the guarantee are then weighed by senior military officials in Kabul, officials said.
“The Afghans have come to us with information that might strengthen the reconciliation process,” U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker said. “Many times we do act on it.”
The insurgents released through the secret program are the only detainees at Parwan who are able to circumvent the prison’s judicial review board. Their release is instead approved directly by the United States’ top commander and top military lawyer in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said. One official described the process as being “outside of our normal protocol.”
As opposed to the formal NATO-sponsored reintegration program, which forces militants to sever ties with the insurgency, the strategic release program does not require detainees to formally disavow their relationship to the Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami or other insurgent groups. In some cases, detainees are expected to maintain those connections and use them to further peace-building efforts between the Americans and the insurgents.
“We look at detainees who have influence over other insurgents — individuals whose release could have a calming effect in an entire area,” one U.S. official said. “In those cases, the benefits of release could outweigh the reasons for keeping him detained.”
When the insurgency appears to be gathering steam in certain provinces, for instance, prisoners have been released to alleviate mounting tension.
Some Afghans say they worry that although the program might be effective in quelling violence, it marginalizes their role in the country’s reconciliation process. Afghans often provide intelligence that leads to strategic releases, but Americans ultimately make the decision to release detainees. And in some cases, insurgent commanders attempt to broker deals directly with American officials, excluding the Afghan security forces from the process.
“We tried to get the [insurgent] commanders to work with the Afghan National Army, but they weren’t interested,” said a U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan who worked on a strategic release this year.
One recent case involved a commander with Hezb-i-Islami who was described by Lt. Col. John Woodward, formerly the top U.S. commander in northern Wardak province, as “operationally and tactically a significant player.”
In the Nerkh Valley, a violent swath of Wardak, Woodward had decided that “given our resources, there’s no way we could fight both the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami.”
Although the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami are both insurgent groups, they have different leadership structures and operate independently.
Through local politicians and elders, the American officer began negotiating with Hezb-i-Islami commanders, who for years had been firing at American troops. Those talks progressed, and weeks later, the insurgent group was providing useful intelligence on the whereabouts of Taliban fighters. Before long, the U.S. troops and Hezb-i-Islami fighters were conducting joint operations, traveling in the same vehicles and sleeping on the same bases, Woodward said.
But amid that progress, the insurgent commanders came to Woodward with a request. They wanted a relative — the man considered a “significant player” — to be released from Parwan. Woodward began contacting his superiors about the strategic release program.
Researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.Signs of Pyrolagnia
Symptoms of Pyrolagnia
The list of medical symptoms mentioned in various sources for Pyrolagnia may include:
Sexual interest in watching fire
Recurring intense sexual urges involving watching fire
Sexual arousal from watching fire
more symptoms...»
More Symptoms of Pyrolagnia
Note that Pyrolagnia symptoms usually refers to various medical symptoms known to a patient, but the phrase Pyrolagnia signs may often refer to those signs that are only noticable by a doctor.
More Symptoms of Pyrolagnia:
More detailed symptom information may be found on the symptoms of Pyrolagnia article. In addition to the above medical information, to get a full picture of the possible signs or symptoms of this condition and also possibly the signs and symptoms of its related medical conditions, it may be necessary to examine symptoms that may be caused by:
Complications of Pyrolagnia
Hidden causes of Pyrolagnia
Associated conditions for Pyrolagnia
Risk factors for Pyrolagnia
Related symptoms
Medical articles on signs and symptoms:
These general reference articles may be related to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:
What are the signs of Pyrolagnia?
The phrase "signs of Pyrolagnia" should, strictly speaking, refer only to those signs and symptoms of Pyrolagnia that are not readily apparent to the patient. The word "symptoms of Pyrolagnia" is the more general meaning; see symptoms of Pyrolagnia.
The signs and symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Pyrolagnia. This medical information about signs and symptoms for Pyrolagnia has been gathered from various sources, may not be fully accurate, and may not be the full list of Pyrolagnia signs or Pyrolagnia symptoms. Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Pyrolagnia may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they are indeed Pyrolagnia symptoms.Finally Come The Calls In Major Media To Rethink Canada's 'Notice And Notice' Copyright System
from the yes-and-yes dept
To be fair to our neighbors to the north, Canada really tried. Amidst calls to implement something like the "notice and takedown" system for copyright infringement claims that we have in the States, Canada instead did what Canada does and tried to implement a nicer version of this, called "notice and notice." The idea was that ISPs and service providers, rather than simply taking down content or banning people from the internet over copyright violations, would instead notify users that their behavior had been reported as infringing. More specifically, it allowed copyright holders to pass along these messages, with ISPs acting as the go-between. The theory was that when internet users -- or in many cases family members of those internet users, such as parents -- learned that potentially infringing activity was occurring, the notifications would cause the behavior to cease.
As our own Karl Bode noted in 2014, this theory was backed by the ISPs, who claimed these notices helped curb a majority of piracy. We also noted in that post that the "notice and notice" system appeared to be preferable to our "notice and takedown" system because it appeared to be a less likely avenue for abuse by copyright holders and trolls. Sadly, that was immediately disproven by Rightscorp, with abuse of the system continuing up to the present. When eighty-year-old women are getting settlement shakedown threats from copyright trolls over video games, the aims of educating the public have clearly been subverted.
And it seems some in the mainstream press are finally waking up to it. The CBC published a post detailing that shakedown story along with a few others, before openly wondering whether this system is working as intended.
The so-called "notice-and-notice" system came into effect at the start of 2015. It requires internet service providers to forward copyright infringement notices to customers suspected of downloading unauthorized content such as movies, TV shows and video games. Internet providers must forward the notices because the accusers can't, on their own, determine the identities of the people they're targeting.The notice system was supposed to educate abusers and discourage piracy. But that's not the main message many Canadians are getting. CBC News asked the federal government what it's doing to address concerns about settlement fee demands. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada explained that the notice regime is up for review in late 2017. Spokesman Hans Palmer said the review will allow it to "take stock and consider whether desired policy objectives are being met."
That's going to be an awfully hard circle for Palmer's agency to square, I think, given how often these stories of threat letters are made public. And you can certainly believe that the actual number of these types of shakedowns that occur is a multiple of those that get reported. Laudable though the goals of this Canadian system may have been, in practice it has clearly become just another opportunity for abuse.
Filed Under: canada, copyright, copyright trolling, extortion, notice & notice, shakedowns, takedownsSALT LAKE CITY -- In the heart of Utah's most urban setting you'll find something quite unexpected. It's a bit of experiment that is literally taking off.
There's often a steady migration to the fifth floor of the Salt Lake City Library -- of both children and bees.
"It's cool," says Nicolas Moore.
Up on the roof, not far from huge air conditioning units, is a rooftop garden and a pair of beehives -- new this summer.
"The great thing is that we have these hives placed just inches away from two large windows on the fifth floor of the library, so people can really get up close to the bees -- just a few inches away, really -- and see their activity," says library Beth Elder.
The kids are mesmerized.
"They pollinate trees, flowers and plants, and that's pretty cool," Nicholas says.
Adults become quite mesmerized as well, like Salt Lake City Council Chairman J.T. Martin, who has seen the benefits of bees in his own backyard.
Conditions for Residential Beekeeping: Beekeeper must register with the Utah Dept. of Agriculture
Hives must be in side or rear yard
Bees permitted:common Honeybee (Apis mellifera) at any stage of its life, exluding the African Honeybee (Apis mellifera scutellata) and any hybrids
Hives must have removeable frames
Hives must be five (5) feet from property line
Bees must have easy access to water on owner's property
Hives must be placed so that general flight patterns avoid contact with humans and domestic animals
Hive must be maintained according to Utah Bee Inspection Act -Salt Lake City
"Now that I have beehives in my yard, you wouldn't believe the pears hanging off this tree. I mean, it is just full of pears," Martin says.
He encouraged the city to lift a restriction on backyard bees, and the library to add bees to its educational offerings.
"I just said, ‘You know, we've gotta get this situation fixed," Martin says.
The councilman also enlisted a beekeeper friend, Frank Whitby, to manage the tens of thousands of bees.
"The bees are thriving on the roof of the library," Whitby says. "They're hoarding honey, which is their natural instinct."
The resurrection of beekeeping could serve a very important purpose: to help save honeybees around the country and around the world.
Bee populations -- vital to pollination of food crops -- are declining, plagued by a variety of maladies like colony collapse disorder, which is caused by assorted environmental stresses.
"I feel that urban beekeepers and backyard beekeepers can do a great service to the world by acting as a reservoir of healthy bees," Whitby says.
The library's beekeeper says stinging is not a major problem unless the hive is disturbed and becomes agitated. Just in case, the hive is kept in an area that can only be accessed by library staff.
E-mail: [email protected]
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Related StoriesWhitehead Institute researchers have created a map of the DNA loops that comprise the three dimensional (3D) structure of the human genome and regulate gene expression in human embryonic stem (ES) cells and adult cells. The location of genes and regulatory elements within this chromosomal framework could help scientists better navigate their genomic research, establishing relationships between mutations and disease development.
"This is transformational," says Whitehead Member Richard Young. "This map allows us to predict how genes are regulated in normal cells, and how they are misregulated in disease, with far greater accuracy than before."
In order to regulate gene expression, a regulatory element needs to contact its target gene. Through looping, element/gene partners that are distant from each other in linear DNA can be brought together. Most disease mutations occur in regulatory elements, but if the partnership between a seemingly far-flung gene and the regulatory element is not known, the mutation data is of limited use. This draft map, which can help scientists predict the relationships between mutated elements and their target genes, is described online in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
"When thinking about disease, we need to think about the structure of the genome in 3D space because that is how we now understand that genes are regulated," says Xiong Ji, a postdoctoral researcher in the Young lab and a co-author of the Cell Stem Cell paper.
One of Ji's co-authors, graduate student Daniel Dadon, agrees. "This three-dimensional information helps us to interpret regulatory and mutational data with unprecedented accuracy. It's not just a bag of genes and regulatory elements in the nucleus -- this is a highly organized structure that confers function."
Previous research in mouse ES cells by Young's lab and others determined that a chromosome's DNA is formed into loops that are anchored at their bases by proteins called CTCFs. The benefits of the loops are two-fold. First, the loops help organize and package two meters of DNA to fit into a nucleus that is approximately 5 micrometers in diameter. Second, each loop creates an insulated neighborhood that restricts the action of a regulatory element to genes that resides in the same loop. As graduate student and co-author Diego Borges-Rivera states, "The genome's 3D shape is a key mechanism underlying gene regulation."
By studying human ES cells, scientists in the Young lab and the lab of Whitehead Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch created an initial genome map consisting of 13,000 loops established by CTCF anchors and determined that the average insulated neighborhood is 200 kb in length and contains a single gene. The team found that most of the the mapped CTCF anchor sites in the human ES cells genome are maintained in other human cell types and furthermore, that these loop anchor sequences are highly conserved in primate genomes. Such a surprising degree of conservation indicates that these neighborhoods create a foundational framework for gene regulation that is maintained throughout development and across species.
In a further finding that underscores the importance of the genome's 3D structure in human health, the Whitehead team found that the CTCF anchor regions are mutated in a broad spectrum of cancer cells. The team predicts that these new maps of the human genome will provide the foundation for improved understanding of the genetic alterations that cause many additional diseases."Going back down to the minors is the toughest thing to handle in baseball." Source: Me and the Spitter (Gaylord Perry)
"Greaseball, greaseball, greaseball, that's all I throw him ( Rod Carew ), and he still hits them. He's the only player in baseball who consistently hits my grease. He sees the ball so well, I guess he can pick out the dry side." Source: Newsweek (July 11, 1977)
"I'd always have it (grease( in at least two places, in case the umpires would ask me to wipe one off. I never wanted to be caught out there with anything though, it wouldn't be professional." Source: Me and the Spitter (Gaylord Perry)
"I reckon I tried everything on the old apple, but salt and pepper and chocolate sauce topping."
"I've got a kid six years old. He likes sports, but I definitely won't let him pitch. There would be too many things against him." Source: Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (March 10, 1974)
"Primarily, every rule change over the past ten years has been against the pitchers - lowering the mound and the designated hitter."
"The league will be a little drier (his retirement as it relates to his greaseball) now folks."
"The trouble with baseball is that it is not played the year round." Source: Christian Science Monitor (September 9, 1978)Set in 2003-2004, Conor McBride is willing to go to great lengths for his family. He was a concert violinist when he found out just how badly his older brother Thomas screwed him over. He’s since fled the country, leaving Conor to pay the government back the large debt. He also moved back to the family farm in Ireland to help his ailing mom (Brigid McBride) out. Then a mysterious man shows up offering him knowledge of where his brother is in exchange for service. Pretty soon, Conor is wrapped up in a world of deceit, drugs, corruption, and guns. And magnificent Indian food.
This was a gripping novel! Conor and his brother Thomas have some serious history between them. Conor feels that his life was ruined when he was saddled with his brother’s enormous debt, having to return from London to the family farm on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland that he never had any interest in. Years have passed and Conor grows comfortable on the farm, even though it’s a far cry from his concert violinist life. Then Frank Murdoch from MI6 shows up offering information on the whereabouts of Thomas but it’s not free. The British Intelligence Service wants something from Conor and that involves 10 hard weeks of spy camp and several long months working in some of the roughest parts of India. I was surprised when Brigid sends Conor off with her blessing, saying that Thomas needs him.
There’s very little about the spy camp. Our hero goes from fiddling cow milker to trained deadly spy in several paragraphs, tho there are a few references to his time there later in the story. Conor brought some of his own skills to table from the beginning, like his intelligence, linguistic skills, and athletic build. With that, he surpassed his instructor’s expectations. Yet he isn’t ready for everything he comes across in the field. There are some tough scenes for this fledgling spy and despite the dirty business he’s in, he never loses his humanity. He’s this wonderful mix of competence, steel nerves, and soft heart.
Most of the book takes place in India, in and around Mumbai. I definitely felt that the author had done her research. She brought the beauty and the grunge. It was a very believable setting complete with child slavery, tasty food, generous hospitality, illegal arms sales, gentle religious rites, and drug use.
There’s several female characters in this spy novel which isn’t the usual for this genre. So that was a breath of fresh air. Yet the ladies were pretty much there to comfort the men. They each have some personality and some role in the story that is more than window dressing and yet none of them ever really touch the central plot. Conor’s world of spies is a man’s world. I would have liked a bit more from the ladies. However, this little weakness of the story didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the novel. Kavita was the most prominent lady in that she provided medical care and comfort of a motherly sort to Conor when he really needed it. I really liked her calm and patience and yet she could also be insistent when needed. Radha is a 13 year old heroin addict and dancer at a pleasure house. Conor’s undercover persona brings him to this seedy side of town where he meets Radha and he wishes he could do something to permanently help her situation. They’re relationship, as fleeting as it is, pulled the emotions out of me.
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war.
Some will come from the Zaatari refugee camp, which the ministers visited earlier Sunday. They were briefed by the camp manager and aid organizations on the challenges at hand, including ensuring adequate water supplies and food for the camp's 80,000 residents.
Philpott said she was struck by the scope of the issue.
"While obviously we're all thinking about 25,000 who will come to Canada, we need to remember there are more than a million refugees living here in the country," she said.
She'll have a personal reminder to take back -- both Philpott and Sajjan purchased paintings created by children at the camp.
The one Philpott chose was painted by a 13-year-old boy named Hamza and depicts a woman trudging up a set of stairs, with a yellow sun setting against a blood red sky.
On her back, a burden in the shape of Syria.
Philpott asked Hamza whom the woman represented, and he said no one in particular, just all women.
"Because women do carry countries on their backs," Philipott said.
Many of the refugees Canada will resettle will be women, some alone, some heads of families.
The ministers observed several families being processed through the system Sunday, telling them through translators that Canada is excited to welcome them but didn't have time to speak with them in depth.
One surprise confronting Canadians is that the families being referred by the UN are larger than expected. Rather than four or five people, it's often eight or nine.
McCallum said he viewed that as a positive.
"I think given Canada's aging population, not only are the children sweet-looking but they're very good for Canada more generally speaking," he said.
Since Nov. 4, 153 Syrian refugees have come and another 928 have been issued visas, according to the government.Adele Stan transcribes some remarks I made yesterday about communicating progressive economic ideas; as always, it’s distressing to see how disjointed my actual speech is, but I think I do get a point across.
I’d like to say a bit more about the use of vivid language in economic discourse. Partly I use striking and sarcastic metaphors to break through the complacency of officials. But I also, more broadly, have an Orwellian purpose — as in George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, which everyone should read.
There are many fine things in that Orwell essay, but the section that has influenced me most is the one in which he takes a famous passage from the King James Bible and renders it in official-speak. The original:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
The rewritten version is
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
As Orwell said, the original isn’t just pithier and punchier; it contains vivid metaphors that convey the sense far better than just laying out the argument. Similarly, in reverse, rather than refer to
an economic view that has unfortunately retained considerable influence, possibly because it has a political appeal to some parties, despite extensive empirical evidence that appears to refute the proposition
why not just refer to it as a “zombie idea”? It’s not just shorter, it conveys the sense of what is happening much better — and it places the idea in question in the context of other zombie ideas.
Now, of course, some people get offended when you refer to their ideas as zombies. But if you’re worried about giving offense, you should be an official spokesperson, not an independent commentator.Voice chat is something that PC gamers often take for granted. Most games ship with some flavor of built-in voice chat, and almost every MMO guild sets up their own server for in-game voice. Dolby wants something more, however; the company is looking to take voice chat out of the bullet-list selling points and make it a more integral part of the game. With its upcoming Axon 3D Voice Technology, your voice is intended to become part of the game.
Dolby has just confirmed that the technology will ship with Jumpgate Evolution, an online space title that impressed us at GDC, as well as Mission Against Terror, an online FPS title. Ars spoke with Matt Tullis, Senior Manager of Marketing, Games Segment at Dolby Laboratories, to talk about the technology, and he explains why we should care about yet another voice chat program.
Tullis told us that Axon was designed to be integrated into the game itself, not simply to sit on top of it and offer communication. "When your teammate moves behind you and asks for cover, you will now be able to hear their voice from behind you," he explained to Ars.
The technology will also take advantage of the game's inner workings to add levels of immersion to voice chat. "Dolby Axon can include game geometry so that players will cut off when they go behind walls," Tullis said. "Best of all, game developers will now be able to use voice in exciting new ways: spy microphones, the ability to hear through walls, throwing your voice, and more."
In other words, the technology uses sound as an object, something that exists within the game. Tullis also promised that the technology won't come at a high price to your gaming rig. "Since we've built Dolby Axon specifically for games, we've kept these things in mind," he told Ars. "A full surround sound scene can be delivered in 16kbps. The CPU hit on a modern CPU (dual core) is less than 1 percent. The CPU hit on an 866MHz P3 is still well less than 10 percent." Mid-level system owners take heart, you'll be able to take advantage of the technology.
The technology can be added to any game, although the earlier it's implemented in the development process, the more features can be added to the gameplay. Tullis also wants to assure us that every microphone and headset combination will work fine with games using Axon, although surround sound systems will give you some advantage, for the obvious reasons.
Imagine playing Jumpgate and flying behind an asteroid, with the huge mass of rock causing communications to jump in and out. Electrical interference could cause actual interference, giving the game's settings actual tactical advantages and disadvantages.
The only problem is that you can counteract these effects by simply using Ventrillo or TeamSpeak, although that shouldn't be an issue on anything other than Player vs. Player areas. Penny Arcade recently weighed in on how group chat on Xbox Live hurt certain games—Chromehounds and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow in particular—that used sound as part of the game design. Simpy put, you can't force others to use it, which makes its inclusion in competitive environments somewhat futile.
For those of us who are lame and prefer to role-play our online gaming, however, this sounds very cool. The ability to flow in a group, knowing where people are by the sound of their voice in your surround sound system, with items in space interfering with voice chat, should add much to the game experience.
"We've really tried to incorporate a lot of Dolby's audio expertise in the product," Tullis said. "We've added dialog leveling so that you won't constantly have to adjust your volume between players with quiet microphones and players with loud microphones. We've built in noise and echo reduction. We even created a special codec for Dolby Axon to deliver high quality audio at low bitrates." You'll be able to hear all that work when Jumpgate Evolution ships on PCs.
Release date: when it's done.Sarah Hanson-Young says Greens-led motion, which gained cross-party support, was in response to the ‘Abbott government’s hysterical attack on the Human Rights Commission’
The Senate has passed a motion expressing confidence in Gillian Triggs and the Human Rights Commission after the motion gained cross-party support.
The Greens-led motion had the backing of Labor, the Palmer United party and independent senator Jacqui Lambie.
Children in detention exposed to danger, Human Rights Commission finds Read more
It makes four points:
Commends the commission and its president Triggs for delivering the Forgotten Children report
Acknowledges that allegations of abuse outlined in the report have been referred to police
Respects the independence of the commission
Expresses support and confidence in the commission and Triggs
“Many Australians have been appalled by the Abbott government’s hysterical attack on the Human Rights Commission and now the Senate has taken a stand,” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“The Forgotten Children report raised serious issues about the abuse and sexual assault of children in Australian-run detention centres. It’s time to end the political punch-up and focus on protecting the children who are locked up in Australia and on Nauru.”
“We can only tackle the issue of abuse in detention by working together, across party lines,” Hanson-Young said.
Triggs has come under immense pressure following the report, which is scathing on the effect that mandatory detention has on asylum seeker children.
The government has rejected the report as partisan and unbalanced, grilling Triggs during a recent Senate estimates committee.
Triggs said that attorney general George Brandis requested through an official that she resign, in what Labor calls a “very serious allegation”.jQuery 2.0 Beta 3 Released
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We’re coming down the home stretch for the release of jQuery 2.0! Today sees the release of Beta 3.
To paraphrase Dirty Harry: I know what you’re thinking. “Is Beta 3 gonna break my code?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement we may have lost track of things and introduced some bugs. So being as this is jQuery, the most powerful JavaScript library in the world, and could blow your web site clean off the Internets, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya?
We don’t want to accidentally blow your site off the Internets; don’t count on being lucky. That means we really need your help in finding and fixing any bugs that may be hiding in the nooks and crannies of jQuery 2.0. We want to get all the problems ironed out before this version ships, and the only way to do that is to find out whether it runs with your code.
You can get this latest beta from the jQuery CDN: http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.0.0-beta3.js
You can also use the jQuery Migrate plugin with jQuery 2.0 to restore deprecated features from those older versions and/or diagnose compatibility issues. We strongly recommend that you do use Migrate for older code, it will save a lot of time and trouble in debugging.
Staying in Sync
Remember that jQuery 2.0 will not run on IE 6, 7, or 8. You must run Internet Explorer 9 or 10 in their “modern” mode and not use the X-UA-Compatible feature, for example, to force IE10 into IE7 mode.
The jQuery team will continue to support both the jQuery 1.x and 2.x lines simultaneously for as long as those older versions of IE are still a factor. The currently released version of jQuery 1.x, which is 1.9.1, has the same API as jQuery 2.0. We are planning a 1.10 update to the 1.x line in a few months that will address any minor differences in the two versions. At that point we will still keep the two lines in sync: 1.10 and 2.0, 1.11 and 2.1, etc.
If you’d like to try jQuery 2.0 on web sites where you still need to support IE 6, 7, and 8, you can use conditional comments. All browsers except old IE will get the second script and ignore the first:
<!--[if lt IE 9]> <script src="jquery-1.9.1.js"></script> <![endif]--> <!--[if gte IE 9]><!--> <script src="jquery-2.0.0b3.js"></script> <!--<![endif]-->
Remember, however, that jQuery 1.x continues to work on all the browsers that jQuery supports.
What’s New
Here are the major changes since Beta 2:
Node.js compatibility. If the jquery.js file is included in Node via require(), it will export the jQuery object.
Windows 8 Store App compatibility. Some feature detects that were only needed for IE 6/7/8 were removed to prevent a security exception in Windows Store apps.
More bug fixes. This beta includes fixes to bugs reported since jQuery 2.0 beta 2 and jQuery 1.9.1 were shipped. The complete list is below.
Remove jQuery.support.boxModel. Nobody should be using this property since it has been deprecated since jQuery 1.3 and jQuery itself has never supported Quirks mode.
Further nips and tucks to the code. Fixing bugs often adds more bytes, but we’ve been able to actually reduce the size of the full minified/gzipped build by a couple of dozen bytes.
The wrap methods can now be excluded in a custom build. If you (and the plugins you use) aren’t calling any of the wrap methods like.wrapAll() or.unwrap(), you can leave them out of your custom build.
Custom builds under 10k bytes! If you’re able to exclude all the optional modules, you’ll be rewarded with a custom build that’s only 9,226 bytes when minified and gzipped. See the beta 2 blog post for more information on how to do custom builds.
The full list of commits is available on GitHub and the closed bug tickets are below. Many thanks to Rick Waldron, Michal Golebiowski, Li Xudong, Timmy Willison, Nguyen Phuc Lam, Steven Benner, Tom Fuertes, Richard Gibson, Scott González, and Oleg Gaidarenko for their efforts on this beta.
Ajax
Build
Core
Css
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Effects
Event
Manipulation
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Support
TraversingThe United Nations cultural agency, has appointed musician Kudsi Ergüner, as an Artist for Peace in recognition of his efforts to promote the universal values of music, his contribution to the protection of musical heritage support for the International Decade of the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013-2022), and his unwavering commitment to the ideals of the Organization.
Paying tribute to Mr. Ergüner, Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said: “Your life and work have been guided by a profound passion to bring the past to life, to share the wisdom and beauty of traditions, to pass their messages of peace and dialogue to current and future generations, to share the depth of Mevlevi Sufi music, building on Persian and Turkish traditions, mixing this with poetry, literature and living arts across the region.”
The appointment ceremony was held yesterday at the Congress Center in the Turkish capital, Istanbul, following the opening ceremony of the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee.
“I’m an artist but also a man of action and I hope to share my actions in the framework of UNESCO alongside other Artists for Peace,” said Mr. Ergüner.
Born in Turkey in 1952, Mr. Ergüner is a musician, player of the ney (reed flute), composer, musicologist, teacher, author and translator. Trained by his father, Ulvi Ergüner, the last great master of the flute, he has given concerts all over the world and has collaborated with artists, such as Peter Gabriel, Maurice Béjart, Peter Brook and Didier Lockwood.
UNESCO Artists for Peace are internationally renowned personalities who use their influence and prestige to promote the agency’s programs. UNESCO is working with them to increase public awareness regarding key development issues and the role of the Organization in these areas.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
UPDATE: The Greensboro City Council has approved an ordinance to reinstate a downtown curfew for teenagers. Read more.
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A massive fight in downtown Greensboro Saturday night has some city leaders taking a hard look at bringing back the teen curfew.
Nearly 400 people were involved in the several fights that happened along Elm Street.
Greensboro police arrested 11 people ranging in age from 16 to 20-years-old. Officers had to use pepper spray and a stun gun to try to get the crowd under control. Greensboro Police Department had to call UNCG Police and Guilford County for extra help.
Some officers minor injuries following the fights. As soon as one fight stopped another started.
The security cameras outside of Syn and Sky nightclub caught many of the brawls. The footage shows two groups of teens walking toward each other on Elm Street and several people running away into the streets.
Mike Carter is the owner of Syn and Sky and thinks it's about time to reenact the 11 p.m. curfew that was enforced in 2011.
"It makes no sense for teenagers to be out roaming around on a Friday or Saturday night, or any night for that matter," Carter said.
Several teens said they understand the reasoning behind the curfew, but they're still upset they have to deal with the consequences even when they've been following the rules.
"First of all just stop for all you juvenile delinquents. Just stop. Really, it's not really worth it. You're ruining it for us," said Christopher Hicks, a high school junior.
Greensboro police and city leaders are discussing extra patrols for the holiday weekend.Multiple sclerosis can be inhibited or reversed using a novel gene therapy technique that stops the disease’s immune response in mouse models, University of Florida Health researchers have found.
By combining a brain-protein gene and an existing medication, the researchers were able to prevent the mouse version of multiple sclerosis. Likewise, the treatments produced near-complete remission in the animal models. The findings, which researchers said have significant potential for treating multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders, are published today (Sept. 21) in the journal Molecular Therapy.
Multiple sclerosis affects about 2.3 million people worldwide and is the most common neurological disease in young adults. The incurable disorder starts when the immune system attacks the myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibers, making them misfire and leading to problems with muscle weakness, vision, speech and muscle coordination.
The researchers used a harmless virus, known as an adeno-associated virus, to deliver a gene responsible for a brain protein into the livers of the mouse models. The virus sparked production of so-called regulatory T cells, which suppress the immune system attack that defines multiple sclerosis. The gene was targeted to the liver because it has the ability to induce immune tolerance.
“Using a clinically tested gene therapy platform, we are able to induce very specific regulatory cells that target the self-reactive cells that are responsible for causing multiple sclerosis,” said Brad E. Hoffman, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the departments of pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Florida College of Medicine.
The protein, myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, was found to be effective in preventing and reversing muscular dystrophy on its own. A group of five mouse models that received the gene therapy did not develop experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, which is the mouse equivalent of multiple sclerosis in humans. In another experiment, all but one mouse model showed a significant reversal of the disease eight days after a single gene therapy treatment.
Hoffman said he was also encouraged by the treatment’s longevity. After seven months, the mouse models that were treated with gene therapy showed no signs of disease, compared with a group of untreated mouse models that had neurological problems after 14 days.
When the protein was combined with rapamycin — a drug used to coat heart stents and prevent organ transplant rejection — its effectiveness was further improved, the researchers found. The drug was chosen because it allows helpful regulatory T-cells to proliferate while blocking undesirable effector T-cells, Hoffman said.
Among the mouse models that were given rapamycin and the gene therapy, 71 percent and 80 percent went into near-complete remission after having hind-limb paralysis. That, Hoffman said, shows the combination can be especially effective at stopping rapidly progressing paralysis.
While researchers have established how gene therapy stimulates regulatory T cells in the liver, Hoffman said little else is known about the detailed mechanics of how that process works.
Before the therapy can be tested in humans during a clinical trial, further research involving other preclinical models will be needed, Hoffman said. Researchers also need to target the full suite of proteins that are implicated in multiple sclerosis, he added.
Still, Hoffman said he is extremely optimistic that the gene therapy can be effective in humans.
“If we can provide long-term remission for people and a long-term quality of life, that is a very promising outcome,” he said.
The research was funded by grants from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Institutes of Health and the Children’s Miracle Network.Courtesy Matthew Mansell (AP)
This article is one in a series showcasing the families who are plaintiffs in the marriage equality cases that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28. Read more here.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Johno Espejo and Matthew Mansell moved from the San Francisco Bay area to Franklin, Tennessee, in 2012 for Mansell’s job as a conflicts analyst for an international law firm. Their neighbors were friendly, Mansell says, but the family couldn’t go out in public without being stared at.
Mansell is white. Espejo is Filipino. Their two adopted children are Thai and African-American. Mansell’s mother also lived with them.
He recalls taking the family out to eat at a Nashville restaurant and seeing a little boy walk by their table, twice, “with his mouth hanging open.”
They’ve since moved back to California and are living in Orange County. But they remain part of a group of Supreme Court cases seeking recognition of same-sex marriage in Tennessee and three other states.
The couple met at San Francisco’s Embarcadero YMCA in 1995. “It would have been nice to say we met at the Museum of Modern Art discussing Picasso, but we didn’t,” Mansell said.
Article continues below
They were married in 2008 at San Francisco City Hall while Mansell was on a lunch break. They already had adopted their children, a son now 8 and a daughter who’s 6. Espejo is a stay-at-home father.
Their lawsuit will be part of history, Espejo said.
“It’s kind of odd to think this ended up being in a case that our children may learn about in seventh and eighth grade,” he said. “It’s weird to think we’ll have our name associated with this when we’re just a married couple, going about our lives.”
© 2015, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This Story Filed UnderThe occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon appears to be coming to an end after more than a month. These are the key people involved. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)
For the latest updates on this story, head here.
BURNS, Ore. — The armed occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge had dwindled by Thursday after officials arrested nearly a dozen people involved over the previous two days and the group’s leader, who was among the people arrested, again called on the few remaining occupants to go home without using force.
On Thursday evening, the FBI released graphic video footage of the fatal shooting of one of the occupiers earlier this week, seeking to tamp down speculation regarding what happened when LaVoy Finicum, a spokesman for the group, was killed two days earlier.
[See excerpts of video and full text of FBI statement here]
Authorities had not released any information about the shooting, saying only that one person was killed while others were arrested, and speculation has swirled online about what happened.
Video footage released by authorities, captured by an FBI plane flying overhead, appeared to show Finicum reaching toward his jacket before Oregon State Police troopers shot and killed him.
“On at least two occasions, Finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket,” Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland division, said at a news conference. “He did have a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in that pocket.”
Editor's note: This video contains graphic content and has been edited for brevity. The FBI released aerial footage from Jan. 26 of the fatal shooting of LaVoy Finicum. (FBI)
Bretzing said that Finicum said something to authorities before he was shot, but he did not say what that was. The shooting is being investigated by local authorities.
The news conference came as the occupation stretched into Thursday night with four people at the refuge and roadblocks still closing off the facility, officials said.
Authorities this week have also revealed details about what they observed in this area in the weeks leading up to and since the siege began, including reports of threats and intimidation before the takeover and, in one case, concerns about whether the armed group would try to move from the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge into a more populated area.
Three more people were arrested Wednesday, making a total of 11 arrests related to the ongoing refuge takeover. Others have also left the facility without being arrested, authorities say.
[In Oregon siege, troubling signs of a movement on the offensive]
The group’s leader, Ammon Bundy, had called on those few still remaining at the refuge to give up the occupation.
“Turn yourselves in and do not use physical force,” Bundy, who was arrested Tuesday, said in a statement, his second such appeal since his arrest Tuesday.
He urged supporters to know that “the world is listening,” and said he plans to “use the criminal discovery process to obtain information and government records.” Bundy also disputed the suggestion that he and the others at the refuge were “armed occupiers,” instead saying that his group had been visiting residents in the region, “educating people and getting them to move towards freedom.”
Bundy has previously called for the people at the refuge to leave and asked that they be allowed to leave without being prosecuted. He and four other people involved in the occupation, including his brother, Ryan, were arrested Tuesday afternoon following gunfire that erupted when the protesters were stopped on a highway outside the refuge.
Another person, later identified as Finicum, was killed after refusing to surrender during that encounter. On Thursday, before video footage of the shooting was released, Bundy said there were lingering questions about what had happened.
“We only had guns for our protection and never once pointed them at another individual or had any desire to do so,” Bundy said in his statement Thursday. “The people have a right to bear arms for their own protection. We never wanted bloodshed.”
Bundy had said that he was “anxiously waiting to review this video,” adding, “Questions must be answered.”
On a road outside the refuge Thursday, a small group of reporters remained gathered on the shoulder next to a roadblock, but there was little activity and few vehicles were seen coming or going. In the afternoon, law enforcement vehicles were seen speeding toward the refuge.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday morning that it had established no-fly zones in the area, one over the wildlife refuge and another over a nearby airport. While there had been no visible law enforcement presence for miles around the refuge during the nearly month-long occupation, an FBI affidavit signed Tuesday and filed in federal court outlined how authorities monitored the situation through information readily provided by the group.
Since the wildlife refuge takeover on Jan. 2, “the occupiers have continually posted to various social media accounts and conducted interviews with news media,” the affidavit stated.
In addition to watching this continuous stream, federal agents also spoke with residents and law enforcement officials in the area. At one point, concerns were raised about whether the occupiers would remain at the refuge, which was remote and empty when the group arrived.
The day the occupation of the wildlife refuge began, the affidavit stated, an agent with the Bureau of Land Management said he was told by a county sheriff’s officer that the group in control of the refuge “had explosives, night vision goggles, and weapons and that if they didn’t get the fight they wanted out there they would bring the fight to town.”
The affidavit also states that problems began well before the takeover. A woman wearing a Bureau of Land Management shirt told agents that two people — one of whom was arrested Tuesday — confronted her at a grocery store. The people shouted at her and threatened to burn her house down, she said.
[‘I take care of beans, bullets, boots and blankets’: These are the arrested Oregon occupiers]
The arrests Tuesday and Wednesday, along with the blockade around the facility, marked a sharp shift in the simmering standoff in southeastern Oregon, coming nearly a month after the armed protesters headed to the refuge and said they were acting to support two local ranchers sentenced to prison over arson charges. The confrontation has drawn new attention to long-standing frustrations with federal management of land in the West, where the government is the main landlord across much of the region.
These arrests were “the first steps to bring this occupation to a conclusion,” Bretzing, the FBI agent, said this week. Speaking at a news conference, Bretzing said anyone who wanted to leave could do so, but they had to go through a checkpoint where they would be identified.
The FBI put the blame for the roadside violence squarely on the occupiers.
“They had ample opportunity to leave the refuge peacefully,” Bretzing said. “And as the FBI and our partners have clearly demonstrated, actions are not without consequences.”
Law enforcement personnel block an access road to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday. (Thomas Boyd/Oregonian via AP)
On Wednesday, Bundy and the six others arrested in Oregon made their first court appearance before Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman. They all pleaded not guilty and were ordered to remain held, with another hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon.
After arresting eight people in Oregon and Arizona on Tuesday, the FBI and Oregon State Police moved to isolate those remaining at the refuge. In recent weeks, the refuge had curious onlookers freely come and go for self-guided tours.
[FBI seals off Oregon refuge; leaders called on remaining occupiers to leave]
By Wednesday, officials had set up checkpoints on the roads leading in and out of the refuge, saying they would arrest anyone who tried to go in and calling on those still inside to travel through the checkpoints and leave.
Before these checkpoints were set up early Wednesday morning, though, “several vehicles are known to have left the area,” the FBI said in a statement. Eight people ultimately left the refuge on Wednesday; three were arrested by the FBI on Wednesday afternoon and early evening and the others released.
The three people arrested on Wednesday were Duane Leo Ehmer, 45, of Irrigon, Ore.; Dylan Wade Anderson, 34, of Provo, Utah; and Jason S. Patrick, 43, of Bonaire, Ga.
The FBI said that all of them had been in contact with federal agents and turned themselves in at checkpoints outside the refuge without any incident. Like the eight people arrested a day earlier, they face felony counts of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging official duties through the use of force, intimidation or threats.
The FBI, in a statement Wednesday night, said that it continues to work with other agencies “to empty the refuge of the armed occupiers in the safest way possible.”
Some local residents have cheered what appears to be the beginning of the occupation’s end. Alesa Wyllie, who works as a teaching assistant for special-needs students, said she would normally go to a student’s home not far from the refuge for tutoring. But since the standoff began, she said her supervisors had told her not to go there.
“He needs me to get out there. This kid has not had services since Christmas because of this,” Wylie said Thursday morning. She added: “Some of these people have families and kids of their own. How would they feel if their kid’s needs were not being met?”
On Thursday morning, with the occupation shrinking, she finally went back to the student’s house and was allowed through after about half an hour.
The occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Burns, Ore., took a violent turn on Jan. 26, when a shooting unfolded during a traffic stop. One member of the armed group was killed and 11 have been arrested since, including leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
A live video feed from inside the refuge after the roadblocks were set up showed people who alternated between angry and defeated. One man pushed close to the camera and encouraged other Americans to join.
“Get here, get some,” he bellowed, clutching a gun in both hands. “This is history in the making. There are no laws in this United States now. This is a free-for-all Armageddon.”
But at another point, a man could be heard worrying about his finances and his family at home.
Late Wednesday afternoon, black SUVs and utility trucks carrying floodlights passed through the barricade and parked on a road near the refuge entrance. The lights cast a bright glow on the refuge entrance after the sun set over the sprawling preserve, an area previously noted for being a bird-watching destination.
Three cars and a camper van traveled out of the refuge Wednesday afternoon, but they did not stop at the area where reporters had gathered and disappeared down the road.
William Troy Stevenson traveled from Hermiston, Ore., about 250 miles away, to observe the scene with his son. He came with a long list of questions about who remained at the refuge and why they wanted to stay.
“Are they crazies?” he asked.
Stevenson said he crossed the first road closure on foot and encountered drawn guns when he arrived at another barricade down the road, one surrounded by law enforcement officers.
“They have automatic weapons there. And there’s a lot of them,” Stevenson said of what he saw. “They’re serious. They’ll kill you.”
Another man sitting outside, B.J. Soper, co-founder of the Pacific Patriots Network, an umbrella group for militias in the region, sat in his truck, the engine running and the cab filling with blasts of heat as the temperatures sank below freezing outside.
“I would think it’s over at this point,” said Soper, who came to pick up Patrick.
Soper said he had communicated with the protesters through a liaison and said that at one point, about 10 people remained at the refuge. He urged them to leave, too, but he was not sure they would do so.
“I think the others are going to fight,” he said.
Berman reported from Washington. Jerry Markon, Sarah Kaplan, Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.
Further reading:
What the occupiers said in the days before the authorities moved in
[This story has been updated.]In two short weeks, Ben Gottschalk played a ton of snaps at center and started Sunday at left guard — and he played well.
Now he’s done for the year.
Those were Gottschalk’s first NFL regular season snaps after two-plus seasons fighting for a shot in the league.
The Bucs announced he was placed on injured reserve today. Gottschalk went down on the field in the first half against the Chiefs.
Tampa Bay promoted Josh Allen from the practice squad. Allen had some rough moments on the field for the Bucs in past year, but he did have a solid preseason. Like Gottschalk, he can play guard or center.
The Bucs did some other roster shuffling, including releasing running back Russell Hansbrough from the practice squad, a sign Jacquizz Rodgers could be ready to roll against the Seahawks.TV Reviews All of our TV reviews in one convenient place.
Under ideal circumstances, Hannah would have been in Iowa for two years. Two years. 24 months. 104 weeks. 730 days. Whatever wordy number of minutes would be in the Rent conversion. It’s a long time to be without someone. “Sit-In” reframes the ramifications of Hannah’s decision to go to Iowa by forcing the audience to see it through the eyes of the people closest to her. “Iowa” did this too, especially with regard to Adam and Jessa, who were, by no accident, the two characters who bonded most in Hannah’s absence. But so much of that episode was filtered through Hannah’s perspective, when Adam and Jessa tried to express their abandonment, anxiety, and frustration, they came across passive-aggressive, insensitive, and unsupportive. “Sit-In” forces an alternate perspective, even while allowing plenty of space to feel sorry for Hannah during her emotional nadir.
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It should have been obvious how long of a stretch Hannah was committing to, given she was heading into an intensive graduate experience. But because Girls is so focused on Hannah, it’s been obvious to the audience from the outset her trip to Iowa wouldn’t be a long one, and the writers started laying the foundation for her departure only minutes after her arrival. During the entirety of Hannah’s short Iowa stay—it was a month, total—it’s been conceivable she might depart for Greenpoint pastures. At the very least, it’s been an unpleasant enough stay that if a close friend described the same circumstances and said they were considering leaving the program, you would probably encourage them to stay, but you’d fully understand if they withdrew and you’d probably view such a decision with some compassion. But that’s the advantage the audience has over the characters. Had Adam known how terrible things were going and how likely it seemed from day one that Hannah’s return was imminent, he might have kept a torch lit for her. He didn’t know that.
Viewed through that lens, Adam’s behavior in “Iowa” comes across differently than it did at the time. When Hannah kept pressing him to come up with a game plan for their relationship in her absence, his resistance read like a temper tantrum. In light of the two-year time frame, it’s reasonable of Adam to resist Hannah’s demand for reassurance. It really should be against the law to tell someone you’ll always love them, because who knows? But even two years of jogging in place is a really tall request. It’s understandable why Adam would react so coldly to that decision. To the person being left, it feels like, “You know good and damn well we might not be in the same place two years from now, and you’re leaving anyway, so the outcome must not mean that much to you after all.” That’s a bitter pill to swallow. Then Adam met Mimi-Rose—through Jessa, no less—and just like Hannah, he saw an opportunity that seemed promising and took it. It could have easily ended up the other way around, with Hannah taking solace in the arms of some emotionally shrewd writer-type while weird, aloof Adam galumphed around Brooklyn awaiting the guillotine.
The |
districts throughout the city.”
Image: Chicago’s first Wal-Mart, which turned out to be a net negative for the city’s economy and working people. Zol87 // CC BY-SA 2.0Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A Glasgow band are wading into the murky world of American politics with their latest single - but the message might be lost on some listeners across the pond.
Closet Organ, a four-piece from Kirkintilloch, describe their music as ‘obtuse grunge p*sh’ - but their latest subject is front and centre in the news just now.
The video for Make America Great Again includes a man in an orange Trump mask decked out in bunting and dancing in front of an upside down US flag.
It’s accompanied by lyrics like: “We’ll shut the border to make it harder to take our wasteland, protect from Islam”, and “three cheers for freedom, freedom from nothing”.
It’s safe to say Closet Organ (a.k.a Stephen McLeod Blythe, Keith Grantham, Haigie and Lee Jones) aren’t Trump fans, but not everyone seems to get it - in fact, Trump's supporters have been sharing the video.
Commenting on Facebook page Punk Rock Scotland, Stephen said: “My band have just released a video single inspired by the next president of the USA. Perhaps the most amusing part of the whole thing is that Trump supporters are sharing the URL without realising the irony … "
Have a listen to Make America Great Again - available for pre-order here - above and let us know what you think on Facebook and Twitter.By
This project inspired by Yahoo! Makers. I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Yahoo! and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.
Sure regular scissors work just as well. But glittered and washi’ed scissors are just better… and I don’t know about you…but they cut better for me too. {snicker}. I was inspired by the Glittered Scissors on Yahoo! Makers. I decided to try my hand at glitterfying my scissors since my next big project I am taking on is my home office.
For a full step-by-step tutorial check out Yahoo! Makers to see how they did it.
I took the easy way out with Krylon Glitter Blast spray but the way they did it on Yahoo Makers does allow for more accuracy.
I couldn’t leave well enough alone so I also added washi tape to the scissors shears.
Give them as a gift or keep them for yourself. Either way they are great way to bling up something ordinary. Giving something a little flare is my forte. Hello shiny sparkly scissors. Swoon!
For more glittery inspiration check out Yahoo! Makers for a portal of creative DIY projects!
Sign up for your FREE ebook here! Enter your email address and learn how I built a 6-figure business with no one watching. And you can too! Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.Lives of West Bank Palestinians to be eased
Even as the army was dealing with several security incidents in the West Bank over the weekend, the security establishment is preparing to significantly ease the conditions of life of West Bank Palestinians, Ynet reports.
Some of the measures have not been taken for more than 20 years, and they will be taken in an effort to preserve the relative calm of the last few months.
Among the measures is a permit for Palestinian doctors to enter Israeli territory with their cars. Effectively, the permit allows drivers who own a car with a white Palestinian license plate to travel freely anywhere in Israel. The security establishment is considering giving a similar permit to other professionals in Palestinian society but at present not to the entire population.
Owners of quarries in the West Bank were allowed, for the first time in years, to use dynamite for controlled explosions in their quarries. This can save the quarry owner months of digging work. The explosions will be conducted by Israeli contractors only.
Additionally, large Palestinian factories in the West Bank received permission to use dual-use fertilizers, which can also potentially be used in making explosive devices. Effectively this would allow the factories to increase their workload and hire more employees.
All Palestinians older than 55 (men) and 50 (women) will be allowed to enter Israel freely. This would allow more Palestinians to work in Israel and conduct trade in it. The age in which Palestinians are allowed to enter Israel for a limited time to look for work was lowered from 24 to 22.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Yemen's government has been fighting rebellious tribesmen, as well as an al-Qaeda insurgency
Yemeni tribesmen have blown up a major oil pipeline, officials say, disrupting supplies from the interior to the Ras Isa export terminal on the Red Sea.
The attack strikes at a key revenue stream for Yemen's government, which relies on oil exports to fund spending.
The pipeline, carrying some 100,000 barrels daily, was blown up in Habab district of Marib province.
Tribesmen in the area have used violent tactics and sabotage in a campaign for a bigger share of jobs and revenues.
Marib province has also seen attacks by militants allied to al-Qaeda.
The oil pipeline, Yemen's largest, was last attacked in May.
Yemen has remained unstable since an outbreak of anti-government protests in 2011, which forced the then-President, Ali Abdallah Saleh, from office.
Separately, Shia rebels from the Houthi tribe have reportedly agreed to withdraw from the city of Amran, which they had seized in a planned march on the capital, Sanaa.
The AFP news agency says that the rebels, known as Ansarullah, had struck a deal with the defence ministry that would allow an army unit to move into the city.Shove your hands
in your pockets and set out. In London in winter it’s nearly pitch at half past four. By six, you’re in the night city, and in backstreets you can be alone for a long time.Some chance conjunction of latitude and climate: in this city artificial light cuts darkness like nowhere else. There are no trees like these, streetlit up, fractal cutouts. When you were a kid you ran through this bluster and raindrops so tiny they were like dust falling in all directions, not just down, and missed it even while you were in it.There’s been a revolution in remembrance. Digital photography’s democratised the night-shoot. One touch at the end of a sleepy phone call on your way home, you can freeze the halo from streetlamps, the occluded moon, night buses, cocoons shaking through brick cuts, past all-night shops. Right there in your pocket, a lit-up memory of now.SAN FRANCISCO — Crunchy hearts of palm and giant shrimp stir-fried with holy basil and the perfect ration of red chiles. A green papaya salad, freshly shredded and mashed with an extra portion of tiny Thai limes.
There was a downside to living in Bangkok for a decade as a New York Times correspondent and being surrounded by great Thai dishes like those: It really raised the bar for when I moved back to America.
Last year, a few weeks after my family and I arrived in the United States for a new posting and a new life, we went to a Thai restaurant in Manhattan where my son, then 9, casually rattled off an order of one of his favorites, pad see ew gai — stir-fried rice noodles with chicken, garlic, leafy greens and a mixture of dark and light soy sauce.
The Thai waiter, having not encountered many American children who speak Thai, was charmed. He doted on my son, and after he had delivered the food made a standard Thai inquiry: Is it delicious?Kerry: US ground troops might deploy to Iraq if there are ‘very dramatic changes’
Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the U.S. Diplomacy Center at the Department of State on Wednesday, Sept, 3, 2014, in Washington, D.C.
BAGHDAD — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised the possibility Wednesday that U.S. troops might be committed to ground operations in Iraq in extreme circumstances, the first hedging by an administration official on President Barack Obama’s pledge that there will be no U.S. boots on the ground to battle the Islamic State.
Kerry made the comment during a news conference after a day of meeting with Iraqi officials, who he said hadn’t requested or shown any desire to have U.S. troops or forces from any nation in Iraq to confront the Islamic State, the extremist organization that’s now in control of more than a third of the country’s territory.
Kerry reiterated that Obama has said no U.S. combat troops would be deployed to fight the Islamic State in Iraq, before adding, “Unless, obviously, something very, very dramatic changes.”
That formulation hasn’t been used previously by administration officials in discussing the growing U.S. confrontation with the Islamic State, and it’s sure to feed concerns that the United States may be making a greater commitment to a new conflict in the Middle East than it first intended.
In announcing the authorization for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq in August, Obama said they’d be limited to preventing Islamic State attacks on the Yazidi religious minority and to stopping any Islamic State advance on the Kurdish capital of Irbil. Since then, the U.S. has provided close air support for Kurdish troops fighting to recapture the Mosul Dam, Iranian-trained Shiite Muslim militias breaking the Islamic State siege of Amerli and Sunni Muslim tribesmen battling to push Islamic State forces from towns near Haditha.
Kerry didn’t elaborate on what dramatic change might prompt the U.S. to commit ground forces, and it wasn’t clear whether his statement reflected administration policy. The White House declined to provide on-the-record reaction to the comment, but former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat who chaired the foreign affairs and intelligence committees when he was a member of the House, called it “a loophole a mile wide.”
Kerry said Iraqi leaders had promised him that they’d move swiftly to resolve the grievances of the Sunni and Kurdish communities, both of which are unhappy with the way the new Iraqi government was assembled.
Kerry praised the newly elected government, headed by veteran Shiite politician Haider al-Abadi, and said he’d received assurances that addressing the grievances of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and Kurds was a top priority of the government.
He said Obama had sent him on the unannounced visit “to underscore to the people of Iraq that we will stand by them in this effort … and overcome the threat they face today.”
In the meetings with al-Abadi, President Fouad Massoum, Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and parliamentary Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, Kerry said, he also discussed ways to reconstitute the Iraqi army, which collapsed in June under attack from Islamic extremists.
All, but al-Abadi in particular, were focused on creating a national guard in Iraq’s major regions, an institution favored especially by Kurds, who have the peshmerga militias, and Sunnis, who chafe at operations carried out by the Shiite-dominated national army.
Kerry said the national guards, who’d be integrated into the national security forces, would “protect the population of Iraqi cities and towns and deny space” to the Islamic State, which has introduced a brutal reign of terror where it’s conquered.
He said that all of Iraq’s new leaders had agreed on the importance of enhanced regional autonomy, resolving the issue of territories disputed between Kurds and Arabs, and resuming budgetary payments to the Kurdistan Regional Government, which former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had cut.
Kerry said he was very encouraged by his meetings. “I’ve been here many times and in many meetings, and never in any of those meetings seen the unanimity — without complaint — of a sense of direction and commitment to the concept of inclusivity, and of addressing the unaddressed issues of the past eight years or more,” a reference to the divisive rule of Maliki.
Kerry had arrived here as part of a hurriedly arranged Middle Eastern tour that coincided with Obama’s address to the nation Wednesday night on how he intends to combat the Islamic State insurgents.
Kerry then flew back to Jordan and was to travel Thursday to Saudi Arabia, where he’ll urge leaders of Arab nations to form a coalition to fight the Islamic State, which also controls more than a third of the territory in neighboring Syria. Kerry said nearly 40 countries had already committed to contributing military or humanitarian aid to Iraq.
Kerry also noted that the Saudis had invited Iraqi Foreign Minister al-Jaafari for one of the first such visits after years of bitter enmity between the Sunni royal family and al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government.
Kerry said he thought Iraq’s new government, sworn in Monday night, was a historic step forward and that Iraq’s leaders seem determined to keep the country together.
“Every single leader I talked with today in the strongest terms possible affirmed that they had learned the lessons of the past years” and were determined “to move in a different direction from the direction of years past,” he said.
Jonathan S. Landay in Washington contributed to this report.
©2014 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.Personal Growth
Perhaps the most important realization that an individual can make in their quest for personal growth is that there is no single formula that defines the path to personal success. We all have different goals and priorities, which means that different activities and attitudes will make us feel good about ourselves. We also have different natural strengths and weaknesses that are a part of our inherent personality type. How then, as individuals, can we feel successful in our lives?
Understand What's Important to You
Each personality type has a different idea of what it means to be successful. Self-knowledge is one common goal that will help everyone achieve personal success. So many people are hung up on somebody else's idea of what it means to be successful, and they are unaware of what is truly important to them. This is completely normal. We all have important role-models and influencers in our lives who may have basic values that are quite different from our own. If this is the case, it's important to recognize that the discrepancy between what we have been taught is truly important and what we personally believe to be truly important is due to a difference in perspective. If we spend our time and effort trying to meet somebody else's idea of success, and ignore or belittle any conflicting messages from our own psyche, then we will find ourselves exhausted and unhappy. Realizing what is truly important to us is a major step towards achieving personal success.
Recognize Your Weaknesses Without Hiding Behind Them
While improving our self-knowledge and realizing our true goals can be very liberating, we should not discard the rules of the society in which we live. We must recognize that other people's value systems are no less important than our own. And we must recognize and accept that we live in a society in which certain personality types and behaviors are more suited towards particular tasks. This is the second key that will open the door towards personal growth.
For example, there are situations in which it is more appropriate and effective to show compassion and caring (Feeling), rather than impersonal logic (Thinking). Likewise, there are situations that call for using impersonal logic to make a decision, in which the more subjective viewpoint of the Feeling function is inappropriate and ineffective. Persons with a preference for Feeling will have a natural advantage over Thinkers in situations that require compassion and awareness of other's emotions. Conversely, persons with a preference for Thinking will have a natural advantage over Feelers in situations that require the ability to make a decision based on impersonal data.
As we learn about our personality type and the types of others, we are empowered with an understanding of why people react differently in different situations. When put into the context of Psychological Type, we can better accept and understand people's behaviors that are different from ours. These insights are extremely useful and powerful to us as individuals. However, if we are concerned with growing as individuals, we must take care not to use personality type as an excuse for our inappropriate behavior. While it's powerful and useful to notice that another person's inappropriate behavior may be due to their personality type, we cannot use the same reasoning on ourselves. We should recognize that our personality type has weaknesses, but we must use that knowledge to conquer those weaknesses rather than to excuse poor behavior. We cannot be responsible for other people's behavior, but we can control our own.
Accordingly, if we notice that someone seems to be unable to make an impersonal decision that is isolated from human perspective, we should say to ourselves, "Ah ha, here is a Feeler. This person does not use Thinking well, and that is why they're behaving this way." Yet when we as Feelers are presented with a situation that requires an impersonal approach, we should NOT say to ourselves "I am a Feeler, and can't be expected to make decisions based purely on impersonal facts and logic." This kind of rationalization for behavior is certainly an easy way out of a situation, but it enforces the weakness, making it weaker and weaker still.
Strive for Balance
Most of the weaknesses associated with any given personality type are a result of that type's dominant function overtaking the personality to the extent that the other functions become slaves to the dominant function. Although it is natural for every personality to be ruled by its dominant function, it becomes a problem when the supporting functions are not allowed to develop fully on their own because they are too busy "serving the master". In such cases, a personality can become quite imbalanced.
A situation in which the dominant function of a personality completely overshadows the other personality functions is analogous to a kingdom that is ruled by an overbearing king who requires absolute servitude. Imagine such a king sitting down to dinner in his castle. He keeps all of his servants running about to bring him dinner, and requires that they serve him fully (disregarding their own needs) until he is completed sated. His Foreign Minister, who is expected at an important affair at a neighboring kingdom, finds himself pouring ale. His Minister of Domestic Affairs, rather than addressing the issue of a failing economy, slices roast turkey. His staff grabs food for themselves here and there, but never get what they really need or want, and are consequently unsatisfied, malnourished, and underdeveloped. The issues that the staff should be taking care of are left undone, because they never finish their primary task of serving the king. The king's immediate needs are being met, and so he is tolerably happy, but he is an ineffective king. As far as he knows, everything and everybody exists simply to serve him. He has no concept of Success beyond his daily needs. Since he cannot see beyond his own needs, the entire kingdom suffers.
Likewise, a personality that has developed with a goal of serving the dominant function above all other considerations often results in a person who is imbalanced. In severe cases, the weaknesses associated with the given type are often quite apparent to others, and overshadow the individual's natural strengths. Such a drastic imbalance is not common, and may be the result of continuous and extreme stress. Most people will experience times in their lives during which they are stressed to the point of serious imbalance. People who experience this constantly have issues that need to be dealt with, and should seek help.
Much more commonly, we see individuals who exhibit both the strengths and weaknesses of their type. It is natural and healthy that each personality type is ruled by a dominant function, and that the other functions support the ruling function. We don't seek to change anyone's natural self, or to achieve a perfect balance amongst a personality's functions. By definition, a kingdom needs a king in order to exist, and a personality needs a dominant function. However, a kingdom with a well-developed and effective king (the dominant function), who has well-trained and educated advisors (the supporting functions), will thrive more than the kingdom ruled by a neglectful king who is supported by inexperienced advisors.
As we can see, Balance and Success are relative terms. They have different meaning for each of the sixteen personality types. One statement using these terms is true for all types: Balance is the key to Success.
Opening the Door
So how do we go about realizing what's truly important to us? How do we recognize our weaknesses, and learn not to hide behind them? How do we become balanced? How do we open that magical door that will show us the way to personal growth and success?
There is no quickie scheme that will make you a successful person. Psychological Type is a powerful aid in our quest for excellence, but it is not the actual solution. It is a model that will help you to expand your understanding of human nature. An improved understanding of yourself and others will help you to find, follow or expand your path. An awareness and acceptance of the fact that one personality function may be more effective than another function in a given situation will help you to understand the relevance of personal growth to your life.
Carl Jung identified a process of personal growth that he called individuation, which is essentially the conscious realization of your true self, beyond the Ego that is presented by your conscious self. Our efforts to help people develop themselves is essentially the effort to help them to realize that their personal perspectives and conscious ideas are only a small part of who they are, and that the more they try to develop and defend this superficial "self", the further they get away from their true Self. This realization helps a psyche in many concrete ways, and is also a positive step towards promoting a psyche that is open to the process of individuation. For the purposes of making this realization accessible to the general public, our writings are mostly void of complex theoretical discussion.
To learn more about personal growth for your specific personality type, click on the appropriate link below.
Personal Growth and the Sixteen Types
ISTJ - The Duty Fulfillers ESTJ - The Guardians ISFJ - The Nurturers ESFJ - The Caregivers ISTP - The Mechanics ESTP - The Doers ESFP - The Performers ISFP - The Artists ENTJ - The Executives INTJ - The Scientists ENTP - The Visionaries INTP - The Thinkers ENFJ - The Givers INFJ - The Protectors ENFP - The Inspirers INFP - The Idealists
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Copyright 1998-2015 BSM Consulting, Inc. Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyThe Planets in Egyptian Imagery Unlike Mesopotamian religion, which gave precedence to the Moon, the use of a solar calendar meant the Sun-god largely dominated Egyptian religious doctrine. The Sun was viewed as the principal force of the universe the divine creator of all things, the master of time and of the seasons. One Egyptian pharaoh, Akhenaten, who reigned around 1300 BC, even dispensed with gods in human form and regarded the actual solar disc, Aten, as the one true living god. His 'Hymn to the Aten' describes a deity whose power permeates all aspects of life, thus effectively superceding the traditional Egyptian pantheon of gods. Exclusive worship of Aten lost popularity after his death, but the cult of the Sun always remained an important royal and state cult.
Worship of the Sun took place in various forms and under many names: Ra, Aten, Ra-Horakhty and Amon-Ra being most common. Usually, the Sun was considered a just and benevolent god, but his destructive power was also recognised and he was regarded as an enemy to farmers because of his power to parch the land. The orthodox Sun-god was Amon-Ra, originally known as Ammon, Amon, or Amen, and later identified with the Greek Zeus. Amon-Ra was a fertility god who was associated with and symbolised by Rams. It is of note that the Ram influence surfaced around the period of the Great Year, the Age of Aries. The temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak includes an impressive avenue of Rams and Rams were held sacred to him, inviolate except once a year, when they were offered in sacrifice.
The earliest settlers of the Nile river valley worshipped the falcon deity Horus as the god of the sky and in the Book of the Dead the Sun is depicted as the right eye of Horus with the Moon represented as his left.[11] The Sun was also symbolised by the mythical Bennu bird (or Phoenix as it was known to the Greeks), which dies in its own fire and rises from its ashes, symbolising death and resurrection.
The worship of the Sun and the sky god Horus overshadowed Egyptian celestial mythology so much that, apart from the Moon, the five visible planets appear insignificant by comparison. Known as 'the stars that know no rest', they were portrayed as deities sailing across the sky in barks with the superior planets generally looked upon as manifestations of the sky god Horus. Mars was known as 'Horus the Red' or 'Horus of the Horizon' and usually depicted as a red flamingo. Jupiter, believed to be a revealer of secrets, was often symbolized by a falcon-headed god with a star over its head and known as 'Horus who illuminates the Two Lands' (a reference to its brilliance), 'Southern Star of the Sky' and 'He who opens Mystery'. Saturn, whose symbol was a square, was known as 'Horus, Bull of the Sky' and represented by the figure of a man or falcon with a bull's head. Little is known of his characteristics except that the use of the term 'bull' was frequently employed as a reference to strength and power.
In most astrological depictions, Venus and Mercury are shown standing apart from the superior planets. They were thought to have dual natures because they appeared only in the guise of morning or evening stars. Venus was known as 'god of the morning' or 'the star that crosses', which may be a reference to the fact that it is only observed around the east or west horizon. It was originally depicted with the head of a heron-type bird, later as a two headed falcon.
Mercury was attributed a distinctly malevolent character as an evening star and associated with Seth, the malicious son of Ra, who personified evil, darkness, thunder, storm and all things inexplicable. According to Neugebauer and Parker's study of astronomical references and drawings, the Egyptian name for Mercury in this form is Sbg, 'unknown', with references to the planet frequently accompanied by the name of Seth or a representation of him with a beak shaped nose and long ears. Some texts read "Seth in the evening twilight, a god in the morning twilight" and as a morning star its nature was much more beneficial, offering a closer resemblance to the characteristics we associate with Mercury today. In this form he was known as Sebek, 'the excellent one', depicted by a human headed figure and symbolised by a scroll.
The Moon, as Khonsu, was worshipped with great honour at Thebes in the form of a human headed child-god, the son of Amon and Mut. He was known as 'the Traveler' due to his rapid movement through the heavens, and frequently shown wearing the crescent of the Moon upon his head. The goddess Isis was also seen in the lunar image and one myth speaks of Isis being beheaded by Horus and lent the head of a cow by Thoth. Jane Sellers, in her book The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt,[12] has made a strong case in showing that the myths directly reflected celestial events, Isis here being seen in the Moon's eclipse by the Sun and returning in the appearance of the Moon's first horns.
The main lunar deity was Thoth, god of Wisdom and Learning, who embodied many of the principles currently attributed to Mercury. He is reported to have invented arithmetic, geometry, medicine and astronomy and was known as the god of Letters - the great Scribe and Secretary to the Gods. But whereas mercurial energy is nowadays considered to represent a mainly rational, intellectual capacity, in the form of Thoth - a revered magician, the one who had knowledge of the magical formulae needed by the dead to pass safely through the Underworld - we see how the essence of such knowledge was held to be far more profound and spiritual. Thoth was the personification of the Mind and Intelligence of the Creator. His influence over writing was an expression of his sacred powers since the ability to define concepts in words, both visually and through sound, was considered a supernatural gift. Words themselves, and the way they were constructed, were conceived as magical symbols, mirrors of the Divine Mind. Spoken with proper intonation and with the correct spiritual approach, they were the means to summon the gods, heal the sick and command obedience. Writing was a priestly study, held in awe by the uneducated - a magical, mystical art.[13]
When the classical culture invaded Egypt, they sought to capture the deep reverence afforded to Thoth and amalgamated his characteristics into their own god Hermes. Consequently Thoth is often referred to as the original author of the Hermetic texts, a legendary collection of magical works, said to contain all the mystical knowledge of the ancient world. The books were so sacred that only the highest order of priests were allowed to touch them and the last complete set is reputed to have been entombed in the grave of Alexander the Great. There have, however, been many alleged copies of the texts, which are frequently quoted by later authors and play a substantial role in medieval and renaissance works. Marsilio Ficino was an early translator; his work The Book of Life is drawn from Hermetic sources and is presently gaining increasing attention as a founding text for modern archetypal astrology. [14]
There are many fine representations of the zodiac in Egyptian temple reliefs but, although once thought to date back several millennia before the birth of Christ, recent dating techniques suggest they cannot be considered older than the 3rd century BC. One of the most spectacular is the ceiling relief from the temple of Hathor at Dendara. Roz Park, in her forthcoming book Astrology in Ancient Egypt, believes the mural depicts a celebration of the convergence of the sidereal and tropical zodiacs and the ingress of the vernal point into Pisces. The zodiacal constellations are easily recognisable and the planets are located in the signs of their exaltations, with the 36 decans clearly marked around the perimeter. Evidence shows that the concept of the zodiac is not native to Egypt because it is predated by the Mesopotamians by two centuries. What is clear, however, is that the zodiac contains much Egyptian imagery and mysticism which may have been imported into Mesopotamia at some earlier, unknown date, but which certainly continues to influence astrology as it is practiced today.
I am grateful to Roz Park for her feedback and help in preparing this article for publication.
Notes & References:
11] There are also references to the white and black eye of Horus, being the Sun and Moon respectively.
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12] Penguin Books, London, 1992.
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13] The Bible teems with examples: "In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" is one of many references to the ancient belief that symbols of the intellect were symbols of the Divine.
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14] Republished in 1980 by Spring publications, translated by Charles Boer.
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© Deborah Houlding, 1996; published online 2003
From Heritage of the Stars
For quotations please quote:
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/heritage/egyptians3.htmlTar and Feathers for AIG
Our Readers Who Comment want revenge on American International Group for paying bonuses to AIG executives. Their fury comes in response to Brady Dennis' report that the bailed-out insurance giant finally revealed where it sent the money.
Readers have detested bailouts from the time they was first mentioned back in the Bush Administration and their hostility has only grown as the economy continues to tank, taking with it jobs, housing values and retirement funds. They're not getting any help, so why should the bozos who wrote those insurance contracts be getting bonuses?
Readers suggest tar and feathers, severe tax audits or a 99 percent tax rate for bonus recipients and wonder why, if we can help these misguided insurance executives,we can't help the auto industry.
We'll start with ASKENNEDY, who wrote, "I believe this calls for the time honored tradition of tar and feathering."
TalkingHead1 asked, "So, again, why is it legal for the feds to give $160 billion of American taxpayers to AIG in bailouts, but illegal for them to take away $160 million bonus from AIG?"
TabLUnoLCSWfromUtah wrote, "...for a company to enter into a written agreement that represents a poor business decision raises serious questions about the integrity of those ruthless business people who can use the legal system to rip off both the company they "work for" and the rest of us. Somehow somebody needs to be responsible and lose in such "legally" questionable deals..."
hc2254 said, "What's the worst that could happen? Millions of millionaires lose their faux wealth? Millions of thousandaires have to work for their money rather than rely on that racetrack called the stock market? We have to burn this house down to save it."
profco wrote, "Retention bonuses to keep "top talent"? Where exactly do all these AIG executives think they are going to find jobs in the financial sector these days? Let them leave AIG bcause they don't get their bonuses--and find out what the real world is like."
pjc8300892 suggested that "Everyone who got a bonus should go under the IRS microscope to see how much of that bonus the tax payers can recover."
And laSerenissima2003 added "...Perhaps bonuses paid by companies receiving bailout funds should be taxed at a rate of 99%?"
Beprudent noted that many American millions "...flowed to the bank accounts of large international financial institutions that are the national champions of other nations" and wondered "Has any consideration been given by the Obama Administration to seeking, by moral suasion, contributions to help with the AIG bill?..."
lowercaselarry wrote, "Geithner and Summers are buffoons. Their pathetic attempts to justify AIG's actions deserve ridicule. There may be contractural obligations on the part of AIG, but there is certainly no obligation for the Treasury to pour money into AIG willy-nilly."
JoeSixPack1 asked, "...Can I trust this Administration in the White House? If the Obama folks truly believe what AIG is doing on the bonus payout is wrong, they should find a way stop them. Otherwise, the Obama is either incompetent or in bed with the crooks."
Keenobserver wrote, "...Many taxpayers have lost their jobs, retirement, and individual wealth from the actions of AIG. So far, AIG (the responsible party) doesn't think that their employees should lose their jobs or their bonuses. Think again!"
JulesJames said, "Honor every bonus contract. Then terminate any AIG employee who accepts the bonus..."
arjay1, noting that retaining quality employees is one of the reasons given for paying bonuses, wrote, "...If they are the same employees who were there in 2007 and 2008, what difference does it make whether they are retained or not? The[y] got their paychecks by selling insurance on something that didn't have related assets or actual value."
goodcake4u wrote, "There are thousands of American citizens who are going homeless right now while these rats are taking bonuses for destroying the economy. Something is not right and if it is not corrected perhaps we should help them correct it."
sjones77 offered the one comment I could find at this hour that seemed to defend AIG: "I don't understand the consternation with how AIG has been spending the bailout money (except for the millions in bonus payouts). It sounds like it used the money to pay off its bad debts. Isn't that exatly what it was supposed to do?"
But AverageJane asked, "Can anybody tell me why Wall Street gets 100s of billions in bailouts while the big 3 automakers have to go on bended knee for asstistance?..."
And woody2471 wrote, " 'We are a country of laws. There are contracts,' Summers said yesterday. 'The government cannot just abrogate contracts....'
Unless, of course, it is a contract with the United Auto Workers."
We'll close with swatkins1, who wrote, "Sounds like AIG wiped the bad assets from its books. So......When does my stock portfolio and my house value start to go back up?"
All comments on this article are here.Story highlights David Lee Simpson, 48, was arrested in New York; he will be taken to Arizona
He allegedly targeted the women because of their coverage of the Jodi Arias trial
A search of Simpson's car turned up guns, ammunition and handcuffs
A New York man accused of stalking and threatening to kill two nationally known TV anchorwomen has been arrested, authorities said Monday.
David Lee Simpson, 48, was arrested in Bath, New York. He has waived extradition and will be taken to the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona this week, according to a statement from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
He was indicted by a grand jury in Phoenix last week on charges of stalking and computer tampering, it said.
It was not immediately clear whether he had retained representation.
The statement did not identify the two TV personalities, who were allegedly targeted because of their coverage of the Jodi Arias trial.
When asked who they were, spokesman Joaquin Enriquez said: "The sheriff said he would not release the names per Turner."
CNN, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, is not commenting on the case.
Arias was convicted in May of first-degree murder for killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. A jury deadlocked on whether she should be sentenced to death.
Simpson purportedly made threats on Twitter before and after the trial.
He threatened to tie the anchorwomen to a "tree naked and leave them to suffer all night" and then "slit their throats," according to the Sheriff's Office statement.
He also allegedly threatened a Phoenix woman who defended the anchorwomen on Twitter.
"Threats against anyone have to be taken seriously," said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "Media personalities are frequent targets and because of their high visibility, they are particularly vulnerable. A few in the past have been stalked and murdered.
"The suspect was on his way south with enough weapons in his car to do serious harm to someone. Fortunately, we acted quickly and in so doing, were able to stop him before anything could transpire."
A search of Simpson's car turned up several guns, shotgun ammunition, handcuffs, zip-ties, binoculars, a knife and a police radio, the Sheriff's Office said.
A receipt to a recently purchased shotgun was also found but the shotgun itself was not. |
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, LaNoue has cut his six-day workweek from last semester to just Saturdays, where he works a “monster shift” of 14-16 hours. He has worked at Jimmy John’s on Marshall Street since August.
According to his Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch, LaNoue averages about 90 miles per shift. The most he’s biked in one day is 150 miles. The many hours and miles he’s biked high-mileage, along with his familiarity with Syracuse geography, has allowed LaNoue to form his own science of road navigation.
“It’s all about eye contact with the drivers,” he said. “It’s all about assuming the worst possible situations will happen.”
The worst has happened.
LaNoue said he has been “doored” before — this is when a car driver opens his or her car door only for LaNoue to crash into. He also suffered from a car accident in Michigan, when a driver went through a stop sign and hit him. Luckily, he didn’t break any bones.
LaNoue worked for Jimmy John’s in Ann Arbor for six months prior to moving to Syracuse. He said he enjoys that Jimmy John’s sanctions his bike deliveries.
However, it’s an investment. LaNoue estimates that each item of bike gear he sports, by his own “rule of thumb,” costs around $100. For instance, the bike messenger bag he wears to carry sandwiches was $130, which he had to pay for.
But in an effort to act sustainably, LaNoue doesn’t own a car, which justifies the investment for him. LaNoue said he makes about $300 per night.
Bill Parent, Jimmy John’s area manager in Syracuse, said LaNoue is clearly conscious about the self-made culture of the restaurant business. “It’s up to you what you make,” he said.
“He knows that the quicker he goes, the more money he’s going to make,” said Parent, who has been a Jimmy John’s employee since 2007.
Parent said there must be commitment upfront for bike delivery, and LaNoue has a real passion for it.
“He doesn’t just stroll around on his bike,” he said. “It’s important to him.”
Chrissy Ost, LaNoue’s co-worker and roommate, describes him as “very intense most of the time.”
“He has so much energy. He loves it,” she said.
Ost, who graduated from Syracuse University in May with a bachelor of science in geography, thinks the community likes LaNoue because of the novelty that he represents.
But for LaNoue, it’s more than novelty.
LaNoue said he wants to do something in life “that’s just outright superior,” and something that “everyone supports because it’s just better.”
“I think you have to look for those lucrative opportunities,” he said. “It’s more than a job for me. It’s much more.”NOTE: This is a select items sale, and there are exclusions to the DECBC16 code. For example, I don’t think it’s working on Filson stuff.
When is a shoe not a shoe? When it’s considered an accessory of course. To me, shoes and accessories are not one in the same, but today? They are in the eyes of Brooks Brothers. And that means they’re 25% off, AND… that extra 25% off code DECBC16 is stacking. Yes really. That puts their Allen Edmonds made collection, first quality footwear, down to $240. That’s better than their one-day 40% off deal they ran a couple weeks back.
But, it can get even better. I think. Wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts.
Brooks Brothers is also running a buy one $150 e-gift card, get a $25 gift card for free promotion. So if you’d like to save an extra $25, you should be able to. Buy a $150 e-gift card. Then use said gift card, plus the $25 in free gift card cash (so $175 total but only $150 out of pocket) to any of the shoes below that are already on sale at 25% off. Apply the DECBC16 code at checkout, and save an extra 25%. Here’s proof that it’s working at post time:
Prices below reflect the 25% off sale, the extra 25% off code, and the $25 freebie gift card. If somehow I’ve still screwed this up, which is entirely possibly, shoot me an email: [email protected]
Pretty much the McAllister, Strand, and Fifth Ave. Only, and again you’d have to pay extra for something similar direct through AE, these have that slim rubber sole for traction. That and the insoles might be slightly different. Size and width selection varies depending on the model and color you’re going for. But there’s multiple color options for each model, depending on how much brogue-ing you’re going after.
And here we have the Park Avenue. More or less. As sober and professional as it gets. Goodyear welted like the rest.
Super sleek. Made in Italy. Sure appears to be a blake stitch instead of a Goodyear welt. Just black leather left at post time.
The plain toe Warwick. Again, more or less. And again, these come standard with that slim rubber sole so you won’t be sliding all over the place.MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali forces who have surrounded pirates holding hostages taken from an Indian ship secured the surrender of 10 members of the band on Tuesday and enlisted the parents of the other three to persuade them to give up, officials said.
Regional security forces rescued the Indian cargo dhow Al Kausar on Monday but pirates who seized it earlier this month escaped beforehand with nine crew members as bargaining chips to try to force the release of pirates jailed in India.
Hirsi Yusuf Barre, mayor of Galkayo in Somalia’s Galmudug state, said 10 of the pirates surrendered after they were surrounded, leaving just three holding the nine dhow crew.
Apart from denying the pirates food and water, security forces had brought the parents of the three pirates to the scene to persuade their sons to give up, Barre said.
“The remaining three pirates will be taken out by their parents in the coming hours. We shall rescue the nine crew soon and they will rejoin their two colleagues on the ship,” he said.
Two of the dhow crew were rescued on Monday after being left in a car that the pirates had to abandon after a chase.
The hijacking of the Al Kausar was part of a sudden string of attacks by Somali pirates after years without a reported incident. Attacks peaked with 237 in 2012 but then declined steeply after ship owners improved security measures and international naval forces stepped up patrols.
This month has seen a new rash of attacks, with two ships captured and a third rescued by Indian and Chinese forces after the crew radioed for help and locked themselves in a safe room.
Residents of Somalia’s Indian Ocean coastline say piracy has resumed after local officials issued permits for foreign fishing vessels to fish in Somali waters. The foreign fishermen they say, have cut nets belonging to locals and run down small boats.MERP is a Lord of the Rings total conversion for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim made, not for profit, by volunteers in their spare time. The current version of the mod has been running since 2008, and since then has grown substantially and the team has quickly become one of the largest and most ambitious teams in modding.
As of 2012 the team ported the mod to the newest Elder Scrolls game from its predecessor, Oblivion. Since the move the team has built up a huge following due to its quality and ambition. This rise in popularity has also drawn the eyes of Warner Bros. who currently hold the rights to The Lord of the Rings in gaming, who then issued the MERPteam a cease and desist letter.
We now need you, our fans and other gamers, to help change Warner Bros. stance on fan-made projects by showing them just how many people are behind this mod.
News:
Mod page: http://www.moddb.com/mods/merp-middle-earth-roleplaying-project
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MiddleEarthRoleplaying
Twitter: @MiddleEarthBane #SaveMERP
Developer forum: http://merp.straygenius.com/forum/index.phpThough I was bad at my profile and it was pretty vague, my Santa did an excellent job at looking through my post history and choosing great gifts! The first package was a King Arthur baking cookbook which is timely since I'm trying to get into baking more. The second was Meguiar's clay kit and microfiber towel, because they saw that I enjoy detailing my car, along with Billy Jealousy shave cream since they read I shaved my head. I'll get a ton of use out of those! The third package was a sweet Stranger Things Hawkins AV Club shirt which I'll wear proudly. These are some of the best gifts I've ever gotten from anyone, much less a stranger! Thank you so much to my SS, I'll definitely be doing this again!Marcus Lattimore embraces head coach Steve Spurrier during a Dec. 2012 news conference. This past week, not quite four years after an injury altered the course of his future, he graduated from South Carolina. (Mary Ann Chastain/Associated Press)
Finally, last Friday, Marcus Lattimore walked across a graduation stage at the University of South Carolina to have validated what so many who watch college football, or college basketball, call a free college education that standout athletes get in the form of an athletic scholarship.
Lattimore nodded to the crowd that cheered hearing his name like it did when he was scoring touchdowns at Williams-Brice Stadium. He sauntered across the runway to a pair of university officials whom he embraced. He then walked off, his white stole embroidered in red with Student Athlete and draped over his black robe that dangled just below his knees.
His knees.
“For my first injury, when I tore my ACL and my MCL, it was only one surgery,” Lattimore reminded me on the eve of his graduation, during a phone conversation. “Compared to what happened the second time, that was like a sprained ankle.”
I called Lattimore after seeing he was scheduled to testify Tuesday in Washington at the annual meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, long chaired by Brit Kirwan, now chancellor emeritus of the University of Maryland System. The commission, which only carries the weight of its commissioners like Kirwan and other honchos in college administration and athletics, was born three decades ago to, as its mission statement reads, “recommend reforms that emphasized academic values in an arena where commercialization of college sports often overshadowed the underlying goals of higher education.”
Marcus Lattimore grabs his right knee after getting hit by Tennessee's Eric Gordon during an Oct. 27, 2012 game. The injury was so bad that Lattimore couldn’t fully regain his form as a running back. (Richard Shiro/Associated Press)
It asked Lattimore to talk on a panel about college athletes’ health and safety. I thought it should have asked him to comment on its other panel about college athletes and amateurism.
“I was just talking about that to another player I played with in college,” Lattimore said with a chuckle. “We were talking about guys who scored 30 touchdowns... and get nothing from that.”
Lattimore scored 41 TDs in, basically, two and half seasons at South Carolina. He’d have scored a lot more. But there were his knees.
The down payment Lattimore put on his free college education came Oct. 15, 2011, during his sophomore year. In the fourth quarter of the Gamecocks’ game-winning touchdown drive, a Mississippi State defender rolled onto the side of Lattimore’s left leg as he blocked. He left the game for the sidelines, where his left knee was wrapped in ice. He departed the stadium in a brace and on crutches. He wound up in a cast and couldn’t play until the next season. Still, he was so good in half a season that he was selected second-team all-SEC.
Midway into his comeback junior season, Lattimore made a huge installment on his free ride, as so many call it. He was ripping through Tennessee. He’d just run 28 yards for his 41st career touchdown when, right before the half, he was twisted to the turf after a 2-yard run. A linebacker wrapped him up and a defensive back struck his knees, whipping his body around and slamming his right leg to the ground.
Williams-Brice fell silent. It was grotesque theater. Even Tennessee players came to Lattimore’s side.
At the hospital, it was discovered that his right knee was dislocated and every ligament in it was shredded.
In 2013, Marcus Lattimore was drafted by the 49ers. He said it took 14 months for him to run normally again, but eventually he decided to go back to school and finish his degree in public health. (Mary Ann Chastain/Associated Press)
“It actually hit my nerve as well,” Lattimore told me.
That was Oct. 27, 2012.
“So they were scheduled to do four surgeries,” Lattimore said, “but they actually got it done in six hours in one surgery. And the standard ACL takes about 45 minutes.”
That was among the lessons he learned in college.
“With that injury, at the time, personally, I don’t like to reminisce about what happened. It’s in the past. But at that time, I was probably a first rounder, and I can tell you that before that happened, I felt, as far as conditioning and strength, the best that I’d felt in my whole career. And after that happened, I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know how bad it was. It cost me a lot of money.”
Lattimore was considered the best amateur running back in the country and expected to be the first running back taken in the NFL draft when he declared for it.
“When that injury happened, it was October 27th,” Lattimore recalled. “Then I had the surgery November 5th.”
For eight weeks, his repaired leg was rigged to remain completely straight. Not only was his multimillion-dollar football career in jeopardy, not to mention his ambulatory health for the rest of his life, but so too was his no-cost education at peril. But we only think about the time an injured college athlete disappears from our consciousness on the field of play, not the time they wind up missing from the reason most everyone else is in college – to get educated.
“I missed all of November, two weeks of December,” Lattimore said of his class time then, “and I left [school] as a junior. So I missed about two months, and then I went ahead and left.”
Almost as a courtesy, the San Francisco 49ers selected Lattimore in the April 2013 draft. They took him in the fourth round. He fell to the 131st player selected and ninth running back, just behind a fullback from Harvard.
“I’m forever grateful to them [49ers] for giving me another opportunity to play,” Lattimore said. “I got out there and got stronger, got faster, but the pain just never went away. When I cut, when I jumped, when I ran, even when my adrenaline was going, the pain was still there. So I had to retire because of that. And I would say to get back running normal, it took about a year and two months, so about 14 months.”
He’d taken out an insurance policy through the lords of college athletics, the NCAA, to safeguard potential earnings should such a devastating injury occur. Lattimore said it was for $1.85 million. He said he realized about 10 percent of it.
He hobbled away from playing football for good on Nov. 5, 2014.
“Then I came back [to South Carolina as a student] in January of ’15, and I had two semesters left,” he said.
“I didn’t want to [go back to school],” Lattimore admitted. “I definitely didn’t want to because I was in total football mode. That was my job, that was my life.”
It was the price he paid in exchange for that free education that scholarship athletes get. Lucky them.
Kevin B. Blackistone, ESPN panelist and visiting professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, writes sports commentary for the Post.Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is ridiculing her opponent Donald Trump for refusing to say that President Barack Obama was born in America, suggesting that Trump’s history of asking questions on the issue proves he’s a racist.
“Imagine a president who sees someone who doesn’t look like him, doesn’t agree with him and thinks that person must not be a real American,” Clinton said, during a speech to the The Black Women’s Agenda symposium in Washington D.C.
She cited Trump’s criticisms of an Hispanic-American judge and parents of a fallen Muslim-American soldier as proof that he was a bigot and unfit to serve as president of the United States.
Clinton also described Trump’s behavior as sexist.
“He looks at women and decides how our looks rate on a scale of 1-10,” she said with distain.
She urged all women in the audience to fight back, by supporting her in the upcoming presidential election.
“We cannot become insensitive to what he says and what he stirs up,” she said. “We can’t just accept this, we’ve got to stand up to it. If we don’t then it won’t stop.”
Clinton reminded the audience and the media that Trump stoked the birther movement, and claimed that his presidential campaign was “founded on this outrageous lie.”
“Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple and Donald owes him and the American people an apology,” she said.Here in central Mexico, local economics and demographics also played a significant role. The collapse of the Mexican peso in 1994 and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which made it harder for Mexican farmers to make a living, pushed some families to Mexican cities and accelerated a migration pattern that would soon reshape both sides of the border. More immigrants now living in the United States come from central Mexico than from any other place in the world, according to census and survey data in both countries.
In states like Zacatecas, many areas emptied out gradually. If a visa could not be obtained, the sons and daughters of farming families crossed with smugglers, calling local radio stations back home to announce to their relatives that they had survived the journey.
“It became a way of life,” said Eduardo López Mireles, president of the municipality of Jerez, which includes El Cargadero. “There are 50,000 people from Jerez over there, and 57,000 here.”
But over the past few years, the traffic patterns have changed. In Jerez and other places, the established cross-border networks of family connections that made possible one of the greatest immigration waves in American history are either tapped out — with most close relatives already in the United States — or they are sending people home. Not only were more than 10,000 Zacatecans deported in 2012 alone, according to state figures, but thousands of others have returned voluntarily because of a lack of work.
Many of these returning migrants — like Angel Castro, 38, who was sitting on a bench wearing a watch with an American flag — say they do not intend to head north again for a shot at legalization. “It’s just too hard,” Mr. Castro said.
In a half dozen towns in Zacatecas, scores of residents of all ages said that crossing the border had become too expensive and dangerous to consider seriously. In Perales, a hilltop village surrounded by fields of oats, corn and beans, a dozen men gathered by a church said it was not just all the extra American enforcement; they also feared the criminal gangs that now dominate smuggling.Daniel Wells is on track to play in the JLT Community Series
COLLINGWOOD recruit Daniel Wells is expected to feature in the JLT Community Series.
The 31-year-old has been battling foot injuries, but his new club is confident he'll be ready to go when the season begins.
Wells took part in intense full-ground match simulation at Olympic Park this week, and while he didn't complete the session in its entirety, medicos and coaches are happy with his progress.
The former North Melbourne midfielder joined teammates for a large portion of drills, including the first half of an intense full-ground hit-out.
"Daniel played some time in both of our match-like hit-outs this week and, right now, he is on track to participate in some part of our pre-season campaign," Collingwood football general manager Geoff Walsh told collingwoodfc.com.au.
"He has attacked his work and is building his preparation up nicely."
Wells left North Melbourne as a free agent, joining Collingwood on October 11.
He played 19 games in what would be his final season at the Kangaroos.
"Daniel is tracking along really well, as planned," Walsh said.
"Bill Davoren and his high performance team have managed him astutely, building his stamina through the pre-Christmas period without taking any undue risks."
The club hasn't confirmed whether Wells will take part in a twilight intra-club game at Olympic Park on Wednesday, February 8, or if he's a chance to play in the club's opening JLT Community Series match against Essendon on Thursday, February 16.
AFL and club access members will have free general admission entry to those matches in which their club is competing (subject to availability, upgrade fees may be applicable). Click here to learn more.Others will, no doubt, hammer out bronze
That breathes more softly, and draw living faces
Out of stone. They will plead cases better
And chart the rising of every star in the sky.
Your mission, Roman, is to rule the world.
These will be your arts: to establish peace,
To spare the humbled, and to conquer the proud.
Virgil, Aeneid
I highly recommend zooming in fully to see the full detail of the map. I also want to thankfor her map here for giving inspiration on some of he provincial borders. You can find the version without cities here, and an image of only the cities here
On the day of Dies Commodianus, AD 192, Roman Emperor Commodus was busy at work announcing his new plans to rename the empire in his honor, as well as the capital city, months of the year, the senate itself, and a number of other important items. Fortunately for the empire and unfortunately for Commodus, however, that day also marked the landing of a strange being from space, ripping through the atmosphere in his ship and crashing right down into the senatorial forum, crushing the mad emperor underneath. Through the smoke and rubble, a bat-like space alien stepped out and greeted them.
The implication of such an unsubtle sign from the gods was clear.
For the next thousand years the immortal Emperor oversaw the empire, bringing it together and pushing its boundaries further than ever before, bent on nothing less than total world domination. In theory the Roman administration and culture has been spread far and wide, but by now that governing culture has been so fundamentally changed that it'd be just as accurate to call it Chinese, Andean, Indian, or the successor to countless other human cultures.
Now, nearing the end of the 10th century of the new calendar, people all around the planet are preparing to celebrate the momentous anniversary of their Emperor's arrival. But it seems the emperor himself is setting his sights further than some Earthly parties. With his ship finally repaired and working again, he plans to set course for new pastures, this time bringing his armies with him. How much more can a lone immortal conquer with an entire planet to support him?
SOCIETY
Global culture has changed rapidly due to the newly impose imperial authority and waves of settlers in many places. One of the largest changes has been the rise of the Domini, a distinct class of non-hereditary land owners who oversee much of the global trade and keep many traders, scholars, and merchant fleets under their patronage. Other classes have also started to arise in the increasingly stratified society as more and more laborers and artisans start to specialize in their work.
The empire mostly rules with a light hand in many of its provinces, with the Emperor's grasp slowly tightening as technology develops to make it more feasible. Many local customs and traditions are allowed to continue much as they were before the empire ever appeared so long as they don't interfere with imperial law, and for many people in the rural provinces life remains mostly the same. However, while things such as faith and custom are protected, other practices have been persecuted without exception, such as human sacrifice and more recently slavery.
Currently the Emperor is mostly concerned with growing and moving populations towards his goals. For many in the crowded cities, this has meant new offers of free land and money to those willing to help settle the rural provinces, cementing imperial control there in the process and creating greater social mobility.
ADMINISTRATION
Over the last thousand years, most of the original imperial bureaucracy has been transformed, abandoned, or added onto to the point of being unrecognizable to the Romans of antiquity.
Responsibility for governing the massive breadth of the empire is divided between several layers of bureaucracy. At the bottom are people's councils ruling individual cities and townships, with local nobility running counties above them. Further up the pyramid are provincial governors, who are elected to serve 5-year terms by citizens' assemblies. The individual provinces also have a legislature made up of the Domini to balance the governor's power and representatives chosen by the governor which make up the Lower Senate, with each of the 450 provinces receiving one senator and one vote. Through the Lower Senate, legislation for the whole empire is able to be proposed and debated before passing on to the Upper Senate.
Groups of provinces are lumped into dioceses, ruled by a vicar selected by the individual governors of the provinces under their command. The 75 vicars make up the Upper Senate, who are able to vote on and enact legislation created by the Lower Senators, as well as ensure that the provinces under their authority meet tax quotas. Vicars are elected by the combined Domini legislative bodies of their respective provinces, but must also be approved by their respective prefect. If the prefect does not approve of their nomination, another election must be held.
Above the dioceses are the 6 massive prefectures under whom all diocese senators swear fealty. Prefects oversee the internal activities of their lands, cast tie-breaking votes for the Upper Senate, can overturn nominees to the diocese senatorial office, and appoint judges to their respective courts. The 6 prefects also form a semi-formal council which communicates the wishes of the Upper Senate to the Emperor, and vice versa. Just as the diocese senators swear to them, the prefects themselves also personally swear loyalty to the Emperor, who is solely responsible for appointing them to their office and can demote them from their otherwise lifetime terms as he wishes.
Currently the 6 prefectures are Europa (purple), the oldest and most prestigious; Aethiopia (red), one of the fastest developing prefectures from its mineral wealth and trade; Hespiridia (brown), the largest and also where imperial authority can be the weakest; Asia Australis (yellow), holding the largest population and some of the most important trade routes; Asia Borealis (green), with the second largest population and largest destination for traders; and Asia Oceanus (blue), containing some of the very last provinces added to the empire and the lowest population.
The Emperor himself does not reside in a singular capital, but instead moves his court between a number of the largest and most prestigious cities around his empire, ensuring that his direct oversight doesn't become a distant memory in any one region.
RELIGIONS
The entire empire is a patchwork of faiths, mostly made up of various polytheistic traditions that blur into one another in one large continuum, with many local gods belonging to multiple pantheons. Some of these gods, such as Apollo, Serpent, and Perun, have found widespread global appeal.
Existing outside of this pagan dynamic are the various monotheists concentrated in various regions. The main groups are the Cult of Di (within northern China), Acuaton (centered around the Caribbean), and finally the largest of them, the Christians (mostly associated with the eastern Mediterranean and Persia), who are divided into two major branches.
The first of these branches are the Marcionites; those who posit that the one true God of the New Testament is separate from the false Hebrew God of the Old, and that Jesus Christ was created fully formed and entirely of a divine nature to be a savior of humanity. The church emphasizes piety and combining faith with good deeds on Earth.
The second denomination are the Stoicites, who put more emphasis on the philosophical side of the faith and preach the importance of rejecting passion and irrationality in favor of God, the intertwined nature of wisdom and holiness, and the system of duty one has to their family, government, and ultimately heavenly Father. The Stoicites believe that Christ was the son of God, but of a human nature.
Ultimately, the empire does not concern itself much with faith, and does its best to allow cultures to borrow from one another and integrate their religions. Religious persecution is outlawed, and at the same time none of the various faiths are given favor, with every temple and church paying the same tax. Even the many cults erected around the Emperor, worshiping him as a living God, are expected to pay the same. The Emperor himself asks only that his citizens give sacrifice or prayers to their deity of choice for his good health and prosperity.
TECHNOLOGY
The Emperor has used his great knowledge to rapidly advance his subjects, giving them the edge necessary to take over and rule the world. A combination of new fertilizers and farming methods, as well as radical new ideas such as germ theory, sterilization, and quarantine which diminished plagues, allowed for a large population boom that providing a steady source of workers, bureaucrats, scholars, merchants, and most importantly, soldiers and tax-payers. Over the centuries, he has gradually introduced new developments in metallurgy, chemistry, and transportation, making it possible to exploit the planet's resources in ways never thought possible. Now massive ships of steel and iron, airships floating over the skies, and metallic carriages carried along tracks crisscrossing the lands all ensure that no corner of the Earth is left untouched and unconnected. Communication over long distances has also been extremely important, and regular horse relay stations and large heliograph towers have been built, and even now new telegraphic lines are being developed.Millionaire's beautiful lover found hanging naked with 'hands tied behind her back' at mansion days after his son fell down the staircase
Rebecca Nalepa, 32, discovered with hands and feet bound with orange electrical cord
Jonah Shacknai's son in hospital after fall days earlier
Police: Her death was'very violent and very suspicious'
Jonah's brother 'cut her body down before authorities arrived'
Crime scene is a 27-room 1908 landmark mansion
Loud party had been held night before
Friend says Nalepa 'would not have committed suicide'
Victim: Rebecca Nalepa, 32, was found wrapped in cord after apparently hanging at the millionaire's mansion
The beautiful young lover of a pharmaceutical millionaire found dead at his 27-room mansion was discovered naked, hanging from a second-storey balcony with her feet and hands bound with orange electrical cord, police have revealed.
Rebecca Nalepa, 32, met what officers described as a'very violent and very suspicious end' at 54-year-old Jonah Shacknai's historic $17m Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, near San Diego.
While an autopsy has been completed, police are not releasing the details and have not yet ruled whether her grisly death was murder or suicide.
Speculation mounted it could be connected to an accident just days before, when Mr Shacknai's six-year-old son Max fell down the property's grand staircase.
Miss Nalepa, a Burmese woman who had been in a relationship with Mr Shacknai for two years, was reportedly looking after the little boy at the time.
The mystery surrounding her death, which police have described as 'bizarre', deepened as it emerged a loud party had been held at the 27-room house on Tuesday night, the day before Miss Nalepa died - and the day after the little boy's accident.
San Diego County Sheriff's Office said Miss Nalepa's naked body was discovered by Mr Shacknai's brother, Adam, early on Wednesday morning.
Scroll down for video
Sprawling: The mansion where Nalepa's body was found, which is owned by pharmaceutical millionaire Jonah Shacknai
Adam, who had been staying at a guesthouse on the property, told detectives he found her hanging by her neck from a second floor balcony, with her hands and feet bound.
He cut her down from the balcony to try to save her, before calling 911.
Firefighters tried to revive Miss Nalepa, who they described as being 'in distress', but she was later pronounced dead at the scene.
When news cameras circled overhead, her naked body was lying sprawled in a grassy courtyard, with what appeared to be orange electrical wire trailing to one side.
Multi-Millionaire: Jonah Shacknai is the founder, chairman and CEO of the Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation
Tim Curran, with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, described the circumstances as'very suspicious', telling NBC San Diego that it appeared the victim had died a 'violent' death.
He refused to rule out suicide, saying: 'That is a possibility. [The] circumstances are bizarre.'
THE LANDMARK $17M MANSION
Built in 1908, the luxurious 27-room Spreckels Mansion includes six bedrooms and an unfinished wine-storage room used during Prohibition.
One of the biggest residences in Coronado, it was built in 1908 as a beach home for John D. Spreckels, who owned the nearby Hotel del Coronado.
'It appears to be some type of a violent death, and I'm not going to compromise the integrity of the investigation by giving anything more than that at this time,' he added.
Mr Curran said Adam Shacknai is not currently being considered a suspect, although he was the only other person believed to have been in the 27-room mansion when Miss Nalepa died.
Both brothers and Mr Shacknai's ex-wife Dina, who is six-year-old Max's mother, are being questioned by police as witnesses, Curran said.
In May, Miss Nalepa, who had lived with Mr Shacknai for about two years, had successfully petitioned to revert to her maiden name, Rebecca Zahau.
Her ex-husband, Neil, told 10News; 'This is all overwhelming. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.
Discovery: Rebecca, left was found hanging from a balcony naked by her boyfriend's brother Adam, right
A friend told NBC San Diego Miss Nalepa was a'survivor' who would never have allowed herself to have been seen naked and would not have considered suicide.
Nalepa's brother-in-law Doug Loehner also issued a statement, defending her boyfriend.
'Jonah is a stand-up guy. He was very devoted to Rebecca. She treated his kids as her own,' he said.
The incident was the second time in a week emergency services had been called to the landmark residence, which was built in 1908 by former newspaper and hotel magnate John Spreckels.
Violent end: Sheriff's deputies described Rebecca Nalepa's death as "very suspicious and violent"
Crime scene: The cordoned off $17m Spreckels Mansion, on San Diego's exclusive Ocean Boulevard
On Monday, Mr Shacknai's six-year-old son Max was hospitalised after a fall near the grand staircase in the same mansion.
Paramedics found the boy was not breathing and did not have a pulse after falling down the stairs, Coronado Police Chief Louis Scanlon said, describing it as a 'tragic accident',
THE TWICE-MARRIED TYCOON
Jonah Shacknai founded pharmaceutical giant Medicis and has been chairman and chief executive since 1988.
The company makes dermatological and aesthetic pharmaceutical products and took $700million in revenue last year.
Shacknai has two other children from a previous marriage to Kimberly James.
The couple married in April 1993 in Bel Air, California, before filing for divorce in 1999.
Family Court records show the couple reached a joint-custody agreement in 2001 for two children: a 14-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy.
Shacknai later married Dina Romano, the boy's mother, and the couple divorced in 2008.
The boy is being treated at Rady's Children's Hospital San Diego. He is thought to be in a come bu hospital spokesman Carlos Delgado declined to comment on his condition.
A man who came to the house to collect the dogs after Max's fall said of Miss Nalepa: 'She was very nice but very quiet and mellow.'
Nancy Romano, the boy's grandmother, said her daughter, Dina Flores, has been with ex-husband Mr Shacknai at his bedside every day.
Reacting to Miss Nalepa's death, Ms Romano, of Redwood City, California, told the Arizona Republic: 'This is horrible. What a tragedy... my stomach is in knots.'
She added: 'We don't know what happened.'
Mr Shacknai is the founder, chairman and chief executive of the Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The company manufactures products including an acne drug and a competitor to Botox.
A spokesman for the firm said: 'The Medicis family is deeply saddened to learn of a tragic incident at a California property owned by Jonah Shacknai.
'Our thoughts are with Jonah and his family and (we) ask that the family's privacy be respected during this difficult period. At this time, the company has no further comment.'
Medicis shares were down 4.9 per cent to $38.10 this morning.
Neighbours say Mr Shacknai was staying at the mansion with his girlfriend and children.Get the biggest daily 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
Some of Scotland's biggest attractions are among more than 100 international landmarks turning green to mark St Patrick's Day.
Glasgow's SSE Hydro and Armadillo venues are being bathed in green light to mark Ireland's national day.
Edinburgh Airport and the capital's iconic castle are also joining in with the |
presence in the continent so that they will be the “future of Europe.”“I am calling out to my citizens, by brothers and sisters in Europe: Have five children, not just three,” he said at a rally in the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir on March 17.The 27-year-old lawmaker Marion Le Pen is the niece of far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen, and became the youngest elected politician in French history in the 2012 election.A five-goal streak in as many minutes just before half-time inspired Korea to victory in their final pool game against Hong Kong.
Hong Kong led 5-3 after 22:39 and were going along nicely until the Korean’s burst rocked them and completely changed the momentum of the match.
After the break, Korea were much more dominant running settled plays with success and finding the net regularly.
Eunah Choi finished with 5G 2A for Korea while MVP Anna Kim picked up 2G, 2A and 8DC helping to setup Korea’s possessions.
Alexandra Tsai did get a hat-trick for Hong Kong, but they struggled to contain Korea in the second-half as they pushed to get back in the game.
Korea (2-2) will now play Sweden (1-2) tomorrow at 11.30am while Hong Kong (1-3) take on Colombia (0-3) at 4.30pm in the start of the placing matches.
BOX SCOREStock Painting Guide Tips on Color and Clear-Coat Paint Application by Mike Ricklefs Other AccurateShooter.com TECH Articles >
Have a old stock in dire need of a "make-over"? Have you recently purchased a laminated wood stock that needs a finish, or a fiberglass stock that you want to customize? Here's a step-by-step guide to stock painting and clear-coating. It guides you through the process, from initial stock prep and clean-up, to the final wet-sanding and buffing. These procedures work. Here's a GALLERY of stocks painted with the methods and materials recommended here.
Our Guide to Stock Painting is prepared with the help of Mike Ricklefs from Iowa. A mechanical engineer by trade, Mike is an artist at heart, who loves to create beautiful finishes for wood and glass stocks, as you can see on his website, www.MikeRicklefs.com, and this gallery. Mike sticks to basic colors, gradients, and clear-coating. By his own admission, he doesn't do airbrushing or painted illustrations. Mike says: "I'll leave that to guys like Matt Kavanaugh and Bayou Custom--they are true masters." Mike can do flames, logos, and text that use vinyl cut-out masks. However, in this article, we don't cover the use of masks and custom decals because that requires special templating equipment, and an experienced hand. If you want flames and paint-on logos, we suggest you leave that kind of work to the experts. But otherwise, if you follow Mike's directions, use the right materials and methods, you can achieve outstanding results. Click HERE to see a variety of Mike's finished products, both with color paint and clear finish over wood laminate.
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The Art of Stock Painting by Mike Ricklefs
Over the last couple of years I have been asked a lot of questions about paint and prep work. I thought I would document the steps I use to finish a stock. For this article, I started out with two previously painted Lee Six Hunter BR class stocks and a new Lee Six Borden-style stock. What follows below is my step-by-step procedure. I am sure there are different processes and products that can be used. This is what works for me--it may or may not work for you.
WARNING: Many of the materials used for stock painting and clear-coating contain potentially dangerous chemicals. Follow all local regulations pertaining to paint spraying and disposal. Always use a respirator and use a fresh-air system if possible. Paint in a well-ventilated area, and always follow manufacturers' safety guidelines for all products.
1 STOCK PREP -- Clean-Up and Sanding
Initial stock prep involves multiple tasks: removing paint, sanding out flaws, and filling in problem areas. Take your time and do the job right. With the two previously-painted Hunter BR stocks, I used a combination of lacquer thinner, razor blades, sand paper and elbow grease. After a couple of hours, both Hunter BR stocks cleaned up nicely. A minimal amount of filler was used to clean up the parting lines so there won't be too much more work required to get these stocks ready for primer application.
TOOL-TIP: Use a sanding block to maintain straight lines and be careful not to round off corners. I very seldom use a electric/air sander--they can get you in trouble real fast. I don't use chemical stripper because it will attack the substrate making it a gooey mess.
Both of the Hunter BR stocks started out with a Right Bolt/Right Port configuration. After refinishing, they will both be used as Right Bolt/Left Port rigs. The original right-side port cut-outs were filled with epoxy, and new port reliefs were milled on the opposite sides. The butt-pads on these two stocks were glued on. Otherwise I would have removed them. It is best to remove all the parts you can.
This raises an important point--if you have to make an major changes to the stock layout or inletting, do that BEFORE you lay down any primer or paint. Likewise, any repairs or fiberglass work should be done before you hook up the paint sprayer.
The white Hunter BR stock had a couple of layers of white paint on top of black primer. In the image above, I've removed nearly all the white paint, revealing the black primer underneath. The red stock has remnants of white/gray primer. Most of this remaining primer will come off as the parting lines and pin holes are filled and sanded.
The Lee Six Borden-style stock shown above is the third project stock for this article. This was a new, unpainted stock, so the prep work is a little different. I didn't have to remove old paint, but I did want to fill seams and smooth out the small flaws in the finish. The Borden-style stock was originally inletted for a Right Bolt/Right Port Nesika but is now used with a Stiller Diamondback Right Bolt/Left Port Drop-Port. It weighs in at 3 pounds, 2.4 ounces. As it is destined to be a 13.5-lb Heavy Varmint (HV), weight is not a major concern.
In the photo below, you can see the parting lines (seams). The parting line on the rear of this particular stock is off-set 0.060". This will be taken care of with filler and sanding. Looking at the photo below, in the smaller inset showing the underside of the stock, you can see the exit for the drop port.
2 BODY WORK -- Fillers and Putty
Some stocks are beautifully built and require very little work to fill voids and smooth up the surface. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Many of the commercial fiberglass stocks also have seams or "parting lines" that can detract from their appearance. I prefer to fill in these flaws before applying paint. Moreover, a stock that has seen many seasons of use will have gouges and dings that need to be filled before you prime. Remember, if you want to end up with a perfectly smooth, mirror-like finish you need a very smooth, consistent surface to start with, free from voids, pin-holes, or low spots.
To do a good filling job, don't just use any old putty from the auto parts store. What I have found to be best is Putty-Cote by Dynatron. It is a two-part filler. You mix a hardener with it to activate. You can use standard, lightweight body filler also known as Bondo. I like the Putty-Cote better because I feel I get a better surface finish.
One thing you should NOT use is the one-part Glazing and Spot Putty. This is also known as Red Lead. (The Bondo-brand version of this is shown at right.) This one-part spot putty is basically a very thick primer that does not get very hard when cured. Though cheap and easy to find, it really is the wrong material for the job. Such one-part putty takes over-night to dry and does not have the best adhesion. By contrast, if you use the Putty-Cote you can be sanding in 15 to 20 minutes.
Here (above) are the Hunter BR stocks after the second application of putty. The lower stock is in very good condition and will not take much filler. The top stock is getting a skim coat down the whole parting line (where the seam appears). This stock also had an abundance of pin holes that needed to be filled.
Here is a view of the red Hunter stock after the third application of filler. The parting line is looking good, but there remained some pin holes on the bottom which required more work. Again, take your time and do the job right, so you don't have to go back and re-do things after you've applied paint.
Above is the Borden-style stock. Even though it is new, as you can see the parting line of this style of stock takes a bunch of work. It will take about four applications of filler before I have it the way I want it. Several thin coats are better than one thick one. You'll find that, over time, a really thick coat will shrink.
In the above photo, the "body work" on the stocks is almost complete. At this point, all flaws have been filled, and all surfaces have been block-sanded to 180 grit. The stocks are now ready for priming.
3 PRIMING -- Laying the Foundation
Any good painter will tell you that you can't have a great finish without a top-notch priming job underneath. I use very high-quality Xotic-brand two-part epoxy primers and I spend a lot of time laying down a smooth and even coat. You don't want to rush through the priming. I'll sand between coats, and I may add a little more filler along the way.
Do not apply to thick of coats and make sure you allow the primer to "flash off" (dry thoroughly) between coats. If you rush here the primer will be cratered and be very rough. You will sand most of it off to get it smooth again. I usually go over the areas with the putty first, let that flash off, and then apply the remaining coats. The puttied areas get an extra coat. This helps fill the surface. The main thing is to have the surface one consistent color. This will ensure even coverage for the finish coats.
Here are all three stocks ready for priming. They have all been block-sanded to 180 grit. I've applied fresh masking tape applied to the bedding and butt pad area. You can see the shiny spots on the middle one. This is a wet surface that has not dried yet after been wiped down with reducer.
Take your time on the masking work. A little extra time spent at this point may save you a bunch later. On the edges of the bedding, I usually let the tape extend over the edge and trim with a razor blade. This ensures a tape edge that follows any contours. Try not to use too many layers of tape. Excess layers create a large "step" that will build up with paint. After unmasking you will see the raw edge and all the layers of paint.
This photo shows the stock covered with the first coat of Xotic brand two-part epoxy primer. You can see a few light spots. These will cover on the next coats.
Above are all three stocks after initial priming. I've applied two primer coats on all surfaces with a little extra coverage on the edges. But there is still more to do before they are ready for the color base coats. After 24 hours of drying, the next step will be to block sand these with 220 grit paper and then see if there are any areas that need to be filled. Then I will re-prime any new areas of filler. With Xotic primer no sealer is needed, so after sanding to 600 grit these will be ready to base coat. Prior to base-coating, I will remove the masking tape and apply new tape to the butt and bedding areas.
4 BASE COATS -- Color and Clear
For base-coating, I use two products: Xotic Ebonee Black base coat and Jammin' Intercoat clear. The black base coat is applied in two (2) coats. Once that has flashed off (dried) then the Intercoat clear is applied.
Xotic also makes a variety of specialized base coats for Candy, Pearlescent, metal-flake, and color-shift (chameleon) effects. These require some skill in the application to achieve the final look you want, so experiment on a small sample before applying trick base-coats to your stock. These special-effect base-coat paints are quite expensive, so it's smart to learn the right techniques before spraying your entire stock. Xotic paints in small quantities (and kits with all needed supplies) are available from www.Innate.com and other specialty auto paint vendors.
Here you see a black base-coat applied to one of the Hunter BR stocks. It appears gray in the photo. However, the base coats dry to an even black, almost flat look. This is normal as it is the clear coat that gives it the shine.
Intercoat clear is applied where the paint masks will be applied. It acts as a protective barrier for the base coat. Above you see three (3) coats of black base and two (2) coats of Intercoat clear. You can see where I've applied flame masks applied and taped off other areas to be shielded from the black base coat. Using masks takes some skill. We don't cover the use of masks in stock painting in this article, but you will find basic information on my website, www.MikeRicklefs.com in the "How To" section.
The above photo shows a silver base coat. A silver or gold base coat is often preferred for bright candy colors and metallic finishes.
5 ART EFFECTS -- Marble and Textures
One very popular treatment for fiberglass stocks is a marble finish. You need a special "marblizer" paint for this and it requires you to physically "mold" the paint on to the stock. Here are two examples of a marble finish: green marble over black base, and tangerine candy over silver marble with a black base.
I use House of Kolor "Marblizer" paints for most of my marble-finished stocks. There are many colors and "textures" available. For this Hunter BR stock, which was going to be a gold over black marble, I selected House of Color's Gold-Blue Marblizer. This is a dual-color paint, meaning that over a black base it appears gold while over a white base it will be blue.
House of Kolor Marblizer paint comes ready to spray with no mixing needed. One good wet coat is applied. Don't worry about runs as they will be taken care of in the next step. The coat appears slightly green in the pictures but it is really gold. (In the photo you see a text mask--this is something special for this particular stock and I would not, normally, have a mask in place when doing a marble finish, or a plain color finish for that matter. But text and logos are special options I offer to my customers.)
Above one of the Hunter BR stocks has been sprayed with a coat of the Marblizer, over the black base-coat. You want a good, wet sloppy layer of Marblizer, because you manually block and smear the Marblizer paint into patterns. Here I used Saran Wrap to apply the pattern. It is applied over the wet Marblizer coat. As you press it and move it around you create patterns in the wet surface. Saran Wrap is just one option--cling wrap, bubble wrap, sponges, even metal foil--all these materials can be used to create the patterns. Experiment and have some fun. Pressing, rubbing, dragging of the items through the Marblizer will creat different effects and patterns.
In the photo above you can see how the Saran Wrap is gathered around the stock, creating folds and swirls which produce alternating light and dark areas on the stock. With practice, you can control the patterns to a certain extent, but each marble paint job is unique.
Here you can see the completed marble effect with Saran Wrap removed. It takes trial and error to achieve the particular patterns and textures you want. After clear-coating, the effect is more dramatic, with much more contrast. It is also hard to capture the full effect with a camera, because you need to see the light penetrating through the clear to the marble coats. (On this particular stock I used a paint mask to create lettering. When the yellow masks are removed, the type remains black underneath.)
6 CLEAR COATING -- Gloss and Protection
For finishing both fiberglass and wood stocks, I prefer to use automotive clear-coat. This sprays easily, dries hard, and is less prone to yellowing than some of the urethanes. I use Dupont's Nason line "Select Clear" with a 4:1 mix. The key to getting a mirror-like finish is using multiple, light coats, and allowing plenty of time to dry hard. Typically I apply three (3) final coats of clear over a painted stock. When clear-coating a wood stock without a paint base, I will apply three (3) coats of final clear over five or six coats of heavier "build" clear. This is described in the section below.
Drying--Very IMPORTANT: Allowing adequate drying time is critical. This is where some novice painters struggle because they want to wrap up the job too early. Be patient. Wait at least 24 hours before you touch the clearcoat. After hardening/drying for a couple of days it will be ready for wet sanding and buffing.
Since we weren't overly concerned with weight on the Borden-style HV stock below, I gave it four (4) coats of clear. Believe it or not, after the sanding and painting, it now weighs exactly the same as when I started: 1 pound, 15.9 ounces.
You can also apply clear-coat over a factory gelcoat finish, after proper preparation. When clear-coating over gelcoat, wet-sand to 400 grit then wipe the stock down with reducer to remove any residue. Remember that any flaws that show in the stock will be magnifies after clear coating. Sometimes you can take epoxy and color it to match to fill any holes or blemishes prior to clear coating.
Clear-coating over gelcoat can be particularly effective with the McMillan marbled gelcoat finishes. The clear-coat adds gloss and enhances the contrast among the marbled colors making them more vivid. The clear-coat also adds some protection to the stock and reduces friction in the bags, allowing it to track more easily. Below is a McMillan Sako-pattern hunting stock with clear-coat applied over the
green/black/white marble gelcoat.
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Mike's EXPERT TIPS for Clear-Coating Laminated Stocks
When finishing laminated stocks with clear-coat, you need to prepare the wood carefully, and build up quite a few thin layers one at a time. Begin by sanding, with progressively finer paper, all the way to 400 grit. Certain laminated stocks are so rough when they come from the stock-maker, that you may have to be very aggressive at first. But be careful with angles and the edges of flats. You don't want to round these off as you sand.
After sanding, use compressed air to blow out all dust from the pores of the wood. This is very important to avoid a "muddy" looking finish. If you don't blow the dust out with air before spraying the clear it will migrate out as you apply the clear. Also, after each sanding session, clean your painting area to remove excess dust. I also wet down the floor of my spray booth to keept the dust down.
Some painters recommended using a filler to close the pores. That's one technique, but the filler can detract from the clarity of the final finish. Rather than use a pore-filling sealer, I use a high solids or "build" clear for the initial applications. This is slightly thicker than "finish" clear and does a good job of sealing the pores. Three (3) fairly heavy coats of "build" clear are applied. If you get a thick spot or a run in the finish at this point, it is not the end of the world but this does create more sanding work.
After waiting for the build coats to dry, sand the stock to 400 grit again. At this point don't be disappointed on how the stock looks. You will not be able to fill all the grain with just one application. Another application of three (3) coats of "build" clear should be applied and sanded to 400 grit. Depending on the density of the wood you now should have the grain filled (after six (6) total coats of "build" clear). If not, do one more application with the high build. If all the pores are filled then apply three (3) coats of low solids or "flow" clear. When dry, the "flow" clear is wet-sanded to 1000 then 2000 and buffed. A normal stock will take from 9 to 12 total coats of clear.
After the final coat of clear, proceed with the final wet-sanding and buffing as described in Part Seven below. When you wet-sand, you will dull down the finish. Don't be discouraged. The wet-sanding process is important to smooth out any imperfections. Remember you've got 9 or more coats of clear on the stock at this point. The final buffing and polishing will restore the high gloss and "wet look" you are trying to achieve. For a hunting rifle, you may want to leave more of a satin finish, without a mirror shine. You can do this by using a lower grit compound (1500 vs. 3000).
Photo of Shehane Trackers, Copyright © 2006, D&B Supply. These two stocks are not Mike Ricklef's work, though Mike has extensive experience working with Shehane stocks in Obeche and other woods.
7 FINAL FINISH -- Wet Sand and Buff
The final finishing stage is what brings out the high gloss and that mirror-quality shine in your stock. Wet-sanding and careful buffing/polishing can produce spectacular results, with a "wet-look" finish. But, before you get that end result, you actually need to smooth the finish, eliminating some of the gloss in the clear-coat. Then, after the finish is super-smooth, you restore the shine by buffing and polishing.
For the final work on the stock, I use dish soap, buffing compound, swirl remover, hand glaze, wet/dry paper, and a foam buffing wheel. Wet sanding starts with 1000 grit. The pictures do not show much detail but this step knocks the surface down to one level and removes any orange peel or dirt nibs in the clear coat. That is very important to achieve a mirror-like finish at the end. But after wet-sanding the stock will be dull at this point. Don't worry--the gloss will re-appear after buffing.
SANDING TIP: After wet-sanding with 1000 grit, the job progresses to 2000 grit. A little dish-washing detergent in the water will make the paper last longer as it helps to flow out the particles. Use clean water and plenty of it. You are trying to achieve a mirror-like surface and lots of water helps smooth away small imperfections, while carrying away the sanding residues.
When wet-sanding, you must be careful on the edges. A little too much sanding here will make you start all over again. You can see the finish get duller as you work, so be conservative and use a light hand. However, if there are any shiny spots (low spots) at this point you need to keep sanding to level them out. But be gentle and use plenty of water. You want to level the surface, not scratch it.
After the final wet-sanding with 2000 grit, the next step is buffing using a clean foam pad. It is important to use a clean pad so you don't scratch the finish or leave any residues from previous jobs. I begin the buffing process with DuPont "Perfect It" compound. After that I switch pads and go to the Meguiar's Swirl Remover. Be sure to shake the bottle thoroughly before use, and watch out for clumps. Finally a Hand Glaze is applied. The final glazing step is what really brings out the shine. You might want to practice on a sample first so you get the feel for how hard to work the pad. I do all this buffing at about 1000 RPM (under power) with a foam pad. Be very careful on the edges as you can buff right through the clear in short order. If you put a run in the base coat you pretty much have to go back and recoat. But a run in the clear is not the end of the world. Using 600 grit paper and a lot of patience, you can sand out a run like it was never there. You have to be careful that the clear is fully cured as the run is a thicker area, so it takes longer to cure out.
Tools of the Trade--Recommended Gear & Supplies
You need good tools and equipment to create great paint jobs. Use high-quality sprayers, and keep sufficient quantities of the disposables (tape, paper cups, tack cloth) so you always have fresh materials on hand. The photo shows some of the gear I use. Click here for a full-screen version.
Paint Guns: I normally use an airbrush plus a gravity feed touch-up gun (upper right in photo). The gravity feed of the touch-up gun, along with the smaller cup, allows more of the paints to be used with less waste. A suction-type touch-up gun can be used as well, but I've found you can never get all the paint out of the cup. The large spray gun shown can be overkill; using it you can wind up spraying more into the air than on your stock.
Compressed Air: Clean, dry air is required--and that means you need to buy, rent, or borrow a quality air compressor. Use a filter and water trap on your compressor.
Mixing/Measuring Cups: With today's catalyzed products, proper mixing is essential. Using graduated cups helps ensure you get your mix quantities right every time.
Filters: Use paint strainers to remove clumps, dirt etc. in all the materials you apply. As noted, you should fit a filter to your air compressor as well.
Tape: Don't skimp on tape. Use a good automotive-grade masking tape. Typical, inexpensive yellow masking tape can let paint leak through, and it will not give a good sharp boundary when removed.
Tack Cloths: Use these to remove dust in between applications. Keep plenty on hand.
FINAL WORD--ABOUT SAFETY: Always remember "safety first". Read the instructions and follow all manufacturer recommendations for the application of the products you choose. You should also have proper safety gear. At a minimum, this includes: gloves, respirator, and safety glasses. You should also keep a fire extinguisher nearby.
Be careful with the materials you are spraying. Many of the products contain isocycanates, which are pretty nasty to your health. Proper ventilation is also required. I really want to stress how important good ventilation is--from start to finish of the job. Follow all regulations regarding disposal of unused and waste painting products.
Copyright © 2006, AccurateShooter.com | 6mmBR.com, All Rights Reserved. No reproduction of any content without advanced permission in writing.
Topics: Mike Ricklefs, Affordable Stock Painting, stock, benchrest stock, laminate, clearcoat, clear, clearcoat, paint, primer, sanding, putting, filler, base-coating, metallic, candy-coat, buffing, wet-sanding.When an organization announces a new initiative, what do you expect? A staff list, contact details, social media, and invitations to engage? Not when it’s the Internal Revenue Service.
The new IRS Sharing Economy Resource Center, announced on August 22, has none of the above. Aside from a single webpage and a press release, it offers zero new content and merely links to existing pages.
The sharing economy has been exploding, much of it unabashedly illegal, and is placing pressure on tax and regulatory agencies to modernize and welcome the new entrants. Airbnb alone, the accommodation-sharing website, grew from 47,000 paying guests in 2010 to 17 million in 2015 (p. 3, PDF).
Further, Christopher David, chief executive and founder of Arcade City — a new ride-sharing application — estimates that tax non-compliance among drivers of any rideshare is “massive relative to any other similarly regulated industry.” During a phone interview from Austin, Texas, he compared the breakdown to bitcoin activity, where the IRS has “made [compliance] not at all easy or feasible … almost impossible.”
However, if IRS officials think their simple one-page effort will overcome rising confusion and noncompliance, they are sorely mistaken. This purported center is a symbol of an agency that lacks self-awareness and is out of touch with a rapidly changing economy.
Consider, for example, the question of whether providers of peer-to-peer services are employees or independent contractors (the second link down on their list, after “filing requirements”). This distinction is particularly relevant, because an independent-contractor obligation generates fewer mandates, be they for benefits, reporting, or withholding. Independent contractors, therefore, naturally fit better with the sharing economy … but not so fast.
The decision to opt for independent contractors has turned into a nasty and expensive problem for Uber, another cellphone application that connects drivers with passengers and circumvents taxi cartels. A California judge has ruled that even a $100 million settlement will not suffice for drivers who did not receive “employee” benefits there and in Massachusetts.
Beyond this specific ruling, Matthew Feeney, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute, doesn’t see “how it is possible for ride-sharing, as we know it, to exist with the drivers as employees.” Presumably, the burdens imposed on employers are just too great and could regulate them out of existence.
There is no “magic” or set number of factors that “makes” the worker an employee or an independent contractor, and no one factor stands alone in making this determination. Also, factors which are relevant in one situation may not be relevant in another.
Yet just try to get your head around the IRS explanation for deciding between the employee or independent-contractor designation. It is impenetrable and gives no clear threshold or cut-off point, as acknowledged in their own text
Forgive me for expecting a clear rule one way or the other, but apparently that equates to magic in IRS lingo.
Should you willingly admit your confusion, and place yourself under scrutiny, you are welcome to submit an SS-8 form and have them examine your case. You only have to answer 57 questions and wait at least six months for a reply.
The fundamental challenge that the IRS and Congress must come to grips with is that just too many people in the sharing economy cannot or will not comply with prevailing tax policies. If they don’t address this, as has occurred with bitcoin, gray and black markets will fester, and the federal government will be largely powerless to stop them.
Their latest tactic of directing people to more website links and pages of tax legalese will do nothing to turn that around. David of Arcade City says the best hope for individuals seeking to comply is that private tax specialists will step in to bridge the gap, and the Freelancers Union is one such shop for understandable, personal assistance.
A simple example of confusion is the 14-day exemption from rental income. Homeowners can rent out their properties for under 15 days and not have to report the income. However, when participating formally in markets such as Airbnb, they will still receive an 1099 Form, which means the income is automatically reported to the IRS. They then have to wade into the maze of trying to explain to the IRS that this isn’t taxable income. Good luck with that.
Further, many people engaging with the sharing economy are unaware that they are supposed to make “quarterly estimated tax payments” — either that or have their regular employers deduct more from their paychecks (and there’s another form for that). David, who previously worked full-time for Uber, says that he wasn’t even aware of a quarterly reporting requirement and that it wasn’t discussed among the other drivers.
The sharing economy also attracts independent and anti-authoritarian individuals, given its decentralized nature, and that compounds the IRS’s difficulties. As David explains, “there will be a subset of people who will take advantage of encryption technologies … to stay anonymous and stay under the table.”
The horse has already bolted from the stable, and a confrontational crackdown at this point would only show the IRS to be feckless at enforcing the prevailing laws. Even if they were to make an example of a few people and tighten surveillance around the big players, such as Uber and Airbnb, that would only drive more people to alternatives and cash-only transactions via Craigslist and other intermediaries.
No, the IRS and Congress will have to get serious about economic activity that does not fit in their conventional boxes — serious in terms of making compliance vastly easier to understand and less onerous. The new resource center won’t do it, and that may be the silver lining to the sharing economy. It has the potential to be a catalyst for deeper reform that crosses over to other sectors of the economy.Was a little hesitant to buy because of the 1-star rating I read, saying that songs are cut short on each side and the quality was terrible, and even the 5-star review I read said the center hole was too small, but I bought anyways and those must have been flukes because mine was in perfect condition. The sound quality is great, none of the songs were cut short, and my center whole wasn't too small. The only thing stopping me from not giving five stars is it didn't include a lyric sheet which is a pet peeve of mine for vinyl. I know the album has been out for ten years and I know every word, but looking at a lyric sheet while listening is part of the experience for me. Also did not include a download code FYI. I've owned the cd for years so that didn't bother me, but in some cases it does because a lot of times I never buy a cd copy knowing vinyl is coming eventually, so I feel like in this day and age, there's no excuse, especially since other albums I've bought on Amazon include autorip. Should include a disclaimer saying no digital copy. Also the fact that the packaging doesn't unfold like an envelope is a missed opportunity. Slightly disappointed at that. Overall, good purchase, but feels like the record label cheaped out a little and really just wanted to cash in on the whole 10-year anniversary trend.239
Argentine Spanish 101
With roughly 50 million speakers across Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, River Plate Spanish is perhaps one of the largest Spanish dialect groups and, certainly, one of the most distinct. It's a language shaped by immigration: massive Italian immigration (60% of Argentines are of Italian descent) has given the language and populace a unique Italian feel. The culture and architecture of Buenos Aires and Montevideo is strongly European, leading many to refer to Buenos Aires as the "Paris of South America". This should come as no surprise: Up to 97% of the Argentina population is of European descent, setting it apart from other countries in Latin America. This course aims to teach not only River Plate Spanish, but also bits of culture and history. If the links below do not work, try here.
Lectures
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites or limits on joining the course: this is an introductory class. However, as with all language classes, a background in the language, culture, or linguistics will serve useful to students.
Syllabus
Texts: There will be no specific books necessary for this course. I'll, perhaps, make book recommendations sporadically throughout the course, but none will be necessary for the course. The course will make use of text, audio, and, occasionally, video resources. The goal is to get you speaking useful Spanish quickly. Little time will be spent on unnecessary details(Remember, this is a 101 course!). I'll be posting materials and lectures/lessons at http://www.reddit.com/r/Argentine101/ Homework will be mostly informal and will not be a huge part of this course. It should be sent as a comment to the corresponding lessons' reddit post on r/Argentine101. Other Recommendations: I highly recommend that you use a flashcard program such as Anki to study vocabulary, as the vocabulary in the course will build on itself. Additionally, remember to use all your resources. Both r/spanish and r/learnspanish are your friends: they will help you. And, of course, I'll also be here to help. The course will mostly follow this organisation: Characteristics or Qualities: Characteristics and Traits
Location
Pronouns
Basic Adjectives
Ser vs. Estar Personal Inquiries: Giving and receiving basic personal information(name, nationality, origin, language, family)
Greetings, inquiries of state of being(hello, how are you)
Interrogatives(what, how, why, which)
First conjugation verbs Possession: Establishing possession
Object location
Transfers of possession
Possessive pronouns and adjectives
Direct object pronouns
Tener, agarrar, conseguir, dar
Third conjugation verbs Future Plans: Establishing wants and needs
Communicating future goals and plans
Querer, pensar, tener que, necesitar
Future tense Daily Occurrences, Routines: Explaining daily routine(wake up, get dressed)
Communicating basic social activities/events(parties, films, shopping)
Second conjugation verbs
Introduction to the Preterite Opinions: Expressing likes and dislikes
Communicating traits of non-human items(food, weather, living things)
Communicating physical characteristics
"Gustar" type verbs
Indirect object pronouns
Additional information
Teacher qualificationsFrom Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Emboar (Japanese: エンブオー Enbuoh) is a dual-type Fire/Fighting Pokémon introduced in Generation V.
It evolves from Pignite starting at level 36. It is the final form of Tepig.
Biology
Emboar are bulky, bipedal Pokémon with pig-like features. It has a red nose, large bushy black eyebrows, and two tusks protruding from its |
, when the main Church of Latter Day Saints excommunicated leaders of the group.
The federal government has accused the towns of operating as a de facto theocracy that discriminates against non-believers, and of violating the US constitution with practices such as denying residents fair access to housing.
But beneath the technical language is a stubborn sore – the isolated FLDS community that for decades has been known for men having dozens of wives, girls being married off as young as 12 and families being torn apart on the word of church leaders as they sought to keep tight control within their radical religion.
“I’m really pleased that the federal government is bringing this legal action,” Salt Lake City-based trial lawyer Roger Hoole told the Guardian.
“The officials in this community are more loyal to their religious leaders than they are to the law of the land, and I’m hoping that the evidence the DoJ has accumulated over the last two years will lead to these towns being separated from the fundamentalist church so they can operate like a normal American town.”
Hoole has fought dozens of cases on behalf of parents who allege they have been thrown out of the community, and sometimes forcibly separated from children and spouses.
In opening arguments in Phoenix last week, the government argued that town officials are chosen by the men who head the FLDS. Public servants such as the police or the mayor are not just members of the church, the government argues, but do the bidding of the FLDS leaders in their public duties.
“The evidence will show the control that these men have over city officials and police officers to achieve their own objectives, the objectives of the FLDS church,” DoJ prosecutor Jessica Clarke told jurors.
“Their plan was to deny basic rights and freedoms to those non-FLDS families so they pack up and move away,” she said.
Defense attorney Blake Hamilton argues that town officials have no bias, and that federal authorities intend to deny religious freedoms and use the civil case to attack residents broadly, because they are members of the FLDS.
“It’s tempting to lump them all into a category as brainwashed cultists,” said Hamilton. “I believe [the government] is targeting people because they’re different.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on the trial, nor did it speciy what relief or punitive measures it seeks from the towns.
But if the government wins, Hildale and Colorado City would almost certainly loosen the grip the FLDS has on its followers, who are born into the religion and brought up home-schooled and without free access to television or the internet.
Hoole believes the towns could have their charters, the basis of their municipal power, taken away, with authority handed over to a judge, county authorities or a federal receivership.
He added that police departments could potentially be disbanded and a new team of county officers put in place. Government attorneys have suggested that police chiefs are appointed by church leaders, and that officers do not respond to emergency calls from non-FLDS residents.
There could also be heavy financial penalties for the town, which could weaken the overall influence of FLDS leaders, who would probably have to pay the cost.
Many wonder why the sect was not prosecuted long ago, given that polygamy is banned in the Utah state constitution, or how the group has survived with its leader in prison.
For years, deserters and critics have accused Jeffs of running the FLDS from behind bars, guiding his flock through letters and phone calls to his brothers, Lyle and Nephi, who run the community from a giant, walled compound in town. But although many have left the sect since Jeffs’s conviction, others stay and do not believe he committed any crimes.
“This federal lawsuit is long overdue,” said Buster Johnson, the supervisor of the Arizona county that contains Colorado City. “State officials have turned a blind eye to the FLDS and too many elected officials have not had the courage to deal with this lawless town in their own backyard.”
Johnson said many elected officials in charge in both Arizona and Utah were either Mormons or unwilling to upset the Mormon church by taking actions “like washing the religion’s dirty history in public”. He added that gathering the evidence for search warrants or prosecution against a secretive community has always proved difficult.
As for polygamy, practice does not necessarily mean prosecution.
When polygamy was outlawed in Utah more than a century ago by the Mormon church, some fundamentalists formed breakaway enclaves, of which the FLDS is one of the largest and most distinctive. Shunned by the mainstream Mormon church and largely ignored by authorities, most polygamists simply marry in spiritual but not legal ceremonies.
The unregistered weddings, usually performed by a religious leader, do not exist under a technical reading of the law that would prohibit multiple marriages.
Hoole said that few of these families, which often comprise a man, so-called “sister wives” and children in one large home, register births with the authorities.
Utah used to ban cohabitation, but that law was struck down by a court in 2013 in a case brought by Kody Brown and his four wives, the stars of the TLC reality TV series Sister Wives.
That in effect decriminalized polygamy in Utah, although the state has appealed against the ruling.
Hoole said that Utah and Arizona have generally not enforced polygamy or bigamy laws “unless it involves other crimes, such as underage girls or other forms of abuse”.
Johnson said the FLDS practiced child marriage more or less unhindered for years because it was so rare for victims, who are born into the religion and kept isolated from mainstream society, to testify against their families and the church.
Jeffs was finally imprisoned after Texas authorities raided a compound and found evidence that he had taken a 12-year-old as one of his dozens of wives.
Hoole said that the group’s practices had gone unchecked for too long: “Polygamy hurts children, hurts women and men and hurts society.”
For critics of the FLDS, the trial has raised hopes that the group will dissolve as the outside world reaches the isolated community.
“There is a constant stream of people leaving these days,” Hoole said. “Individuals and families that want to get back together with those who have previously left or been kicked out by the leaders. People want to be mainstream citizens and it really helps that the government has brought this case.”Family of Comedian Killed in Tracy Morgan's Van Crash Paid $10 Million View Full Caption
NEW YORK CITY — The family of a comedian friend of Tracy Morgan who was killed last June when a Wal-Mart truck crashed into a luxury van he was riding in got $10 million from the retail giant to settle a lawsuit, DNAinfo New York has learned.
Wal-Mart made the large payout to the family of James McNair to avoid potential losses from litigation, the McNair family's lawyer said in court papers.
Under the settlement, McNair's two children, Jamel, 26, and Denita, 19, will split the payout after their lawyer, Daryl Zaslow, takes a nearly $3 million cut, according to court records.
The children had sued Wal-Mart after one of its trucks slammed into a limousine van carrying McNair, Morgan and other comedians on the New Jersey Turnpike on June 7, 2014.
New Jersey police charged the truck's driver, Kevin Roper, with death by automobile and four other vehicle assault charges.
The McNairs signed the settlement in October, but the deal wasn't announced until January. At the time, the terms of the settlement were not revealed because of a confidentiality agreement both sides signed.
But legal documents filed last month in Westchester Surrogate's Court revealed the big payout to James McNair's estate — and that Wal-Mart did not want the settlement sum publicized for fear it would hurt business.
"Both Wal-Mart and the estate of James McNair feel that financial damage could result to Wal-Mart if the terms of settlement are revealed," the McNair's attorney, Zaslow, said in a filing submitted to the surrogate's court to obtain the judge's approval on the settlement. A Westchester judge had to sign off because McNair lived in Peekskill, N.Y.
Zaslow said securing the substantial payout wasn't easy, considering James McNair — who grew up in Brooklyn with Morgan and performed with him at the Uptown Comedy Club in Harlem — didn't make much money and died instantly in the crash.
The 62-year-old comic made a living working part-time at the Salvation Army in between stand-up and writing gigs.
"In short, he had no meaningful past income to project a significant lost-wage claim," Zaslow wrote in his filing.
Zaslow said that Wal-Mart agreed to settle for the large amount because he used the potential losses the retail chain faced from the highly publicized lawsuit as leverage.
"Although many of my colleagues insisted that the strategy would not be successful, and for many months of negotiations this assessment of damages was not being entertained by counsel for Wal-Mart, through months of heated negotiations, [I] was able to convince Wal-Mart to view the damages through this rather unorthodox approach," Zaslow wrote in his filing.
He added that the "$10 million settlement is a truly outstanding result."
In an affidavit made as part of the legal filing, Denita McNair praised her lawyer for obtaining the settlement.
"While no amount of money could replace my father, the amount of money Mr. Zaslow was able to obtain again greatly exceeds anything I imagined and I could not be more grateful," she wrote.
Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove declined to discuss the terms and conditions of the settlement.
"We deeply regret the loss of Mr. McNair as a result of the accident, but Walmart worked closely with his family to ensure their well-being," he said.
"Walmart will continue to work to conclude all other remaining issues, and we’re committed to doing what’s right."
Zaslow declined to comment.
Morgan, who suffered a brain injury in the crash, is currently suing Wal-Mart.Today on “Fox & Friends,” Donald Trump repeatedly used one of his favorite lines — “There’s something going on” — while addressing President Obama’s response to the recent shooting of three police officers in Baton Rouge.
Trump, who has previously used the phrase to suggest that President Obama is a terrorist sympathizer, said that “there’s something going on” with the president’s “body language” that shows that his praise of the work of police officers isn’t sincere.
“You know, I watch the president, and sometimes the words are okay but you just look at the body language and there’s something going on. Look, there’s something going on, and the words are not often okay, by the way,” he said. “There’s just bad feeling and a lot of bad feeling about him. I see it too. There’s a lot of bad feeling about him. We have a country that has not been like this since I can remember it.”
Trump also made the baseless claim that the Baton Rouge shooter was a radical Islamist, a mistake that an adviser later blamed on the fact that the interview took place early in the morning.With the DROID RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD landing in Verizon stores this morning, Motorola has taken to YouTube to release a series of “how to” videos to help folks with their new purchase. Most of this stuff we have covered at length on the site, but if you need a recap or want to see some of the specific features that these new RAZR family members have to offer, jump below and grab your popcorn.
Oh, and don’t forget that we already unboxed the RAZR HD to give you our first impressions.
Using Chrome:
Creating Folders:
Using Voice Typing:
Using Google Play:
Managing Media Content:
Opening the SIM and microSD Card Tray:
Sharing With NFC:
How to Take Screenshots and Share Them:
Reading NFC Tags:
Setting Up Smart Actions:
Setting Up Home Screens:
New Software Enhancements:1. Talk
Feminists are still women, they’re still human, but tend to be a bit more conscious of the inequalities experienced by women in every degree. This includes the point that women’s opinions are often viewed as inferior.
As you would with any other woman, when you speak to your date, listen to her and make her feel that her thoughts and opinions matter. But don’t do this in a patronising manner, be genuinely interested.
Gender norms and patriarchy have dictated that the voice of the man is above any other voice and it can sometimes be very easy to portray this false ideal without even realising it. So, be conscious of how much you speak and how often you dismiss what she has to say. Don’t argue just for the sake of it. Doing so doesn’t make you seem more intelligent; it just makes her think that you believe you know more than she does. This kind of behaviour will seriously reduce your chances of a second date.
2. Other women
One thing you can be sure of is that a feminist will be listening very closely to how you speak about other women. For example, never start a topic about your “crazy ex”. According to the Thought Catalogue, what you’re saying to a feminist when you refer to your ex as “crazy” is that you have no empathy for a woman going through a painful experience; that you expect women to internalise and distrust their feelings because you view them as a crime, as crazy. This is not an argument you want to be having on your first date.
3. The bill
Some people believe that feminists don’t expect, nor do they welcome romantic gestures and this is absolutely false. Here is the feminist standpoint: both sexes can choose how they want to interact with their traditional gender roles. This is good news for you because it means she does not expect you to conform to the patriarchy-driven traditional gender stereotype/role that says that because you’re a man you have to foot the bill. But this does not mean that she won’t accept and appreciate the gesture.
However, using the argument of feminism to try and get out of footing the bill will make you look stingy and no woman wants to be with a stingy man. It’s not anti-feminist to offer to pay the bill, and as a common courtesy, especially if you asked her out on the date, this is something you should do. If she then insists that you split the bill, then that’s that.
As obvious as this should be, I feel that I should mention it because of the context of this piece. Offering to pay for a woman’s drink or meal does not put her in debt to you for anything. She doesn’t have to see you again, she doesn’t have to give you a kiss at the end of the date and she does not have to go over to your place ‘for coffee’. If you in any way imply that these are your expectations, especially to a feminist, you can consider your date over, and you might be leaving the restaurant with a wet shirt – covered in the drink you bought.
4. The end of the evening
When the date ends, it’s common decency to offer to walk your date to her car, or to wherever she’ll be parting ways with you. If she refuses this, don’t push and make it seem like she’s not capable of getting to her car safely by herself.
You’re both adults who should respect each other, so don’t lead her on. If you don’t think the date went well, let her know that you don’t think the two of you are a good match, but that she is a wonderful human being. And if it just so happens to be the other way around, respect her feelings.
On a brighter note, if you both enjoyed each other’s company and genuinely connected on a romantic level, keep in touch in anticipation of your second date.
Stereotypes and misconceptions aside, the fundamental agenda of the feminist movement is for women to be treated as equals. So, when you go on a date, or realise that you are on a date, with a woman who holds feminist beliefs, remember: All your date will be looking for is respect (in all contexts) and a conscious comprehension of her values. This is what every woman wants and even if you’re not on a date with a feminist, maintain the same approach. The most important thing is to be yourself and to be respectful.
Sources: Thought Catalogue, Ask MenMarvel, having decided to produce anime adaptations of both Iron Man and Wolverine, has just released some impressive trailers of both.
You can see them below:
Due for Japanese release in 2010 (via Animax), the series look at first glance to have been adeptly handled by esteemed studio Madhouse. Another two anime adaptations are apparently also in the works.
Marvel seem to have moved away from the traditional depictions for these productions; they describe it as “popular Super Heroes redesigned and repurposed as emerging from the fabric of Japanese culture”. Particularly in the case of Wolverine, at first glance it is certainly easy to get the impression that this is actually a Japonified version of the series actually intended for American audiences…
Whether the end result lives up to the trailer remains to be seen, but it certainly looks promising enough at this stage.I'm not going to rehash what a great album this is. Everyone's noted this is a classic. You can buy earlier versions for a fairly cheap price. The purpose is to answer whether it's worth ponying up $25 for the 2015 remaster vinyl edition.
First, the actual album itself comes plastic wrapped with a perforated clear envelope. This tore off nice and clean. I pulled the record sleeve out along with a separate liner and lyric sheet. It was a delight to pull the record out of its anti-static sleeve. You can actual feel how physically dense the record is, all 200 grams of it (take that, Apple!). Placing the needle on side 1, I was a bit surprised how much lead time is given before that iconic start of Tom Sawyer starts. But once it starts, it feels like a grand building that had sandblasting and the subtle architecture really glows. Also glad to hear the quality holds up all the way to the last revolution (some records get worse as the grooves get tighter and the sound gets thin).
For comparison, I did an A/B test with the last US commercial release of Moving Pictures on CD. which I believe was 1997. The vinyl is certainly brighter and more balanced. Getty's bass as well as Neil's drums sound less muddy on the 2015 record. The snares and toms really come through as well as the acoustic guitars. There are times that the drums feel like you're surrounded by them but not overwhelmed. Vocally, the two recordings sound about the same. I think the showcase where it all comes together is The Camera Eye. From the traffic sounds introducing the synths, the drums, and then everything else fills the room and swirls around. It's quite a moment in music when that happens.
With the album, you also get a code for a download of the remaster which worked without any problems. Again, I compared the vinyl with the CD but this time a burned version of the 320 kbs downloaded 2015 version. This time, the differences were much harder to detect. To be honest, with the only exception of having to adjust the volume between my CD player with the stronger output signal over my turntable, I couldn't find anything noticeably different from the two sources. Both sounded excellent and less muddy from the the prior CD master.
So back to the original question of should you get this version. If you've never bought this album, of course you should. If you have a copy and wonder if you should replace it, I guess it depends. Personally I don't think the difference between the 1997 and 2015 are so enormous that you'll find it life changing from the first time you heard it. For serious music people, I think the upgrade to the 2015 version will be enough to replace your older versions.
PS: I was thinking there might be a cool hologram on the vinyl as featured on the 2112 album, no such luck. You'll just to buy it for the music.If you are the domain name owner and you believe this page is being displayed in error, please contact [email protected] immediately. This page should only appear if the domain name registration has lapsed. Before a registration lapses we will have contacted you at your registered email address. If you have received no email, please login to your 34SP.com account and review your settings.
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You should contact the site owner for any information regarding the domain expiry. Due to our privacy rules we will not disclose the site owner's email addresses or contact details. If you believe this is in error and a matter of urgency we can relay a message to the domain owner on your behalf. Please also note that this page may be displayed due to ISP caching problems, Please check again in a few hours to see if the domain name has returned.United States Supreme Court case
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment protects students from being forced to salute the American flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in public school. The Court's 6–3 decision, delivered by Justice Robert H. Jackson, is remembered for its forceful defense of free speech and constitutional rights generally as being placed "beyond the reach of majorities and officials".
Barnette overruled a 1940 decision on the same issue, Minersville School District v. Gobitis, in which the Court stated that the proper recourse for dissent was to try to change the public school policy democratically. It was a significant court victory won by Jehovah's Witnesses, whose religion forbade them from saluting or pledging to symbols, including symbols of political institutions. However, the Court did not address the effect the compelled salutation and recital ruling had upon their particular religious beliefs but instead ruled that the state did not have the power to compel speech in that manner for anyone. In overruling Gobitis the Court primarily relied on the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment rather than the Free Exercise Clause.[1]
Background [ edit ]
In the 1930s, the government of Nazi Germany began arresting thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to salute the Nazi flag and sent them to concentration camps. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the obligation imposed by the law of God is superior to that of laws enacted by temporal government. Their religious beliefs include a literal version of Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 4 and 5, which says: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them." They consider that the flag is an 'image' within this command. For this reason, they refused to salute the flag. In the United States, children of Jehovah's Witnesses had been expelled from school and were threatened with exclusion for no other cause. Officials threatened to send them to reformatories maintained for criminally inclined juveniles. Parents of such children had been prosecuted and were being threatened with prosecutions for causing delinquency. In 1935, 9-year-old Carlton Nichols was expelled from school and his father arrested in Lynn, Massachusetts, for such a refusal. Additional refusals followed, one such leading to Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940).[2] Even after the Gobitis decision, Jehovah's Witnesses continued to refuse to say the pledge.
Facts of the case [ edit ]
Following the Gobitis decision, the West Virginia Legislature amended its statutes to require all schools in the state to conduct courses of instruction in history, civics, and in the Constitutions of the United States and of the State "for the purpose of teaching, fostering and perpetuating the ideals, principles and spirit of Americanism, and increasing the knowledge of the organization and machinery of the government". The West Virginia State Board of Education was directed to "prescribe the courses of study covering these subjects" for public schools.
The Board of Education on January 9, 1942, adopted a resolution containing recitals taken largely from the Court's Gobitis opinion and ordering that the salute to the flag become "a regular part of the program of activities in the public schools", that all teachers and pupils "shall be required to participate in the salute honoring the Nation represented by the Flag; provided, however, that refusal to salute the Flag be regarded as an Act of insubordination, and shall be dealt with accordingly". The resolution originally required the "commonly accepted salute to the Flag" which it defined. Objections to the salute as "being too much like Hitler's" were raised by a variety of organizations, including the Parent and Teachers Association, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Red Cross, and the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Some modification appears to have been made in deference to these objections, but no concession was made to Jehovah's Witnesses. What was required after the modification was a "stiff-arm" salute, the saluter to keep the right hand raised with palm turned up while the following is repeated: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."[nb 1]
Students pledging to the flag with the Bellamy salute, March 1941.
Failure to comply was considered "insubordination" and dealt with by expulsion. Readmission was denied by statute until the student complied. This expulsion, in turn, automatically exposed the child and their parents to criminal prosecution; the expelled child was considered "unlawfully absent" and could be proceeded against as a delinquent, and their parents or guardians could be fined as much as $50 and jailed up to thirty days.
Marie and Gathie Barnett[nb 2] were Jehovah's Witnesses attending Slip Hill Grade School near Charleston, West Virginia, who were instructed by their father not to salute the flag or recite the pledge, and were expelled for their refusal. On the advice of an early attorney, Mr. Horace S. Meldahl of Charleston, the Barnetts had avoided the further complications by having their expelled girls return to school each day, though the school would send them home.[3]
The Barnetts brought suit in the United States District Court for themselves and others similarly situated asking its injunction to restrain enforcement of these laws and regulations against Jehovah's Witnesses, and prevailed, with the 3-judge panel stating:
Ordinarily we would feel constrained to follow an unreversed decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, whether we agreed with it or not.... The developments with respect to the Gobitis case, however, are such that we do not feel that it is incumbent upon us to accept it as binding authority.
The school district subsequently appealed.[4]
Arguments [ edit ]
The board's argument was that the plaintiffs raised no substantial federal question, and their brief relied extensively on Justice Frankfurter's Gobitis opinion.
Hayden Covington answered the state's appeal in a brief that was a mixture of Jehovah's Witnesses Bible teachings and Constitutional arguments. He explicitly called for the overturning of the Gobitis opinion, especially rejecting Justice Frankfurter's deference to legislative policymaking authority. Such deference, he argued, allowed the legislature to define its own powers. He emphasized the nationwide persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses that had followed Gobitis and concluded with a long list of law journal and newspaper articles that criticized the decision.[5] The American Bar Association's Committee on the Bill of Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union filed amicus curiae briefs that argued Gobitis was bad law and should be overruled.[5]
It was widely expected that Gobitis would be overturned. The resignation of James Byrnes the previous year, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's subsequent appointment of Wiley Rutledge, had created a shift on views of the First Amendment—for instance, the Court overturned a precedent set a mere nine months prior in Jones v. City of Opelika (1942) through its ruling in Murdock v. Pennsylvania (1943).
Decision of the Court [ edit ]
The Court held, in a 6-to-3 decision delivered by Justice Jackson, that it was unconstitutional for public schools to compel students to salute the flag. It thus overruled its decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940), finding that the flag salute was "a form of utterance" and "a primitive but effective means of communicating ideas". The Court wrote that any "compulsory unification of opinion" was doomed to failure and was antithetical to the values set forth in the First Amendment. The Court stated:
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.
The Supreme Court announced its decision on June 14, Flag Day.
Majority opinion [ edit ]
The opinion that Justice Felix Frankfurter had authored three years earlier in Gobitis rested on four arguments. In Barnette Justice Jackson addressed each element of Frankfurter's Gobitis decision. Jackson began with Frankfurter's designation of the flag as a national symbol. He did not question Frankfurter's designation of the flag as a national symbol; instead, he criticized the pedestal on which Frankfurter put such national symbols. Jackson called symbols a "primitive but effective way of communicating ideas", and explained that "a person gets from a symbol the meaning he puts into it, and what is one man's comfort and inspiration is another's jest and scorn".
Next Jackson denied Frankfurter's argument that flag-saluting ceremonies were an appropriate way to build the "cohesive sentiment" that Frankfurter believed national unity depended on. Jackson rejected Frankfurter's argument, citing the Roman effort to drive out Christianity, the Spanish Inquisition of the Jews and the Siberian exile of Soviet dissidents as evidence of the "ultimate futility" of efforts to coerce unanimous sentiment out of a populace. Jackson warned that "[t]hose who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard."
Then Jackson dealt with Frankfurter's assertion that forcing students to salute the flag, and threatening them with expulsion if they chose not to, was a permissible way to foster national unity. Jackson's rejection of this section of Frankfurter's argument has proved the most quoted section of his opinion. In his Gobitis opinion Frankfurter's solution was for the dissenters to seek out solutions to their problems at the ballot box. Jackson responded that the conflict, in this case, was between authority and the individual and that the founders intended the Bill of Rights to put some rights out of reach from majorities, ensuring that some liberties would endure beyond political majorities. Jackson wrote:[6]
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.
The last leg of Frankfurter's Gobitis opinion reasoned that matters like saluting the flag were issues of "school discipline" that are better left to local officials rather than federal judges. Justice Jackson rejected this argument as well:
The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure but because the flag involved is our own. Nevertheless, we apply the limitations of the Constitution with no fear that freedom to be intellectually and spiritually diverse or even contrary will disintegrate the social organization. To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds. We can have intellectual individualism and the rich cultural diversities that we owe to exceptional minds only at the price of occasional eccentricity and abnormal attitudes. When they are so harmless to others or to the State as those we deal with here, the price is not too great. But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.
Concurring opinion [ edit ]
Two of the justices who changed their minds between Minersville and West Virginia v. Barnette—Hugo Black and William O. Douglas—would become the most ardent supporters of the First Amendment.
Black and Douglas in a concurring opinion:
Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest... Love of country must spring from willing hearts and free minds, inspired by a fair administration of wise laws enacted by the people's elected representatives within the bounds of express constitutional prohibitions.
Dissenting opinion [ edit ]
Three years earlier seven justices had followed Frankfurter's reasoning and joined his majority opinion in Gobitis. In Barnette however, only Frankfurter filed a written dissent, while Justices Owen Roberts and Stanley Reed dissented in silence.
Frankfurter said that the court was overstepping its bounds in striking down the West Virginia law. He said, too, that freedom of religion did not allow individuals to break laws simply because of religious conscience. Frankfurter argued that "Otherwise each individual could set up his own censor against obedience to laws conscientiously deemed for the public good by those whose business it is to make laws."
Frankfurter's response to Jackson's systematic destruction of his Gobitis decision was one of anger, and Justices Roberts and Murphy tried to get him to revise his opinion, arguing that the first two lines were "much too personal". However, Frankfurter ignored the advice of his fellow justices, taking the overruling of his Gobitis decision as a personal affront and insisting on speaking his mind.
Frankfurter began with a reference to his Jewish roots: "One who belongs to the most vilified and persecuted minority in history is not likely to be insensible to the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution." This was the passage Justices Roberts and Frank Murphy felt was out of place. Frankfurter, however, insisted that the passage was necessary since he claimed he was "literally flooded with letters" following the Court's decision in Gobitis that said he should be more sensitive to the protection of minorities due to his Jewish heritage. Frankfurter's dissent continued, "Were my purely personal attitudes relevant I should wholeheartedly associate myself with the generally libertarian views in the Court's opinion.... But as judges we are neither Jew nor Gentile, neither Catholic nor agnostic."
Having responded to his critics and the Court's reversal on a personal level, he now responded on a judicial one, with the remainder of his opinion focusing on judicial restraint. "As a member of this Court, I am not justified in writing my private notions of policy into the Constitution.... It can never be emphasized too much that one's own opinion about the wisdom or evil of a law should be excluded altogether when one is doing one's duty on the bench."
Frankfurter continued, arguing that if the Court is frequently striking down laws it is circumventing the democratic process since the Court cannot work to reach a compromise. It either strikes down a law or lets it stand; it cannot simply modify or qualify a law as a legislature can.
Finally, Frankfurter rejected Justice Stone's rational basis test that Stone laid out in United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938). Instead, Frankfurter focused on his belief that there were no provisions within the constitution that occupied a "preferred position" over others.
Subsequent history [ edit ]
The majority opinion in Barnette is considered one of the Court's greatest and most sweeping statements about the fundamental freedoms established by the Bill of Rights. After Barnette the Court began to turn away from the belief-action doctrine altogether, creating a religious exemption for believers of different creeds. In Sherbert v. Verner (1963), for example, the Court upheld a Seventh-day Adventist's claim to unemployment benefits even though she declined to make herself available to work on Saturday (her Sabbath) as the law required. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Court upheld the right of Amish parents not to send their children to public schools past the eighth grade.
At 2006 proceedings cosponsored by the Justice Robert H. Jackson Center and the Supreme Court Historical Society, Supreme Court law clerks from that Court were on a panel with the two eponymous Barnetts. Just as she and her sister had been in 1942, Gathie Barnett Edmonds noted that her own son was also sent to the principal's office for not saluting the flag.[7]
See also [ edit ]
^ This was the wording of the pledge at the time; the words "under God" were added later, in 1954. ^ "Barnett" is the correct family spelling. A court clerk misspelled the name when filing the papers; see http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/woman-in-barnette-reflects-on-famous-flag-salute-case
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Editor's Note: This is the second part of a series. The first covered the internet's initial reaction to Biggie's death.
***
Biggie’s story more than stands on its own, but it will always be linked to Pac’s. They were the faces of the East vs. West feud, which dominated hip-hop at the time, and two of the biggest and best rappers ever. History has made them almost inseparable, just take another look at Biggie’s tributes on Davey D’s site; Pac is mentioned everywhere and the proximity between their murders only adds to the story.
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But while the Biggie tribute came a year after his death, the news of Tupac's death was up just days after he died:
As you all know 2Pac Shakur passed away due to respitory failure a little after 4'oclock on Friday, September 13 1996.. at University Medical Center in Las Vegas... For those of us who got to know him.. and many of us here in the Bay Area... this hits especially hard... As a result we've constructed a memorial of sorts for 2Pac...For many he symbolized the duality in us all...hence we've received all sorts of letters..both good and bad regarding 2Pac...and have posted them for all to see... There are many who've asked..'Why have a tribute for 2Pac?'.. After all, with all the controversy |
’s greatest love (and rival) Elektra Natchios. While they all talked about the show, there were no major spoilers or reveals other than giving fans a chance to interact.
They have also started filming the first season of “Luke Cage,” presumably in some of the same New York locations where they filmed the previous two Marvel/Netflix series, so there should be a consistency with that show as well.
Although ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” might seem like old hat entering its third season, the show’s fans still packed the Main Stage at the Javits for Thursday night’s Agents of Primetime panel which, like last year, included the early airing of next Tuesday’s episode. Although most of the cast didn’t make the trek, Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulsen) joined Loeb on stage before and after the episode was shown.
Again, I don’t want to say much, because if you’re a fan of the show, you’re probably going to watch on Tuesday night, but I will say a few things about the episode titled “A Wanted (Inhu)man.”
* Most of the episode deals with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the newly-formed task force ATCU (Advanced Threat Containment Unit) trying to find Lincoln Campbell (Luke Mitchell), a man with Inhuman powers of electricity, who is on the run after an incident and has a connection to Chloe Bennett’s Daisy Johnson (formerly Skye).
* Coulsen is forced to negotiate with the ATCU leader Rosalind Price (Constance Zimmer) over what to do about Lincoln.
* Ming-Na Wen’s Agent May and Nick Blood’s Hunter have their own side mission where they’re trying to find an arms dealer to sell some illegal weapons and it ends up turning into a “Fight Club” scenario where once again, May kicks major ass.
* There are a couple really nice, even tearful moments between Fitz and Simmons.
* The episode ends in a great place with the status quote changed and an interesting tease for the next episode.
* Maybe it’s because I’m a movie guy, but this is the second time I’ve watched an episode of S.H.I.E.L.D. with a full theater at New York Comic Con and it really works well with an audience in ways that makes me wish that ABC would make a deal with a theater chain to show the series in theaters across the country so fans can see it as a group.
They didn’t forget about the popular “Marvel’s Agent Carter,” which is also currently shooting for its second season to debut in January during the winter break for “S.H.I.E.L.D.” Because they’re filming, they didn’t have much to show but Peggy Carter herself, Hayley Atwell, and James D’Arcy (who plays Edwin Jarvis) had taped a greeting that was shared with the fans. Loeb also showed a short clip where Peggy Carter is being given a tour of Howard Stark’s car by Jarvis, being shown all the cool gadgets including (what else) a bar that flips out of the dashboard and a tracking device. Not bad tech for a car in the ‘40s.
They also announced a number of new cast members, including Lotte Verbeek as Edwin’s wife Annie and Wynn Everett (“The Newsroom”) as Whitney Frost, who will be best known among comic fans as Iron Man “villain” Madame Masque. Currie Graham will play Whitney’s husband Calvin Chadwick, a powerful businessman, while Reggie Austin will play a scientist and possible new love interest for Peggy.
That’s it for what Marvel Television had to show at this year’s New York Comic Con, but just like last year, no one who stood in line to get in left disappointed because there was some great new footage as well as a good tease for what’s to come.
On Sunday, Warner Bros. Television will be putting their own best foot forward to show stuff from the upcoming CBS show “Supergirl,” Fox’s “Gotham” and the anticipated CW superhero spin-off “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.” Stay tuned for that!While legal analysts like Glenn Greenwald and Jonathan Turley lamented Justice Samuel Alito's "serious and substantive breach of protocol" during last night's State of the Union address, conservatives are predictably apoplectic about President Obama's temerity in questioning the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision in that setting. As it turns out, the right-wing hypocrisy in defense of Alito is double. After all, President Bush didn't just routinely use the State of the Union to castigate "activist judges." For years, Bush's amen corner in the conservative movement threatened judges to bring them in line.
Bush's Supreme politicking during his State of the Union speeches was a regular fixture of his presidency. For three straight years (2004, 2005 and 2006), President Bush denounced "activist judges" and insisted "for the good of families, children and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage." On the very day Samuel Alito joined the Roberts Court, Bush used his 2006 SOTU for a victory lap:
"The Supreme Court now has two superb new members -- new members on its bench: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito. I thank the Senate for confirming both of them. I will continue to nominate men and women who understand that judges must be servants of the law and not legislate from the bench."
Nevertheless, Republican leaders feigned outrage over President Obama's criticism Wednesday of the Court's Citizens United decision last week. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called it "rude," adding "It's one thing to say that he differed with the court but another thing to demagogue the issue while the court is sitting there out of respect for his position." Texan John Cornyn took it a step further, calling Obama's strong disagreement with the Court "hysterical" and insisting:
"I don't think the president should have done what he did in trying to call out the Supreme Court for doing its job. They are the final word on the meaning of the United States Constitution, even when we don't like the outcome."
Of course, back in 2005, John Cornyn was one of the GOP standard bearers in the conservative fight against so-called "judicial activism" in the wake of the Republicans' disastrous intervention in the Terri Schiavo affair. On April 4th, Cornyn took to the Senate floor to issue a not-too-thinly veiled threat to judges opposing his reactionary agenda. Just days after the murders of one judge in Atlanta and the family members of another in Chicago, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Cornyn offered his endorsement of judicial intimidation:
"I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country...And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence."
Facing criticism for his remarks seemingly endorsing right-wing retribution against judges, Cornyn held his ground. "I didn't make the link," he said on Fox News Sunday, adding with a note of sarcasm:
"It was taken out of context. I regret it was taken out of context and misinterpreted."
As it turns out, Cornyn was merely echoing the words of the soon-to-be indicted House Majority Leader Tom Delay. On March 31st, Delay issued a statement regarding the consistent rulings in favor of Michael Schiavo by all federal and state court judges involved:
"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today."
As the New York Times reported:
Saying that the courts ''thumbed their nose at Congress and the president,'' Mr. DeLay, of Texas, suggested Congress was exploring responses and declined to rule out the possibility of Congressional impeachment of the judges involved.
The impact of tacit conservative endorsement of violence against judges cannot be dismissed. After all, it extends to members of the Supreme Court of the United States. In March 2006, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed that she and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor were the targets of death threats. On February 28th, 2005, the marshal of the Court informed O'Connor and Ginsburg of an Internet posting citing their references to international law in Court decisions (a frequent whipping boy of the right) as requiring their assassination:
"This is a huge threat to our Republic and Constitutional freedom...If you are what you say you are, and NOT armchair patriots, then those two justices will not live another week."
Neither O'Connor nor Ginsburg were shy about making the connection between Republican rhetoric of judicial intimidation and the upswing in threats and actual violence against judges. While Ginsburg noted that they "fuel the irrational fringe," O'Connor blamed Cornyn and his fellow travelers for "creating a culture" in which violence towards judges is merely another political tactic:
"It gets worse. It doesn't help when a high-profile senator suggests a 'cause-and-effect connection' [between controversial rulings and subsequent acts of violence]."
Of course, O'Connor and Ginsburg weren't the only targets of right-wing retribution, serious or otherwise. After sentencing Scooter Libby to 30 months in prison in 2007, Judge Reggie Walton reported receiving death threats. That episode followed a January 2006 joke by best-selling conservative author and media personality Ann Coulter, who mused in January 2006, "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee."
As reaction to the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC ruling showed, judicial activism like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But as John Cornyn, Tom Delay and their fellow travelers at right-wing "Justice Sunday" and "Values Voter" events reveal time and again, judicial intimidation is the province of Republicans alone.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)Robert Wichser, a fashion-industry veteran, joined Narciso Rodriguez as CEO of his fashion house in August and is credited with helping Mr. Rodriguez launch shoes and bags and encouraging him to sign collaborative deals. Robert Wischser and Narciso Rodriguez join Lunch Break to discuss the company's new strategy. Photo: Kohl's Department Stores.
It takes more than a visionary eye for style to turn a fashion designer into a blockbuster brand. It takes a combination of right-brain creativity and left-brain execution.
For women's fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez, it has meant hiring left-brain fashion-industry veteran Robert J. Wichser in May. The label tapped him to be chief executive and resident "suit" at the 15-year-old label. Mr. Wichser's mission is to help the Narciso Rodriguez label regain the business mojo that has eluded it in recent years.
...Labour leader’s attack on government’s ‘academisation’ plan at NUT conference comes as teachers consider strike action
Jeremy Corbyn will accuse the government of overseeing a crisis in British schools, as he becomes the first party leader in at least 40 years to address the National Union of Teachers’ annual conference.
Corbyn will say on Friday that ministers are trying to “shut parents out of a say in how their children’s schools are run”, in a speech that will attack an overhaul of education announced by the Conservative party last week.
“George Osborne used the budget to announce the forced academisation of all schools. This is an ideological attack on teachers and on local and parental accountability – an attack which was nowhere in their manifesto at the last general election.
“The Tories want to shut parents out of a say in how their children’s schools are run. I want schools accountable to their parents and their communities – not to those pushing to be first in line for the asset stripping of our education system.”
'They’ve gone bonkers': Tory councillors angry with academy plans Read more
He will add: “There is a crisis in our schools now... Children are facing rising class sizes; there is a shortage of teachers, and parents already face a crisis in school places.”
Corbyn’s comments are likely to be warmly received by NUT delegates in Brighton, after the union said it was preparing emergency plans to oppose the education white paper, including possible strike action to be voted on by the conference.
Christine Blower, the NUT’s general secretary, said she believed there was “wide and deep” opposition to the government’s plans, and that the NUT would seek to build a coalition with Conservative councillors who were unhappy at losing control of schools as well as through the House of Lords.
The NUT published a letter it has sent Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, this week, asking for the evidence behind her claims that academies produced better results for pupils.
Kevin Courtney, the NUT’s deputy general secretary, said the white paper appeared to have been written “on the back of fag packet”. “We think the white paper is evidence-free,” said Courtney. “There is no systemic evidence to justify the biggest change in education we have seen.
“It’s bigger than the comprehensivisation of the 1960s, it’s bigger than the 1944 Education Act; it probably goes back to the 19th century in terms of the scale it represents.”
JeremyCorbyn4PM (@JeremyCorbyn4PM) JC to speak at @NUTonline Teachers' conference - more than a decade after senior Labour figures attended #solidarity https://t.co/8mICbxHYQY
Blower said Corbyn had asked to address the conference. “He was very keen to come,” she said.
He will argue that forcing every school to become an academy will do nothing to address key problems, and will instead mean another £700m spent on “needless reorganisation” that does not address issues that matter to parents or teachers.
Corbyn’s speech – which was announced on Twitter just a few hours before the conference began – follows a period of rocky relations between Labour and the NUT.
Senior party figures stopped appearing regularly after a hostile reception for Estelle Morris when she was education secretary. In 2002, she faced heckling and a slow handclap. Afterwards, Lady Morris said: “If I told them that tomorrow was Sunday, I think they’d say it wasn’t and pass a motion against it.”
In 1995, David Blunkett, then Labour’s education spokesman, was trapped in a room for 30 minutes after being pursued by activists shouting: “Sack the Tories, not the teachers!”
Nicky Morgan: Being a parent is not a skill school governors need Read more
Labour’s own academy policy in power led to run-ins with the unions, and the relationship particularly soured with the NUT. Corbyn’s position on the left of his party has meant a close relationship with the unions, which hope he will take a tougher line than New Labour over the plans. His speech is designed to reach out to teachers.
He will add: “The pressure of work forced more teachers to quit last year than ever – over 50,000 – and the government has now missed its trainee teacher recruitment targets for the last four years in a row.
“That has resulted in half a million children now being taught in classes of over 31 in primary schools.
“One in four schools are increasing their use of supply teachers; one in six are using non-specialists to cover vacancies; and more than one in 10 are resorting to using unqualified staff to teach lessons.
“Labour will work with you, with parents and pupils, with local authorities and with our communities to defend education and stop these plans for forced academisation.”After more than a 100.000 downloads of Light Cycles Duel - on several platforms - we present Light Cycles Duel 2 (Tron). This time it also has single player fun!
Like the first edition, the game has fun OLD SCHOOL two and single player - legacy - gameplay like the old C64 and Amiga days for your tablet or phone. Based on the Tron movies it is basically a lightcycles game.
- Available for iPhone and iPad & Apple Store
- Available at Google Play
- And Amazon
- And SlideMe
The computer; an extension of the human intellect.
The ENCOM 5-11: centre of the most calculating intelligence on Earth, programmed by Master Control to survive by all means. Now the ultimate tool, becomes your ultimate enemy in an old school epic Light Cycles Duel.
Based on the Tron movies this is basically a lightcycles game. The game features Turn AND Swipe controls.
Light Cycles are vehicles resembling motorcycles that are driven by programs in the Game Grid. Upon being rezzed in by a program's rod, a light cycle completely covers the driver - who is forced into a riding position - with a protective canopy. Each Light Cycle is colored according to the color of the rod that generated it.
On the Grid designed for them, light cycles are incredibly fast when moving, and leave behind a solid jetwall in their wake. They move in straight lines and only turn in 90° angles. With their brakes disabled, this creates a hazard whereby one light cycle could be forced to crash into the jetwall of another, causing the victim to derez along with their light cycle.
Can you beat the computer or another player in a Light Bike duel?
Features single and two player modes! For Free!
- Human VS Computer
- Human VS Human (two players on one device!)
- Human VS Computer VS Human
- Human VS Computer VS Human VS Computer (two players on one device!)In the last couple of weeks there have been two daytime armed robberies reported in North Berkeley, according to my neighborhood listserve. One was in a private garage where the woman had left her house and gotten into her car to go to work and decided to make a cell phone call first. A man entered the garage with a gun and demanded her cell phone, which she refused. His partner then went to the passenger door and grabbed her purse and the two ran away and got into a car and drove off. She called 911 but the police were unable to find the car or suspects.
The second one occurred on a street parallel to Solano and a few blocks north. About 11:30 a.m. a man was going through the trunk of his car when a black SUV with no rear license plate stopped and a male with a gun got out and demanded the resident’s wallet. Once again, the police were unable to locate the suspect.
In the 50 plus years I have lived in North Berkeley I have no recollection of daytime armed robberies in this area.
When Mayor Bates was elected in 2000, the staffing of the police force was 215. Today it is 170 or less with an authorized force of 176, according to city documents.
A few decades ago, Berkeley had 18 fire stations and five persons per engine. Today Berkeley has seven fire stations with three persons per engine. A couple of years ago the city started a rolling closure of fire stations because the fire department had insufficient funds. A $6 million tax measure was put on the ballot and passed to cover the overtime to keep the seven stations open. The $6 million is being used for other things than overtime, and the fire department is not disclosing how much money is in the fund or what the funds are used for.
The city charter provides that the function of the Mayor is to preside over City Council meetings and to represent the city at ceremonial functions. The mayor has turned the city government (illegally) into a strong mayor form of government and no-one has challenged it.
During the Mayor’s reign union contract negotiations have provided city employees with raises in excess of the CPI. Contributions to the employees’ pension plan have consumed the budget so that the benefit package now costs the city 80-90% of payroll (per the city website under “employee benefits”). The benefits vary by union. New employees get fewer benefits. The cost to the city for the pensions will dramatically increase in the next couple of years due to actuarial changes that PERS is required to make, and the losses they incur in the market and real-estate investments.
The recent $30 million street-paving bond approved by the voters was immediately reduced by $9 million when the city moved engineering personnel off the General Fund and put them on the bond money. The city is paying current salaries and the property owners will pay off those salaries during the 30 years required to pay off the bond. BAD fiscal management. Illegal use of bond money?
The city has increased the garbage tax and the sewer tax by use of the outrageous interpretation of Proposition 218 which allows the city to send out a notice of increase and says if you disagree sign and send back the notice. They don’t tell you that failure to send back the notice constitutes a YES vote. Every 218 tax increase since the passage of prop 218 has passed.
How would you feel if you didn’t vote in the next presidential election and it was counted as a vote for Trump?!
If you want more daytime armed robberies in your neighborhood, be sure to continue to elect your current representative and be sure to elevate one of them to mayor to suceed Tom who has done a splendid job of making Berkeley more like Chicago.
If you want police, and fire protection, and affordable garbage collection, you had better start to pay attention because ignoring the problem is going to cost you an arm and a leg and maybe your life.
Thank you Tom. You won’t be remembered for soccer fields.
Berkeleyside welcomes submissions of op-ed articles. We ask that we are given first refusal to publish. Topics should be Berkeley-related, local authors are preferred, and we don’t publish anonymous pieces. Email submissions, as Word documents or embedded in the email, to [email protected]. The recommended length is 500-800 words. Please include your name and a one-line bio that includes full, relevant disclosures. Berkeleyside will publish op-ed pieces at its discretion.The M-4 Sherman was the workhorse medium tank of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps during World War II. It fought in every theater of operation—North Africa, the Pacific and Europe.
The Sherman was renown for its mechanical reliability, owing to its standardized parts and quality construction on the assembly line. It was roomy, easily repaired, easy to drive. It should have been the ideal tank.
But the Sherman was also a death trap.
Most tanks at the time ran on diesel, a safer and less flammable fuel than gasoline. The Sherman’s powerplant was a 400-horsepower gas engine that, combined with the ammo on board, could transform the tank into a Hellish inferno after taking a hit.
All it took was a German adversary like the awe-inspiring Tiger tank with its 88-millimeter gun. One round could punch through the Sherman’s comparatively thin armor. If they were lucky, the tank’s five crew might have seconds to escape before they burned alive.
Hence, the Sherman’s grim nickname—Ronson, like the cigarette lighter, because “it lights up the first time, every time.”
In the new film Fury, a single Tiger tank devastates a platoon of Shermans advancing across Germany. Gus Stavros, a World War II veteran who witnessed actual combat between a Sherman and a Tiger outside of the town of Nennig, Germany, said the reality of pitched battle between the two tanks was just as horrifying.
“If you’ve seen movies where the people come out of the tank all aflame—I saw that,” Stavros said during a video interview for a combat oral history sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“The German tank had an 88-[millimeter gun] and it just blew the General Sherman tank to pieces until there was nothing left but smoke and fire.”
The loss of both men and machines is hard to grasp. Simply put, in the heat of battle it was as dangerous inside of a Sherman tank as it was outside of one.
“The 3rd Armored Division entered combat in Normandy with 232 M-4 Sherman tanks,” writes Belton Cooper, author of the appropriately named Death Traps, a study of U.S. armored divisions and their battles in Europe during World War II.
“During the European Campaign, the Division had some 648 Sherman tanks completely destroyed in combat and had another 700 knocked out, repaired and put back into operation. This was a loss rate of 580 percent.”Frequently Asked Questions | Read before you ask.
[i.reddituploads.com]
XDeadzX: Originally posted by
What is For Honor?
[en.wikipedia.org]
[scars.forhonorgame.com]
Q: When is the Beta?A: The Beta is on Thursday, 26th January 2017.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: What will be in the beta?A: This ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: How will I know if I have been invited?A: An email will be sent to whatever email address is attached to your uplay account letting you know you have been invited.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will we get Beta keys for Friends and how many?A: Most likely yes and you will receive 3 keys.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Are the consoles included in this test?A: Yes both PS4 and Xbox one as well as PC.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will my PS4 keys work for my friend on Xbox?A: No. Ps4 keys only work for other Ps4 players and Xbox keys only work for Xbox players. Same with PC.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: When will we get our invite?A: You will most likely receive your invite on the 24th-25th---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: How long is the Beta?A: The Beta lasts from the 26th to the 29th---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: If I participated in previous tests am I guaranteed to get in?A: You are not guaranteed to get in if you had participated in previous tests.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: If I pre-order any edition of For Honor do I get guaranteed to get into the Beta?A: No, Preordering does not guarantee nor increase your chances to get into the beta.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Is the Beta open or closed?A: The Beta is closed.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will all the classes be in this test?A: Only 9 out of 12 Heroes will be in the closed beta.Lawbringer, Valkyrie & Shugoki will be left out.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Is this test under NDA?A: No it is not which means streaming and recording will be allowed.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: How large is this test?A: It will be a very large test.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Do I have to unlock heroes in order to play them?A: All heroes are playable without unlocking, unlocking allows customise them. You can still level-up without unlocking them.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Can we pre-load the game?A: We don't know, it was possible in the Alpha.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Do I need UPlay in order to play For Honor?A: Yes, you most likely do.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will we be able to play the Campaign?A: No, most likely not.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will there be Microtransactions?A: Ingame currency, cosmetics and boosters.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Is For Honor Peer-To-Peer?A: Yes, but we don't know whether it will stay like this or not.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Should you play with a Controller or Mouse & Keyboard?A: Whatever you prefer.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Language Restriction?A: Yes, that does exist. Unfortunately, we have no information regarding that restriction.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: What does Season Pass offer?A: Season Pass Info ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will there be voice chat?A: There is normal chat, voice chat and quick chat.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Why is the game so expensive?A: The game offers a Single Player Campaign with an online feature and heavily focuses on Multi Player with different Game Modes and unique Heroes. All upcoming "DLC Map and Modes" (except cosmetic stuff) will be free for everyone. They don't want to tear the community apart.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will the game have Competitive Matchmaking and Tournaments etc.?A: We can only speculate, I'd answer with "Yes" for both.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: How many hours do you think we can invest, before the game gets boring?A: Depends on you specifically. You might play 20 hours, while someone else'll play 100+ hours.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Will For Honor have achievements and trading cards?A: Achievements, only on UPlay. Trading Cards, yes.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: I'm under NDA, when can I talk about everything?A: 5 years from now.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Q: Can I upgrade from Standard to Deluxe or Gold?A: Apparently, yes.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------That's all about it. I'll try to keep this up to date. If you have more questions let me know.For Honor videos provided by UbisoftThere are of course many more videos, but these are the "most desired" ones.It would be nice to BUMP this thread once in a while to stop people asking the same questions over and over again.For Honor is an upcoming online action hack and slash video game in development by Ubisoft Montreal and set to be published by Ubisoft for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.For Honor offers you a variety of heroes, 12 to be exact, 6 more to come.Everyone is unique on their own, have their own combos and completely differ in playstyle overall.You've a health and stamina bar.3 sides to attack and guard from (Top, Left and Right), Guard Break and Throw, Dodge, Feint and Parry. Those are the basics. And Finisher, of course.It's not open world, there are different game modes, which vary from 1v1 to 4v4.There's also customisation, not only appearance, but also equipment and something similar to Prestige.You'll need constant internet connection, even for Single Player, because they'll add an online feature (so I've heard), unfortunately I don't know what exactly.Then, there's the ingame currency with which you can unlock equipment or accessoires and most likely Microtransaction for cosmetic stuff.KnightsVikingsSamuraiposter="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201702/2602/1155968404_5339450832001_5339441410001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Bush: I support an immigration policy that's welcoming
The vitriol directed by President Donald Trump toward the Muslim community is misguided, former President George W. Bush said Monday morning, telling NBC’s “Today” that terrorists “are not religious people.”
From the very beginning of his upstart presidential campaign, Trump’s hard-line stance on terrorism, first by proposing a total ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and later by pledging “extreme vetting” of those seeking to enter the U.S., has proven controversial. The president’s executive order temporarily banning individuals from certain majority-Muslim nations from entering the U.S. prompted protests at international terminals around the country and a wave of legal challenges.
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Bush, who took an exceedingly conciliatory tone toward the Muslim community in the weeks following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, implied that a similar approach might be more successful for Trump. The president’s willingness to paint with broad strokes in his statements on Islam and terrorism misses the mark, Bush told “Today” host Matt Lauer.
“It's very important for all of us to recognize one of our great strengths is for people to be able to worship the way they want to, or not worship at all. The bedrock of our freedom — a bedrock of our freedom — is the right to worship freely,” the former president said. “You see, I understood right off the bat, Matt, that this was an ideological conflict and people who murder the innocent are not religious people. They want to advance an ideology and we have faced those kind of ideologues in the past.”
Asked directly if he supported the Trump administration’s travel ban as a matter of policy, Bush replied that “I am for an immigration policy that's welcoming and upholds the law.”
The Trump administration has argued that its travel ban is based not on a religious test but on an assessment developed under the administration of former President Barack Obama that the nations in question were “countries of concern.” Federal courts have disagreed thus far, issuing a stay of the president’s immigration order in part because of Trump’s campaign rhetoric promising to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S.
While administration officials have remained publicly confident that Trump’s immigration order will win in court, the White House is expected to release a new executive order to address the issue in the coming days.Matthew Hill is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Cell Biology and Anatomy and Psychiatry at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary (Canada). He was trained in Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychoneuroendocrinology at the University of British Columbia and did postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Bruce McEwen at the Rockefeller University. Dr. Hill’s research has helped to reveal the critical role, and neural circuits through which, endocannabinoid signaling regulates acute responsiveness and adaptation of the stress response, both at the neuroendocrine and behavioral level. Further, his research has demonstrated how chronic stress can compromise endocannabinoid function, identifying this system as target for both the pathophysiology and treatment of stress-related mood and anxiety disorders. This research program is funded by CIHR, NSERC and Brain Canada. Dr. Hill has done consulting with Health Canada regarding their information document for health care professionals providing information on cannabis, as well as in industry where he has consulted with both Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson regarding their endocannabinoid research programs and potential applications to stress-related psychiatric illnesses.Philadelphia police have 150 new patrol cars on the way with a feature that no other major municipality has: bulletproof windows.The vehicles have ballistic shields affixed to the front door panels and what is dubbed 'transparent armor' backstops a large portion of the original equipment glass in the front windows.It all makes this modified car resistant to pistol and shotgun ammunition."It is cutting edge in the sense that it provides protection for police officers seated in the vehicle from gunfire," said Commissioner Richard Ross.The protection does not extend to the windshield but it does cover the front sides of the vehicle.Last year two Philadelphia officers, Jesse Hartnett and Sylvia Young, survived being shot while sitting in their patrol cars."We believe ballistic protections like this would have probably protected them from any of those gunshots aimed at them," said Ross.The protection packages add about $1,300 dollars to the cost of a car. Ross said the cost is well worth it."Certainly the mayor and myself believe it is one far worth it when you consider the state the world that we're in today, and that we've seen multiple ambushes across the nation on uniform police officers," he said.Along with the 150 patrol cars, 10 wagons will be outfitted with the shields. In all, the Philadelphia Police Department operates about 750 patrol cars and 70 wagons.----------Scattle first received attention from the GameMaker community for his game, Xycle. Since then, he has released a variety of games including Mouse No. Probably A Rat (a parody of a game by Rob Fearon) and Constellation Chaos, which received a flash port in a collaboration with Andy Wolff.
Bonus link at the bottom of the interview.
Name?
David Scatliffe.
Age?
17.
Location?
The US of A.
Development tool(s) of choice?
What do you do?
I make games, music, music videos, and other stuff.. probably just anything that can somewhat entertain people.
How did you get into game development?
I really just got into it by being bored out of my mind. I tried making little flash animations and writing.. but that didn’t turn out so well. So one day, when my trial of flash expired, I googled “game maker” and the rest is pretty much history.
What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?
All I really want to do is release a game on steam, maybe get a game on Xbox Live Arcade, and make a game for Adult Swim. I want to be able to live well off of my little game exploits, and rub it in the faces of the ones who didn’t believe in me, haha.
Who didn’t believe in you?
Just some of the kids at school (and some of the counsellors). I didn’t get very good grades in school, so I guess I can’t blame them. I guess they thought I was going to try and get some big job at EA or something. Who knows?
What ultimately inspires you to keep creating?
There’s this feeling that I get sometimes when I feel like I’m making something truly awesome, that’s 100% me. That, mixed with the feeling of learning something really cool and useful, is what inspires me to keep making stuff. And of course, I wouldn’t be anywhere without the many brilliant indie developers out there, busting their asses.
After taking a ‘break’ from game making, are you back working on stuff?
I haven’t been really busy making games, although I’m still constantly prototyping stuff. Nowadays, I’ve just been collaborating with other indies (making music and sound effects for their stuff), which is equally enjoyable.
What happened to Xycle+ and what other game development related projects have you been working on in recent times?
Xycle+ (now Xycle2) is pretty close to getting finished. It’s taken a bit long (I think it’s been a year in development) but soon we’ll finally have something really groovy for people to play (and possibly curse at). I also got some really great guys to help out with some remixes for the OST, which should be out around the same time that the game’s released.
As for my other projects, I can’t say too much.. most of the time they start as cool little ideas that I work on for a day or so, but I just lose interest… I’m not really sure why.
You switched your own role from game developer over to game designer / collaborator. Why did you decide to go in this direction?
I just really love to work with others. There’s something awesome about having multiple minds connect on a solid idea, and it’s easy to feed off of that energy and sustain that drive to actually finish something.
Do you still use GameMaker to prototype any of your concepts, before you pitch them to people?
Of course! Yeah, I love GM and still use it to prototype / mockup stuff / whatever.
When you prototype, is there any planning involved or do you just jump straight in and develop the core idea, while it’s fresh in your head?
There’s really no planning involved at all. I get an idea in my head, and immediately start drawing all the characters. If the characters are interesting, then I start drawing the environments, enemies, etc.
I really like to see what the game is going to be, before I start coding anything, but maybe it’s not the best way to go about things.
How do you choose who you collaborate with?
I don’t really think about it. I figure as long as they make cool stuff, and they like my stuff, why not team up on a game.
When you found GameMaker, did you find it immediately |
is open and airy.
Beekeepers have lots of explanations for this behavior. Some say the bees are “measuring” the distance between frames, some say the structure acts like a scaffolding from which the bees build comb, some say bees can only produce wax from the festooning position.
Scientists, however, are much less confident about the function of festooning. Jürgen Tautz the world-renowned German bee biologist at the University of Würzburg says, “The function of the living chain that is formed by bees where new combs are being built, or old combs repaired, is completely unknown.”
Researchers Muller and Hepburn studied the festoons of Cape honey bees in South Africa. They found that workers in a certain age group produced the same amount of wax as others in their age group whether they were in a festoon or not. Furthermore, they found that about half the new wax originated from bees in a festoon and half from bees elsewhere in the nest, except in winter. In winter nearly all new wax came from non-festooning bees.
In a way, not knowing why they occur makes festoons all the more beautiful. Be sure to take a look.
Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite
Festooning bees. Flickr photo by Maja Dumat/blumenbiene.
Pin 34 577 SharesAdopt-A-Fossil! Become a Guardian of Deep Time Texas
Follow the project on twitter @adoptAFOSSIL. After you 'adopt', select and claim your fossil, if your favorite is not yet there let us know and we'll make it available for you. Learn more about our collections, a sample of our Outreach, and our type fossils.
SAMPLE FOSSIL FOR ADOPTION: Finally some lovely brachiopods. This group were very prolific in the Paleozoic seas.
Deep time Texas? We’re talking here about Texas over several hundred million years. During that time frame, we have been variously covered by the sea, crisscrossed with huge deltas, mountains have formed and eroded, and much more. All those changes have left us with a record in the form of rocks. Luckily for us, those rocks sometimes include examples of living organisms existing at that time, preserved as fossils. These rare fossils provide a unique window to life, and the variations of that life, as the Texas ecosystems changed.The full scope of this project is to provide virtual access to this record of life held in the research collections at the Jackson School of Geosciences, specifically the invertebrate paleontology collections. Those collections are global so you may find yourself adopting a fossil from other exciting places-just because it is so fascinating!
The HornRaiser will be funding a vital part of the project. 2-D and 3-D imaging of a select group of 25 fossils representing major branches of invertebrate life, corals, sponges, molluscs (like snails and clams), arthropods (like crabs), and echinoderms (like sea urchins and sea lilies).
Your donations will be used to acquire a NextEngine 3-D laser scanner and software, and support a graduate student and two undergraduates. The students will be instrumental in imaging and processing those images and scans, writing short explanations and producing the short videos. Their work will be monitored by experts at the Non-vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory. The 3-D models will be printed at the Innovation Station in collaboration with the Cockrell School of Engineering. The selected 3-D file will be uploaded to that system, and the adopter will be emailed when their printing is to occur. They have the added thrill of being able to follow the process live on-line, if they wish.
We encourage individuals, classes, or groups to adopt one or sets of the fossil specimens and learn the history of those specimens, their scientific importance, and what they tell us about the environments at that time. Each adopter can learn what happens to fossils after they were collected and placed in the collections. Everyone will receive a digital image of their fossil and a basic description of what group it represents, and when it lived. Then, depending upon the level of contribution, they will receive 3-D prints, and other exciting opportunities. Schools may request suites of fossils that are common to their specific locations, and we shall encourage them to post their own finds on a Google Earth so we can develop a two-way scientific dialog with those students. We shall provide teachers with a template for the type of data that should be gathered along with any fossil finds their own students make, and encourage them to use their own finds as a means to further the scientific and cognitive skills of their students. If they are urban schools or those in non-fossiliferous areas, we shall provide them with data sets from our own collections, so these students do not miss out on the experience.
The Project Goals: (1) Generate interest in deep time history, especially in Texas and develop a fun way to learn about invertebrate animals that have lived here in the past. Some of these animals are long extinct, or extirpated (moved off to somewhere other than Texas), and others profoundly changed through time. (2) Provide a way in which all participants can appreciate that the earth is not static, environments change over time, and organisms respond to that change in a wide variety of ways. This is a highly important topic especially in our present state of changing climates. (3) Create a broad base of philosophical and financial support for the collections themselves. Funding for such vital research collections is highly competitive, but such funding is absolutely critical to achieve their long-term survival. Most of the collections cannot be ‘recollected’ because it would be either financially prohibitive or physically impossible. We cannot go back in time and recollect mussels from 1890, neither can we drain the highland lakes to recollect those pre-1950’s sites, or dig up highways and housing developments.
Thank you for your support, you are helping to preserve our unique record of life in deep time Texas for research and education.
Follow the project on twitter @adoptAFOSSIL. After you 'adopt', select and claim your fossil, if your favorite is not yet there let us know and we'll make it available for you. Learn more about our collections, a sample of our Outreach, and our type fossils.Staff at a Notre Dame campus bar in South Bend, Ind. got a pretty spectacular surprise last month when a group of three generous men left two tips totaling $10,000, despite the fact that they seemed to be rooting for the opposing team. But because it’s not every day that such a sum lands in your lap, the staff is still waiting to get that cash due to fraud concerns.
“Fight on,” the cardholder wrote on his receipt on Oct. 19 after he paid the tab for his fellow University of Southern California fans who had been watching their team play Notre Dame. Then he added a $5,000 tip on their $84.06 bill, reports the South Bend Tribune.
“We were all looking at this like, is this a joke?” said a former bartender at the bar.
But the generosity wasn’t done yet — when the game was over the men came back and spent another $164.50 — and left another $5,000 tip.
Because he used his American Express card both times, the company and Notre Dame haven’t cleared the tips yet. There’s a worry about fraud, which means the three servers have yet to split the money.
“We’ve been working with American Express to determine the validity of the tip, and we hope and expect that question will be resolved soon,” a Notre Dame spokesman said, adding the university was in touch with American Express because of the “suspicious nature of the transaction.”
An American Express spokeswoman also doesn’t know when or if the servers will get their moolah, as the company can’t say when it’ll decide if the tips are legitimate.
As for the identity of this tipper or tippers, it’s unclear if it’s connected to someone using an Instagram account chronicling similar instances of largess around the country.
“They were trying to keep it confidential,” the former bartender says of the whole incident. “We had no reason to think it wasn’t real.”
Mystery tipper leaves $10,000 at bar [South Bend Tribune]About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western Mediterranean aboard a Princess liner. At dinner we noticed an elderly lady sitting alone along the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining room. I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys, etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady. I asked our waiter who the lady was, expecting to be told she owned the line, but he said he only knew that she had been on board for the last four cruises, back to back. As we left the dining room one evening I caught her eye and stopped to say hello. We chatted and I said, “I understand you’ve been on this ship for the last four cruises.” She replied, “Yes, that’s true.” I stated, “I don’t understand” and she replied, without a pause, “It’s cheaper than a nursing home.” So, there will be no nursing home in my future. When I get old and feeble, I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost for a nursing home is $200 per day. I have checked on reservations at Princess and I can get a long term discount and senior discount price of $135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for: 1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day. 2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day (of fantastic food, not institutional food) if I can waddle to the restaurant, or I can have room service (which means I can have breakfast in bed every day of the week). 3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, a workout room, free washers and dryers, and shows every night. 4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo. 5. They will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5 worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you. 6. I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days! 7. TV broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress replaced? No problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your inconvenience. 8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don’t even have to ask for them. 9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare; if you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life. 10. There is always a doctor on board. Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or name where you want to go? Princess will have a ship ready to go. So don’t look for me in a nursing home, just call shore to ship. PS: And don’t forget, when you die, they just dump you over the side at no charge.
Origins: Although the “cruise ship” recounting has become the more widespread, the earlier form taken by this piece of e-lore featured not a luxury liner but a hotel. In 2003 this waggish diatribe against the cost of nursing home care had its writer swearing to check into a Holiday Inn when the grey hairs became too many. By 2004, some of the numbered items now found in the “cruise ship” tale were in place, albeit in a version that claimed Holiday Inn rather than Princess as substitute elder care housing (e.g., “TV broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress replaced? No problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your inconvenience”). By 2005 more numbered items had been added, including some cruise-specific ones (e.g., “There is always a doctor on board” and “And don’t forget, when you die, they just dump you over the side at no charge”).
Also by 2005, what had begun as one writer’s claim about his or her fanciful future plans had come to be presented as the actual remarks of an old woman living that life on a cruise ship. It is at this intersection that folklore and reality: while the account of the “elderly lady” has clearly evolved from earlier pieces about pie-in-the-sky retirement plans involving Holiday Inn, some people of advanced years have indeed made their homes on cruise ships.
Bea Muller, an 86-year-old retiree, took up residence on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 on 5 January 2000. Her husband had passed away while the couple was on a world cruise eleven months earlier, and rather than opt for a retirement home, Mrs. Muller sold her house and possessions and booked herself onto the ship.
Instead of submitting a monthly or yearly fee, in 2001 Muller was reported to be paying as she went, booking one cruise after another. Thanks to her frequent traveler discounts, her overall costs amounted to about $5,000 a month. (Cruise prices have increased since then, which is something those entertaining similar plans should keep in mind. Also, Muller’s accommodations were small and windowless: a 10×10 foot cabin that barely fits a bed, radio, and television, with a bathroom smaller than the average closet found in a typical home.)
Its cramped quarters aside, Muller was happy with her life aboard a ship. “I’ve got full-time maid service, great dining rooms, doctors, medical center (where she volunteers), a spa, beauty salon, computer center, entertainment, cultural activities and, best of all, dancing and bridge.” (Muller passed away in 2013, and the Queen Elizabeth 2 was retired from service in 2008.)
Bea Muller was not the first long-time cruiser: Cunard had a previous guest, Clair MacBeth, who lived aboard ship for 14 years.
As to whether living out one’s golden years aboard a cruise ship is a viable alternative to spending them in a retirement home, a geriatrician at Northwestern University says such a plan is a feasible and cost-effective alternative to assisted-living facilities. Dr. Lee Lindquist, an instructor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, compared the costs (over a 20-year life expectancy) of moving to an assisted-living facility, a nursing home and a cruise ship, including the expense of treating acute illnesses, Medicare reimbursement and other factors. She determined that the net cost of cruise-ship living was only about $2,000 more than the alternatives ($230,000 versus $228,000) and offered a higher quality of service.
“Cruise ships offer such a range of amenities — such as three meals a day, often with escorts to meals if needed, room service, entertainment, accessible halls and cabins, housekeeping and laundry services and physicians on board — that they could actually be considered a floating assisted-living facility,” says Lindquist.
Lindquist says the plan would work best for seniors who need a minimal amount of care. “Seniors who enjoy travel, have good or excellent cognitive function but require some assistance with activities of daily living are the ideal candidates for cruise-ship care. Just as with assisted living, if residents became acutely ill or got to the point that they needed a higher level of care, they would have to leave.”
Although Lindquist’s findings would seem to support the premise of it being cheaper to live on a luxury liner than in a retirement home, we’d want to examine her research vis-a-vis the types of care facilities she looked at and the cruise-ship costs she factored in before we’d feel comfortable about offering an opinion on her assessment. (She might have compared only very expensive retirement homes against the cheapest accommodations offered on ships that are less than well thought of, for example.)
However, whatever the validity of Lindquist’s findings, cost is but one of the elements to the choice of where to reside after retirement. Golden agers who decide to make their permanent homes on cruise ships sacrifice proximity to family and friends; their nearest and dearest are no longer just a short car ride away. Those devoted to their children and grandchildren might well deem that too high a price to pay, no matter what the spreadsheet says about the relative financial costs. Likewise, those who lack progeny but who are involved in their communities or who are part of a number of strong friendships may not want to opt for the vagabond life, because it would mean abandoning that which gives them joy.
Also, life on a cruise ship means one acquaintance after another, but no permanent ongoing connections of any depth. Fellow passengers disembark to return to their regular lives at the termination of their one- or two-week holidays, which means friendships struck up with them land in the “We’ll keep in touch” bin very quickly. As for staff, while serial cruisers can strike up deeply affable relationships with some of the line’s employees, these rapports are inherently limited by their very nature: no matter how close such associations appear to be, ships’ employees are required to be deferential to paying passengers, so the friendship-critical element of honesty can never be part of such dealings. Making a cruise ship one’s permanent address, therefore, will not be for everyone. While those at ease with a steady diet of the superficial will thrive, those who require the comfort of at least a few real friendships will likely feel lonely even though they live among crowds.With former California Attorney General Kamala Harris officially sworn in as the state's newest Senator, Governor Jerry Brown has moved to fill her vacant role by formally nominating Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) for the AG position. CBS 5 reports that Becerra, who represented portions of Los Angeles in the US House of Representatives for 24 years, is a vocal critic of president-elect Donald Trump and has pledged to defend California against the Republican onslaught.
Although state officials have 90 days to confirm Becerra, it is widely believed that the process will be a smooth one. The LA Times reports that his first confirmation hearing is scheduled for January 10.
“Xavier has been an outstanding public servant — in the state Legislature, the U.S. Congress and as a deputy attorney general,” Governor Brown said in a statement last month. “I’m confident he will be a champion for all Californians and help our state aggressively combat climate change.”
Global climate change is not the only threat Becerra is gearing up to fight, and the Congressman issued such a warning to the Republican-controlled House and Senate. “We have policies in place that probably won’t pass at the federal level for another five, 10, 15 years,” Becerra said in a statement picked up by The Sacramento Bee. “If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, then come at us.”
"We're always ahead of the rest of the pack and we should be prepared to defend that," The AP quotes him as adding.
Becerra won reelection to Congress just this past November, and as such a special election will need to be held to replace him. That could happen as soon as this spring, although the timing is not locked down. In the meantime, Becerra is preparing for the work ahead.
"Governor Brown has presented me with an opportunity I cannot refuse — to serve as Attorney General of my home state," he wrote in a statement last month. "As a former deputy attorney general, I relished the chance to be our state's chief law enforcement officer to protect consumers, advance criminal justice reform and, of course, keep our families safe."
Becerra has a 23-year record in the House of Representatives, representing California's 34th District from 1993 to 2003, and again from 2013 to the present, with a ten-year stint in between representing the Inland Empire's 31st District. Part of the reason for the change was redistricting that occurred in 2012. In 2001, Becerra also ran for mayor of Los Angeles, but did not make it past the primary. Governor Jerry Brown picked Becerra for the role on December 1, but that only became official with today's nomination.
Related: Kamala Harris Reverses Position For Second Time, Will Not Support Challenge To San Francisco's Cash-Bail SystemPosted 16 September 2014 - 01:47 PM
I have decided to turn the Match Maker to Clan vs IS matching for a few hours this afternoon/evening. I think it is time that we collect some new data on the current state of balance between the two technologies.
We will of course be keeping player skill and other factors in mind when looking at the data, while compariing it to the previous IS vs Clan tests.
When: 3:00 PM PDT and will last for an estimated 3 hours depending on results and the quality of play.
Expected Behaviour: Players should expect to experience Clan vs IS matches or when necessary the MM will release valve IS vs IS or Clan vs Clan matches.
I may also consider creating a test window tomorrow during our peak European times.
Update: Solo Queue only
Update 2: changed the duration to 3 hours to restore more equality of play.Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
The IDF Home Front Command is preparing for the possibility that Hezbollah will fire thousands of missiles from Lebanon into Israel during the next war.
A national war drill will be held from Sunday to Wednesday, including a nationwide air raid siren at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday.
The goal of the exercise is to train civilians how to quickly enter “safe zones” in homes and workplaces, in the event of a mass rocket attack.According to assessments by the Home Front Command, in any multi-front conflict, some 95% of enemy rockets would be light-weight and have ranges less than 40 km., and 1% of all incoming projectiles would score direct hits on buildings.A mass rocket attack in a war on multiple fronts would be expected to cause mass disruption and perhaps hundreds of casualties. The Home Front Command has been working with emergency services, government ministries and local authorities to prepare for such a scenario.The preparations do not reflect an assessment that a conflict is imminent, but rather, standard Home Front Command work during routine times. Keeping basic services running under fire is a central goal of the command.Israel’s enemies collectively have some 230,000 projectiles, more than half of which are in Hezbollah’s arsenal in Lebanon.In any full-scale war, Hezbollah could fire 1,500 rockets per day, and target central Israel with dozens of long-range rockets per day. The large majority of those would strike open areas, according to assessments.The Home Front Command’s preparations are taking into account the fact that Hezbollah is seeking to obtain more and more precision-guided rockets.In any conflict, cross-border infiltrations by Hezbollah and Hamas would pose significant challenge to the home front, the army says.The Home Front Command recently increased the number of areas within the country that could receive rocket alerts from 265 to 3,000, greatly increasing the system’s accuracy.In recent weeks, the command held a drill in which it practiced summoning reservist search and rescue personnel to mock destruction zones.In the event of conflict with Hezbollah, of the 750,000 Israelis who might leave their homes in the North, the state would be able to house some 95,000 of them in hotels and kibbutz homes.Regarding chemical weapons, assessments in the Home Front Command are that the strategic threat has decreased greatly since the Assad regime disbanded its program, but the tactical, pinpoint threat that ISIS will use chemical weapons near the Golan border will increase as time goes on.As a result, the Home Front Command continues to maintain gas mask production lines, enabling the manufacture of protection kits at a moment’s notice.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>The Queen was accused of making a catastrophic error of judgment today by dining with the King of Bahrain, whose regime is accused of a catalogue of human rights abuses.
The head of state and her family sat down to lunch with the Middle East ruler and other controversial foreign royals as they celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.
The event was supposed to be a rare meeting of monarchs to celebrate the 60-year milestone, but it has been overshadowed by strong criticism from campaigners about those invited to the Windsor Castle event.
Guests from controversial regimes include Swaziland’s King Mswati III, the former prime minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Sabah, who stepped down over a corruption row, and Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Britain.
The anti-monarchy group Republic, along with human rights groups, has accused Bahrain’s government, dominated by members of its royal family, of orchestrating the violent suppression of pro-democracy protesters last year.
When the country’s King Hamad Al-Khalifa arrived at Windsor Castle he was personally greeted by the Queen, who smiled as she shook his hand and the pair laughed as they shared a joke.
Republic’s chief executive Graham Smith said: “The Queen cannot hide behind protocol and precedent, this is a crisis of her own making.”
The popular uprisings that toppled a succession of dictators across the Middle East last year failed to ignite significant protests in the Arab Peninsula.
But in Bahrain there were major demonstrations, with protesters calling for a greater say in government. These were violently put down by Saudi forces called in by the regime.
The decision to stage a Formula One Grand Prix in the country last month re-ignited tensions and there was further violence.
Bahrain has said it aims to improve its human rights record after its officials held an inquiry into the handling of last year’s protests and produced recommendations.
King Mswati is accused of having a lavish lifestyle while his people starve.
Protests were held outside the African ruler’s exclusive London hotel earlier this week. He is said to be staying with an entourage of more than 30 people.
Recent reports by Amnesty International highlighted a wave of repression in Saudi Arabia as the authorities have cracked down on protesters and reformists.
Human Rights Watch have criticised the Kuwaiti authorities for the suspension of a daily paper and the conviction of its editor for alleged incitement.
Denis MacShane, a former Foreign Office minister, was another vocal critic of the guest list, which included the King of Bahrain, and laid the blame at the door of the Foreign Office.
He said: “Given the amount of blood on the hands of the royal regime in Bahrain it’s a shame he will stain the white linen of Windsor Castle at this event.
“It’s the responsibility of the Foreign Office to decide who comes, it’s nothing to do with Her Majesty.”
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh greeted their guests personally when they arrived, patiently waiting outside the Castle’s Waterloo chamber where the pre-lunch reception was held.
First to arrive was Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, soon followed by Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg.
The Grand Duke and Duchess were warmly greeted by the Queen and Duke with handshakes and double kisses - a display of affection that set the tone for many of the welcomes.
King Harald V of Norway kissed the Queen’s hand when he and his wife Queen Sonja met the monarch and she replied with a beaming smile.
PAJoe Hildebrand defends speaking gig at Women in Media
Joe Hildebrand has defended his decision to accept a speaking gig at the inaugural Women in Media conference, saying criticism of men’s inclusion at the event was “absurd and illogical”.
The journalist and television personality is one of three men who will take part in an all-male panel discussion about how to boost gender equality, which has prompted cries of “mansplaining” from some feminists.
“What do they want us to do?” Hildebrand asked. “Would they have us say to the organiser, a senior woman in Australian media, ‘No, that’s really sexist of you’?”
The Studio 10 star and news.com.au editor-at-large will share personal anecdotes and ideas on how to “break down barriers for women”.
He told The Australian that a lack of flexibility was a major issue but warned against over-policing the workplace.
“I don’t want to live in a world where everyone’s treading on eggshells and speaking in sterile language,” he said, noting senior women he knew who could “drink and cuss with the toughest journalists”.
Hildebrand said that if staff felt valued and respected at work, the odd “off-colour remark” was unlikely to escalate into a crisis — like what unfolded at Seven’s Adelaide bureau when former cadet Amy Taeuber was marched out of the building after making a sexual harassment complaint.
“I think that was absolutely disgraceful, but to be honest I think it was more of a catastrophic failure on the part of the HR department,” he said. “The old dinosaur she complained about, he could’ve been dealt with with a quiet word from his chief of staff.”
Hildebrand said companies that rely on buzzwords and “ticking boxes” with online courses, diversity quotas and gender equity KPIs were missing the mark.
He will not be paid for his appearance and is taking annual leave to attend the conference on the Gold Coast from October 27 to 28. He will appear alongside Foxtel’s Peter Tonagh and SBS chief executive Michael Ebeid on the “Men in Media” panel.
The men’s inclusion sparked controversy when the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance unveiled its full program.
Buzzfeed reporter Alice Workman tweeted: “There’s a ‘men in media’ panel at this year’s women in media conference. Don’t they have enough?”
Others piled on, asking if the organisers could not find enough women for the event.
Among the high-profile women on the program are Tracey Spicer, Sarah Ferguson, Caroline Jones, Christine Middap, Sandra Sully and Edwina Bartholomew.
Courier Mail deputy chief of staff Laura Chalmers said on behalf of the organising committee: “We will be hearing from both men and women at our upcoming conference because we believe we need to include both genders in the conversation about gender equality.”
As Media previously reported, scandal-plagued Seven is a major sponsor of the conference and the network will send a delegation of 15 employees.
Ms Taeuber will also be in attendance at the conference.
Understanding the banking sector's role in making Australia more competitive A panel of experts will discuss whether, post GFC, our banking system has become too regulated, stifling innovation and competition. Thursday 23 November 2017, 12pm for 12.30pm to 2pm Ivy Ballroom Level 1, 320 George Street Sydney Book Now O
Reader comments on this site are moderated before publication to promote lively and civil debate. We encourage your comments but submitting one does not guarantee publication. We publish hundreds of comments daily, and if a comment is rejected it is likely because it does not meet with our comment guidelines, which you can read here. No correspondence will be entered into if a comment is declined.Media playback is not supported on this device Dalglish annoyed by media criticism of Carroll
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish insists striker Andy Carroll is not struggling for confidence.
The club's record signing has scored three goals in 19 appearances this season and only five in 28 since his £35m move to Anfield.
"I don't think self-belief is a problem for Andy Carroll, I don't see why it should be," Dalglish said.
Carroll, 22, could make his second consecutive start for Liverpool against his old club Newcastle on Friday.
He made his first start in four matches in Boxing Day's 1-1 draw with Blackburn and could have scored had it not been for two good saves by Rovers goalkeeper Mark Bunn.
ANDY CARROLL RECORD Newcastle: 90 apps, 33 goals
90 apps, 33 goals Preston (loan): 11 apps, 1 goal
11 apps, 1 goal Liverpool: 28 apps, 5 goals
Dalglish said: "There is nothing to say he is short of belief and there is no evidence he should be.
"One game he played in we went down to nine men [the 4-0 defeat by Tottenham] and another [the loss at Fulham] we had another sent off.
"I think yourselves [the media] have a bigger problem with Andy than anyone else.
"This week is understandable because it is against Newcastle but I don't understand the rest of the stuff."
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, who reluctantly sold Carroll, has backed him to regain his form and add to his three England caps.
"He hasn't really had a run in that Liverpool side and like all strikers, he probably needs a run," Pardew said.
"He's a great lad and a great player. I like Andy.
"It was disappointing to see him left out of the England squad the last time because I think he can be an England player and England's number nine.
"He is going through a period of transition at a new club, finding his feet and finding out that they play slightly differently to how we did here, but he will find his way."In what should be an interesting beginning to the coming avalanche of ICO failures, the SEC has come down hard on Munchee, a company that built a $15 million token sale. The SEC chairman recently noted that coin offerings are, in fact, securities and that pre-sale participants must be registered with the SEC.
The Munchee ICO aimed to fund the MUN coin, a payment system for restaurant reviews. The company received a cease and desist from the SEC on December 11.
Within the SECs findings they noted that Munchee touted itself as a “utility” token which means that the company believed the MUN token would be primarily used within the Munchee ecosystem and not be used to fund operations. However, thanks to an application of the Howey Test (a Supreme Court finding that essentially states that any instrument with the expectation of return is an investment vehicle), the SEC found the Munchee was actually releasing a security masquerading as a utility.
“Munchee offered MUN tokens in order to raise capital to build a profitable enterprise,” read the SEC notice. “Munchee said that it would use the offering proceeds to run its business, including hiring people to develop its product, promoting the Munchee App, and ensuring ‘the smooth operation of the MUN token ecosystem.'”
The stickiest part? Munchee claimed that its coins would increase in value thanks to a convoluted process of growth.
“In the MUN White Paper, on the Munchee Website and elsewhere, Munchee and its agents further emphasized that the company would run its business in ways that would cause MUN tokens to rise in value. First, Munchee described a ‘tier’ plan in which the amount it would pay for a Munchee App review would depend on the amount of the author’s holdings of MUN tokens. For example, a “Diamond Level” holder having at least 300 MUN tokens would be paid more for a review than a “Gold Level” holder having only 200 MUN tokens. Also, Munchee said it could or would “burn” MUN tokens in the future when restaurants pay for advertising with MUN tokens, thereby taking MUN tokens out of circulation,” wrote the SEC.
The final nail?
Munchee published a blog post on October 30, 2017 that was titled “7 Reasons You Need To Join The Munchee Token Generation Event.” Reason 4 listed on the post was “As more users get on the platform, the more valuable your MUN tokens will become” and then went on to describe how MUN purchasers could “watch[] their value increase over time” and could count on the “burning” of MUN tokens to raise the value of remaining MUN tokens.
In short, Munchee was undone by two things: depending on the token sale as a vehicle to raise cash for operations and using the typically spammy and scammy marketing efforts most ICO floggers use now, tactics taken directly from affiliate marketing handbooks.
Until token sales leave the internet ghetto and refuse to use get-rich-quick tactics and erection pill marketing ploys, more and more of these ridiculous token sales will end in failure. Fortunately, Munchee was able to return all $15 million to the 40 investors that dumped their coins into scheme.
I tried to contact Munchee via their website but, like their ICO, that feature is shut down.Grasshopper Manufacture has released new information and concept artwork of its newly announced Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, which will launch exclusively for Switch in 2018.
Here’s the overview, via Grasshopper Manufacture:
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a raucous 3D action title, where Travis touchdown wields the Beam Katana to massacre his way through countless enemies, taking on ferocious bosses in an epic battle with Badman. This marks the first time in ten years that Goichi “Suda51” Suda has taken on the mantle of director.
“We’ve received a tremendous amount of support from our fans over the years, and we are delighted to finally share Travis Touchdown’s next great adventure with fans of Nintendo Switch,” said Goichi “Suda51” Suda, founder of Grasshopper Manufacture. “We’re ecstatic to be expanding the No More Heroes universe in 2018, and we can’t wait to share more information with you in the coming months.”
Set in the remote countryside of the southern US, seven years has passed since the events of No More Heroes. Badman has come to exact his revenge on Travis for the murder of his daughter, Badgirl. As the two foes are battling it out, they’re sucked inside the phantom game console ‘Death Drive MK-II’, a machine developed by Doctor Juvenile. It is said that whomever collects and beats all six of its games will have their wishes granted.As we head into the last month of summer and our imaginations begin turning to scarves, boots, and all things pumpkin (pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies… REAL pumpkin PSLs?!). I find myself daydreaming about cool fall afternoons in the park sitting under changing leaves and sipping hot coffee, munching on a fresh batch of apple cider doughnuts with my husband while our kids are running through the leaves.
But… right now it is still 90+ degrees and in a week our oldest will start preschool! So I am trying to put my autumn daydreams aside and focus on enjoying our |
giving him the opportunity to get into space.
WATCH THE VIDEO IN OUR PLAYER ABOVE
Ross watching Martin with his back to the play. Source: FOX SPORTS
“Starting in midfield there at the centre bounce side-by-side with Martin. The ball gets kicked St Kilda’s way, St Kilda forward,” King said.
“Look at him — not even watching the ball. He’s turning to see where Martin is. Back to the play, going into his own forward 50, he’s worried about where Martin is.
“The ball spills, St Kilda win it, Martin has to come back to him.
“So the mindset that he’s going to deny Martin at every opportunity is what takes him forward.”
Seb Ross and Dustin Martin in St Kilda's defensive 50 Source: FOX SPORTS
King cited another example when Ross’ teammate Koby Stevens supported the midfielder in making a run the length of the ground to deny Martin space inside the forward 50.
Koby Stevens moves to check Dustin Martin's run Source: FOX SPORTS
“Same thing here, Martin takes off, he slips him by 15 metres,” King said.
“Fantastic team block for Koby Stevens to just check him for a metre or two to give Seb Ross a chance to recover and boy does he recover.
“He goes full length of the ground just to deny Martin an opportunity.”
Ross catches up to Martin in the forward 50 Source: FOX SPORTS
King said Ross’ effort reflected the level of effort the players were inspired to produce under Richardson — and queried why he wasn’t being mentioned as a possible target for other clubs.
“That’s the attitude that Alan Richardson has got these guys playing at — and that’s next-level stuff,” King said.
“Saints fans wouldn’t have seen that before. And I just thought, if that’s where they’re at, why isn’t Alan Richardson in the conversation?
“When we’re talking about Brad Scott for Collingwood and for all these other places... He’s gone four wins, six-and-a-half, 12, nine and nine (at the moment).
“Nine and six — that is not just development, that’s changing the whole landscape at St Kilda — taking a club that was in a real world of pain (forward).
LIVE stream every game of every round of the 2017 Toyota AFL Premiership Season on FOX SPORTS. Get your free 2-week Foxtel Now trial and start watching in minutes. SIGN UP NOW >>
“He’s got proven credentials with kids, he’s put a game plan together and the effort I saw on the weekend — forget the scoreline — the effort, I think very few teams have matched this year.
“I found it fascinating and that’s on the back of what Alan demands and what their leaders demand and they’re a club going places.”
King said the Saints should look to lock down Richardson — currently contracted until the end of 2018 — to ward off opposition interest.
“They’ve got to lock him away,” he said.
“I mean, if he’s in the same situation as Brad Scott, he’s a conversation and the Saints can’t afford to lose him and I’d be making sure you lock him away.”A WITNESS has claimed he tried to hit one of the terrorists over the head with a crate to stop the unfolding attack at London Bridge.
Florin Morariu shared a video as he ran through Borough Market in the aftermath of the terror attack, with the chaos including a victim covered in blood being led from the scene.
Florin Morariu 9 A police officer can be seen leading a person away from the scene
Florin Morariu 9 A person is treated at the scene at Borough Market on Saturday night
Florin Morariu 9 Florin Morariu can be seen running through the scene, with chaos unfolding around him on Saturday night
Speaking to the camera in a mix of English and Romanian, the man can be heard saying he tried to stop the attack, saying in Romanian: "I hit one of them in the head with a crate and I knocked him out."
The Romanian baker then says that three people were involved in the horrific attack, saying: "Oh my God, it is a terrorist attack here.
"The terrorists cut the people on the streets."
Florin Morariu 9 Another person can be seen on the ground being treated, with a bandage being wrapped around his head
Florin Morariu 9 Authorities rushed to the scene to help those injured
Florin Morariu 9 An officer can be heard reassuring a victim as they run through Borough Markets
BBC 9 Florin said he was scared by felt pity for those injured in the attack
He then asks people to go get a bat for him, presumably to protect the victims still being treated in the streets.
Later speaking to the BBC with a translator, he said: "I threw the crate at them and I knew he was going to dodge it.
"While he was dodging it, I was walking towards him and I hit him in the head with a second crate that I had."
Florin was labelled a hero but said he simply "felt pity" for the person he could see injured on the ground.
He said: "I wanted to save both of us."
He said a moment later, police started to yell at him to run away, and that they were going to throw a grenade.
Did you see the London Bridge terror attack, or know anyone involved? Please contact The Sun newsdesk on 020 7782 4100, text 07423720250 or email [email protected]
In the video taken by the Romanian baker, officers can be seen running through the markets, with one seen trying to reassure a bloodied victim that he would be OK. Throughout the footage, people can be seen on the ground, being treated by emergency services and bystanders hoping to help. One person can be seen having a bandage wrapped around his head. People have since called Florin a hero, with one saying: "I believe Florin is a hero for bravely attacking one terrorist and for being ready to continue the fight".
Another said: "You have my respect."
Other witnesses from Saturday night's attack have recounted how they saw people on the floor of a pub, with police swarming on the restaurant and warning them to leave the area.
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The Met's Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley has confirmed that all three of the depraved attackers were shot and killed within eight minutes of the first call to emergency services after brave cops rushed to protect the public.
Confirming the death toll had risen to seven, Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick praised the "extraordinary courage" of brave passers-by who stepped in to help those injured in last night's atrocity.
Chris Eades 9 Armed cops at London Bridge today after the terror attack
Reuters 9 Forensic teams on the scene at London Bridge
Commissioner Dick said: "Many, many people risked their own safety to help others and treat those seriously injured and to indeed confront the suspects involved.
"It's clear to me the courage of those people during and following this attack was extraordinary."
Following the third terrorist attack in three months Theresa May declared "enough is enough" and confirmed Thursday's General Election will go ahead after chairing a Cobra meeting this morning.
No terror group has claimed the attack, which comes after ISIS issued a chilling instruction to its followers to launch “all-out war” on the West to mark the start of Ramadan.Good morning lovely ladies! You are in for a treat today! First off, I received an amazing package from Hard Candy yesterday with their new polishes! I had to immediately swatch the Candy Sprinkles collection for you because I know that is what people are most looking forward to. I am missing 2 of them though (I went to my local Walmart and they didn’t have them out yet. Bummer!) but I think you’re going to LOVE the 7 I do have!
Oh! And stay tuned to the end of this post – Hard Candy has GENEROUSLY teamed up with me to do a very special giveaway! There will be TEN winners in total. Each winner will receive one of the new polish collections releasing soon!
Candy Sprinkles
Crushed Chromes
Crystal Confetti
Itsy Glitzy
Glitteratzi
Pretty awesome right? Don’t miss out! For now – let’s get into the Candy Sprinkles swatches!!
Gummy Green – Pastel mint green with black & white speckled glitter. I absolutely LOVE this! I was able to get pretty decent coverage with this in just two coats. You could definitely go for one more if you wanted to and it would be perfect!
Pixie Pink – Light pink / lavender base with teal, white and pink glitters. This reminds me of a sweet fairy! Photo below shows two coats.
Cotton Candy Pink – A perfect name for this baby pink base with purple & white glitters! And now I’m craving sweets! Photo below shows two coats.
Peach Pop – Coral orange base with red, yellow & orange glitters. Super cute and fun for Summer! Photo below shows two coats.
Pink Fairy – Bubblegum pink base with dark pink, black & white glitters. Another adorable name! Photo below shows two coats.
Sugar Rush – White base with black & white glitters. Cookies & Cream anyone? This one was a bit sheerer than the others. I used two coats but you can clearly see a third one is necessary for it to become opaque. No biggie – It would look awesome over your favorite white polish!
Sweet Tooth – Pale white base with light pink, blue & white glitters. Another that could have used a third coat. I actually prefer it with two.. It gives it a nice soft subtle look!
Final thoughts on these? AMAZING. I had NO issues with application or getting the glitter out. They are slightly thick which is why I really thought they were going to be completely opaque on the first coat. I am so happy they are buildable so if you don’t want to top them over another polish, you don’t have to! VERY impressed by these!
hardcandy.com within the next 2 weeks or so. For an affordable price of $3.97, you seriously cannot go wrong! Pick them up in every.single.color! These should be hitting your local Walmart stores VERY soon and online at walmart.com within the next 2 weeks or so. For an affordable price of $3.97, you seriously cannot go wrong! Pick them up in every.single.color!
Are you ready to enter the giveaway now? Rafflecopter will do all the work – Good luck everyone!!
**There will be ten winners in total. Each winner will receive ONE of the collections listed above. This is open to US & Canada only. Sorry!**
*Products in this post provided for an honest review. All opinions are my own*
**Giveaway sponsored by Hard Candy – Thank you!**EUGENE -- In a 33-point victory, a few field goals aren't really going to move the needle.
Sure, Oregon place kicker Aidan Schneider had a career day. He drilled four field goals in the first half of the Ducks 61-28 win over Georgia State, becoming the first Oregon kicker since Morgan Flint in 2009 to hit four in a game.
But no, the takeaway from Saturday was Jeff Lockie, the absence of Vernon Adams Jr. and more questionable defensive play.
But that didn't stop Oregon special teams coach Tom Osborne from taking some pride over his unit's performance, especially Schneider's final kick: a 40-yarder at the end of the half when the Ducks had no timeouts and had to rush the field goal unit onto the field.
"There's some guys on the sideline that are 50 yards away from the play. It was just great to see those guys do it because we practice it every week," Osborne said. "That's the first time we've had to do that situation in a game in a couple of years."
As Osborne said, the Ducks were ready for it. To execute a play like that, when the seconds are ticking off the clock and a kick needs to be made, the whole unit has to be in sync. Osborne said the Ducks are comfortable getting everyone on the field and hiking the ball if there are still 18 to 20 seconds left on the clock. One time in practice they were able to do it in 16 seconds. It all depends on how far into opposing territory the ball is and what side of the field it's on. If the ball is on the far hash, that can add an extra second. If one player on the sideline doesn't have his helmet on, or doesn't realize the situation, they have no chance.
"It's so loud they can't hear when you're yelling for Johnny, Joe, Steve and Billy," Osborne said. "We have to have our guys tuned in. Some of those guys are clear on the other side of the field."
None of this would matter if the kicker wilts under pressure, but over the last year and a half, Schneider has shown that he's immune to pressure. In warm-ups, Schneider missed about four field goals in a row, something that would normally register with Osborne if he didn't know Schneider so well. Since walking on last fall and beating out Matt Wogan for place kicking duties, Schneider has shown an ability to, frankly, not care. He just does his job, Osborne said.
"I don't think he even realizes what he's doing and he's playing college football," he said. "Nothing fazes him. That's what makes him so good. He doesn't overthink things. He doesn't let anything bother him."
And despite not place kicking, Wogan has been strong as well. He recorded eight touchbacks on 11 kickoffs against Georgia State to share Oregon's special teams player of the week honors.
Schneider is 6 of 6 on attempts this season and has missed only one of 18 attempts in his career. The kick at the buzzer, the one to tie Flint, a player Schneider had never heard of, was the cherry on top of a very nice game in the midst of a blowout. But with Pac-12 play beginning this week against No. 18 Utah, the pressure will ramp up and games will get closer. Good thing the Ducks say they have a kicker who doesn't care about the situation.
"My key is to not think about anything," Schneider said. "... I know the coaches are confident in my kicking because of what I've shown them in practice and games so far."
-- Tyson Alger
[email protected]
@tysonalgerThe former 'Two and a Half Men' star worked with Haim on the 1986 film 'Lucas.'
Charlie Sheen on Wednesday responded to a report that he allegedly sexually assaulted Corey Haim when the late actor was 13 years old and Sheen was 19.
"Charlie Sheen categorically denies these allegations," a rep for Sheen told The Hollywood Reporter.
The former Two and a Half Men star worked with Haim on the 1986 film Lucas.
Haim's longtime friend, actor Dominick Brascia, told the National Enquirer that Sheen sexually assaulted Haim during that film's production.
Haim's name has been in the news recently after his mother pushed back on stories from Corey Feldman about the late actor being abused by a Hollywood pedophile ring, to which Feldman claims he also fell victim.
The two Coreys were close friends who worked together on a number of '80s films.
Los Angeles police on Wednesday confirmed to THR that an investigation had been opened into Feldman's accusations.
Staff writer Ashley Cullins contributed to this report.Del Martin, Lesbian Rights Pioneer Dead 1924-2008 (Photos)
, a lesbian rights pioneer who recently wed her partner,in one of the first same-sex marriages in San Francisco, died today at the age of 87 on August 27, 2008.
Her wedding took place on June 16, 2008 when she and her partner of 55 years were married at San Francisco City Hall by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Martin and Lyon co-founded Daughters of Bilitis, a ground breaking lesbian rights organization in 1955. It was the first social and political organization for lesbians in the United States. They were the first lesbian couple to join NOW - the National Organization for Women.
The Lyon-Martin Health Services was formed in 1979 by a group of medical professionals and health activists as a clinic for lesbians who lacked access to nonjudgmental and affordable health care. The clinic soon became a model for culturally sensitive community-based health care.
Del Martin is survived by spouse Phyllis Lyon.
Photo from the couple's wedding below.
Source: SFGateDespite tough talk from the White House, BP continues to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars from US military fuel contracts, and at least one new contract has been signed since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.
According to a report in today's Washington Post, in the current fiscal year, BP has fuel contracts with the US military worth at least $980 million. And the Environmental Protection Agency, before the oil spill, had looked into barring BP from all federal contracts due to its 2006 Alaskan oil spill and the deadly 2005 explosion at one of its refineries in Texas. If successful, the EPA would have cut BP off from signing contracts with the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), which handles military fuel purchases. From The Washington Post:
Jeanne Pascal, a former EPA lawyer who until recently oversaw the review of BP's possible debarment, has said she initially supported taking such action but held off after an official at the Defense Department warned her that the Pentagon depended heavily on BP fuel for its operations in the Middle East. "My contact at DESC, another attorney, told me that BP was supplying approximately 80 percent of the fuel being used to move U.S. forces" in the region, Pascal said. She added that "BP was very fortunate in that there is an exception when the U.S. is involved in a military action or a war."
A Defense Department spokeswoman, Wendy L. Snyder, disputed Pacal's claims, saying the DESC "informed the EPA that there are adequate procedures and processes to protect the U.S. military missions should EPA determine that BP should be debarred." The Post talked to BP spokesman Robert Wine, who said he knew of at least one "big contract" agreed to between BP and the Pentagon after the Gulf oil spill, and:
He did not challenge Pascal's claim that BP's health, safety and environmental unit had been moved lower on the corporate structure before the gulf spill, reporting to the head of a business unit instead of directly to the top executive. But, Wine said, "what difference does that make?" "Safety comes through the organization through every root," he said, and remains "paramount in every part of the business."
Yeah, why should safety and people's lives be put in the hands of the person who actually runs the company, when you can pawn that stuff off to some desk jockey? But at least we know the government is living up to all of the big talk, right? We'll see. On June 2, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "If we find evidence of illegal behavior [by BP], we will be forceful in our response."
[Image via Getty]Somehow, Beyonce didn't have a No. 1 hit in 2013. Nor did her husband. Or Kanye. Or....
Larry Busacca / PW / WireImage for Parkwood Entertainment / Getty Images Beyoncé performs at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Dec. 3, 2013
Hip-hop stars Beyonce, Jay Z and Kanye West may have the power to turn everything they touch into gold but not when it comes to scoring a huge pop hit in 2013. In fact, they and other African-American artists did not have a single No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in all of last year.
According to writer Chris Molanphy, who surveys the pop charts, in a piece for Slate, this is the first time this had happened in the Billboard chart ‘s 55 years. It represents a huge contrast to 10 years ago when a person of a color recorded every chart-topping hit. Rather, African-American artists were featured on other artists’ songs last year, such as Rihanna on Eminem’s “The Monster” and T.I. and Pharrell on Robin Thicke’s inescapable summer hit “Blurred Lines.”
In a similar role reversal, Molanphy also cited that white artists topped the No. 1 spot on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart in 44 out of the 52 weeks last year.
The color omission also applied to this year’s recent inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which there is not one living African-American artist among them — E Street Band sax player Clarence Clemmons will be posthumously inducted.
As for why this is happening, Molanphy wrote: “Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing color…and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes and Matherses and Macklemores keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.”Her husband and bandmate Rory shared the sad news via their This Life I Live blog. He wrote fans, "My wife's greatest dream came true today. She is in Heaven.
"The cancer is gone, the pain has ceased and all her tears are dry. Joey is in the arms of her beloved brother Justin and using her pretty voice to sing for her savior.
"At 2:30 this afternoon, as we were gathered around her, holding hands and praying.. my precious bride breathed her last. And a moment later took her first breath on the other side.
"As I held her hand and kissed her goodbye one last time I was reminded of another dream of hers that came true. A few months ago through gracious help of Kathy Olen, a friend of ours in Nashville, and many others I had been sent a short video that Dolly Parton had made for Joey.
"From the time she was four years old, Joey had been singing Dolly's songs and dreamed of one day meeting her. Coat of Many Colors was a regular part of our show and at home she loved to put on Dolly and listen to 'Hello God', 'When I Sing For Him', 'Me and Little Andy' and many others. She never got the chance to meet her in person and had no idea that Dolly even knew who she was. But that changed one Friday evening this past November.
"Joey's family, Russdriver and I gathered around Joey's bedside to watch the movie 'Hope Floats' (one of the few movies Joey knew and loved) with her. But instead of pushing play on the DVD, I pushed play on the video I had received and we all watched Joey watch. It was the most beautiful moment I have ever been part of
"Though this is, and has been, a time of many tears of sorrow, it has also been a time of countless tears of joy. There have been too many beautiful moments to count or even begin to share in this blog. But I try.
"When a person has been through as much pain and struggle as Joey's been through, you just want it to be over. You want them to not have to hurt anymore, more that you want them to stay with you. And so, it makes the hard job of saying goodbye just a little easier.
After four-and-a-half months in Indiana, we will soon be back home in Tennessee. Me, and our little one, with our older daughters. It's hard for me to imagine being there without Joey, but at the same time it is where she wants us to be. It's where she will be She's gonna be in the mint growing beside our back deck, the sweet-corn frozen in our freezer and a million other places that her hand and heart has touched around our little farmhouse and community. Joey will still be with us. Everywhere.
"So if it's okay, I'm gonna close, wipe my tears and pack our bags to hit the road headed south.
"She's already got a head-start on me."
Visit the blog - here.Gay marriage may not be legal in China, but one gay couple’s public proposal is going viral in the country.
A man proposed to his partner on a crowded subway car in Beijing, getting on one knee and saying, “I want everyone I know or I don’t know to witness this. I will be loving you for the rest of my life,” CNN reports.
The crowd on the subway car is supportive, and support online has been pouring in as well. The post has been shared more than 10,000 times on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, according to CNN, and the comments have been largely positive. That support comes in spite of the fact that homosexuality was once illegal in China and was decriminalized as recently as 1997.
Watch the video below:
Write to Tessa Berenson at [email protected] - FEBRUARY 7: James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the New York Times speaks after receiving the 2014 Stephen Hamblett Award from the New England First Amendment Coalition at the Park Plaza on Friday. Risen has done ground-breaking work on domestic spying and now faces legal peril for refusing to disclose the source for his account of a failed CIA operation in Iran. (Photo by Joanne Rathe/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
NEW YORK -- In the fall of 2005, New York Times reporter James Risen invited a colleague, Eric Lichtblau, to his house to read a chapter from his forthcoming book, State of War.
The chapter, titled "The Program,” revealed the existence of the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program -- information that he and Lichtblau had tried unsuccessfully to publish in the Times a year earlier. Justice Department whistleblower Thomas Tamm first contacted Lichtblau in the spring of 2004, and Lichtblau and Risen reported the story over the course of several months. Shortly before the 2004 presidential election, high-ranking Bush administration officials persuaded the paper’s brass to spike the story -- a fact that, if revealed first in Risen’s book, could make Times editors look weak for accepting the government’s national security claims.
"He had a gun to their head,” Lichtblau said in a three-hour "Frontline" documentary, “United States of Secrets,” the first part of which aired Tuesday night. “They were being forced to reconsider. The paper's going to look pretty bad."
The Times published the story on Dec. 16, 2005.
Bill Keller, executive editor at the time, has long maintained that the Times ran Risen and Lichtblau’s NSA story -- which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize -- when it was journalistically sound and editors’ national security fears had been alleviated.
"The publication was not timed to the Iraqi election, the Patriot Act debate, Jim's forthcoming book or any other event," Keller said at the time. "We published the story when we did because after much hard work it was fully reported, checked and ready, and because, after listening respectfully to the administration's objections, we were convinced there was no good reason not to publish it."
But reports surfaced soon after publication that suggested otherwise. Four days later, NPR’s David Folkenflik reported that “the approaching release of Risen's book forced senior editors to focus grudgingly on the NSA story.” Gabriel Sherman, then with the New York Observer, similarly reported that the forthcoming book played a role.
On Jan. 3, 2006, Risen spoke about the secret NSA program on the "Today" show, but declined to discuss internal discussions at the Times. Now eight years later, he is more willing to talk and recalled on "Frontline" that the "only way to get the story out was to put it in a book."
"The editors were furious at me,” Risen said when word of his plans spread at the Times. “They thought I was being insubordinate."
For several months, Risen recalled, there was a “massive game of chicken between me, my book and The New York Times.”
It’s rare for the internal deliberations of a newsroom to still command attention nearly a decade later. But the Times decision-making recalls the dark, post-9/11 climate in which many in the U.S. media were cowed by the Bush administration, a period in which the press helped promote the government’s bogus rationale for invading Iraq.
On "Frontline," Keller recalled a December 2005 meeting in the Oval Office in which Bush told him, then-Times Washington bureau chief Phil Taubman and Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. that the paper would essentially be complicit if there were another terrorist attack following revelation of the NSA surveillance program.
"He was saying, in effect, you, Arthur Sulzberger, will have blood on your hands if there's another attack that could have been prevented by this program,” Keller said. “I think anybody would feel goosebumps."
While the Times has faced criticism for holding the story over 13 months, it's worth noting that Keller and Sulzberger did publish in the face of such dire warnings from the White House.
The Times editors’ decision has also become more notable in light of the NSA disclosures from former contractor Edward Snowden. Times public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote in November 2013 that the blockbuster story “still resonates deeply” with Times readers.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was at the center of the Snowden story, mentioned the Times decision on the first page of his book, No Place to Hide, which came out Tuesday. Around the time of the Times story, Greenwald began aggressively blogging on civil liberties issues and the media, which he has argued are too willing to accept the government’s rationale for holding information.
“It was this background that prompted Edward Snowden, several years later, to choose me as his first contact person for revealing NSA wrongdoing on an even more massive scale,” Greenwald wrote in his book. “He said he believed I could be counted on to understand the dangers of mass surveillance and extreme state secrecy, and not to back down in the face of pressure from the government and its many allies in the media and elsewhere.”
Indeed, Snowden recalled the warrantless wiretapping story in a Rolling Stone interview last year, saying that “when the subject of [one's] reporting is an institution as wildly beyond the control of law as the US Intelligence Community, even the best intentions of the New York Times begin to quaver."Arapahoe High School is a public high school in Centennial, Colorado, United States.[2] Located in a suburb of Denver, it is the flagship of the Littleton Public Schools District as the largest of three high schools, with an enrollment of 2,229 students. It has been designated a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
Arapahoe consistently earns an "average" rating on Colorado's statewide school accountability report, the only high school in the district to do so.[3]
The school is known for its affiliation with the Arapaho tribe of Wind River, Wyoming.
History [ edit ]
Arapahoe High School was built in 1964. Several additions have been made since then, including:
1965: A gymnasium, built by Morse, Dion & Champion, architects; and Hollister, general contractor
1967: An addition of a pool, classrooms and theater, built by Morse, Dion & Champion, architects; and Webco, general contractor.
1979: An addition of locker rooms, wrestling facilities and a gymnastics gym, built by Allred/Fisher, architects; and Frank Hall & Co., construction management.
1987: An addition of administration and counseling space, by Culbertson & Associates, who served as designer and general contractor.
1997: The school's aging interior library was replaced with classrooms, and a new library and media center were constructed on the north side of the building. Accessibility was improved with the construction of an elevator adjacent to second-floor classrooms and a student-designed east entrance with wheelchair ramps and automated doors, nicknamed "The Bubble."
2005: The school underwent significant remodeling. A new gymnasium was added, several classrooms were redesigned and walls were rebuilt to meet fire code standards.
2014: In the aftermath of a school shooting in 2013, in which parts of the library were burned, a remodeled library was constructed in the same space.
As of 2013, the school has 70 classrooms.[4]
2013 shooting [ edit ]
On December 13, 2013, a shooting occurred at the school. The gunman, an 18-year-old student,[5][6] entered the school armed with a shotgun, a machete, three Molotov cocktails, and 125 rounds of ammunition.[7][8] He requested to see the school librarian,[9] who was also the coach of the school debate team.[9] The shooter's demotion on the team was a contributing motive to the shooting.[10][11][12] One student was shot in the head and died eight days later.[13][14][15][16][17] The shooter attempted to start a fire with one of the devices he had carried with him and then shot himself in the head.[18][19][20]
Facilities [ edit ]
The 254,756-square-foot (23,667.6 m2) facility includes 70 classrooms, two gyms, a weight room, a library, kitchen, a 647-seat theater, a pool, tennis courts, a track and fields for baseball, football, and soccer fields.
Native American relationship [ edit ]
The school has a unique relationship with the Arapaho tribe.
After complaints about the pejorative depiction of Native Americans, principal Ron Booth sought a direct relationship with the tribe by travelling to the tribe's location in Wyoming for a personal meeting with tribal elders. After an extensive process, the tribe and Chief Anthony Sitting Eagle approved a relationship between the school and the tribe, establishing relationship methodology through a specific declaration.[21]
The original logo of Arapahoe High School more closely depicted a Pawnee Indian. On September 17, 1993 the Arapaho Nation and Arapahoe High School held the Arapahoe Warrior Assembly. This assembly dedicated the school's new, and current, Warrior mascot, created by Northern Arapaho artist, Wilbur Antelope.
Since then, the Northern Arapaho tribe has endorsed the name of the high school (as spelled with an "e" at the end) and its use of the current warrior mascot, provided by the tribe. The large gym was refinished and renamed the Sitting Eagle Gymnasium (this is now the Main gym) on December 9, 1993.
According to the original agreement made by the school, the mascot is not to be put on the floor (where one could walk on it) or on any article of clothing.[21] However, whether through subsequent agreement or disregard on the part of the school, the mascot can be found on a wide variety of clothing. However, it is not found on any football uniform (where it may be rubbed into the ground), and the school does not portray a Native American Warrior at any sporting event.
Tribal members visit the school for important events, speaking every year at graduation, and every two years a larger group will visit the school to perform various traditional dances and speak about Native American culture.
Athletics [ edit ]
Arapahoe is part of the 8-team Centennial League that also includes Cherry Creek, Grandview, Cherokee Trail, Smoky Hill, Eaglecrest, Mullen, and Overland.[22]
Arapahoe athletics include baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance, football, golf, lacrosse, marching band, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, winter guard, and wrestling. All athletics at Arapahoe are competed at the 5A / world level.
Girls' golf won the Colorado State Championship in 2010.
The Arapahoe soccer program, known as ABK (Arapahoe Ball Kickers), holds 14 state championships; the girls' program has won nine state titles and the boys' program has five state titles. In 1997 and 1998, members of the ABK and friends formed the Jolly Green Men, supporters of the Colorado Rapids soccer club.
Publications [ edit ]
Arapahoe Herald [ edit ]
The monthly Arapahoe Herald newspaper is produced by journalism students. In 2005, the Arapahoe Herald was named a National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Finalist and went on to win a Pacemaker. The National Pacemaker Awards have been called the high school equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. In 2005, the Arapahoe Herald received the Pacemaker as well as a Silver Crown from Columbia Scholastic Press Association. It is only the sixth high school newspaper in Colorado to win a Pacemaker in the award’s 100+ year history.
In 2007 the Arapahoe Herald received the National Scholastic Press Association's All-American rating, and Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Medalist Award. In 2008 the paper placed first in the American Scholastic Press Association's Newspaper Review and Contest. The Arapahoe Herald is also included in the National Scholastic Press Association's Hall of Fame for ten consecutive All-American ratings. To date, the newspaper has earned 14 All American ratings since 1992. The Arapahoe Herald won its second NSPA Pacemaker Award in November 2009. The Herald also received Gold Medal awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2008 and in 2010.
In 2009, the February issue of the newspaper gained statewide attention for a controversy over articles depicting teenage boys using alcohol to engage in sexual actions with girls, and young women objectifying themselves for attention.[23]
Calumet [ edit ]
Calumet, the Arapahoe yearbook, is produced by journalism students. Calumet received All-American ratings in both 2005 and 2006 and was a Pacemaker Finalist in 2005.[citation needed]
Muse [ edit ]
Muse is Arapahoe's literary arts magazine. In 2007, the Muse placed eighth in the National Scholastic Press Association's Best-in-Show, during the Denver Convention.[24]
Notable alumni [ edit ]SCP-1567
SCP-1567-3.
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Republican presidential hopeful has actually done something toward achieving that goal.
Mr. Rubio took credit for republican led efforts against the so-called risk corridor provision of the health law but this plan in limiting how much the government can spend to protect insurance companies against financial losses has shown the effectiveness of quiet legislative sabotage. (Sabotage was really led by then Senator Jeff Sessions.)
The risk corridors were intended to help some insurance companies if they ended up with too many new sick people on their rolls and too little cash from premiums to cover their medical bills in the first three years under the health law. But because of Mr. Rubio’s efforts, the administration says it will pay only 13 percent of what insurance companies were expecting to receive this year. The payments were supposed to help insurers cope with the risks (called adverse selection) they assumed when they decided to participate in the law’s new insurance marketplaces.”
“Mr. Rubio’s talking point is bumper-sticker ready. The payments, he says, are “a taxpayer-funded bailout for insurance companies.” But without them, insurers say, many consumers will face higher premiums and may have to scramble for other coverage. Already, some insurers have shut down over the unexpected shortfall.”
PolitiFact calls Senator Rubio’s claims a lie. (Marco Rubio: We ‘wiped out’ Obamacare ‘bailout fund’)
For those who are active in the resistance, it is crucial to make those contacts with our legislators, during this week of 3/8/17 while the republicans are rolling out their ACA replacement plan.
Resources:
The main US Senate phone line 202-225-3121 (202-224-3121) or YOU CAN FIND PHONE NUMBERS FOR EVERY SENATOR HERE.
Find Your Representative · House.gov – U.S. House of Representatives
More Data To Counter Republican Talking Points:
As per a 1/10/17 AP Fact check: Obamacare is not in a “death spiral:”
President Donald Trump says that President Barack Obama’s health care law “will fall of its own weight.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan says the law is “in what the actuaries call a death spiral.”
And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that “by nearly any measure, Obamacare has failed.”
“The problem with all these claims: They are exaggerated, if not downright false.”
“Congressional representatives are working to portray it as a mess of Democrats’ making, and themselves as the ones who will clean up that mess.”
“In the process they are exaggerating the law’s very real problems, according to health care experts, who largely believe that the Affordable Care Act’s troubles with high prices and lack of competition could be addressed with bipartisan solutions.”
“Republicans, who’ve gained political advantage from campaigning against the law since its passage in 2010, aren’t interested in playing along. Instead they’ve denounced the law and made the case to repeal it, although there are signs some are getting cold feet.”
“But with Republicans in the majority and driving the agenda, here’s a look at some of the GOP claims about the law, and how they compare with the facts:”
TRUMP, RYAN AND MCCONNELL: The law will “fall of its own weight,” is in a “death spiral” and “has failed.”
THE FACTS: “Experts agree that the law is not currently in a “death spiral,” an actuarial term that refers to a vicious cycle when rising insurance costs force healthy customers out of the marketplace, resulting in still higher prices, which cause even more customers to bail, etc., until the system collapses.”
“The American Academy of Actuaries itself disputed the “death spiral” claim (in mid January 2017). The group provided a statement from its senior health fellow asserting that high premium increases in many states this year “do not necessarily indicate that a premium spiral is occurring” and could be a one-time adjustment.”
RYAN: “You cannot fix a fundamentally broken law; you’ve got to replace it.”
THE FACTS: “Experts agree that Congress could fix the law’s problems, should it choose to do so. Indeed many argue that some of the law’s problems can be traced to the decision by Obama and Democrats to push it through on a partisan basis – alienating Republicans who have refused ever since to participate in any attempt to tweak the law to improve it, as would be necessary with any program of such size and complexity.”
“Some predict that when Republicans get through with their repeal-and-replace effort, what it will really amount to will be an improved Obamacare – even if they don’t admit it.”
“The health care exchanges, for example, could be improved with changes aimed at getting more young and healthy people to sign up, such as giving insurers more flexibility to charge older people higher prices.” (This means that younger folks would be charged much less. But without a mandate, this plan is unrealistic.)
“You could, I think, relatively simply address the issues that the exchanges have,” said Dan Mendelson, of Valere Health, a health consulting firm, noting that other major programs including Medicare have been tweaked repeatedly since their creation. “If you freeze a program in a point of time, it is likely to have problems, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
MCCONNELL: Obamacare “didn’t lower costs, it didn’t increase choice.”
THE FACTS: McConnell’s comments are true in part.
“The first five years of Obama’s presidency saw historically slow growth in U.S. health care spending. Some credit the global recession. Individual consumers in the law’s marketplaces, meanwhile, face higher premiums this year, though subsidies protected most customers from the increases.”
“And while the Affordable Care Act did increase choice initially in the individual market, that is not the case now with brand-name insurers bailing out of the online state markets, although the many Americans with employer-based health coverage have been insulated from such changes.”
“In about one-third of U.S. counties, consumers in the individual markets don’t have a choice of plans.”
“It depends for whom you’re talking about,” said Larry Levitt, senior VP at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “For people with pre-existing conditions, choices are infinitely more abundant because they couldn’t get coverage at all. For someone who’s young and healthy there are likely fewer choices available now than before.”
On 1/16/17, Jordan Weissmann of Slate.com penned the following report, “Paul Ryan’s Big Lie About Obamacare:”
“To hear Ryan tell it, Congress needs to abolish the Affordable Care Act immediately because the law is in the midst of a “death spiral.” If you’ve been following the health reform wars of the past few years, this is a term you have almost certainly heard bandied about. It describes a worst-case scenario in which high premiums discourage healthy Americans from buying insurance, leaving behind a market full of sick, unprofitable customers whom carriers are still required to cover under Obamacare’s regulations. That drives premiums even higher, pushing away more healthy shoppers. The process repeats until insurers flee and the market unravels.”
“This was all completely baseless, at least if you judge by the latest enrollment data.” During the early fall, there was some speculation that Obamacare might have entered the early stages of a death spiral. A handful of major carriers announced they were pulling out of the law’s insurance exchanges after losing too much money on them. (There were losses which were caused by the US congress failing to adequately fund “risk corridors” as promised within the ACA/ Affordable Care Act.) Many markets were left with just a single insurer. The government announced that average premiums were rising nationwide.” “But we are now most of the way through open enrollment, and Obamacare sign-ups are rising. This is in fact the opposite of what’s supposed to occur in a death spiral. As of late December, a record 11.5 million Americans had enrolled in coverage on the marketplaces, up 286,000 from the same time a year before. Sign-ups even jumped in Arizona, where the insurance market seemed most imperiled thanks to its giant premium hikes.” “There’s just no evidence I’m aware of that (Obamacare) is in mid-collapse. Perhaps Ryan has some secret info the rest of us aren’t privy to. This blog was updated on 3/8/17.Washington (CNN) FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe faced numerous questions this week about his interactions, conversations and correspondence with his onetime boss, former FBI Director James Comey, spanning both the FBI's Russia investigation and its probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server, according to multiple sources from both parties with knowledge of his testimony.
In private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee this week, McCabe told lawmakers that Comey informed him of conversations he had with President Donald Trump soon after they happened, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The testimony suggests McCabe could corroborate Comey's account, including Trump's ask that Comey show him loyalty, which the President has strongly disputed. Comey previously testified that he briefed some of his senior colleagues at the FBI about this conversation with Trump.
McCabe appeared for more than 16 hours of testimony behind closed doors in two sessions this week before members of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Judiciary committees, amid growing calls for his firing from Republicans critical of the FBI's handling of both investigations.
Intelligence Committee Republicans also grilled McCabe about how the FBI used the dossier compiled by a British agent alleging collusion between Trump and Russia. Some Republicans were dissatisfied with the responses, according to the sources.
Thursday, before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, McCabe faced intense questioning from Republicans about the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation, which many in the GOP believe was unfair. The panel's Republicans forced McCabe to answer questions about internal emails they believe showed Comey mishandled the investigation, according to multiple sources.
The mood, according to Illinois Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, was "tense."
"All this time on Clinton emails and dragging the FBI in to talk about Clinton instead of the real crime: Russian interference in our democracy," said Krishnamoorthi, who sits on the House Oversight Committee.
The FBI declined to comment.
But two Republicans emerged from the Thursday hearing saying McCabe's testimony did not change their belief that Clinton got favorable treatment by the FBI when it decided not to pursue criminal charges last year over the handling of her private email server. They declined to provide details about what McCabe said, citing the confidential nature of the interview.
In the heat of the presidential campaign last summer, Comey publicly announced that Clinton would not be charged in the email server investigation. Comey said "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," primarily because investigators didn't determine that Clinton intentionally schemed to break federal law.
Drawing the ire of Republicans, Comey also said the investigation found "evidence of potential violations" of the statutes that dictate how classified information should be handled.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican who was been a sharp critic of the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation, told CNN: "Everything that I've heard reinforces what I believed before" McCabe came in for the Thursday interview.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte defended the two panels' focus on the Clinton email investigation, saying it is consistent with their focus on FBI decisions made in the 2016 elections. McCabe was the first witness.
"This investigation was announced two months ago, and this is the first interview and we are gathering documents," Goodlatte, R-Virginia, told CNN.
Told that Democrats called the probe an effort to distract from the Russia investigation, Goodlatte said: "That's definitely not right."
Criticism of FBI from Republicans
McCabe has come under fire in recent days from Republicans amid the release of anti-Trump text messages sent between FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's team when the messages were discovered, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The text messages also criticized liberals, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Chelsea Clinton.
Several Republicans, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, have called for his removal.
The criticism of McCabe comes as a growing number of Republicans are questioning the credibility of Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Trump's team and Russian officials.
Republicans have pointed to the anti-Trump texts as well as connections between the FBI and Fusion GPS, the firm that paid for the opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia.
But Democrats argue that the Republican criticisms of McCabe and the FBI are an effort to undermine Mueller as his investigation ramps up, and to give Trump cover should he try to remove Mueller, a step the White House insists is not on the table.
"This hearing is part of an ongoing Republican attempt to divert attention," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. "I mean, this hearing occurred with very little prior notice, with weeks before the relevant documents are obtained, but although we're expecting the relevant documents. And suddenly we're told we have an emergency hearing."
First in a series with FBI witnesses
Thursday's hearing is the first connected to the joint investigation into Comey's handling of the Clinton email case that was launched earlier this year by the Oversight and Judiciary committees.
Both sides say they expect this is the first in a series of hearings involving FBI witnesses, and the two committee have asked for at least two other senior FBI officials to appear.
Thursday's hearing behind closed doors was considered "confidential," but not classified, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight panel.
As part of the agreement, McCabe did not discuss topics that touched on Mueller investigation, Cummings said.
But the House Intelligence Committee's hearing, which lasted roughly eight hours Tuesday, did touch on topics Mueller's inquiry appears to be covering, sources said.
In particular, the panel pressed McCabe to discuss his interactions with Comey, who contended that on multiple occasions Trump reached out to him, including over dinner.
Earlier this year, Comey testified that he briefed senior FBI officials about at least two conversations with Trump: The January dinner where Trump asked for loyalty, and the February meeting where Trump asked Comey to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was under FBI investigation. In his bombshell testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, Comey did not identify McCabe by name, only saying that he briefed "the FBI leadership team" about his interactions with Trump.
McCabe testified this week that Comey did in fact tell him about these conversations.ALBANY – Agreement was reached late Friday night on a $163 billion state budget, a plan that will raise and cut public college tuition depending on income level, give higher-than-inflation aid hikes to public schools and spreads hundreds of millions of dollars around in pork barrel spending.
“I am proud of it,’’ Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said of the budget deal he announced Friday.
Legislative leaders did not appear with Cuomo. But they acknowledged fiscal agreements have been made.
The final budget has not been approved. That will come in the days ahead, officials said.
The budget bills on the final round of deal-making were not immediately made public Friday night.
Snags ended Friday night when several final education and criminal justice matters were resolved.
The departure of the Senate Wednesday and a growing eagerness to conclude disputes by the Assembly, which did not send members home, all helped to prod the sides to a final deal.
The Assembly leaders hoped to take up the final couple budget bills sometime early Saturday.
The Senate could return as early as Sunday.
Billions of dollars already had been approved earlier this week with the passage of the less controversial areas of the budget. But a few thorny issues held up legislation affecting tax policies, public university tuition levels, state aid to public schools and funding for state agencies that carry out missions from paving roads to running the massive Medicaid health insurance program.
Once the final bills are adopted in the days ahead, the state’s 700 or so school districts will be able to better plan their own budgets in the face of a deadline for local districts later this month to approve fiscal plans for the coming school year.
State state aid to schools will rise by $1.1 billion, or 4.4 percent, to $25.8 billion. The main “foundation aid” funding formula will go up $700 million.
2017_2018SchoolAidRuns
In Buffalo, state aid will rise 4.4 percent in the coming school year. State funding for schools in Amherst and Williamsville will grow by less than 1 percent, Cheektowaga Central's increases by 2.25 percent while districts like Cleveland Hill will get a cut in state aid.
In all, state aid to schools in Erie County in the coming year will total $1.4 billion, up $43 million from the current year.
In Niagara County, where six of out of 10 districts are getting state funding increases of at least 4 percent, total flow of state aid will reach $329 million.
Among the deals made:
Ride-hailing services will be offered upstate and on Long Island as soon as late spring or this summer.
"Finally, upstate New York will have access to ride-sharing services that can provide safe, reliable transportation options to restaurants and bar patrons,'' the New York Restaurant Association said.
No tuition to public colleges this year for students from families with incomes under $100,000 but the State University of New York will be pertmitted to raise tuition $200 per year over the next five years.
Localities pushed to consolidate services, but Cuomo lost in his effort to require counties to put those plans to a referendum by local voters.
Age of adult criminal responsibility raised from 16 to 18 years.
Clean drinking water infrastructure improvements costing $2.5 billion.
More money to combat heroin and opioid addictions,
Lowering the cost of workers compensation for businesses.
“This was a great, great progressive accomplishment,’’ Cuomo said.
Lawmakers rejected expanding the collection of sales tax on internet sales.
Cuomo said the budget will permit all union members to deduct their dues on state income taxes.
Legislative leaders reacted in written statements released by Cuomo’s office.
Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan cited, among other things, GOP efforts that beat back some tax and fee hikes Cuomo proposed.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the budget is adopting criminal justice changes for 16- and 17-year-olds that Democrats pushed for years.
Sen. Jeff Klein, leader of the Independent Democratic Conference, which was part of the budget deal, highlighted $10 million for a new immigrant legal defense fund and big boosts in education and environmental spending.
But Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, head of the mainline group of Senate Democrats, said the budget deal should have resulted in more school aid, ethics and voting law changes and a more robust higher education financing deal.
Omitted from the deals were any new controls or oversight on how the Cuomo administration spends money on economic development projects. That troubles many lawmakers after federal prosecutors accused eight men of alleged bid-rigging schemes in earlier development projects.
A day after a federal judge set a trial date for the Buffalo Billion corruption case, Republicans took to the floor of the Assembly to raise concerns about the failure to approve transparency and oversight procedures over billions of dollars spent each year on economic development.
None of the 25 projects touted for the second phase of the Buffalo Billion are outlined in the budget, Assemblyman Raymond Walter, an Amherst Republican, noted during floor debate.
Assemblyman Herman Farrell, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, told him that he was correct and that Cuomo has discretion over how that money ends up getting spent.
“That’s pretty scary that we give him that kind of authority,’’ Walter said.
Walter then asked the whereabouts of another $100 million to get the funding up to the full $500 million that Cuomo promised for the second phase, but Farrell said he was uncertain where it was but that the funding was scattered in various areas of the budget.
Farrell also suggested that oversight of the economic programs had been done partly in recent years by the U.S. Attorney’s office, adding "I guess they will continue” until the state puts new oversight procedures in place.
The Assembly on Friday passed a 905-page bill that included billions of dollars for capital projects around the state. It included the Buffalo Billion money, which was included in a temporary spending measure approved earlier this week to keep the government operating until the end of May. It also okayed a bill the Senate approved this week to fund the operations of the Legislature and Judiciary.
The capital bill included over $500 million in pork barrel spending to be decided by the Legislature, more money for Buffalo’s Main Street project and another annual payment of $2.3 million to the Buffalo Bills as part of the deal several years ago for the team to stay in Western New York.
The deal announced by Cuomo and legislative leaders Friday night will, once given final approval, allow something else to resume: the pay of legislators, which was suspended once the budget ran past its April 1 start date.
It was the third year in a row of late state budgets, though this year's fiscal plan, so far, is the latest since 2010.President Obama gives the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill last year. The president will give his final State of the Union on Tuesday night. (Reuters/Joshua Roberts/Files)
President Obama said Tuesday that American voters would reject Donald Trump's political message, saying, "Talk to me if he wins."
In an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today" show, Obama said: "I'm pretty confident that the overwhelming majority of Americans are looking for the kind of politics that does feed our hopes and not our fears, that does work together and doesn't try to divide us, that isn't looking for simplistic solutions and scapegoating but looks for us buckling down and figuring out, 'How do we make things work for the next generation?'"
Despite Trump's warnings about the dangers of terrorism and immigration, Obama said, "there are no existential threats facing us."
[Obama’s last State of the Union will try to counter electorate’s anger]
Asked if he could envision Trump one day delivering a State of the Union address, Obama said: "Well, I can imagine it -- in a 'Saturday Night (Live)' skit."
"Look, anything's possible," he continued. "And I think we shouldn't be complacent."
Obama's comments came in the run-up to Tuesday night's State of the Union address. In a political campaign year already plagued by divisive messages such as Trump's, the president said that he would seek to emphasize what had been achieved during his terms in office.
"It is sometimes important for us to step back and take measure of how far we've come," he said. "The economy right now is doing better than any other economy in the world by a significant margin. We remain the strongest nation on earth by far."
Obama noted that while politics were divisive today, Americans tend to forget how divided they've been in the past. "And sometimes we look at the past through rose-colored glasses. It's been pretty divided in the past. There've been times where, you know, people beat each other with canes," he said, in a reference to the May 1856 attack by Rep. Preston Brooks on Sen. Charles Sumner with a walking cane on the floor of the Senate.Physical copies of Kendrick Lamar’s untitled unmastered. will be released.
According to TDE founder/CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, physical copies of Kendrick Lamar’s surprise release, untitled unmastered. will eventually be made available to fans.
Last week, when asked by a Twitter user if physical copies of untitled unmastered. will ever be released, Top Dawg replied: “Yep….working on that”
It appears that physical copies of untitled unmastered. will hit shelves as soon as this week. Yesterday (March 7), another Twitter user asked Top Dawg the following question: “are we getting hard copies of untitled unmastered this week?” Top Dawg’s response to the question was “yep.”
News of a physical release of untitled unmastered. comes shortly after the album was predicted to sell between 140,000 and 150,000 copies in its first week.
While Top Dawg and Kendrick are still taking the physical route with their releases, one artist in particular appears to have fully embraced digital releases.
Yesterday on Twitter, Kanye West informed fans that he was “was thinking about not making CDs ever again.” He also declared that “the Yeezus album packaging was an open casket to CDs r.i.p.”
Top Dawg’s tweets addressing the physical release of Kendrick Lamar’s untitled unmastered., can be found below.
Yep….working on that https://t.co/UTJ4RSrbrs — dangeroo kipawaa TDE (@dangerookipawaa) March 5, 2016
For additional Kendrick Lamar coverage, watch the following DX Daily:Bend. Flex. Extend. Rotate. Though these words are ordinary to most people, they (literally) send shivers down the spines of the millions around the world who suffer from chronic lower back pain. Premia Spine is an Israeli company looking to once again render these words innocuous to patients with their revolutionary spinal implant.
The Israeli company is offering an alternative treatment for patients who have been prescribed spinal fusion operations. Rather than attach a rigid structure of bolts and rods to the patient’s spine, Premia Spine’s TOPS (Total Posterior Solution) system is a spinal implant that recreates the natural motions of the back, giving patients not only a greater range of motion, but also claims a more reliable and faster recovery.
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Development on Premia Spine began in 2003, drawing inspiration from other fields of medicine. Orthopedic surgeons, who moved on from fusion years ago, now favor replacing the entire joint with an artificial implant. CEO of Premia Spine Ron Sacher is looking to apply the same total joint replacement procedures of the knee and hip that revolutionized orthopedics, to transform treatments of the lower spine.
“There used to be a time when people would get their knees and hips fused with metal rods,” Sacher tells NoCamels. “People would walk with a straight leg. They couldn’t bend their knee because that joint had been eliminated. The genesis of this program was to solve the problem of spinal stenosis (compression of the spinal chord) by allowing surgeons to remove the joints and rely on the implant like ours to recreate the normal function of the entire posterior column, often compromised by fusion surgery.”
“Like removing the lower walls of a tall building”
The TOPS system is a mechanical device that sits between two titanium plates that recreate the normal flexion, extension, bending, and rotating motions, without excessive twists and turns. It is a specific treatment for patients diagnosed with a blockage of the spinal chord in the lower back (spinal stenosis) and slipped vertebrae (low-grade spondylolisthesis).
The most important element to perform in surgery for patients with spinal stenosis is clearing the blockage of the spinal cord and surrounding nerves. If the blockage is not cleared, severe pain and numbness will persist.
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yztsXZHGpkg’]
However, the more a surgeon clears, the less stable the spine becomes. A patient with a cleared spinal canal and without any support would be very unstable, “Think about a 70-story building, take out the retaining walls on the 40th floor.” Sacher explains, “In big gusts of wind, the building would move too much and topple. Too much motion would be equally painful.
“What we’re doing is allow the surgeon to do the decompression, clean up all the nerves, and use our device to contain the motion in a normal range.” The device’s internal construction limits the degrees of motion in each direction to specific degrees, preserving all of the back’s movement without compromising any one direction.
Getting better faster, staying better longer
At a symposium in Barcelona 2012, it was reported that the costs on the US Medicare system associated with complications of spinal fusion to treat spinal stenosis and spondylolithesis in patients is $103 million in a period following the operation. The same study found that one out of four elderly patients that received fusion were reoperated on, and one out of two were readmitted to a hospital due to complications.
This contrasts sharply to the initial clinical results of the TOPS system. “We see that our patients get better faster and stay in a better situation longer. In our clinical studies that lasted six to seven years, we saw very good results,” Sacher tells NoCamels. Since the TOPS system has fewer components than spinal fusion systems, there’s less chance of a hardware failure, which significantly reduces the chance of readmission and reoperation.
Approaching the eighth year of clinical trials, Premia Spine has been distributing a smaller version of the product in the past 20 months to a handful of doctors around Europe. Premia Spine has focused distribution of the TOPS system to key centers within Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Israel, United Kingdom, Belgium and recently, Italy.
Sacher says that since the procedure is quite simple, neurosurgeons should have no difficulty familiarizing themselves with this device. The company aims to double the amount of centers in Europe within the next twelve months.
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvBJLd6lLo’]
Testing and financing in the US
Across the pond in the US, the TOPS system is finishing up three years of follow-up data collection to present to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Clinical studies should begin by 2015. Sacher hopes to be approved by the FDA four to five years following the clinical studies. Based on the Spine Research Foundation’s figures of roughly 400,000 spinal fusion surgeries performed each year in the United States alone, Premia Spine’s implant will soon be in a position to acquire a considerable share of their largest market.
Ron Sacher and Premia Spine’s American fundraising efforts kicked off at the beginning of December with the Israeli Ministry of the Economy’s “Medical Device and Bio-Pharma Companies Life Sciences Roadshow” which took the company to New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Orange County, and Palo Alto. The roadshow featured nine Israeli companies, including biopharmaceutical companies BioGenCell and TenCure Ltd., presenting their companies to investors. Premia Spine says its fundraising efforts are well underway with firm commitments from private investors. This round of financing will remain open until early 2014.
Photo: Black digital figure with highlighted back pain by BigstockES 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
Diane Abbott is providing a House of Commons pass to the head of a union-backed campaign supporting the government of Venezuela, the Evening Standard can reveal.
The shadow home secretary and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have been under pressure to condemn a violent crackdown on political critics of Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro, including the arrest of two opposition leaders.
Ms Abbott welcomed Maduro’s election in 2013 with a tweet declaring “a better way is possible”. Now it emerges that she employs Left-wing activist Matt Willgress, the national co-ordinator of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, in her House of Commons office.
Mr Willgress works part-time for Ms Abbott on digital communications and social media, said her spokeswoman, who added that he did not lobby MPs for VSC while working for her.
The campaign is based at the London offices of the Unite trade union, which is Labour’s biggest funder and is run by hard-Left general secretary Len McCluskey. Mr Willgress writes a regular column for the communist Morning Star newspaper in which he has urged support for Maduro.
When he appeared on TV channel Russia Today — interviewed by former MP George Galloway — in 2014 Mr Willgress attacked attempts to “destabilise and undermine the revolution” in Venezuela.
Conservative MP Greg Hands, the minister for London, said: “The Venezuela Solidarity campaign is a propaganda mouthpiece of the Maduro socialist regime in Caracas and counts Ken Livingstone as its president.
“At a time when Venezuelan democracy is being dismantled by socialist strongman Maduro, the shadow home secretary needs to consider carefully whether such people are appropriate as parliamentary pass holders.”
Labour MP Graham Jones, who chairs an all-party group on Venezuela, said: “I don’t see a problem with Diane giving Venezuela Solidarity Campaign a pass, but it is not an organisation I would associate myself with.”
Ms Abbott’s spokeswoman said Mr Willgress’s employment was not linked to VSC or the Unite union.
“He is a passholder because he comes into our office, when required, to do our digital work, mainly on social media, and not for any other reason,” she added. “Matt does nothing from our office that relates to VSC.” Ms Abbott raised eyebrows in 2012 when the late Hugo Chavez was running Venezuela by saying that the country’s democracy was “less liable to fraud and impersonation than the British election process”.
The Evening Standard invited a comment from Mr Willgress but had not received one at the time of going to press.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Divisions have to be overcome" - newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron has promised to restore France's global standing, as he was inaugurated as the country's youngest president at the age of 39.
At an elaborate ceremony at the Élysée Palace in Paris, he said his presidency would "give the French back the confidence to believe in themselves".
He vowed to see the EU "reformed and relaunched" during his time in office.
He takes over from François Hollande, whose five-year term was plagued by high unemployment figures.
Mr Macron was proclaimed France's new president a week after his resounding victory over the National Front's Marine le Pen, with 66% of the vote in the run-off poll.
The former investment banker, who had never contested an election before and only formed his centrist movement a year ago, has vowed to shake up the country's political order and reinvigorate its economy.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The chain of office presented to Mr Macron is a replica of one made for Napoleon
Image copyright AFP Image caption François Hollande wished his successor good luck, minutes after handing over the country's nuclear codes
Tight security was in place across Paris for the ceremony at the president's official residence, with hundreds of extra police on patrol.
France has been under a state of emergency since terror attacks in 2015 and a large section of the city centre was closed to traffic all morning.
'World needs France'
During his inaugural address on Sunday, President Macron pledged to restore the confidence of the French people in their country's future.
"The division and fractures in our society must be overcome," said the centrist politician.
"The world and Europe need more than ever France, and a strong France, which speaks out loudly for freedom and solidarity," he declared.
He said he would convince the people that "the power of France is not declining - that we are on the brink of a great renaissance".
Speaking later during a visit to the capital's town hall, President Macron praised the way Parisians had responded to terror attacks.
He said that rather than hide behind barricades, many had opened their doors and offered help "because the face of Paris is the face of France, that of a living fraternity".
He also promised to strongly support the city's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The new French president was driven in an open-top military vehicle up the Champs-Élysées
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The story of Mr Macron's romance with the new First Lady, Brigitte, has captured the world's attention
He was presented with a chain of office once worn by Napoleon I, as a symbol of his position as Grand Master of the Legion of Honour (a title usually given to the leader of France).
Before the inauguration ceremony began, he spent nearly an hour with his predecessor, who handed him the country's nuclear codes. It was Mr Hollande who launched the new president's political career, appointing him first as adviser and later economy minister.
Despite historic low approval ratings, the former president tweeted after leaving the palace: "I leave a country in a much better state than I found it."
Image copyright AFP
The sunshine president - by Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris
It was interesting to note how many "re-" words Emmanuel Macron used in his address. There was "re-formulate", "re-invent", "re-mould", "re-juvenate", "re-launch". And of course "re-naissance".
It was all intended to "re"-enforce the message that this presidency will be one of newness, youth and optimism.
Mr Macron is one of nature's optimists. Francois Hollande - the man from whose hands he took the reins of power - said that when Mr Macron worked for him, he "radiated joy". An almost preternaturally sunny demeanour, combined with his winning way with words, has been the new president's magic formula.
But to hold presidential office is to walk a road of thorns. Rarely is there good news to smile at. Success - if it comes at all - may only be appreciated years later. Mr Macron's "re-splendent" personality is about to tested like never before.
Image copyright AFP
At 39, Mr Macron is France's youngest leader since Napoleon and the first to be born after 1958, when a presidential system was set up.
His En Marche political movement was formed just last year and as a new party - La République En Marche - will be fielding candidates across France in June's parliamentary elections.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Twenty-one cannon blasts were heard across Paris as a formal salute for the new leader
He has promised to "work for everyone" and sees his programme as straddling both left and right.
Mr Macron's first week in office will be busy. He heads for Berlin on Monday to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and to demonstrate his commitment to the European Union.
He is also expected to name a prime minister on Monday morning.
Mr Macron faces major challenges including high unemployment, especially among France's young, and low growth.
He says his main aims are to boost investment and to set up a "new growth model" that increases social mobility and helps the environment.Barring an intervention from the High Court, the Turnbull government has issued a postal plebiscite on marriage equality - to decide whether the constitution should be changed to allow same-sex and gay couples to marry in Australia.
IF YOU want to have your say about whether same-sex marriage should be legalised in Australia you’ve only got today to register.
Voting in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey is not compulsory but the result may change laws in Australia so it’s important to make your views known.
Here’s what you need to know.
ARE YOU REGISTERED?
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will conduct the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey using details of those on the electoral roll.
The electoral roll closes for new enrolments or updates on midnight Thursday, August 24.
To register, click here to get your name on the roll.
Or to check if you are enrolled already, click here or to update your details, click here.
CAN YOU VOTE IF YOU ARE UNDER 18?
Those who turn 18 after August 24 won’t be able to vote.
There was some |
before crashing into a fence.
Forensic officers work at the scene of the deadly terrorist attack outside the Houses of Parliament on March 23, 2017 in London (Photo by AFP).
After the crash, the driver left the vehicle and approached the Parliament, where he stabbed an armed police officer to death and was fatally shot by the police.
It appeared to be the most serious such assault in London since the deadly subway bombings in 2005.
Read more:
No group or individual has so far assumed responsibility for the incident.
Police have arrested seven people in association with the attack and were investigating their possible ties to the assailant, who was identified as a reported Daesh sympathizer.
Daesh supporters on social media celebrated the deadly attack, with one user warning that “our battle on your land is only just beginning.”
The UK is part of a US-led military coalition purportedly striking Daesh positions in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
The alliance, which has been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh, has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians in both Arab states.Richard Smith, chair, Patients Know Best richardswsmith{at}yahoo.co.uk
From low fat to Atkins and beyond, diets that are based on poor nutrition science are a type of global, uncontrolled experiment that may lead to bad outcomes, concludes Richard Smith
Jean Mayer, one of the “greats” of nutrition science, said in 1965, in the colourful language that has characterised arguments over diet, that prescribing a diet restricted in carbohydrates to the public was “the equivalent of mass murder.”1 Having ploughed my way through five books on diet and some of the key studies to write this article, I’m left with the impression that the same accusation of “mass murder” could be directed at many players in the great diet game. In short, bold policies have been based on fragile science, and the long term results may be terrible.2 3 4 5 6
Attributing disease or mortality to diet is scientifically difficult. Associations are first made through observational studies, but recording exactly what people eat is hard. We eat very varied diets, and maybe over time our diets change. Then converting our diet into components of fat, carbohydrate, protein, and the like is unreliable. So to make a link between diet recorded over a short period of time and diseases and deaths encountered perhaps decades later is inevitably difficult.
Then intervention trials are unreliable. Unlike with a drug trial, where there will be one variable (taking or not taking the drug), trials of diet include more than one variable: for example, a diet of less fat probably means more carbohydrate so as to supply enough energy. Adherence is an important problem in drug trials but a much bigger problem in trials of diets, as people may find it very difficult to follow an unfamiliar diet. Also, the trials are usually short term and rarely include hard outcomes such as cardiovascular events or deaths.
John Ioannidis, the scourge of poor biomedical science, has shown the great unreliability of most studies linking nutrition to disease and mortality,7 and perhaps we fail to recognise the complexity of relations between diet and disease when we pick out single components, whether it’s total fat, saturated fat, trans fats, sugar, or salt.
The big fat surprise By far the best of the books I’ve read to write this article is Nina Teicholz’s The Big Fat Surprise, whose subtitle is “Why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet.”3 The title, the subtitle, and the cover of the book are all demeaning, but the forensic demolition of the hypothesis that saturated fat is the cause of cardiovascular disease is impressive. Indeed, the book is deeply disturbing in showing how overenthusiastic scientists, poor science, massive conflicts of interest, and politically driven policy makers can make deeply damaging mistakes. Over 40 years I’ve come to recognise what I might have known from the beginning that science is a human activity with the error, self deception, grandiosity, bias, self interest, cruelty, fraud, and theft that is inherent in all human activities (together with some saintliness), but this book shook me. Teicholz begins her examination by pointing out that the Inuit, the Masai, and the Samburu people of Uganda all originally ate diets that were 60-80% fat and yet were not obese and did not have hypertension or heart disease. The hypothesis that saturated fat is the main dietary cause of cardiovascular disease is strongly associated with one man, Ancel Benjamin Keys, a biologist at the University of Minnesota. He was clearly a remarkable man and a great salesman, described by his colleague Henry Blackburn (whom I’ve had the privilege to meet) as “possessing a very quick, bright intelligence” but also “direct to the point of bluntness, and critical to the point of skewering.”8 Keys launched his “diet-heart hypothesis” at a meeting in New York in 1952, when the United States was at the peak of its epidemic of heart disease, with his study showing a close correlation between deaths from heart disease and proportion of fat in the diet in men in six countries (Japan, Italy, England and Wales, Australia, Canada, and the United States).9 Keys studied few men and did not have a reliable way of measuring diets, and in the case of the Japanese and Italians he studied them soon after the second world war, when there were food shortages. Keys could have gathered data from many more countries and people (women as well as men) and used more careful methods, but, suggests Teicholz, he found what he wanted to find. A subsequent study by other researchers of 22 countries found little correlation between death rates from heart disease and fat consumption, and these authors suggested that there could be other causes, including tobacco and sugar consumption.10
Fat versus sugar At a World Health Organization meeting in 1955 Keys’s hypothesis was met with great criticism, but in response he designed the highly influential Seven Countries Study, which was published in 1970 and showed a strong correlation between saturated fat (Keys had moved on from fat to saturated fat) and deaths from heart disease.11 Keys did not select countries (such as France, Germany, or Switzerland) where the correlation did not seem so neat, and in Crete and Corfu he studied only nine men. Critics pointed out that although there was a correlation between countries, there was no correlation within countries and nor was there a correlation with total mortality. Furthermore, although the study had 12 770 participants, the food they ate was evaluated in only 3.9%, and some of the studies in Greece were during Lent, when the Greek Orthodox Church proscribes the eating of animal products. A follow-up study by Keys published in 1984 showed that variation in saturated fat consumption could not explain variation in heart disease mortality.12 An analysis of the data from the Seven Countries Study in 1999 showed a higher correlation of deaths from heart disease with sugar products and pastries than with animal products.13 John Yudkin from London had since the late 1950s proposed that sugar might be more important than fat in causing heart disease,4 but Keys dismissed his hypothesis as a “mountain of nonsense” and a “discredited tune.” Many scientists were sceptical about the saturated fat hypothesis, but as the conviction that the hypothesis was true gripped the leading scientific bodies, policy makers, and the media in the US these critics were steadily silenced, not least through difficulty getting funding to challenge the hypothesis and test other hypotheses. A series of interventional studies was carried out to test the fat hypothesis, but they were small, short term, and suffered from the problem of changing more than one variable at once. A Lancet editorial in 1974 said that little could be concluded from them.14 Certainly they didn’t show strong support for the saturated fat hypothesis. A report from the American Heart Association in 1961 was the first to recommend substitution of polyunsaturated fats (corn or soybean oil) for saturated fat,15 and a later report in 1970 recommended reduction in total fat. At that time E H Ahrens, a lipid researcher from New York who believed that carbohydrate was more important than fat in causing heart disease, worried that mass adoption of low fat diets might lead to increases in obesity and chronic disease. Teicholz explains how through the political process the fat hypothesis led to a massive change in the US and subsequently international diet.3 One congressional staffer, Nick Mottern, wrote a report recommending that fat be reduced from 40% to 30% of energy intake, saturated fat capped at 10%, and carbohydrate increased to 55-60%. These recommendations went through to Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which were published for the first time in 1980.16 (Interestingly, a recommendation from Mottern that sugar be reduced disappeared along the way.)
Powerful lobby groups It might be expected that the powerful US meat and dairy lobbies would oppose these guidelines, and they did, but they couldn’t counter the big food manufacturers such as General Foods, Quaker Oats, Heinz, the National Biscuit Company, and the Corn Products Refining Corporation, which were both more powerful and more subtle. In 1941 they set up the Nutrition Foundation, which formed links with scientists and funded conferences and research before there was public funding for nutrition research. Despite continuing doubts, it became, and still is, the global orthodoxy that saturated fat was an important cause of cardiovascular disease and that people should eat low fat diets. The biggest test of the saturated fat hypothesis came with the Women’s Health Initiative, which enrolled 49 000 premenopausal women in a randomised trial of the low fat diet and cost $725m (£460m; €580m).17 The women were followed for 10 years, and those in the low fat arm successfully reduced their total fat consumption from 37% to 29% of energy intake and their saturated fat from 12.4% to 9.5%. But there was no reduction in heart disease or stroke, and nor did the women lose more weight than the controls. A 2008 review by the Food and Agriculture Organization concluded that “there is no probable or convincing evidence” that a high level of fat in the diet causes heart disease.18 A 2012 Cochrane review of 24 comparisons with 65 508 participants found no benefit from total fat reduction and no effect on cardiovascular or total mortality but a small reduction (relative risk 0.86 (95% confidence interval 0.77 to 0.96)) in cardiovascular events in men (not women).19 Recognising that the fat hypothesis was falling apart, some scientists, particularly Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology at Harvard (whom I’ve also met), began to promote the Mediterranean diet, which comes in many forms but is essentially lots of fruit, vegetables, bread and grains (including pasta and couscous), little meat and milk, and plenty of olive oil. Such a diet is much easier to eat than a low fat diet, and a combination of vested interests, including the International Olive Oil Council and a public relations company Oldways, which promoted the diet, has—together with the natural seductiveness of the Mediterranean region—made the diet popular. But the science behind it is weak, as a Cochrane review found,20 and some of the evidence comes from R B Singh, whose research is suspect.21
Rise and fall of trans fats Saturated fats such as lard, butter, and suet, which are solid at room temperature, had for centuries been used for making biscuits, pastries, and much else, but when saturated fat became unacceptable a substitute had to be found. The substitute was trans fats, and since the 1980s these fats, which are not found naturally except in some ruminants, have been widely used and are now found throughout our bodies. There were doubts about trans fats from the very beginning,22 but Teicholz shows how the food companies were highly effective in countering any research that raised the risks of trans fats. It was Dutch research published in 1990 that signalled the beginning of the end for trans fats by showing that a diet high in trans fats led not only to raised LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol but also lowered HDL cholesterol.23 Willett of the Mediterranean diet did for trans fats in the US when he said, “We are really conducting a very large human-scale, uncontrolled, unmonitored national experiment.”24 The Food and Drug Administration in 2003 called for trans fats to be included on food labels and in 2014 banned them. The requirement for labelling had already signalled the end, and when the FDA issued its ruling some 42 720 processed foods in the US contained trans fats. The impossibility of going back to saturated fat (because the idea that it is bad is so deep in our beliefs and continues to be supported by the American Heart Association) meant that food manufacturers have had to find a new substitute, interesterified fats, which may prove just as bad as trans fats. Again it’s a mass uncontrolled experiment. Another consequence of the fat hypothesis is that around the world diets have come to include much more carbohydrate, including sugar and high fructose corn syrup, which is cheap, extremely sweet, and “a calorie source but not a nutrient.”2 5 25 More and more scientists believe that it is the surfeit of refined carbohydrates that is driving the global pandemic of obesity, diabetes, and non-communicable diseases.2 5 25 26 27 They dispute the idea that we get fat simply because energy in exceeds energy out, saying instead that the carbohydrates “trigger a hormonal response that drives the portioning of the fuel consumed as storage as fat.”26 This hypothesis would say that poor people are fat (which is true in many communities) not because they overeat or are particularly lazy but because they consume high levels of refined carbohydrates, the cheapest energy source, which causes them to become fat.1
Atkins and Ornish Thinking along these lines led to the diet advocated by the US physician Robert Atkins that drastically restricted carbohydrates but allowed any amount of protein and fat. The diet was a rediscovery of the diet promoted by a London undertaker, William Banting, in 1864 in his best selling Letter on Corpulence and widely recommended by medical authorities until the 1950s.1 28 The diet was tested in the A TO Z Weight Loss Study in 311 overweight or obese premenopausal women over a year against three other diets, including that advocated by Dean Ornish, another US physician, which requires that fewer than 10% of energy comes from saturated fat.29 30 Women on the Atkins diet lost more weight and “experienced more favourable overall metabolic effects,” including a fall in diastolic blood pressure of 4.4 mm Hg, against 2.1 mm Hg for those on the Ornish diet.30 Reading these books and consulting some of the original studies has been a sobering experience. The successful attempt to reduce fat in the diet of Americans and others around the world has been a global, uncontrolled experiment, which like all experiments may well have led to bad outcomes. What’s more, it has initiated a further set of uncontrolled global experiments that are continuing. Teicholz has done a remarkable job in analysing how weak science, strong personalities, vested interests, and political expediency have initiated this series of experiments.3 She quotes Nancy Harmon Jenkins, author of the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook and one of the founders of Oldways, as saying, “The food world is particularly prey to consumption, because so much money is made on food and so much depends on talk and especially the opinions of experts.”31 It’s surely time for better science and for humility among experts.
Notes Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7654TRUMP Holds 5 Point Lead on Hillary Clinton on Monday Before Election
DONALD TRUMP leads Hillary Clinton by 5 points on Monday November 5, 2016, the day before America votes.
The LA Times reported:
David Lauter, the Washington Bureau chief of the LA Times, joined Megyn Kelly to defend the paper’s poll in October.
Lauter told Kelly the poll was very accurate in 2012.
David Lauter: It’s a balanced mix weighted to be representative of the population as a whole… Megyn Kelly: How confident are you because of course your poll is an outlier? David Lauter: Well, of course, we don’t have a crystal ball so you never really know. But this group at USC that is doing a poll with us they did the same technique four years ago and they produced a very accurate poll. They were one of the only polls that got President Obama’s reelection margin right. So we think they’re doing a good job.
Via The Kelly File:The low oil price will benefit oil importing countries, but is also a symptom of slowing global growth. Georg Zachmann explores the reasons for the oil slump and its effects on the global economy.
The oil price dropped to a new 11 year low at the beginning of the year. Oil price movements are the result of three factors: changes in oil supply; changes in the importance of oil in the economy and changes in the global economic climate.
Oil supply
Oil supply is outstripping expectations, as US shale oil production appears more resilient than previously thought, and countries like Iran are coming back to the market. In addition, OPEC, a cartel of oil exporters, is not managing supply.
As a result, at the end of 2015 oil production had increased by about 3 percent compared to the 2014 average, from 86 to 88.5 million barrels per day. This increasing supply puts downward pressure on oil prices.
Figure 1: Oil production in million barrels per day 2014 vs. Jan-Nov 2015 in million barrels per day.
Source: OPEC
The importance of oil in the economy
The amount of oil necessary to produce one dollar of GDP has decreased globally thanks to renewables and more efficient energy use. In addition, more GDP is now generated in the service sector, which is less energy intensive.
Energy intensity has fallen globally by 1.4% each year on average since 2000. In addition all countries agreed to move away from fossil fuels, including oil, over the course of the century at the Paris climate summit. So expect a further decoupling of oil consumption and growth. Again, reduced demand for oil causes downward pressure on prices.
Figure 2: Energy intensity of GDP at constant purchasing power parities
Global economic environment
Current aggregate demand is sluggish. Growth in emerging market economies is slowing and macroeconomic risks in developed countries persist.
The IMF revised down its global economic growth forecasts for 2015 twice, in July (from 3.5% to 3.3%), and October (from 3.3% to 3.1%). Consequently, lower than anticipated economic activity will lead to lower demand for oil and so oil prices fall.
Figure 3: IMF global GDP growth forecast 2014 vs. 2015
Oil price outlook
These developments are already largely taken into account in the currently observed low oil price. However, it is impossible to foresee price developments in 2016, as each of the drivers described above could move in any direction.
Geopolitical factors, such as growing tensions in the Middle East, could lead to higher or lower oil production. Low oil prices might stimulate a partial switch back to oil in transport and heating, but alternatively the trend for energy efficiency and renewables could accelerate the move away from oil, thanks to the Paris climate agreement. Finally, global GDP might pick up as China’s economy proves more resilient, or may fall if investors lose confidence in the Chinese economy.
Consequences of low oil prices
The second question is what the low oil price means for the economy. As for almost all economic questions, the answer is, it depends. First, it depends on whether you are an oil exporting country or not. If you are, export revenues from selling oil and hence GDP will go down (see article on the impact on oil exporters).
We observed this phenomenon in 2015 in many oil exporting countries. Several oil-exporters, such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, decided to move to more flexible exchange-rate regimes, rather than exhaust their reserves defending an indefensibly overvalued currency.
The low oil price might also be a catalyst for more prudent economic policies. Some oil exporting countries started to reduce wasteful spending. Reducing energy subsidies, as Saudi Arabia has done, is a wise step for oil exporting countries in this situation – consumers will continue to pay a similar price as oil prices are going down, and such reform benefits the stretched government finances of oil exporters.
For oil importing countries, the economic impact of low oil prices depends on the reasons for the drop in price. If the oil price falls because of an increase in oil supply, consumers have more money to spend on domestic products instead of imported oil, boosting the domestic economy.
The same is true if oil prices go down because consumers need less oil, having better alternatives. If oil prices fall because of troubles in the global economy, however, then the low oil price is more a symptom for problems than a reason to rejoice.
Consequently, some modest stimulus can be expected from low oil prices for oil importing countries. But low oil prices are also a reason to worry, as they are partly a symptom of slowing global growth.
The author would like to thank Marek Dabrowski and Simone Tagliapietra for useful comments.Metformin increases healthspan and longevity of mice
We determined the long-term effects of two doses of metformin in male C57BL/6 mice. The first dose consisted of 0.1% metformin (w/w) supplemented in diet, which yielded a concentration of 0.45±0.09 mM in serum and 0.49±0.06 nmoles mg−1 protein in the liver. The second dose (1% w/w) yielded a concentration of 5.03±0.87 mM in serum and 3.67±0.32 nmoles mg−1 protein in the liver (n=6–8 per group; age=84 weeks; diet=30 weeks; values presented as mean±s.e.m.). The survival curves of control and metformin-treated male mice separated shortly after the onset of the treatment. Diet supplementation with 0.1% metformin led to a 5.83% extension of mean lifespan (Fig. 1a), χ2=5.46 and P=0.02 in Gehan–Breslow survival test. In agreement with these data, a different strain of male mice (B6C3F1) supplemented with the same dose of metformin (0.1% w/w) resulted in a 4.15% extension of mean lifespan (Supplementary Fig. S1), χ2=3.43 and P=0.064 in Gehan–Breslow survival test, which although is not significant suggests that the effects of metformin in longevity are not strain-specific. On the other hand, a higher concentration of the drug (1% w/w) was toxic and significantly shortened mean lifespan of C57BL/6 mice by 14.4% (Fig. 1b), likely owing to renal failure (Supplementary Fig. S1 and Supplementary Table S1), χ2=51,70 and P<0.001 in Gehan–Breslow survival test. High doses of metformin have been associated with the development of lactic acidosis and the drug is contraindicated in patients with kidney dysfunction30. Importantly, male mice treated with 0.1% metformin in both longevity studies did not show any major difference in pathologies at 115 weeks of age nor obvious causes of death in the necropsies compared with SD-fed animals (Supplementary Tables S1–S3).
Figure 1: Metformin increases survival and improves physical performance. (a,b) Kaplan–Meier survival curve for mice treated either with 0.1 or 1% metformin. n=64 for metformin 0.1% group and n=83 for their untreated counterparts; n=90 for metformin 1% group and n=88 for their untreated counterparts. The arrows at 54 weeks indicate the age at which metformin treatment was initiated. (c) Body weights. (d) Food consumption. (e,f) In vivo metabolic response to 0.1% metformin treatment. n=9 per group. (e) Energy expenditure. (f) Respiratory exchange ratio. (g) Time to fall from an accelerating rotarod. n=16 per group. (h) Distance ran on treadmill performance. n=9 per group. (i) Average speed of animals in the open-field test. n=15–16 per group. (j) Metformin treatment delayed the onset of age-related cataracts. n=93–124 eyes per group. (k) Plasma levels of glucose after oral glucose load (OGTT). n=8 per group. (l) Area under OGTT curve. (m) Plasma levels of glucose after intraperitoneal insulin injection (ITT). n=9 per group. (n) Area under ITT curve. Met, metformin. Unless otherwise stated, n=all live animals in the study. Data are represented as the mean±s.e.m. *P<0.05 compared with SD-fed mice (t-test two tailed). Full size image
Adult male C57BL/6 mice (from week 72 to 90) treated with 0.1% metformin were lighter than control animals (Fig. 1c). Mice on metformin tended to preserve body weight with advancing age, which has been associated with increased survival in rodent and human studies31,32. By 124 weeks of age, the average weight of metformin-treated mice was higher than SD-fed mice, although these observations were not found in B6C3F1 mice, probably because food intake in this strain was controlled (Supplementary Fig. S1)33. Determinations of body composition during the lifetime of the animals revealed no significant differences in the percentage of fat mass and lean body mass or in the lean-to-fat ratio (Supplementary Table S4). Although C57BL6/ mice fed with metformin were lighter, this group consumed more calories than their SD counterparts, indicating a shift in energy metabolism (Fig. 1d). The energy content of the faeces was identical in both groups, suggesting that metformin did not alter intestinal absorption of nutrients (Supplementary Fig. S1). However, the beneficial effects of metformin might be explained, at least in part, by changes in the gut microbiota34, a process that has not been addressed in our study. Nevertheless, the effect of metformin on food consumption provides evidence against the possibility that metformin acts in a trivial fashion by leading to caloric restriction attributable to lack of palatability of metformin-supplemented chow.
We next examined whether the increase in calorie intake was associated with higher energy expenditure. Indirect calorimetry revealed that metformin-treated animals showed higher heat production during the dark phase, when mice are normally more active (Fig. 1e). In accordance with previous reports demonstrating that metformin increases the use of lipids as a source of energy35, the respiratory exchange ratio was decreased during both the light and dark phases, and liver glyceride content was reduced in metformin-treated mice, indicating the preference for fat utilization (Fig. 1f and Supplementary Fig. S1). Consistent with this hypothesis, β-oxidation of fatty acids was found to be increased while lipid synthesis was decreased in primary hepatocytes and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) treated with metformin (Supplementary Fig. S1). Interestingly, total levels of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production were not modified significantly by metformin in mice (Supplementary Fig. S1). Moreover, there was no difference in spontaneous locomotion activity, suggesting that metformin shifts energy homeostasis of mice rather than their behaviour (Supplementary Fig. S1).
While the effect of metformin on longevity was obvious, it was important to determine whether the healthspan of the animals was preserved. We used several approaches to ascertain physical health of the animals. Rotarod, treadmill and open-field tests indicated that metformin improved the general fitness of laboratory mice (Fig. 1g–i). C57BL/6 mice are known to develop cataracts as they age32. Metformin supplementation led to significant reduction in lens opacity of 105-week-old mice (Fig. 1j), consistent with an overall improvement in healthspan.
As mentioned earlier, metformin is widely prescribed to improve insulin sensitivity. Mice treated with 0.1% metformin showed lower glycated haemoglobin (Hb1Ac) levels 66 weeks after the treatment was initiated (Table 1). Metformin-fed mice and mice on SD displayed comparable glucose homeostasis when measured by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and insulin tolerance test (ITT) at 81 and 93 weeks of age, respectively (Fig. 1k–n). At 100 weeks of age, metformin-treated mice showed improvements in serum metabolite levels that are associated with diabetes compared with their control counterparts, with a reduction in insulin levels, total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins and the homeostatic model assessment index-insulin resistance (Table 1). Taken together, these results strongly suggest that metformin prevents the onset of metabolic syndrome.
Table 1: Effects of 0.1% metformin treatment on various serum biomarkers. Full size table
Metformin mimics CR transcriptome
We have previously associated the induction of similar transcriptome to animals under CR in liver tissue, even in a 8-week treatment15. To test whether metformin shifts the physiology of ad lib-fed mice towards that of animals on CR after 30 weeks of treatment, we performed a genome-wide microarray analysis on liver and muscle tissues of three groups of mice ad lib-fed with SD, 0.1% metformin or CR.
Principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated a clear effect of metformin treatment, with the global gene expression profile shifting towards the changes induced by CR (Fig. 2a). According to a previous report, further analysis of the transcript profile revealed that the majority of the genes whose expression was modified by CR and 0.1% metformin were shifted in the same direction in the liver and muscle (Fig. 2b)15. Of these, expression of the cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein (CISH) gene, which belongs to the cytokine-induced STAT inhibitor family27, was one of the most highly induced genes found in the liver and muscle of metformin- and CR-treated mice (Supplementary Table S5). Under the metformin and CR regimen, the expression of serum amyloid protein genes (Saa1 and Saa2) was markedly decreased in the liver, suggesting the suppression of inflammatory responses36.
Figure 2: Metformin shifts expression patterns of mice towards those on calorie restriction. (a) PCA was performed on differentially expressed genes from the liver and muscle tissue of mice maintained on SD and 0.1% metformin. Each data point corresponds to the PCA analysis of each subject. (b) Gene expression profile comparing genes significantly upregulated (red) and downregulated (blue) by either CR or metformin compared with SD mice (z-ratio). The percentage of significant gene expression changes shifted in the same direction in CR and metformin treatments compared with SD mice is presented in brackets. (c) Comparison of gene sets significantly altered by CR and metformin treatment compared with SD expression (z-score); upregulated (red) and downregulated (blue) gene sets. The percentage of significant gene sets changes shifted in the same direction in CR and metformin treatments compared with SD mice is presented in brackets. (d) Effect of metformin on mitochondria (Mito), glycolysis, lipid metabolism (Lipid Met) and stress response (Stress Resp)-related gene sets. The list of all the significantly modified gene sets can be found in Supplementary Table S6. Met, metformin. Full size image
We used parametric analysis of gene-set enrichment (PAGE) analysis to further highlight functional pathways modified in response to 0.1% metformin and CR. Both interventions led to a significant overlap in the number of upregulated and downregulated gene sets present in the liver (84.7%) and muscle (85.6%), supporting that metformin closely mimics the CR transcriptome (Fig. 2c)15. The liver has a central role in the maintenance of glucose homeostasis and has been proposed as one of the main targets of metformin37. In the livers of metformin-treated mice, PAGE analysis showed a significant alteration in 220 gene sets (Supplementary Table S6), many of these were related to mitochondrial function, glycolysis, lipid biosynthesis and stress response (Fig. 2d). In accordance with microarray data, quantitative PCR indicated the increase in the mRNA levels of several genes encoding transcriptional regulators and enzymes involved in mitochondrial energetics, glycolysis and fatty acid metabolism (Supplementary Fig. S2). Moreover, there was a significant downregulation of gene sets related to autophagy, apoptosis and ubiquitin cycle in the liver of metformin-fed mice. Several stress response pathways were induced by metformin as shown by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (Supplementary Fig. S3). Nrf2 is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of multiple antioxidant genes and is also required for the beneficial effects of metformin in C. elegans10. Here, metformin treatment also induced Nrf2 target gene activation. The overall interpretation of these results is that metformin exerts CR-like genomic and metabolic responses by inducing longevity-associated pathways in laboratory mice.
Preservation of mitochondrial function by metformin
It has been proposed that mild inhibition of the mitochondrial ETC complex I activity by metformin21,22 reduces ATP production and contributes to increase the AMP/ATP ratio, which, in turn, results in AMPK activation. AMPK has an important role in the regulation of energy metabolism38. In cultured MEFs and in livers of treated mice, metformin increased the relative levels of phosphoactive AMPK (Thr172) by 27% (P<0.05, t-test two tailed), which led to increased phosphorylation at Ser-79 of its direct target, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, by 169% (P<0.01, t-test two tailed) (Fig. 3a,b, Supplementary Fig. S4, Supplementary Tables S7 and S8 for entire western blot images and densitometric analyses). The ATP content in the liver of metformin-treated mice was unaffected, which may stem from increased hepatic glycolysis (Supplementary Fig. S5). In parallel, we examined mitochondrial performance in cultured MEFs in response to metformin (Fig. 3c) and found a decrease in oxygen consumption rate, in agreement with earlier reports39. Oxygen consumption was also decreased following the addition of the mitochondrial uncoupler, carbonyl cyanide-4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone, which indicates that metformin altered maximal oxygen consumption in MEFs. Cell culture media showed a reduction in pH on exposure of cells to metformin (Supplementary Fig. S5), which is consistent with reports showing increased lactic acid production due to an increase in glycolysis and studies that associate the risk of lactic acidosis to metformin administration to diabetic patients40. Furthermore, metformin induced the expression of cytosolic lactate dehydrogenase, the enzyme responsible for lactic acid production, both in MEFs and in the liver of treated animals (Supplementary Fig. S5).
Figure 3: Metformin activates AMPK without altering in vivo ETC activities. (a) Activation of AMPK by metformin in MEFs. AMPK and acetyl-coA carboxylase (ACC) phosphorylation by metformin. n=3 per group. (b) Activation of AMPK and ACC phosphorylation in the liver of 0.1% metformin-treated mice. n=4–6 per group. (c) Oxygen consumption in MEFs treated with 1 mM metformin. n=3 per group. (d,e) Mitochondrial content in MEFs treated with metformin was determined by TMRM (d) and MitoTracker green (e) staining, MFI, mean fluorescence intensity. n=3 per group. (f) Mitochondrial DNA content analysed by quantitative PCR in the liver. n=5–8 per group. (g) Mitochondrial protein levels in MEFs treated with metformin. n=3 per group. (h) Mitochondrial protein levels in the liver from 0.1% metformin-treated mice. n=4–6 per group. (i,j) Effect of metformin on mitochondrial enzymatic activities. (i) MEFs treated with 1 mM metformin (n=3 per group) and (j) liver lysates from 0.1% metformin-treated mice (n=5–6 per group). Met, metformin; Ut, untreated. Data are represented as the mean±s.e.m. *P<0.05 versus untreated controls or SD-fed mice (t-test two tailed). Full size image
Our microarray and quantitative PCR analyses showed increased expression of several mitochondrial genes in the livers of metformin-treated mice. However, metformin lowered oxygen consumption in MEFs, suggesting that these alterations in mitochondrial bioenergetic function may occur in cell cultures. The administration of this anti-diabetic drug did not alter several markers of mitochondrial content in both MEFs and the liver of treated mice (Fig. 3d–f), while causing only moderate increase, if any, in the expression of several subunits in the ETC complexes (Fig. 3g,h). Among key enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and ETC that were assayed, complex I activity was significantly lower in metformin-treated MEFs (Fig. 3i). In contrast, mice treated with metformin had a remarkable increase in hepatic complex I activity (Fig. 3j). The activity for complexes III and IV was significantly reduced by metformin in MEFs, but remained unchanged in liver lysates of metformin-treated mice. The differential effects of metformin in vitro and in vivo may be owing to the hepatocytes adapting to long-term inhibition of complex I activity. Interestingly, and in agreement with our findings, preservation of mitochondrial complex I activity, at least in muscle, has been recently reported after |
9-1940
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 14,648 15K The Aztec empire by Solís Olguín, Felipe R; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico); Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (Mexico) texts eye 14,648 favorite 29 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, October 15, 2004-February 13, 2005
Topics: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Aztecs, Aztec art, Aztecs, Aztecs, Aztecs,...
Catalog for an exhibition held at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, Oct. 13, 1998-Jan. 11, 1999
Topics: Space (Art), Space (Architecture), Art, French, Art, French, Architecture
Based on the retrospective exhibition presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, October 27, 1978-January 14, 1979; and elsewhere
Topics: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970, Painters
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 13,251 13K Edvard Munch by Munch, Edvard ; Willoch, Sigurd ; Langaard, Johan H. (Johan Henrik) texts eye 13,251 favorite 23 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held October 15, 1965 - February 20, 1966 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Topic: Munch, Edvard, 1863-1944
Includes bibliographical references and index
Topics: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Art, Modern
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 12,340 12K Francis Bacon by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Art Institute of Chicago texts eye 12,340 favorite 18 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held October 18, 1963-January 12, 1964 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Topic: Bacon, Francis, 1909-1992
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, January 17-April 27, 1997
Topics: Photography, Artistic, Gender identity in art
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 11,873 12K Robert Rauschenberg, a retrospective by Hopps, Walter; Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-; Davidson, Susan, 1958-; Brown, Trisha, 1936-; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 11,873 favorite 20 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, and Guggenheim Museum at Ace Gallery, New York, September 19, 1997-January 7, 1998, and at three other museums through March 7, 1999
Topic: Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 11,732 12K Kandinsky : Russian and Bauhaus years, 1915-1933 by Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944; Poling, Clark V; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; High Museum of Art; Zurich Art Gallery; Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung texts eye 11,732 favorite 29 comment 0
Includes index
Topic: Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944
Cover title: Kupka
Topic: Kupka, Frantisek, 1871-1957
Catalog of an exhibition held at Palazzo Grassi
Topics: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Thannhauser Collection (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Art, Modern,...
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, June 4-Sept. 12, 1999
Topics: Ertegun, Nesuhi, Filipacchi, Daniel, 1928-, Surrealism, Art, Modern
Source: folio
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Guggenheim Museum Soho, Feb. 6-May 24, 1998 and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, July 17-Oct.15, 1998
Topic: Art, Chinese
Catalog of an exhibition held July 10-Oct. 17, 1999 at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, and four other locations through Jan. 10, 2001
Topics: Exter, Alexandra, Goncharova, Nataliia Sergeevna, 1881-1962, Popova, Liubov£ Sergeevna, 1889-1924,...
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Oct. 16, 1981 - Jan. 3, 1982; and elsewhere
Topics: Costakis, Georgi, Art, Russian, Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 9,272 9.3K American pop icons by Guggenheim Hermitage Museum texts eye 9,272 favorite 23 comment 0
"Published on the occasion of the exhibition... [held at] Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Las Vegas, May 15-November 2, 2003"--T.p. verso
Topics: Pop art, Art, American
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 9,270 9.3K Expressionism, a German intuition, 1905-1920 by Neugroschel, Joachim; Vogt, Paul; Keller, Horst; Urban, Martin; Dube, Wolf Dieter; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art texts eye 9,270 favorite 26 comment 0
English and German
Topics: Expressionism (Art), Art, German
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Corporate Headquarters, April 9-June 1, 1991
Topics: Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944, Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hilla...
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 9,066 9.1K Kandinsky in Paris by Barnett, Vivian Endicott texts eye 9,066 favorite 16 comment 0
Brochure of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, February 15-April 14, 1985
Topic: Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 8,809 8.8K Claes Oldenburg : an anthology by Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-; Celant, Germano; National Gallery of Art (U.S.); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 8,809 favorite 7 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Feb. 12-May 7, 1995; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, June 18-Sept. 3, 1995; Solomon R. Guggenheim Oct. 7, 1995-Jan. 21, 1996; Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Feb. 15-May 12, 1996; Hayward Gallery, London, June 6-August 19, 1996
Topic: Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 8,656 8.7K Refigured painting : the German image, 1960-88 by Krens, Thomas; Govan, Michael; Thompson, Joseph, 1958-; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Williams College. Museum of Art; Toledo Museum of Art texts eye 8,656 favorite 10 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at Toledo Museum of Art, Oct. 30, 1988-Jan. 8, 1989; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Feb. 11-Apr. 23, 1989; Williams College Museum of Art, Feb. 11-Mar. 26, 1989 and at 2 other institutions
Topics: Figurative painting, German, Painting, German
Catalog of an exhibition held April 5 - June 23, 1974 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Topic: Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966
In Japanese; captions and t.p. also in English
Topics: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Art, Modern
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, January-April 1994
Topic: Morris, Robert, 1931-
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 7,673 7.7K The art of the motorcycle by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 7,673 favorite 12 comment 1
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, June 26-September 12, 1998
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Topic: Motorcycles
Source: folio
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 7,541 7.5K Jenny Holzer by Waldman, Diane; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 7,541 favorite 21 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, December 12, 1989-February 11, 1990
Topic: Holzer, Jenny, 1950-
Source: folio
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 7,540 7.5K Marc Chagall and the Jewish theater by Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Art Institute of Chicago texts eye 7,540 favorite 12 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, September 23, 1992-January 17, 1991 and the Art Institute of Chicago, January 30-May 7, 1993
Topics: Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985, Moskovskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ evreĭskiĭ teatr imeni S.M. Mikhoėlsa,...
An exhibition organized by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and the Josef Albers Foundation, Orange, Connecticut
Topics: Albers, Josef, Glass art
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 7,389 7.4K Kandinsky in Munich, 1896-1914 by Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944; Schorske, Carl E; Jelavich, Peter; Weiss, Peg, 1932-; Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München texts eye 7,389 favorite 19 comment 0
Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Jan. 22-Mar. 21, 1982, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Apr. 22-June 20, 1982, and the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Aug. 17-Oct. 17, 1982
Topics: Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944, Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Catalog of an exhibition held November 16, 1973 - February 3, 1974 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Topics: Winston, Lydia, 1897-, Winston, Harry Lewis, Malbin, Barnett, Futurism (Art), Art, Modern
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 24-September 29, 1996
Topics: Photography, Artistic, Photography, Photographers
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, November 6, 1999-February 13, 2000
Topics: Flavin, Dan, 1933-, Light in art, Installations (Art)
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 6,823 6.8K Mario Merz by Celant, Germano; Merz, Mario; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 6,823 favorite 8 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Sept. 28-Nov. 26, 1989
Topic: Merz, Mario
Includes bibliographical references ( p. 118-120)
Topic: Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944
"Credit for the conception, research, and organization of this remarkable survey goes to Alice Strobl and Alfred Weidinger"--P. 7
Topic: Kokoschka, Oskar, 1886-1980
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, April 23-June 19, 1966
Topic: Newman, Barnett, 1905-1970
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 6,555 6.6K Guggenheim Museum A to Z by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 6,555 favorite 8 comment 0
Includes bibliographical references (p. 268-282)
Topics: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Art, Modern, Art
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 6,538 6.5K Van Gogh and expressionism by Gogh, Vincent van; Tuchman, Maurice texts eye 6,538 favorite 13 comment 0
Commentary prepared in connection with an exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, July-September 1964
Topics: Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890, Expressionism (Art), Painting, Modern
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 6,506 6.5K Peggy Guggenheim : a celebration by Vail, Karole P. B; Messer, Thomas M; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Peggy Guggenheim Collection texts eye 6,506 favorite 13 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, June 12-Sept. 2, 1998, and at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Sept. 29, 1998-Jan. 12, 1999
Topics: Guggenheim, Peggy, 1898-1979, Guggenheim, Peggy, 1898-1979, Guggenheim, Peggy, 1898-1979, Art...
Cover title: Kandinsky, painting on glass
Topic: Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944
"Exhibition 64/5"--Colophon
Topic: Gleizes, Albert, 1881-1953
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 6,249 6.2K Giorgio Armani by Celant, Germano; Koda, Harold texts eye 6,249 favorite 12 comment 0
Published for the exhibition Giorgio Armani, held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Musem, New York, October 20, 2000-January 17, 2001 and at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain, March 12-August 26, 2001
Topics: Armani, Giorgio, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Costume designers, Fashion...
Source: folio
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 6,237 6.2K Systemic painting by Alloway, Lawrence texts eye 6,237 favorite 8 comment 0
Introduction by Lawrence Alloway
Topics: Painting, American, Art, Modern
Catalog published in conjunction with the opening of the Justin K. Thannhauser permanent exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, December 14, 1978
Topics: Thannhauser, Justin, 1892-1976, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Impressionism (Art),...
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 6,024 6.0K Alexander Calder : a retrospective exhibition by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ; Musée national d'art moderne (France) texts eye 6,024 favorite 10 comment 0
Catalog of works in the exhibition ([12]) p. laid in
Topic: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
Master Series Number 1. This is the only issue in this series
Topic: Leger, Fernand, 1881-1955
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,817 5.8K Francis Picabia by Camfield, William A texts eye 5,817 favorite 5 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, September 16-December 6, 1970; Cincinnati Art Museum, January 6-February 7, 1971; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, February 26-March 28, 1971; Detroit Institute of Arts, May 12-June 27, 1971
Topic: Picabia, Francis, 1879-1953
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Feb. 12-May 16, 1999, and the Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 22, 1999-Jan. 9, 2000
Topics: Dine, Jim, 1935-, Dine, Jim, 1935-, Happening (Art)
Errata slip inserted
Topic: Dubuffet, Jean, 1901-1985
Catalog of the exhibition held at the Guggenheim Museum Soho, June 25-Aug. 31, 1997
Topics: Arakawa, Shūsaku, 1936-, Gins, Madeline, Conceptual art, Avant-garde (Aesthetics), Space...
Source: folio
A rev. and enl. version of Elements of modern painting
Topics: Painting, Art, Modern
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,535 5.5K Anni Albers by Weber, Nicholas Fox, 1947-; Albers, Anni; Tabatabai Asbaghi, Pandora; Peggy Guggenheim Collection texts eye 5,535 favorite 20 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Mar. 24-May 24, 1999, and 3 other locations through June 4, 2000
Topics: Albers, Anni, Albers, Anni, Peggy Guggenheim Collection
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,535 5.5K Ellsworth Kelly : a retrospective by Kelly, Ellsworth, 1923-; Waldman, Diane; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.) texts eye 5,535 favorite 10 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, October 18, 1996-January 15, 1997; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, February 16-May 18, 1997; Tate Gallery, London, June 12-September 7, 1997; Haus der Kunst, Munich, November 1997-January 1998
Topic: Kelly, Ellsworth, 1923-
Source: folio
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,448 5.4K Richard Hamilton by Hamilton, Richard; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 5,448 favorite 3 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held in the fall of 1973 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Topic: Hamilton, Richard, 1922-
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,429 5.4K James Rosenquist : a retrospective by Rosenquist, James, 1933-; Hopps, Walter; Bancroft, Sarah; Menil Collection (Houston, Tex.); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Museo Guggenheim Bilbao texts eye 5,429 favorite 8 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Menil Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 17-Aug. 17, 2003, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Oct. 16, 2003-Jan. 18, 2004, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, July 2004-Oct. 2004
Topic: Rosenquist, James, 1933-
Source: folio
"Director of the catalogue, H. H. Arnason"--P. 245
Topics: Hirshhorn, Joseph H, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Sculpture, Sculpture, Modern
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,215 5.2K Picasso and the age of iron by Giménez, Carmen; Ashton, Dore; Calvo Serraller, F. (Francisco), 1948-; Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 5,215 favorite 9 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, March 19-May 16, 1993
Topics: Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973, Sculpture, Modern, Metal sculpture, Art, Modern, Modernism (Art)
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,132 5.1K Willem de Kooning in East Hampton by De Kooning, Willem; Waldman, Diane; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; National Endowment for the Arts. texts eye 5,132 favorite 9 comment 0
"This project is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C."
Topic: De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5,087 5.1K Joseph Cornell by Cornell, Joseph ; Waldman, Diane texts eye 5,087 favorite 5 comment 0
Catalog of an exhibition selected and presented by Diane Waldman at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 4-June 25, 1967
Topic: Cornell, Joseph
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Oct. 11, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003
Topics: Richter, Gerhard, 1932-, genealogy
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 4,953 5.0K Georg Baselitz by Waldman, Diane; Baselitz, Georg, 1938-; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum texts eye 4,953 favorite 8 comment 0
Published on the occasion of an exhibition at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 26-Sept. 17, 1995
Topic: Baselitz, Georg, 1938-
Source: folio
Cover title: The Guggenheim Museum collection, 1900-1980
Topics: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Art, Modern, Art
Text by Nicholas Fox Weber et al
favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite ( 1 reviews )
Topic: Albers, JosefA popular tax credit for adoptive families that was controversially cut by House Republicans in their initial tax reform plan has finally been restored.
Meanwhile, the adoption benefit will be preserved in the tax proposal released by Senate Republicans today, report The Washington Post and The New York Times. Senators Ted Cruz and John Hoeven confirmed to reporters that the credit would remain.
This afternoon, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 24–16 to add the credit back in.
“This [new] amendment will preserve the adoption tax credit,” said committee chairman Kevin Brady. He added:
“Now, I know Americans who adopt are not doing this for the tax benefit. We’re doing it because we want to provide a safe and loving home for a child. I know from personal experience the adoption process can be expensive and time-consuming and ultimately so rewarding. And I know the adoption tax credit is important to many members of our committee, Republicans and Democrats. We’ve had very thoughtful discussions about it over the past few days. So with this amendment, we’re proposing to preserve this credit … to ensure that parents can continue to receive additional tax relief as they open their hearts and homes to an adopted child.”
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told CT that he was “very thankful.”
“This is not just some other policy, but a lifeline to children in need and to families trying to welcome them into their homes,” said Moore. “It is in the national interest to see to it that vulnerable children are protected, not exiled in a system. I’m glad to see that interest upheld rather than torpedoed in the Senate’s proposal.”
Representative Trent Franks, co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, was also “deeply grateful.”
“The Republican Party has been and always will be the party of life,” he stated. “The adoption tax credit has enormous symbolic, practical, and humanitarian meaning and purpose.”
“The right-to-life movement has long promoted adoption as an alternative for single mothers facing unexpected pregnancies, offering them a viable alternative to abortion,” stated National Right to Life president Carol Tobias. “Keeping the adoption process easier for families who want to adopt can offer encouragement to those mothers considering adoption as an alternative.”
Born in 1981, the adoption tax credit began as a $1,500 tax deduction applicable only to children with special needs. In 1997, the benefit was changed to a tax credit that would adjust for inflation. Last year, adopting households could receive up to $13,570 as reimbursement for costs such as adoption and attorney fees, court costs, and travel expenses—provided their annual income was $243,540 or less.
Last week, in a sweeping tax reform proposal—which includes lowering taxes, increasing the child tax credit, and introducing a family tax credit—House Republicans cut the credit.
Today, Senate Republicans answered with their own tax overhaul, which would keep the mortgage interest deduction, eliminate the ability to deduct state and local taxes—and keep the adoption credit.
The competing House and Senate bills will have to first be reconciled before they can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. But in order to pass muster with the slimmer Republican majority in the Senate (52 to 50), it’s likely that the final version will look more like the Senate’s plan.
That’s good news for adoption supporters, who were upset by the House proposal.
“We have met hundreds of families who want to adopt, but can’t do so because of the significant costs,” wrote Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman for the Post. “The average adoption costs between $25,000 and $40,000, and for many families, this is an insurmountable barrier.
“Losing the adoption tax credit, a vital and practical approach to overcoming the financial cost that prohibits many families from adopting, would be catastrophic for thousands of American parents hoping to adopt and the precious children waiting for a family,” continued the couple, who cofounded the adoption advocacy organization Show Hope.
Adoption saves the government “between $65,000 and $127,000 for every child who is adopted rather than placed in long-term foster care,” stated the Southern Baptist Convention’s ERLC.
It was also a top priority for Vice President Mike Pence while he was governor of Indiana. He “got the ball rolling” on the Indiana Adoption Tax Credit, then signed it into practice in 2014. “We’re well on our way in Indiana to becoming the most pro-adoption state in America,” he said last year during a vice presidential debate.
The cut to the adoption credit was condemned by nearly everyone, from Focus on the Family president Jim Daly (“We shouldn’t be placing the burden of these tax cuts on orphan children.”) to National Review Institute senior fellow David French (“The credit is one of the government’s most important pro-life policies.”) to Republican Senator Ben Sasse (“Being pro-life means being pro-adoption.”) It even united pro-life and gay-rights advocates.
Defending the cut was budget architect Brady, a House Republican who has himself adopted two sons.
“This credit is not working,” he told the Post, saying that those who don’t pay enough in taxes or don’t itemize can’t claim the credit.
On the other hand, raising the child tax credit to $1,600 per year, along with cutting taxes, would give “families more in their paychecks, especially the middle-class families that are crucial for adoption,” he said.
A Democratic attempt to restore the adoption credit was defeated on Tuesday.
The House tax reform plan was only out five days before Brady said the adoption tax credit might be added back in.
“For me as a pro-life dad and my wife as a pro-life mom, we understand.”With the completed sale of Fabian Castillo, FC Dallas now finds itself with some extra cash and an extra Designated Player slot. There has been talk for some time about adding a target striker who could hold up play and add some scoring punch to Dallas's front line. In the last few hours, there's been buzz around a Paraguayan striker named Cristian Colmán who, according to one outlet in Brazil, has been in an 'open negotiation' with an American club for some time. If this is to be believed, Gremio is the contingency plan if the negotiation with the American club were to fall through (Portuguese).
We've fully entered the silly season, but there may be some fire behind the smoke of Colmán to MLS (and quite possibly, FC Dallas). Specific to FC Dallas, he fits the profile of past South American stalwarts like Mauro Diaz, Fabian Castillo, and Michael Barrios. Here's some interesting tidbits that lend credence to the rumors of Colmán possibly landing in Dallas.
1. He's young. Colman turns 23 in February.
2. Up-and-coming South American. Although he's probably more established than the aforementioned trio before they came to Big D, he's still in the 'affordable tier' of that export market. Last year, he scored 11 goals in 31 games for Nacional of Paraguay.
3. He fits the profile of the '9' the club is looking for. Good size, decent speed, honest effort, and clinical scoring- in essence, what the club's been craving without the expense and risk of a huge name. Here's some highlights (enjoy the Gypsy Kings):
As always, it’s YouTube, so take it with a grain of salt as far as quality goes. Colmán has produced though and definitely looks the part. It appears that the club will need to pay a modest (around $1 million) transfer fee for his services, but given the return on investment of one Carlos Gruezo, that may seem like peanuts- especially after the Castillo sale. Opinion from the masses? Light it up, folks. At the very least, it’s an interesting rumor to monitor. If we’re beating Gremio for his signature, that can’t be the worst thing, right?"United Korea" redirects here. For a unified team of between North and South Korea, see Korea Team
Korean reunification (Korean: 통일, 統一) refers to the potential unification of North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (the Republic of Korea), (and the elimination of the Korean Demilitarized Zone) into a single Korean sovereign state. The process towards reunification was started by the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration in June 2000, and was reaffirmed by the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula in April 2018. In the Panmunjom Declaration, the two countries agreed to work towards a peaceful reunification of Korea in the future, and the joint statement of the United States President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un at the Singapore Summit in June 2018.
Prior to World War I and Japan's annexation of Korea, all of Korea was unified as a single state for centuries, known previously as the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties, and the last unified state, the Korean Empire. After World War II and beginning in the Cold War, Korea was divided into two countries along the 38th parallel (now the Korean Demilitarized Zone). North Korea was administered by the Soviet Union in the years immediately following the war, with South Korea being managed by the United States. In 1950, North Korea invaded the South, beginning the Korean War, which ended in stalemate in 1953. Since the end of the Korean War, reunification has become more of a challenge as the two countries have grown to be increasingly divergent at a steady pace. However, in the late 2010s, relations between North and South Korea have warmed somewhat, beginning with North Korea's participation at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea.[1][2][3][4][5]
Division [ edit ]
The current division of the Korean Peninsula is the result of decisions taken at the end of World War II. In 1910, the Empire of Japan annexed Korea, and ruled over it until its defeat in World War II. The Korean independence agreement officially occurred on 1 December 1943, when the United States, China, and Great Britain signed the Cairo Declaration, which stated: "The aforesaid three powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent". In 1945, the United Nations developed plans for trusteeship administration of Korea.[6]
The division of the peninsula into two military occupation zones was agreed – a northern zone administered by the Soviet Union and a southern zone administered by the United States. At midnight on 10 August 1945, two army lieutenant colonels selected the 38th parallel as a dividing line. Japanese troops to the North of this line were to surrender to the Soviet Union and troops to the South of this line would surrender to the United States.[6] This was not originally intended to result in a long-lasting partition, but Cold War politics resulted in the establishment of two separate governments in the two zones in 1948 and rising tensions prevented cooperation. The desire of many Koreans for a peaceful unification was dashed when the Korean War broke out in 1950.[7] In June 1950, troops from North Korea invaded South Korea. Mao Zedong encouraged the confrontation with the United States[8] and Joseph Stalin reluctantly supported the invasion.[9] After three years of fighting that involved both Koreas, China and United Nations forces led by the U.S., the war ended with an armistice agreement at approximately the same boundary.
Post-Korean War [ edit ]
Despite now being politically separate entities, the governments of North and South Korea have proclaimed the eventual restoration of Korea as a single state as a goal. After the "Nixon Shock" in 1971 that led to détente between the United States and China, in 1972 the North and South Korean governments made a 7 · 4 South and North Korea Joint Statement[nb 1] that a representative of each government had secretly visited the capital city of the other side and that both sides had agreed to a North-South Joint Communiqué, outlining the steps to be taken towards achieving a peaceful reunification of the country:
Unification shall be achieved through independent Korean efforts without being subject to external imposition of interference. Unification shall be achieved through peaceful means, and not through the use of force against each other. As a homogeneous people, a great national unity shall be sought above all, transcending difference in ideas, ideologies, and systems. In order to ease tensions, and foster an atmosphere of mutual trust between the South and the North, the two sides have agreed not to slander or defame each other, not to undertake armed provocations whether on a large or small scale, and to take positive measures to prevent inadvertent military incidents. The two sides, in order to restore severed national ties, promote mutual understanding, and expedite independent peaceful unification, have agreed to carry out various exchanges in many fields such as culture and science. The two sides have agreed to cooperate positively with each other to seek early success of the North-South Red Cross talks, which are underway with the fervent expectations of the entire people. The two sides, in order to prevent the outbreak of unexpected military incidents and to deal directly, promptly, and accurately with problems arising between the North and the South, have agreed to install a direct telephone line between Seoul and Pyongyang. The two sides, in order to implement the aforementioned agreed upon items, to solve various problems existing between the North and the South, and to settle the unification problem on the basis of the agreed upon principles for unification of the Fatherland, have agreed to establish and operate a North-South Coordinating Committee co-chaired by Director Yi Hurak [representing the South] and Director Kim Yong-ju [representing the North]. The two sides, firmly convinced that the aforementioned agreed upon items correspond with the common aspirations of the entire people, who are anxious to see an early unification of the Fatherland, hereby solemnly pledge before the entire Korean people that they will faithfully carry out these agreed upon items."[10]
The agreement outlined the steps to be taken towards achieving a peaceful reunification of the country. However, the North-South Coordination Committee was disbanded the following year after no progress had been made towards implementing the agreement. In January 1989, the founder of Hyundai, Jung Ju-young, toured North Korea and promoted tourism in Mount Kumgang. After a twelve-year hiatus, the prime ministers of the two Koreas met in Seoul in September 1990 to engage in the Inter-K |
up as a reader with magazines, in small places where there were more magazines than books available, and I remain addicted to them to this day. I also grew as a writer while writing for magazines—Indian Review of Books, The India Magazine and then the New York Review of Books and the New Statesman. I remember how nearly every day of the month during my childhood was marked by anticipation that such and such magazine would arrive at the railway station near us. There were the Hindi magazines: Dharmayug, Saptahik Hindustan, Kadambini, Sarika, Ravivar, Dinman. I was also vulnerable to these Allahabad rags: Maya, Manohar Kahaniyan, Satyakatha. I even read Vama, a women’s magazine, with much pleasure. The magazines in English were undergoing their own renaissance. India Today was in its illustrious infancy. The Illustrated Weekly got livelier under Pritish Nandy and Anil Dharker; Vinod Mehta’s weekly paper The Sunday Observer was an exciting innovation. So was Frontline then with its colour pictures. Sunday was deep into its best phase; then even a lifestyle magazine like Gentleman had pretty strong content.
New Yorker, Granta, Times Literary Supplement...what challenges and highs have these varied spaces and platforms offered to you as a writer?
These are three very different magazines. The first is a general interest weekly; the TLS is an intellectual periodical; Granta is a quarterly platform for long-form literary journalism and fiction. They require different kinds of energy, stamina and pace; and they have their own sense of the audience. Writing for the TLS or the New York Review of Books, I can assume a broad familiarity among readers with my subject. I cannot do that with the New York Times Magazine. And it is easier in general writing for a British or European readership than an American one. The former do not seem to have the same need to have everything foreign explained to them. So I can write an 8,000-word essay on Indonesia for the LRB without worrying that the reader may know nothing about Bandung’s geopolitical and symbolic importance.
An Omnivore Pankaj Mishra is a voracious reader of all kinds of magazines. He has also grown as a writer while contributing to many of these publications. They range from Hindi weeklies to general interest American magazines.
Are there any specific pieces you wrote which are memorable to you?
“It is easier to write for British magazines than American ones. The former don’t need everything foreign explained to them.”
The three-part series on Kashmir in The Hindu. The whole experience of researching it was a rude and salutary political awakening for me. But writing it was easy compared to The Elections in Allahabad, a 15,000-word piece I wrote in 2000 for the New York Review of Books. I had to struggle with the material, which was very disparate and intransigent, to find a narrative and controlling argument amid many different experiences, political positions and personalities. It was the most exacting piece of journalism I had done by that point, and I felt capable afterwards of taking on more complex assignments. Looking back at the piece, I can see it describing the early stages of the political process we now know too well: the resentment evoked by Hindutva against Dalit and OBC assertions outsmarting tone-deaf Nehruvian liberalism. All those things are already present.
Why do you think Indian languages have not been able to evolve a culture of newsmagazines?
Is this true for all times? What about Ravivar under Surendra Pratap Singh? I suppose periodicals in Indian languages, by and large, address regional audiences. And if a newsmagazine is aimed at a national, if not international readership, then English as the pan-Indian language is a natural choice. Even the Malayala Manorama folks put out a newsmagazine in English, The Week, not in Malayalam.
Which are the magazines, who are the magazine writers, you now look forward to?
There are too many to list. I remain a magazine junkie, and get all kinds, small and large-circulation, and indeed many of them on the iPad. I can’t say I read them all cover to cover, but I do flick through them, and I continue to berate myself for spending more time reading all my magazines instead of books.
What are the feelings that a good magazine evokes in a reader?
The feeling that you hold in your hands a product of several collaborative minds. The greatest magazines are curated things, harvests of sustained and manifold engagement with writing. And there is nothing like them in the new media, however swift the latter might seem. Compared to the long and hard work of refining and presenting thought, which involves a variety of talents and skills, publishing a blog or a tweet is not much more rigorous than the breaking of wind.
Roaring Business People check out their favourite magazines at a stall in a railway station in India. (Photograph by Jitender Gupta)
How do you view the evolution of Indian magazines in the post-liberalisation era, and how does it compare with Indian newspapers?
As with many things, quantity has overwhelmed quality. We have many more magazines, especially niche ones. They are glossier, better funded, and rates for freelancers have improved, especially if you write for the Mumbai glossies. There is a glut of business magazines, though most of them are engaged in CEO-pooja. A few golden oldies continue to get better all the time, such as the EPW. Caravan is an interesting innovation in English-language journalism in India: the first half of it is a cross between the Atlantic and the New Statesman, and the literary pages resembles those of a magazine like Raritan or n+1. It has created and upheld a new standard of rigour and integrity.
“I remain a magazine junkie and I continue to berate myself a lot for spending more time reading magazines instead of books.”
But when you turn to English-language newspapers you see an extraordinary implosion: there are only two or three that are even worth opening. So the places where good journalism could be accommodated are fewer.
At the same time, we have a plenitude of talent. I can’t remember a time when we had so many first-rate young journalists writing in English. Supriya Sharma, Aman Sethi, Basharat Peer, Raghu Karnad, Neha Dixit, Samanth Subramanian, Sonia Faleiro, Snigdha Poonam, Nisha Susan are just some of the names that come to mind. But where are the magazines that can support their work over the long term? Many of the magazines I grew up with were ruined by cable TV news and soaps. A few of the news portals are promising, but who knows how long they will last? And do they pay well enough to support new promising writers? The question of untainted financial support is hugely important. Where is the institution that can support an intrepid journalist-cum-commentator like Glenn Greenwald—someone who goes after the venal and tawdry in business and media as well as politics with a variety of rhetorical and forensic skills in addition to moral authority. (Instead, we are stuck with the faux-prosecutor, Arnab Goswami.) We also need more small magazines; the best one is Himal from Nepal.
Pet Project Tarun Tejpal holds a copy of Tehelka. (Photograph by AFP, From Outlook Issue 02 November 2015)
Why do we really need magazines anymore? And the newsmagazine, will it survive?
Magazines make writers; they create whole ecosystems of thought and feeling. Newspapers mostly produce reporters, and surf contemporary prejudices and opinions. Two generations of the greatest Russian writers and thinkers came out from the pages of the magazine Sovremennik. We can’t imagine huge parts of contemporary Anglo-American intellectual and literary culture without the New Yorker, New York Review of Books, the New Statesman, Granta, and the London Review of Books. And there are writers and forms of writing in India that would have never become known without magazines like Agyeya’s Dinman, Kai Friese’s India Magazine, Mukul Kesavan and Rukun Advani’s Civil Lines.
“The primary influences on the so-called millennials are rancorous TV anchors, rancid Twitter trolls and shady websites.”
It was really magazines that allowed me to try out different voices and tones and to attempt a variety of genres: travel writing, long-form reportage, review-essay, and the memoir. And my experience as a writer and reader enriched by magazines is nothing exceptional. Right from the 19th century, magazines have been responsible for the shaping of minds, and the formation of literary and intellectual cultures. The biggest shift of our time is that television and digital media are now central to this process. This is why the so-called millennials are culturally more distinctive than any other generation in recent history. The primary influences on many of them are rancorous TV anchors, rancid Twitter trolls and shady websites. Those of us who grew up in the golden age of Indian magazine journalism, which started in the mid-1970s before petering out in the 1990s, can remember and treasure a different culture of reflection and of defiance.
The newsmagazine does face challenges, as is manifest in the struggles of Time and Newsweek. At the same time, Businessweek, which I read regularly, has reinvented itself successfully. The Economist, though ideologically challenged after 2008, is holding on to its audience. There is nothing like Le Monde Diplomatique out there and it is a monthly. So it is possible to improvise and stay relevant. The strength of Outlook is that it is not a conventional newsmagazine: it is a mix of news, commentary, polemic, and a bit of fluff.
If Outlook had to have a manifesto for this new era that we are living in, what should it read like?
One word: ‘Boldness’, which is actually now an imperative when most newsmagazines are timid or ethically compromised. I have been critical of Outlook for its frivolous India-is-Shining mood. I am more sympathetic to it now that its principled position on many issues looks besieged. The Indian liberal to which it primarily addresses itself belongs to an endangered species. Outlook also has to compete with newsportals like scroll.in and thewire.in that are frequently refreshed. That said, a know-nothing political culture is traditionally conducive to good journalism; it provides a target-rich environment. Look at the Indian Express; it has reinvigorated itself in less than a year.
A whole oppositional culture has sprouted on digital media. The serious print magazines can flourish, too, but they have to innovate. The usual big expose on corruption won’t do. When Tehelka re-launched in 2004 as a print magazine, I complained in the very first issue that its dramabaazi about corruption had merely fed the middle class appetite for sanctimony, and said that it has to work harder at a time of mass manipulation and ideological propaganda—to make the reader more agile, intellectually and morally, and more capable of personal judgement. This seems less naive now than in 2004. When you look around during this reign of Hindu supremacists and see the atrocious news channels and a pathetically craven press, it becomes clear that there is only one way forward for Outlook and that is the way of courage and rigour.Minutes of the Agreement Signed by Turkey and Syria in Adana (Unofficial Translation) - 20 October 1999 In light of the messages conveyed on behalf of Syria by the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, H.E.Mr. Hosni Mubarak and by the Iranian Foreign Minister H.E.Mr. Kamal Kharrazi on behalf of the Iranian President H.E.Mr. Seyid Mohammed Khatemi and by the Foreign Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt H.E. Mr. Amr Moussa, the Turkish and Syrian delegations whose names are in the attached list (annex 1) have met in Adana on 19 and 20 October 1998 to discuss the issue of cooperation in combating terrorism. In the meeting the Turkish side repeated the Turkish demands presented to the Egyptian President (annex 2) to eliminate the current tension in their relations.Furthermore, the Turkish side brought to the attention of the Syrian side the reply that was received from Syria through the Arab Republic of Egypt, which entails the following commitments : 1. As of now, Öcalan is not in Syria and he definitely will not be allowed to enter Syria. 2. PKK elements abroad will not be permitted to enter Syria. 3. As of now PKK camps are not operational and definitely will not be allowed to become active. 4. Many PKK members have been arrested and have been taken to court. Their lists have been prepared Syria presented these lists to the Turkish side. The Syrian side has confirmed the above mentioned points. Furthermore, the sides also have agreed on the following points: 1. Syria, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, will not permit any activity which emanates from its territory aimed at jeopardizing the security and stability of Turkey. Syria will not allow the supply of weapons, logistic material, financial support to and propaganda activities of the PKK on its territory. 2. Syria has recognized that the PKK is a terrorist organization. Syria has, alongside other terrorist organizations, prohibited all activities of the PKK and its affiliated organizations on its territory. 3. Syria will not allow the PKK to establish camps and other facilities for training and shelter or to have commercial activities on its territory. 4. Syria will not allow PKK members to use its country for transit to third countries. 5. Syria will take all necessary measures to prevent the chieftain of the PKK terrorist organization from entering into Syrian territory and will instruct its authorities at border points to that effect. Both sides have agreed to establish certain mechanisms for the effective and transparent implementation of the measures mentioned above. In this context; a) A direct phone link will immediately be established and operated between the high level security authorities of the two countries. b) The Sides will appoint two special representatives each to their diplomatic missions and these officials will be presented to the authorities of the host-country by the heads of mission. c) The Turkish side, within the context of combating terrorism, has proposed to the Syrian side to establish a system that will enable the monitoring of security enhancing measures and their effectiveness. The Syrian side has stated that it will present this proposal to its authorities for approval and will reply as soon as possible. d) The Turkish and Syrian sides, contingent upon obtaining Lebanon's consent, have agreed to take up the issue of the combat against PKK terrorism in a tripartite framework. e) The Syrian side commits itself to take the necessary measures for the implementation of the points mentioned in this "Minutes" and for the achievement of concrete results. Adana, October 20,1998 For the Turkish Delegation
Ambassador
Uğur Ziyal
Deputy Under-Secretary
Ministry of Foreign Affairs For the Syrian Delegation
Major General
Adnan Badr Al-Hassan
Head of Political SecurityThe Debut of RoboDump 1.0 By Kevin Kelm ([email protected])
Friday, Nov 21, 2004
RoboDump is a robot. Sort of. And it poops. Sort of. Forever. A horrible, never-ending bowel movement complete with straining grunts, horrific gas, splashes, and pee sounds.
Downloads (right click, Save As...) Low bandwidth, 40Kbps, mono, 1.1MB Mirror1 High bandwidth, 128Kbps, stereo, 4.0MB (NEW! Remastered by Greg Lynn! Thanks Greg!) Mirror 2
The left channel speaker points up into the room (for the voice effects) and the right channel speaker points down into the toilet (for the business-end effects).
I snuck RoboDump into the men's room at the office. Unfortunately, today turned out to be the day of a board meeting. Whoops! It still went over well; the office was abuzz all morning with gossip about the guy in the bathroom. Several people theorized it was the CFO. The janitor commented to someone in the hallway that he wanted to clean the restroom but "this guy's been in there all morning."
I also decided to dress it in businessware to make coworkers less likely to try to talk to it... if it looks like a customer or visiting bigwig, they'll be less likely to offer help or ask for a courtesy flush.
Comment at the blog...
RoboDump in action:When I first started playing our beloved game, Magic, the Backstreet Boys were still a band, Spice World was the movie to hate, and adolescence was at least a year away. I’ll never forget the first time I saw some guys playing with some weird cards under a patio at church camp. I was so intrigued that one of the guys gave me a free stack of cards. When I got home I introduced this new game to my parents, and my dad went out and bought us the Starter deck that was out at the time. I then played my first game of Magic against my father, and a life long obsession had evolved.
My parents insisted that my love for Magic would eventually waiver, being replaced with girls and cars. To their dismay, this never happened. Except for a few exceptions, I ignored most girls, and all I cared about with a car was if it ran. Instead, Magic was everything. I played it at least 20 hours a week, except when involved with a Theatre show. It shaped me, and it helped me grow. Along the way a few important life lessons helped make me a better Magic player, and I want to share them with you.
1.Know Yourself
One of the most awkward things about being a teenager is the discovery of oneself. I was very lucky in this respect, because I had parents who welcomed the fact that I was individual, and they did what they could to help me discover who I was. Finding out who I was still wasn’t easy. It took experimentation. I had to try many activities to discover which were for me. Eventually, I ended up auditioning for a Theatre production and fell in love with it. To this day, at my core I am an actor. On the way to discovering Theatre as a passion I had to experiment with Football, Band and many other things. But when I found Theatre, I knew it was who I am.
The same principle can apply with Magic. I feel like many people automatically fit themselves into being a Spike without much thought, since it is the aspect of the game that has the greatest risk and reward. Regardless of that, I encourage everyone to experiment with many different aspects of the game. When I first discovered the competitive aspect of the game I jumped headlong into trying to become the most technically sound player I could be. Within the last year, though, I began to trade heavily. After realizing how much fun I had trading for value, I have almost completely stopped play competitively. I feel that I have discovered who I am within the Magic world, and because of that I enjoy Magic much more. I would encourage each of you to experiment with casual play, trading and collecting to try to maximize your own enjoyment of the game.
2. Utilize Your Resources to Their Maximum Potential
During my Junior year in high school, I had a crisis. I didn’t have the time or the money to do all the things I wanted. I was in a relationship, participating in a play, had school and homework, and still wanted to spend time with my closest friends. At one point, I realized that my grades were slipping because it seemed that I just didn’t have time to study or do homework. I was focusing too much of my time resource into all my other activities and not enough into my school work. I needed to better balance the time I spent with friends and my girlfriend, along with rehearsal times. Somehow, I needed to discover or create time to study. Instead of dedicating a single night to my girlfriend each weekend and another to my friends, my friends and I would go out and do our thing on Friday night, and then later in the night, my girlfriend and I would go on a date. This would free up Saturday for studying and homework. I would also utilize downtime in the green room during rehearsal for studying. I saw a marked improvement in my grades almost immediately.
In Magic, we have a large number of resources to balance. We have mana, life, cards, tempo and time (yes, even in casual play). We have to learn how to manage each of these resources to maximize both our success and fun. Typically, a game of Magic is won by the player who better utilizes these resources, whether it’s by better deckbuilding, or more technical play. Every card in a our sixty card deck is a resource to be exploited (even the lands) and if we don’t manage these resources correctly we will fail. Time management is important to competitive play, because we are also playing against the clock. Chapin talks about making mental shortcuts in his book, Next Level Magic, in order to maximize your time to beat the clock. But, it’s not just in competitive play that time management. When playing casually, nothing can suck the fun out of a game more than a player who slow plays every decision they make.
3. Have a Plan
I touched on this point a little above. In order to better utilized my resources, I had to come up with a plan in order to maximize them. Without a plan, my grades would have continued to slip, and I would not have succeeded. This also applies to the a larger scale. I knew that I wanted to Major in Theatre when I went to college. Surprisingly, Theatre is not an easy major. I would need a good deal of experience going into college in order to succeed at my course of study. With this knowledge, I planned to be involved with every production possible at my local theatre. I knew I would need the experience, so I made a plan that maximized it.
When playing a game of Magic, you need a plan. When crafting a deck we need to make sure it has a plan to win. When utilizing a Pre-Con deck we need to know what the plan is. If we have no plan, or no understanding of the plan, then we are going to lose. This also applies on a smaller scale. When I draw my opening hand of a game, I need to make sure that hand has a plan. We also need to make sure this plan is a good one. If my hand is six lands and a seven drop, then we have a plan, but it’s not a very good one. Also, we have to stick to our plan. If I’m playing an aggro deck, and try to play a long game, I will most likely fail.
4. Be Willing to Adapt
Even though, we have a plan, and we know how to implement it, sometimes circumstances will arise that dictate that we change our plan. When I was in college my father was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed and in critical condition for a long period of time. I became depressed and lost sight of my plan. Because of this, it was not feasible for me to continue my higher education at the time, so I adapted my plan. I entered the military. My plan changed, but I had to be willing to change the plan.
Likewise, sometimes in Magic, even our most welled laid plans don’t work out. Sometimes, when playing aggro, we draw the nut hand, but our opponent has one for one removal for the first four creatures we drop. We have to be willing to adjust our plan for a longer (and much more painful) game. If we just give up at that point, then we lose the potential to win the game. Yes, our original plan didn’t work out, but is it possible for us to land an Elspeth, Knight Errant at some point and take over the game? This wasn’t our original plan, but it can win the game.
5. Have Fun
Being a young person today can be very stressful. If we don’t find time to have fun, then we will become so overburdened that we will fail. Theatre and Magic were both outlets for me through the harder parts of adolescence. Blowing off the steam of everyday life keep me sane and healthy. Even when my father was in the hospital in critical condition it was important for me to be able to play a game of Magic in order to get my mind off of the bad circumstances in my life.
Sometimes, especially in the competitive circle, we forget that Magic is a game. We need to enjoy it as such. We can’t let it always be about maximizing our plays. Sometimes we need to play a deck that does something stupid, just to have fun. Even casual players struggle with this. Many casual circles are a constant battle for supremacy. In these circles, the players need to sometimes take a step back and realize that they are playing game. To have fun. To relax
Yes, these principles are simple. But, they are also essential in both life and Magic. Growing up playing Magic allowed me the interesting perspective of developing this principles in both life and Magic simultaneously. Without Magic, I feel that my understanding of these principles in life would have come slower. I am thankful that I had this great game to help me develop into the person I am today.
-Ronnie
AdvertisementsSister Buyisile Zuma is discovering what it’s like to have Heavenly Father as her business partner!
Buyisile attends a “Growing & Starting My Business” group in the Self-Reliance Centre in Durban, South Africa.
She’s a 47 year old single mother with 5 children aged between 10 and 26, who are all active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was born in rural South Africa and was raised as a Catholic. It was through her brother that she found the Gospel and was baptized in 2010.
She earns money for her family by working as a domestic. This however, is not enough so she has started a small business sewing insulated bags which can slow-cook dishes, saving power. She has joined the Self-Reliance Group to grow her business so that she can better provide for her family.
FAITH PRECEDES MIRACLES
FAITH PRECEDES MIRACLES
Buyisile can only work on her business after she’s finished her day job, so that often means long hours into the night. She has a very old sewing machine. Recently she got a very good order to produce bags. She was busily sewing when at almost midnight the sewing machine stopped working!
The machine had a toolkit, including a screwdriver, but Buyisile didn’t know how to use them. And at midnight it was not possible to call out a mechanic - which she couldn’t afford anyway, and at that time of night there was no-one else she could turn to. Buyisile remembered what she’d learned on the course and in the My Foundation principles about faith and putting one’s trust in the Lord.
So she went to the Lord in humble prayer. “ Help me to fix this machine so I can make the order for my customer to collect in the morning ”. With no time to waste and with pure and simple faith she pleaded for guidance…. “ Heavenly Father, help me!” She then had a distinct impression to use the screwdriver and push a particular part of the sewing machine. She had no mechanical experience and didn’t know what she was doing, but listened and acted on the promptings. She then switched the machine on. IT WORKED! She felt so shocked that this miracle had happened, she wanted to shout and tell her family…. but they were all fast asleep. The family shared her story and excitement the following morning. The deadline was met and her customer was happy.
Help me to fix this machine so I can make the order for my
customer to collect in the morning
Heavenly Father, help me!”Another quake, magnitude 6.2, strikes off Ecuador coast
By Julia Symmes Cobb and Ana Isabel Martinez
COJIMIES, Ecuador, April 20 (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Ecuador on Wednesday, just days after a major quake hit the country killing nearly 500 people.
The latest quake was centred 70 km (44 miles) off the Pacific coast town Esmeraldas at a depth of 10 km, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, not far from the epicenter of Saturday's 7.8 magnitude quake.
Reuters witnesses in the zone said two strong tremors of about 30 seconds each were felt in Cojimies, down the coast in the disaster zone from the weekend earthquake, waking people up and sending them into the street.
It was not felt in the highland capital of Quito.
Ecuador's Geophysical Institute said a 6.2 magnitude earthquake at 3.33 local time (0833 GMT) was followed by a series of after-shocks. There was no tsunami warning.
Saturday's 7.8 magnitude quake killed 480 people, left another 107 missing, and injured more than 4,600. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and roads torn up in a major blow to the South American OPEC country's already fragile economy.
Supervising rescue work in the disaster zone, President Rafael Correa said the weekend quake inflicted $2 billion to $3 billion of damage to the oil-dependent economy and could knock 2 to 3 percentage points off growth.
Saturday's quake, Ecuador's worst in decades, destroyed or damaged about 1,500 buildings, triggered mudslides. It left some 20,500 people sleeping in shelters, according to the government.We all have sin. Scripture says so. Christians say so; even conservative Christians say so. Why, then, is there so much talk nowadays about how people are “in sin” and therefore condemned to God’s judgment? Do we have to quit our “sin” in order to be Christians? Do we have to quit our “sin” in order to be saved?
What is an unrepentant sinner?
A major idea of modern Christianity in America, non-controversial in even the most conservative circles, is that “ex-sinners” are welcome. “Ex-sinners” are non-problematic for us; many of us think of ourselves as “ex-sinners”, and rightfully include our deliverance from sin as a cornerstone of our personal testimony. “All have sinned” is thus held to be a thing primarily of our personal pasts, and our term for people who meet this test is “repentant sinner.”
What, then, of the “unrepentant sinner”, whose “sin” is still acknowledged to be in the present? People quote verses like “wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of heaven” to show that his choices are: (1) to desist from a certain list of sins (see below) or (2) be condemned to eternal hell. But then, in effect, his salvation stems from his behavior and we are back under the law; Christ did not come simply to change up the line of reasoning by which sinners are condemned.
If we only welcome “ex-sinners”, then another way of phrasing our message to the world is: “Go clean up your act, and then you are invited to join us,” or at least, “You may join us provisionally so long as you clean up your act.” The line of reasoning is that we must protect ourselves from the unrepentant sinner (often quoting the warning of 1 Corinthians 5:11). But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Whereas we, in our imposition of prerequisites and conditionals, are like the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous, turning away the “unrespectables” to protect their program, only to find in the end that, “We were intolerant. How could we guess that all those fears were to prove groundless? How could we know that thousands of these sometimes frightening people were to make astonishing recoveries and become our greatest workers?”
In the parable of the sower, one major point lost on our non-agricultural generation is the shocking wastefulness; Christ as the sower makes no distinctions about where he spends himself. He scatters as liberally to the poor soil and the thorn bushes as to the good. If he made no such distinctions with his grace, if he made no such judgments about who is worthy to receive his largess, then why should we make such distinctions? I think Christ’s point is that you and I, as we are out there sowing, have no idea where is the good soil and where the bad. Sometimes the most radiant Christians (e.g. Paul) come from the most surprising and least worthy places (e.g. Paul). Christ himself said, “Whoever is forgiven much will love much.”
“Acceptable” sin
In our contemporary Christian culture, we have come around to a conventional wisdom that breaks down “sins” into three categories:
Acceptable : Those that can be freely practiced without reflection, hesitation or misgiving. These include eating unclean food, breaking the sabbath, and (increasingly) remarriage after divorce. Borderline : Those that can be practiced now and again, so long as it is due to “weakness” and you feel shame (aka “repentance”) about it. This covers pretty much the whole range from alcoholism to sexual sin. Horrifying : Those that are so egregious they must not be practiced, ever. This category is largely theoretical, used as a debating tactic when shock value is needed; it’s mainly just murder and bestiality.
It is adherence to this conventional wisdom that fuels our entire modern culture war. People whose “sins” fall into the “acceptable” category are readily welcomed and embraced by the church, whereas those who are relegated to “borderline” status are offered a false correlation: between being acceptable to Christians and living in constant shame.
Here is the problem: it’s all a cultural construct. Even conservative churches now readily take in those who would have caused a great scandal just a generation or two ago. Rightly so. The weight of scripture is overwhelmingly against the drawing of niceties between different kinds of sin. James says “Whoever obeys the whole law yet breaks it at just one point is guilty of breaking it all.” Paul makes a similar point when talking about circumcision. And Christ himself equates one of our “horrifying” sins (murder) with words spoken in anger and contempt, a practice so common among contemporary Christians that it is seen as totally “acceptable” (if not “encouraged”!)
Christ’s plucking grain on the sabbath, Peter’s vision of eating forbidden food, Paul’s railing against the need for circumcision: these are not meant to be line-item deletions of three specific legal requirements, leaving the rest of the law in full force. They must be read as they would have seemed to the original audience, as wild and revolutionary, sweeping and scandalous, not chipping away at the cornices of the law, but swinging at the foundation stones with a pickaxe. If we are to tolerate unrepentance towards the “acceptable” sins, then we ourselves are the transgressors when we refuse equally free welcome, grace and acceptance to all.
Errors of judgment and license
Unfortunately, many instinctively revolt against this line of reasoning because it is open to abuse. Always has been. That doesn’t make the theology wrong. Paul was God’s pioneer for grace-instead-of-law, and he was constantly having to defend it against the legalists on his right and the licentious on his left. Sin still has the power to destroy, but so does the knee-jerk, unthinking, reflexive application of the law.
As brothers and sisters, we are not to stand idly by when we witness destructive sin at work in a person’s life. Simple human mercy demands that much, to say nothing of scripture’s commands that we care for each other and bear one another’s burdens. But we must remember: there is more to knowing what needs to change in a person’s life than simply knowing whether or not Hebrew law is being obeyed. It is the blanket application of law— without love, without reflection, without relationship— that cannot survive in the heart of the true Christian.
Related Links
What is sin? It’s not that simple.This Is What Happens at a Feminist Edit-a-Thon for Wikipedia
Steph Mitesser Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 17, 2017
Less than 10% of Wikipedia contributors identify as female — and it shows. Women worldwide are working to change that.
The 2017 political and media landscape has heightened our sense of responsibility to parse out biases in the information we consume. Now more than ever, when I read news or commentary, I ask myself: who wrote this piece? Who paid the writer? What are their values? What do they hope to gain from publishing this?
Wikipedia, despite its somewhat polarizing reputation, makes it easier to answer those questions. Its scale dilutes the bias of any one author, and most Wikipedia articles have numerous authors — sometimes hundreds, if the article is popular or controversial. When I read a Wikipedia article, I feel empowered to come to my own conclusions, rather than constantly questioning if I should agree with the conclusions of one reporter or scholar. The platform is also nonprofit and transparent; I can easily see what sources informed an article, how it evolved, and who contributed to it.
I’ve felt invested in Wikipedia and its importance for years, so I finally created an editor’s account in 2016. Poking around the site’s discussion boards and guidelines, I quickly noticed it shared surface-level similarities to other nerdy forum-based communities on the internet, like Reddit. And while I didn’t notice as much overt sexism as on Reddit, everything from the slang to the usernames to the heated competition for Barn Stars (think Wikipedia Boy Scout badges) felt extremely, well, dude-ish.
Soon, I learned that statistics supported my anecdotal observations. Less than 10% of Wikipedia contributors identify as female, and that gender disparity in the community impacts the content. Not only are women less-covered on Wikipedia than men, but articles about them are more likely to mention their gender and relationship status, link to pages about men, and describe their work in gendered terms (such as in 2013, when the New York Times reported that a user had removed all female novelists from the list of American novelists and placed them on a new one called “American woman novelists”).
In response to this type of bias, and because the art world suffers from similar issues, four friends in 2014 formed Art+Feminism, a collective that aims “to create meaningful changes to the body of knowledge available about feminism and the arts on Wikipedia.” In under three years, it’s become a worldwide movement — every March since 2014 (to generally coincide with International Women’s Day), A+F members have gathered at more than 280 events |
trivia questions – testing whether this actually improves judgement in real-world scenarios could be promising, and help to get these techniques applied more widely.
Structured Analytic Techniques (SATs) are a number of techniques developed for reducing cognitive biases in intelligence analyses. Examples of SATs including checking key assumptions, and challenging consensus views. These seem to be grounded in an understanding of the psychological literature, but few have been tested rigorously (i.e. with a control group and looking at the impact on accuracy.) It could be useful to select some of these techniques that look most promising, and try to test which are actually effective at improving real-world judgements. It might be particularly interesting/useful to try to directly pitch some of these techniques against each other and compare their levels of success.
Methods of aggregating expert judgements, including Roger Cooke’s Classical Model for Structured Expert Judgement, which scores different judgements according to their accuracy and informativeness and then uses these scores to combine them, and the Delphi Method, a method for building consensus in groups, by using multiple iterations of questions to collect data from different group members.
Practically speaking, this probably means trying to get a position at a behavioural science/research lab interested in working on these kinds of questions and studies (which would very likely require getting a PhD in psychology or related area of behavioural science.) Some labs and researchers we know of whose research interests seem to fall in this area:
There may also be some non-academic organisations with funding for, and interest in running, more rigorous tests of known decision-making techniques:
IARPA is probably the biggest funder of research in this area right now, especially with a focus on improving high-level decisions.
Consultancies with a behavioural science focus, such as the Behavioural Insights Team, may also have the funding and interest in doing this kind of research. These organisations generally focus on improving lots of small decisions, rather than on improving the quality of a few very important decisions, but they may do some work on the latter (e.g. as mentioned above, BIT have focused not just on small ‘nudges’ but also on improving the quality of policy decisions at a high level by promoting the use of RCTs.)
2. Doing more fundamental research to identify new techniques
You could also try to do more fundamental research; developing new techniques and approaches to improved judgement and decision-making, and then testing them. This is more pressing if you don’t think the existing techniques are very good.
One example of an open question in this area is: how do we judge “good reasoning” when we don’t have objective answers to a question? (i.e. when we can’t just judge answers/contributions based on whether they lead to accurate predictions or answers we know to be true.) Two examples of current research programmes related to this question are IARPA’s Crowdsourcing Evidence, Argumentaion, Thinking and Evaluation (CREATE) programme and Philip Tetlock’s Making Conversations Smarter, Faster (MCSF) project, so you could try to get involved with one of the teams working on these projects.
One example of a project funded by the aforementioned CREATE programme is Bayesian Argumentation via Delphi (BARD), which is a collaboration between UCL, Birkbeck, and Monash universities. BARD uses causal Bayesian networks and automated Delphi analyses to help groups of analysts develop, improve and present their analyses. Note that there’s a considerable software development component to this project – suggesting that part of improving decision-making may involve not just developing psychological techniques, but also developing software and tools that can aid decision-making.
You could also work on a similar project independently if you are a researcher who can get funding for this, or if you’re thinking about doing a PhD try to work with academics in related areas. The researchers at Monash, UCL, and Birkbeck mentioned above are some we’re aware of, but there are likely many others.
The academics and institutions listed in section 1. (on testing existing techniques) might also be promising places to work if you’re interested in developing new decision-making techniques.
3. Fostering adoption of the best proven techniques in high-impact areas
The website FiveThirtyEight.com has popularised data-driven forecasting methods.
Alternatively, you could focus more on implementing those techniques we currently think are most likely to improve collective decision making (such as the research on forecasting by Tetlock, prediction markets, or calibration training.) If you think one specific problem is particularly important, you might prefer to focus on the implementation of techniques (rather than developing new ones), as this is easier to target towards specific areas.
As mentioned above, a large part of ‘fostering adoption’ might first require better understanding the practical constraints and incentives of different groups working on important problems, in order to understand what changes are likely to be feasible. For this reason, working in any of the organisations or groups listed below with the aim of better understanding the barriers they face, might be valuable even if you don’t expect to be in a position to change decision-making practices immediately.
These efforts might be particularly impactful if focused on organisations that control a large number of resources, or organisations working on important problems. Here are some examples of specific places that might be good to work if you want to do this:
You could also try to test and implement improved decision-making techniques in a range of organisations as a consultant. Some specific organisations where you might be able to do this, or at least build up relevant experience, include:
Working at a specialist “behavioural science” consultancy, such as the Behavioural Insights Team or Ideas42. Some successful academics in this field have also set up smaller consultancies – such as Hubbard Decision Research (which has worked extensively on calibration training).
Good Judgement is an organisation founded on the basis of Tetlock’s successful research project on forecasting, and who now run training for individuals and organisations applying these findings to improve predictions.
HyperMind, an organisation focused on wider adoption of prediction markets.
Going into more general consultancy, with the aim of trying to specialise in behavioural science or decision-making – see our profile on management consulting for more details.
Finally, you could also try and advocate for the adoption of better practices across government and organisations, or for improved decision-making more generally – if you think you can get a good platform for doing so – working as a journalist, speaker, or perhaps as an academic working in this area.
Julia Galef is a good example of someone who has followed this kind of path. Julia worked as a freelance journalist before co-founding the Centre for Applied Rationality, co-hosted the podcast Rationally Speaking (which she still runs today), and started a YouTube channel with tens of thousands of followers. She’s now writing a book on improving your own judgement, while running the Update Project, which focuses on helping decision makers improve their models of the world and resolve disagreements more productively. More broadly, she’s aiming to build an intellectual community of influential people across a range of different fields, who are genuinely trying to be truth-seeking and to resolve disagreements in a productive way. You can learn more about Julia’s career path by checking out our interview with her here.
4. Directing more funding towards research in this area
One challenge for all of the above areas is that it may be difficult to get funding for the kinds of work and research involved. Another approach in this area, therefore, might be to move a step backwards in the chain and try to direct more funding towards work in all of the aforementioned areas: developing, testing, and implementing better decision-making strategies.
The main place we know of that seems particularly interested in directing more funding towards improving decision-making research is IARPA in the US. Becoming a program manager at IARPA, if you’re a good fit and have ideas about areas of research that could do with more funding,is therefore a very promising opportunity. There’s also some chance the Open Philanthropy Project may invest more time/funds in exploring this area (they have previously funded some of Philip Tetlock’s work on forecasting). Otherwise you could try and work at any other large foundation with an interest in funding scientific research where there might be room to direct funds towards this area.
If you work at any of the organisations listed above, you might also try to advocate for more funds to be directed towards testing and implementing improved decision-making practices, even if you’re not in a position to do the work yourself.
If you don’t have the relevant background to do research or implement better practices yourself, but you think this is important and you’re in (or think you could work up to) an influential position in an important organisation, then you might be able to allocate more funding towards improving decision-making practices where you work (e.g. by funding tests, hiring someone who would be able to do this work.) If you’re in a position to do this, this could be even higher-impact than working somewhere like IARPA, where there already seems to be a lot of motivation to direct funding towards these problems.
We don’t currently think that there are many great direct donation opportunities in this area, and so this probably isn’t the best way to have an impact – at least not for relatively minor donors. If you’re a larger donor, though, you might consider funding academics to do the sort of research outlined in points 1 and 2, or even trying to set up an organisation to conduct and/or fund more of this kind of research.
Next steps
Learn more:
Take action:
Consider getting a PhD in behavioural/decision science one of the groups mentioned above. See if you can find a supervisor and/or funding that would allow you to run large trials of existing techniques, or research new strategies for improved decision-making.
If you already have the relevant background (e.g. a PhD, or policy experience), try to work in government (or a similarly influential organisation) where you might be able to either work on implementing better practices directly, or direct resources towards others who can do this work.
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Notes and referencesNew York Mets pitcher Logan Taylor throws against the Washington Nationals during a spring training baseball game Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, in Port St. Lucie, Fla. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Las Vegas 51s Logan Taylor (58) during media day at Cashman Field on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, in Las Vegas. Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @Erik_Verduzco
Las Vegas 51s reliever Logan Taylor was walking down a street Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City when he was approached by a homeless man carrying a tire iron and a sock full of rocks.
The man demanded his wallet, Salt Lake City police Detective Greg Wilking said, and subsequently hit Taylor over the back of his head with the tire iron.
Taylor suffered a concussion during the robbery attempt and was placed on the disabled list. Manager Pedro Lopez said Taylor was taken to a hospital where he had to have six or seven staples put in the back of his head.
Lopez said Taylor was in good enough condition that he was able to be with the team at the ballpark.
Joshua Cruz, a 33-year-old Salt Lake City homeless man, was arrested on Saturday in relation to the incident.
“There were a couple guys that saw it, Dom (Smith) and (Kevin) McGowan,” Lopez said, referring to Taylor’s teammates. “They tried to go after the guy when they realized it was Logan, but (the police) ended up catching the guy later on,” Lopez said.
After hitting Taylor, the man fled on foot. Cruz was apprehended by the police in the area, Wilking said.
“At the very time the call was coming in, an officer that was right in the area was flagged down by people, and he tried to run away,” Wilking said. “He was chased. He was told to drop the items he had, and then he turned around on the officer, and that’s when another officer came on the scene and they used a Taser to take him into custody.”
Cruz was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Sunday on charges of aggravated robbery and failure to stop at command of law enforcement.
As of Monday afternoon, he remained in jail with a $2,500 bail.
The 51s played one more game in Salt Lake City on Monday, before returning to Las Vegas, where Lopez said Taylor would see a doctor.
The New York Mets are aware of the incident and said in a statement, “It’s in the hands of the police now and we can’t comment further.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at [email protected]. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.WHEN you look at the above logo, what do you see?
An innocent chicken with wings that spell out ‘d’ and ‘b’ topped off with a crest. Or a phallus barely manipulated to represent a chicken?
The cocky logo belongs to Dirty Bird Fried Chicken, a food van in Wales, whose owners have copped a mouthful of complaints from customers who have stood up against the suggestive drawing, according to Wales Online.
One customer, Abigail Griffiths, told Wales Online: I was queuing up with my two young sons when I looked at the logo and realised what it represents. It’s not the sort of thing that should be on display around children.”
The owner, Neil Young, said it was never the firm’s intention to make the logo phallic. He told Wales Online: “We’ve never really thought about it like that. Our designer created a d and b for ‘dirty bird’ then pushed them together to make a cockerel.”
The designer, Mark James, added that it is definitely just a “representation of a rooster incorporating the initials.” But, as he said, it is in the eye of the beholder.The Redmond, Wash.-based company, which dominates the market for desktop software, has signed deals or expects to do so shortly with 10 countries and organizations, Salah DanDan, worldwide Government Security Program manager, said in an interview.
"The GSP is the global initiative announced today that seeks to provide governments with access to source code and information that governments need to be confident in the security of the Microsoft platform," DanDan said.
Under the program announced Tuesday, DanDan said, governments will be able to see source code for Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and CE; use that code to build those versions of Windows; see Microsoft security documentation the company doesn't otherwise share; visit Microsoft's headquarters; speak with Microsoft developers; and perform their own tests on the code.
Microsoft's decision isn't taking place in a vacuum. Over the past two years, governments around the world have begun considering legislation that would require the use of open-source or free software unless proprietary software is the only feasible option.
This movement, of which Brazil was an early and eager proponent, has found ready converts as governments struggle with limited information-technology budgets. Security concerns have also been an issue.
Microsoft has criticized the open-source movement, the philosophy behind Linux and several other projects that compete with Microsoft software. But one advantage the open-source community has over Microsoft is that suspicious parties may see exactly what's going on in the software it produces.
"Certainly they want to reduce the possible reasons people are looking at Linux," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver. "It sounds like another attempt by Microsoft to appear to be a bit more open."
Courting China
Microsoft acknowledges that the availability of other products' source code can "drive interest" in seeing Microsoft's code. Microsoft hopes to outdo open-source efforts by showing those governments how to use the source code once they have it, the company said.
Countries could use help poring through the millions of lines of source code, but Silver said he believes Microsoft clearly has a broader agenda in mind. "It's very political in nature," he said of the program.
The program could help "appease a country like China that there are no backdoors in Windows," Silver said, referring to secret entrances by which an outsider can take over a computer or retrieve information from it.
China is one of about 60 countries eligible for the program, DanDan said, declining to state whether it is a participant.
Microsoft is working hard to court Chinese buyers and the Chinese government, walking a fine line between coaxing the Chinese to crack down on piracy while not driving potential customers into the arms of companies such as Red Flag Linux.
Security problems have plagued Microsoft to the point where Gartner has recommended against using some packages. Providing access to Microsoft programmers could allay concerns that there are other, undisclosed vulnerabilities lurking within the secret confines of the Windows source code.
The Government Security Program was the brainchild of Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief technical officer of advanced strategies and policy, who was responding to government requests for more information access, DanDan said.
"This program is a personal project of Craig Mundie. It's something he has worked on for the last few years," DanDan said. As Mundie has been "in contact with government officials around the world, he had several conversations in which the need to have greater access and visibility into Microsoft code came up."
Mundie has been the most visible executive in Microsoft's crusade against open-source software, under which programmers are free to see, modify and redistribute source code. Among other things, he has called the approach unhealthy.
Microsoft began approaching countries about the project in late summer, DanDan said.
Security and other concerns
DanDan wouldn't say what concerns governments hoped to address, beyond the general category of security. "If you get more information about the workings of Microsoft Windows, you can make your own determination about how secure the Windows platform is," DanDan said.
While Linux's openness has pressured Microsoft, there are many other factors involved in a decision about what software to use.
Becoming more open is only one issue Microsoft must deal with in warding off the competitive threat of Linux. "There are lots of reasons that governments have started lining up behind Linux. And security and openness and (fear of) backdoors is only a portion" of them, Gartner's Silver said. "There are still monetary issues."
Linux and open-source software have encroached on Microsoft in Peru and Germany, among other countries.
In addition to Linux, perpetual Microsoft rival Sun Microsystems has been giving governments free copies of its StarOffice software, a competitor to Microsoft Office based on the open-source OpenOffice project. Recipients include China, Taiwan, Chile and Hong Kong.
Under a different program called the Shared Source Initiative, Microsoft already shares Windows source code with governments and companies. Partners in that program include Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, and several branches of the U.S. government, including the State Department, said Jason Matusow, the program's manager, in an earlier interview.
"There is a reality that having source code does have benefits for some organizations," Matusow said.
The Shared Source Initiative is available to about half the countries eligible for the Government Security Program, DanDan said.Apple’s widely rumored car project has reportedly hit a major speed bump. Citing unnamed industry sources, the German business paper Handelsblatt reported yesterday (Apr. 20) that talks between the tech giant and German auto-makers BMW and Daimler about working on an Apple car have broken down amid data-privacy concerns and fears that Apple would dominate the relationship.
Apple hasn’t responded to a request for comment, and the company hasn’t publicly confirmed the existence of a car project, although chief executive Tim Cook has said that he expects “massive change“ in the car industry. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the car project is known as ”Project Titan,” and that it has gained “committed project” status within the company, with major features to be completed by 2019.
The Cupertino, California, company was in talks with the German automakers to work on a battery-powered, “highly networked” vehicle loaded with cameras and sensors that would generate reams of data to Apple’s iCloud platform, according to Handelsblatt. Apple’s idea was to create a range of new location-based services with the data.
But, the paper reports, the German companies deemed Apple’s plans to be too intrusive to customer privacy. They wanted to offer more data privacy, and believed customers would be put off if a US tech company handled their data. Apple is fighting the US Federal Bureau of Investigation over requests to bypass security mechanisms on iPhones.
The auto companies also feared losing control of the project to Apple and being relegated to ”junior partners,” according to Handelsblatt. BMW has its own electric cars, the i8 and i3. Daimler is working on a range of Mercedes-Benz electric cars.
The rebuff is a blow to Apple chief executive Tim Cook, who approached BMW first, and then Daimler, and who had the two firms at the top of his list, Handelsblatt reported. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a fan of German automotive design, and he famously drove a Mercedes-Benz performance coupe without license plates.
Apple probably wouldn’t go it alone on any car project, but it is bound run into the concerns that reportedly sunk the deal with BMW and Daimler, especially if it hopes to work with premier brands. Apple is now reportedly turning its attention to the Canadian auto supplier Magna International, which has a contract manufacturing plant in Austria. It has long assembled Minis for BMW there, although that arrangement is due to end this year. A Magna spokesperson said the firm didn’t comment on rumors or speculation.
The tech giant is also rumored to be meeting other European suppliers—Bosch, Continental, and Osram—to discuss key technologies like lightweight manufacturing, sensors, cameras, and interior fittings, Handelsblatt reported.
A key engineer at Tesla and alum of Aston Martin, Chris Porritt, has reportedly been hired at Apple recently to work on “special projects.” It’s thought that Porritt will replace the rumored previous head of Project Titan, Steve Zadesky, who is leaving Apple. Another German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, has reported that Apple has a team of engineers doing research and development on the car project in Berlin.At yesterday’s ST board meeting the most interesting presentation was a staff discussion of an imminent conceptual study that will help inform board decisions in an ST3 package. It’s the first document that scopes projects based on overall package sizes.
The stated purpose is not to create a project list, but instead to evaluate certain package sizes as required by statute. There are four levels of spending, from an almost negligible amount of rail, to using the whole $15 billion revenue request (which amounts to about $25 billion of projects in year of expenditure dollars). The higher spending plans allow variable amounts of emphasis on completing the light rail “spine” (Everett/Redmond/Tacoma) vs. additional corridors in Seattle and on the Eastside.
Staff will evaluate the representative packages for each funding level and spine emphasis according to the following criteria:
Completing the Link Light Rail Spine
Ridership
Connecting the Region’s Designated Centers with HCT
Socio-Economic Equity
Integration with other transit operators/transportation systems
Multi-modal access
Promoting transit-supportive land use and TOD
Advancing “logical next steps” projects beyond the spine; within financial capacity
Both the slides themselves and the ST press release are emphatic that this is focused on high-level tradeoffs, and “the scenarios are not draft system plans and do not encompass all of the projects that will be considered for a ballot measure.” And that’s a good thing, because there are possibly fatal problems with all of them:
They explicitly ignore questions of subarea accounting and cost everything out of a single revenue pool. The Board hasn’t resolved any issues related to subarea accounting, so it seems shortsighted to not consider those effects at all. Spokesman Geoff Patrick says “the financing conversation will come after we’ve developed conceptual cost estimates for each of the candidate projects.” In essence, a decision to focus strongly on the spine is a decision for taxes in North King and East King County to mostly pay for projects elsewhere. Not one of the nine alternatives involves a grade-separated solution for Ballard, perhaps the neighborhood in the region most in need of one. Some of the alternatives involve “rapid streetcar” and others Option C, an MLK-like treatment. An important distinction is that Option C would interface with a second downtown tunnel going onward to West Seattle, making key aspects pretty flexible. There is a world of difference between a tunnel portal in Interbay (not a big deal) and one near Westlake (catastrophic). The presentation may not have enough resolution to work out these issues, but note that Option C got support from all of 2% of public comments (see p. 69 here). Sound Transit has never confirmed the correctness of my subarea math, but it’s questionable that reaching Everett via Paine Field is possible given the size of South Snohomish County’s economy. Most of the alternatives clearly involve a large transfer out of the East King Subarea, and part of the reason the most expensive options run at-grade through dense parts of Seattle is that funds are going north. Regionalism is a fine virtue, but it’s not clear that voters have the regionwide ethic to tax themselves heavily to benefit people far away. At least, no one seemed to think so when the spine projects were in Seattle and other subareas didn’t chip in. More importantly, transferring funds from places where bus statistics indicate strong transit demand, to places where such demand is at best unproven, is a not a good way to maximize the benefits of this investment. No alternative contains the Ballard/UW corridor, the lowest cost per rider of any Seattle project ST studied. Cost per rider isn’t everything — ridership in absolute terms, and passenger-miles, also matter — but the omission is striking.
I imagine most STB readers will be deeply disappointed with the shape of these concepts. So as the headline asks, should you be worried? The explanatory text is emphatic that this is not a rejection of some higher-quality concept. On the other hand, the fact that staff shaped a study with these boundaries is an interesting statement about where they want to go, or the board is pressuring them to go, or where they think the board wants to go.
Worrying isn’t a very useful response. The best action is to tell whomever represents you on the Sound Transit board what you expect to see out of a Sound Transit 3 package, and that you’re willing to pay the taxes to get there. On May 7th the Executive Committee will discuss the process for a draft project priority list. At the May 28th meeting, the full board will review the results of this study and formulate that draft list. There will be more public outreach in June and July to add yet more projects, and the final project list comes out in August. Throughout the Fall, the Board will work to shape a package for a 2016 ballot measure.
The low quality of proposals for the Ballard corridor is the biggest weakness of the straw-man concepts presented yesterday. Ultimately it’s the responsibility of board members supposed to be looking out for Ballard — particularly Larry Phillips, Mayor Murray, and Mike O’Brien — to make sure that we get a better plan. If not, it’ll fall to Seattle voters — who traditionally provide the supermajorities that ensure ST’s success — to hold out for a better deal.
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In another suddenly less-interesting development, the Board approved the preferred alternative for Lynnwood Link as the final alignment. The only concession to advocates for stations at N. 130th St. and SW 220th St. was to make sure that the line will be constructed so that adding the stations at a later date would have minimal fiscal and operational impact.anyone know this feel?brb chilling with gf getting hot and freaky. then out of nowhere she starts crying and runs into her room leaving me flabbergasted. I call and call the shes all "come in im sorry"I sit down nervous as fuk, then she stares at me deeplyor something. I began to tune it out because every girl ive ever messed with has had a story very similar to this.I dont intend to sound demeaning because i know incidents like this occur but when i relay this to my friends and they say the same thing happens to chicks they mess with. I have no other choice but to be skeptical. I mean what are the chances that these females really experience sexual harassment on this level?once again i dont mean to sound demeaning and if there's something wrong with this thread then please delete it.A Look at the HTC 10’s Nougat Update, Rolling out Now!
HTC is wishing all of its flagship users in the USA a Happy Thanksgiving, and it’s doing so by announcing the rollout of the official Android 7.0 Nougat update for the HTC 10.
Clocking in at a hefty 1.11GB in size, there is no mistake in assuming that this is a significant update for the HTC 10 which was launched with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. This update is currently rolling out to unlocked HTC 10 users in the USA. Sadly, there is no word on when this update will begin its rollout for other regions of the world, but we can guess that it won’t be too long now. Carrier locked HTC 10’s would have to wait for their update as well.
But if you can’t wait, or don’t have a HTC 10 for that matter, we received the update on our unlocked HTC 10. Take a look at some screenshots from the update:
The update that is rolling out is Android 7.0 Nougat, and not Android 7.1, in case you got too happy about it. The update contains security patches up to November 1, but the patch level for November 1 is partial only. The full security update with many more critical fixes is dated for November 5, and an additional patch was rolled out on November 6. We are disappointed that HTC did not include the absolute latest in security patches as this is a critical area where being on the cutting edge is preferable over still being vulnerable.
The Settings Menu sees the Nougat overhaul, and HTC has left things untouched for the most part.
The Nougat treatment extends onto the Notification Panel and the Quick Toggles. One thing to note, Night Mode comes “revealed” by default on HTC’s minimalistic skin. You do not need any additional apps to enable or toggle it, as you can do so out-of-the-box on the update. Heads up notification is slightly different as well.
App switching experience is improved as well. Double tapping on the recents button switches to the last used app, instead of just going back into the original one. The animation for this switch is smooth as well.
As for bugs, we found one so far in our usage. HTC’s “Weather Clock” widget breaks on the Google Now Launcher, while it works fine on the Sense launcher. The widget is iconic (albeit modern in its current avatar) and represents an “HTC” experience ever since widgets were introduced in Android, so we’re slightly bummed on this. You can use other widgets, so all is not lost.
Have you tried out the update? How do you like it so far? Let us know in the comments below!
Big thanks to Steven for the screenshots!In recent years compression socks have become more and more fashionable. The running community has been at the forefront of this revolution. Compression socks for running are effective for enhancing athletic performance as well as speeding up recovery. Let’s look at which models are the best running compression socks for men and women in 2018.
Are the best compression socks for running effective? Some claim they help with performance as well as recovery. Others consider them just the latest farce. What does the science say? We will dig deeper to find out, whether the best running compression socks are worth the price. We will also recommend the best cmpression socks for running in 2018.
The best running compression socks in 2018
The Physix Gear Sport Compression socks are the best compression socks for running in 2018. They have everything the best running compression socks need to have.
These socks are made of nylon and quality, stretchable lycra material. They are breathable, let the sweat evaporate from your skin and keep your legs dry during workouts. The fabric has antibacterial and anti-fungi qualities. This makes them also hygienic compression socks for running.
The socks have a double stitched heel design, which lowers the vibrations going through your legs when you step on the ground during your run. This is a huge plus when it comes to preventing and treating shin splints.
The socks have a single toe design, which hold your toes tightly but don’t compress them too much. They are comfortable compression socks for running.
The Physix Gear Sport Compression Socks put between 20-30 mm Hg graduated compression on your legs. This is the ideal amount to promote blood flow while sitting, running or sleeping. This way you will not only have lower heart rate while running, the training load on your muscles will decrease, and they will recover quicker. An essential quality in compression socks for running if you want to train hard and often.
It is clear how much the company believes in their product. The Physix Gear Sport Compression socks come with a lifetime money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your product, they will refund your money, no questions asked.
Here is a longer review of the Physix Gear Sport Running Compression Socks. If you read it you can make sure why these are the best compression socks for running in 2018.
Click here to check out further reviews and pricing options on Amazon
Do compression socks for running work?
Running compression socks have certainly grew in popularity among athletes, so much so that people trying out for the Olympics are using compression socks. However there are still people who claim that compression socks give you no real competitive edge. In my opinion if they only worked as a placebo, then they would not be used by so many serious athletes. At the very least they do not hurt your performance. On the other hand if they probably don’t give you a huge edge, in that case everybody would be using them. As with most things in life, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Whenever I have to decide if something is good for my body or not, I prefer to look at what the science says instead of anecdotal evidence and stories. Let’s see what scientists can tell us about the effectiveness of compression socks for running.
How Effective Are Running Compression Socks?
Initially compression garments were used to treat venous diseases. The two most common were pregnancy swelling and lymphedema. In the first one the higher blood pressure caused by the featus results in the mother’s legs swelling up. In the case of lymphedema, the body’s lymp drains don’t do their jobs properly, which resutls in the limbs swelling up like balloons.
Throughout the years their positive effects were used to treat more and more diseases. Diseases related to a sitting lifestyle, such as varicose veins and spider veins. Air travellers also started to use them to lower the chances of suffering deep vein thrombosis.
The most popular compression socks in 2018 are graduated models. Graduated compression socks help the circulatory system by putting more pressure on the ankles than on the higher parts of the legs. This difference in pressure causes the blood to flow quicker towards the heart. This way the valves inside the veins don’t have to work as hard to prevent the blood from flowing back down or pooling up in the veins – a major cause of varicose veins. Always choose graduated models if you want the best compression socks for running in 2018.
Soon runners started to take notice, especially endurance, long distance runners. With their interest, exercise researchers started to look into whether the best running compression socks could really enhance performance, or runners were just experiencing a placebo effect.
The effects of the best running compression socks during and after workouts
First, let’s separate two different areas where the best running compression socks might have a positive effect on one’s life. During competition, and after competition – recovery. The first one requires that the compression socks for running cause a more effective movement pattern, less energy uptake, or a peak in performance that immediately correlates with better racing times. The second part states that with the benefit of the best compression socks for running, one can rejuvenate their muscles, and get back to peak physical condition quicker.
There are multiple theories behind why compression socks work for runners.
Reason 1 – Better blood circulation
This theory states that due to the better blood circulation in the lower limbs, the muscles are getting nutrients and oxygen quicker, which in turn leads to better performance. Continuing on the same logic, more waste materials – such as lactic acid – can be washed out of the muscles, leading to better performance. This is the main reason why you see athletes wearing compression socks for running during marathons.
Reason 2 – Muscle vibration taken away
When you run and your foot hits the ground, vibrations go through from the point of impact through your muscles, tendons and joint until they are absorbed. As the theory goes, these vibrations cause ruptures and put stress on the muscles, which can be one of the reasons behind the delayed muscle soreness we experience.
The most compelling evidence for the claim that the reduction in muscle vibration actually helps performance significantly was provided by the long jumping and hurdle jumping community. These athletes regularly wear compression pants. Kraemer et al. proved in a study that these products decrease muscle vibrations. This in turn leads to better muscle control, and increased proprioception.
Reason 3 – Keeping the muscles warm
After warming up, a constant problem for athletes is that the msucles might cool down between the warm up and the actual competitive period. In an environment where every little edge counts, cooling down just a little bit can decide between finishing in first place, or not even making the top three. The best running compression socks do an excellent job of keeping the leg muscles warm, and not letting them cool down. If you have to wait around for a race to start after warming up, the best compression socks for running are a must have!
Now that we know all the theories behind why the best running compression socks might increase performance and help with recovery, let’s go through all the research.
What does the research say?
The research literature could not provide an overwhelming evidence to why compression socks increase performance in runners, but there are encouraging signs out there. Ali et al did a study in 2007, and found the socks could not account for any performance enhancement, or change in physiological parameters. However after the run the runners experienced significantly lower muscle soreness, which was a result of the reduction in muscle vibrations.
Lactate threshold and running economy
On the other hand in a 2009 study Kremmier found that the lactate threshold of athletes improved when wearing compression socks while running. Other studies found that the energy consumption and running economy decreased as a result of wearing the best running compression socks, as well as improved performence over a 5 kilometer race. A study by Bringard (2006) found improved running economy, especially in the middle speed ranges.
On the question of whether compression socks improved lactate clearance, Berry et al provided the most comprehensive study thirty years ago in 1987. The study demonstrated that blood lact |
either the top or one of the top economies in the country. What we’re really focused on is, “How do we get, and make sure, that economic growth and success gets translated into rural parts of Colorado, in to the lower income communities?” I don’t see much support in President Trump’s budget to help us raise up rural Colorado economies, to help us get them better prices for their products. I don’t see many places where we’re – it’s going to help us get into lower income communities and do a better job of educating, training, getting those young kids ready for the jobs that are going to be available. RW: Are you saying in that regard, a defense boost of this size is misguided given the kind of promises that the president made on the campaign trail? JH: I would say that I think – and I’ve heard this from a number of people – that there’s a level of disappointment. I’m not criticizing how much of one side or the other. We haven’t seen the details yet, but many people who have talked to me – and they are experts on it from a variety of perspectives – say that there’s a level of disappointment that the increase in the military would – I mean President Obama was going to increase it a certain amount, a significant amount, and this is going considerably past what he suggested. I think that to make all these cuts in the EPA and in workforce training, in support for education, taking away all these funds for research – which is part of the foundation of our higher education – it’s tough. RW: I’m glad you mentioned Colorado’s economic recovery, which – what were your words? You said it was – not quite “miraculous”, but… JH: Well we certainly – I mean U.S. News & World Report came out a week ago and said, “We have the number one economy in the United States.” RW: If that’s the case, I want to ask you about Medicaid because the future of that government healthcare program for the poor is in question. How is it that in a state that’s prospering, as you say it is, one in four Coloradans is on Medicaid? JH: Well - RW: That employment rate here is 2.9 percent. It’s the lowest since 2001. Do that many people need to be on subsidized care? JH: Again, this is one of the big arguments around minimum wage and the estimate these days is for the total homeless population. Thirty to forty percent of them are working more than thirty hours a week and that somewhere close to 20 percent are working forty hours a week, right. So it’s not the vision most people have as someone sitting around on a busy thoroughfare panhandling for loose change. These are people working and we don’t pay people enough. RW: And yet Coloradans did raise the minimum wage in the last election. JH: We did and I think that that will have some benefit, but that – in terms of like Medicaid where raising the minimum wage gives people $1,000 or $2,000 a year, there are many people who are far out of reach for Medicaid, and that’s one of the challenges. As technology evolves, it is one of the greatest concentrators of wealth that we have ever seen and it’s probably been more than 100 years since we’ve seen this level of concentration of wealth, and you kind of have to expect that you’re going to see more people struggling to be able to afford rent, more people being able to afford healthcare. I mean this is one of the challenges we’ve got to address. RW: And yet won’t you hear from some Republicans that there are people on Medicaid who don’t need to be? JH: And I’ve heard the same examples that there are some people on Medicaid that were offered a raise and wouldn’t take that raise because then it would put them up and it would take them off Medicaid, and I’m the first person to say, “Let’s get to a sliding scale.” There shouldn’t be this cliff effect where someone gets an extra $2,000 a year raise, suddenly they lose so many benefits that the raise isn’t worth it. We should be providing everyone an incentive to keep succeeding and working better and trying to get a raise and a promotion, and Medicaid should be part of that system. I mean, it’s the 21st Century. Can’t we figure out the technology to have a sliding scale? RW: And to do that calculation. The Colorado Health Institute says that under the Republican proposal in Congress, Colorado would lose roughly a billion dollars over the next year. That’s if the federal government drops down to paying 50 percent of Medicaid costs as it did before Obamacare. The same institute says 600,000 patients could lose Medicaid by 2030 and that a lot of them might just go uninsured. This harkens back to a previous question I asked you, but is there some sense that the state could pick up more of the tab? If not, who would absolutely be the priority to keep and who would be the first to be cut if the state was making those decisions? JH: Well we haven’t even begun an assessment because I – for the life of me, I can’t imagine that this country wants to go backwards and roll back coverage. We had a big event in the state capitol this week where we had – the Global Down Syndrome Foundation had a huge reception. Many of those families now get support to deal with the – their child who might be differently abled and that early support makes a dramatic difference in unlocking the potential of each one of these people. I mean, they just blossom and grow in front of your eyes. I’ve been seeing a lot of these kids for the last six years, seven years. RW: And they’re on Medicaid. JH: They’re on Medicaid. The vast majority of them are on Medicaid. If they cut back, they would be – this is one of the populations that is at risk and I can go down one list after another. Senior citizens, right. The people that aren’t sixty-five yet – so they’re not eligible for Medicare, but people between fifty and sixty-five, maybe, who have been – lost their careers, their jobs. Many of these people voted for President Trump. I can’t imagine – I mean everything I’ve ever heard him say, he doesn’t want to take people off of healthcare coverage. RW: Still early days, it sounds like. JH: It still is early days. RW: In the – in your own administration and in that administration in terms of this conversation. JH: Well I’ve talked to – in the last couple weeks, I’ve talked with several Republican governors who have expanded Medicaid and they feel just as strongly as I do that they should not roll back coverage, and I - RW: Which ones? Which Republican governors? JH: Well I don’t want to get anybody in trouble because sometimes talking to a Democrat these days could be the kiss of death, but they’re from large states that did expand Medicaid coverage. You can do the math; there’s not that many, but I think that – the fact remains. In those states, someone may be – get a congressperson to vote for this. I don’t think they’re going to get senators to vote for it. RW: One last point about the administration in Washington. President Trump has said that he’ll propose a one trillion dollar infrastructure program and tax cuts. He says this will stimulate the economy, create jobs. If those things are happening in concert with what we’ve discussed thus far, is this budget blueprint such a body blow? JH: Well that – so far, there’s been no details about his infrastructure program and as I understand - RW: There has been some Republican skepticism in Congress. JH: Exactly. I don’t see anything in this budget that’s going to free up the money to do infrastructure at the scale that he has described. I don’t see a trillion dollars anywhere in this budget that’s going to come out of thin air. RW: Let’s talk about another budget and that’s the one you have a bit more influence over: the state budget. There is currently a scramble to balance it and your office is predicting up to a $700 million shortfall in the 2017-2018 budget. What are the options for bringing it into balance? JH: Well, it’s the same things that we’ve been doing. I mean, we’ve tried to cut - RW: You sound weary when you say that. JH: You know in elected office, having to do budget cuts is the steep part of the hill and it’s hard. You’re trying to decide between people whose children have different types of challenges. You’re trying to make decisions between infrastructure that’s vital for the future of jobs but at the same time, making sure we have comprehensive medical care so that people don’t get left behind. RW: You say cuts. I’ll say that Republicans would say, “There’s not so much cuts here as not as quick of growth.” That overall – that the state budget from year to year grows. JH: Sure, of course. It grows by inflation plus population growth. We’ve been doing that for almost – for more than twenty years. RW: These are under constitutional limits. JH: Yeah and successfully, I don’t mind pointing out. One of the few states where you can look at – as our economy has been booming these last seven or eight years, we have restrained our growth, but let me give you a couple of examples where that’s not going to always hold true. One is transportation infrastructure. I’ll tell you another place we’re going to run into trouble is the number of individuals turning sixty-five and just for the record, I have now turned 65. So I know what I’m talking about. RW: Now you’re an expert. JH: Now I’m an expert and there’s no question. When you look at the statistics, older Coloradans are going to require more support, more financial support than younger. So even though our population doesn’t change – let’s imagine that the population is flat – by 2025, they’re saying that the number of people 65 or over could be up close to 50 percent, some people said 60 percent; compared to 2010, that is a significant growth and a huge demand for resources. RW: Let me say also that older people tend use more services than buy goods. Services aren’t taxed and that has implications for the budget as well. I’m glad you brought up transportation. So at the start of the legislative session, you and the leaders of both houses made increased transportation funding a priority. Now those leaders – Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran and Republican Senate President Kevin Grantham have agreed on a proposal to ask voters for a 6/10 of a cent sales tax for roads for twenty years. That said, both of Grantham’s Republican deputies have said they’ll oppose it as have conservatives in the House. Their argument is that more or all of the money for road improvements should come from the existing state budget. JH: Wait, wait, wait; so I’ve invited everybody to come down and go through that budget, everyone who’s said – that has said, “Hey, Henry Sobanet knows that budget as well as any human person.” RW: This is your budget director? JH: My budget director who’s a Republican, right. Served under Bill Owens, was a budget director Bill Owens. So let him walk anyone who’s interested through that budget and see if you can find – and we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars here. RW: They might point to Medicaid, Governor. JH: They might and then you have to say, “Do we as a state want to roll back coverage on that many people?” and most studies suggest that that’s going to be more expensive in the long run. RW: Let me ask this: do you support the plan that has been fashioned thus far? JH: Well, what I support is the process and let me just – something on the previous topic there. All the Republicans are saying they’re going to come out and oppose this. All this legislation does is put it on the ballot, right. So they’re saying they don’t even want people to have the opportunity to vote on it. RW: I want to go back, before we wrap up, to President Trump. So you attended the National Governors Association meetings last month in Washington. JH: Yeah. RW: You didn’t meet privately with the president, but you did attend meetings where he spoke and after one of those meetings, you tweeted, “Govs at White House. President Trump makes clear no roundup or deportation except serious criminals. A good day!” Exclamation mark, your exclamation mark. There are many signs from the administration that it is casting a wider net than serious criminals. Now that will delight some and disappoint others, but do you have confidence in what you tweeted about Trump’s immigration outlook? JH: Well at that point, I was tweeting what he said and he said it in no uncertain terms, on – we have a dinner on Sunday night. It’s a state – formal state dinner, tuxedos, all the governors and their spouses, the President and the First Lady, all the cabinet come, and you have this wonderful opportunity to talk to each other in casual terms, and that was eye-opening. And he – and I will say he was charming. I mean, I was – he was different than any image of him I’ve ever seen on TV. Self-deprecating, lots of humor. When I shook his hand, we walked through the photo line. You get your picture taken; he made kind of a wisecrack about – I’d been on the – that was the morning I’d been on Meet the Press and he kind of joked and went, “Hey, I saw you this morning, Governor. You were good; you were very good. I might have to keep my eye on you.” I mean, he was just funny. He was making a joke. The next morning and – well that night at the dinner, he sat next to Governor McAuliffe from Virginia and was very direct that we are not going to round up, detain and deport undocumented immigrants unless they are connected with serious crimes. RW: And what’s your sense now of that? JH: Well I think what’s happened is that they’ve given a lot more leeway, more responsibility to individual agents of ICE out on the streets and I think some of those agents have grudges or are out there acting on their own, maybe outside the protocols that Trump was hoping to have in place. RW: How do you know that that’s happening? JH: I’ve just heard stories of it, of people being detained and then deported when there was no connection to a violent crime, there was no conviction there. RW: Would you call those rogue actions? JH: No, I don’t think – again, I don't know the – exactly what they’re hear – what communication is coming from the White House, but I will say the next morning, the president was asked again about immigration in front of all the governors – and this was with Vice President Pence, President Trump and then all or most of his cabinet was there. Attorney General Sessions was not there and to a person, they all said, “We are not going to round up, detain and deport undocumented immigrants and – without serious criminal activity.” I mean if you can’t trust what your government says to you directly, then we’ve got some serious problems. RW: Do you feel that you can trust this administration? JH: Well, we’re working on it. I think we have to be able to. I mean we have to do everything that we can to be candid and transparent to the White House, and let them know where the issues are that we really have the most problems with, and that we have to trust that they will be direct and honest with us because if they’re not, if our government is being deceitful to the states, then we’ve got some real – I mean some very, very serious problems, and I think that we’re going to work as hard as we can from our side to make sure that we build a relationship that’s based on trust. RW: Governor, thank you for being with us. JH: You bet.It’s strange to think that heading into Saturday’s Game 2 against the Boston Bruins, Erik Karlsson never really had a signature game or moment in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Senators all-world defenceman had produced plenty of highlight reel goals in the regular season, but nothing from his playoff résumé really stood out.
But all of that changed on Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre.
What we witnessed in Game 2 against the Boston Bruins was a defining moment in a career that is already trending towards the Hall of Fame. Erik Karlsson – hobbled feet and all – grabbed his team by the collective jersey collar and refused to let a heartbreaking goal define their season.
It started with a catastrophic misplay of the puck from Craig Anderson, who came out of his crease during a power play to help facilitate a breakout. Instead, the Sens netminder gave the puck away
to Dominic Moore, who found his teammate Tim Schaller in the slot to score the go-ahead goal. Less than two minutes earlier, Clarke MacArthur scored his first goal in almost two years and the resulting celebration from the crowd was deafening.
But after the Bruins scored, you could almost hear a pin drop inside Canadian Tire Centre. Nobody was saying a word; that is except for the captain.
Karlsson – who was the intended recipient of that errant Anderson pass – was livid on the bench. And he directed all of his anger towards Derick Brassard, who was also an option for Anderson on that play. Television replays caught Karlsson in what appeared to be an expletive-laced tirade at Brassard, as the Senators defenceman was clearly unhappy with how things unfolded.
Karlsson’s icy stare down the bench at Brassard is an image that will be seared into the brains of Senators fans for a long time. After the game, however, Karlsson claimed that he was trying to send a message to the entire team and he was not singling out Brassard.
“I don’t think it was particularly aimed at him per se. It was more to everybody, we need to realize we need to wake up here,” Karlsson said. “We gave that one away. We just scored a huge goal on the power play and then to give it right back to them, that’s not acceptable.”
Karlsson later used the word “soft” to describe the sequence of events that led to the Bruins go-ahead goal. The captain – who is playing with at least one injured foot (possibly two) that has him performing at less than 100 per cent – now clearly has the platform to call out performances which he deems to be lazy. He didn’t have this stage two years ago; not even after winning his second Norris Trophy.
But this is Karlsson 2.0 – a player who has seized the captaincy and complete control of this franchise. When you fly to Detroit a couple of hours before a game because you want to play through an injury – as Karlsson did two weeks ago for a critical game – it grants you the right to hold other players accountable.
And while Karlsson claimed that he was trying to motivate the entire group, Brassard knows he was in fact the target of Karlsson’s verbal tirade and icy staredown.
“It’s like brothers getting in fights. I don’t mind it. He’s a guy who really cares about winning and competes hard. So for me, I just take it and move on,” Brassard said, noting that if he and Karlsson sat down and watched the replay together, perhaps they would have a more “friendly” conversation.
But Brassard didn’t just move on from the confrontation with his captain; he tied up the game in the third period with a highlight reel assist from Karlsson.
For a precious few seconds, it seemed as though Karlsson’s injured feet were no longer an issue, as he skated the width of the blue line with the puck. Showing the explosiveness that we’re accustomed to seeing, Karlsson made a dash towards the Bruins net and drew multiple Boston defenders towards him.
Poised to shoot, Karlsson had Tuukka Rask committed to the right post. But he spotted Brassard wide open at the left faceoff dot and threaded a perfect pass across the ice. Brassard – who earned the nickname Big Game Brass for his playoff heroics in New York – slammed the one timer into a half-open net to tie the hockey game.
As Brassard circled the net in celebration, he found himself skating at full speed towards Karlsson – who less than an hour earlier had given him a tongue-lashing at the bench. The two embraced in an emphatic hug that sent both players crashing to the ice. And with that exuberant exchange, all of the earlier tension and frostiness between the two players disappeared into the thunderous applause from a sold-out crowd.
“We looked at each other after the goal and we said ‘Are we good now, we good?’”, laughed Brassard. “Everything was fine and we’re moving on.”
Karlsson seemed appreciative of the way Brassard handled himself after their exchange earlier in the game.
“He came back, the way he responded – he stepped up. He took control of his own game to start and kind of let everybody know that we’re not here to mess around,” explained Karlsson. “He scored the tying goal, which I think is the biggest goal of the series so far. And that’s what we’re going to need. And not every second shift – but every shift.”
Brassard also had a chuckle about his over-the-top celebration, which put Karlsson at the bottom of a pile of players.
“I almost injured him in the corner. I’m going to be careful next time because we don’t want him to be out,” said Brassard.
The emotional swings within a Stanley Cup playoff game are hard to describe, but the ups and downs between Karlsson and Brassard in Game 2 almost illustrated it perfectly. But more importantly, Game 2 captured something completely different for Senators fans when it comes to their captain.
For the first time, it doesn’t seem sacrilegious to mention Karlsson’s captaincy in the same breath as Daniel Alfredsson in these parts. After all, when you look at Karlsson’s Game 2 résumé against Boston, you could have sworn it was an Alfredsson-esque performance.
A Swedish captain, playing through pain in the playoffs, challenging his teammates and then delivering an unbelievable offensive play to help win the game.
Sure, we’ve seen that script around here before – but it’s the first time that Erik Karlsson was the lead actor.19
Heaven Exults over Babylon
1 After these things # Jer. 51:48; Rev. 11:15; 19:6 I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! # Rev. 4:11 Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For # Rev. 15:3; 16:7 true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He # Deut. 32:43; 2 Kin. 9:7; Luke 18:7, 8; Rev. 6:10 has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they said, “Alleluia! # Is. 34:10; Rev. 14:11 Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And # Rev. 4:4, 6, 10 the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, # 1 Chr. 16:36 “Amen! Alleluia!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, # Ps. 134:1 “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, # Rev. 11:18 both small and great!”
6 # Ezek. 1:24; Rev. 1:15; 14:2 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For # Rev. 11:15 the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! 7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for # (Matt. 22:2; 25:10); Luke 12:36; John 3:29; (2 Cor. 11:2); Eph. 5:23, 32; Rev. 19:9 the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And # Ps. 45:13; Ezek. 16:10 to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, # Ps. 132:9 for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, “Write: # Matt. 22:2; Luke 14:15 ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, # Rev. 22:6 “These are the true sayings of God.” 10 And # Rev. 22:8 I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, # Acts 10:26; Rev. 22:9 “See that you do not do that! I am your # (Heb. 1:14) fellow servant, and of your brethren # 1 John 5:10 who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the # Luke 24:27; John 5:39 testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Christ on a White Horse
11 # Rev. 15:5 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, # Ps. 45:3, 4; Rev. 6:2; 19:19, 21 a white horse. And He who sat on him was called # Rev. 3:7, 14 Faithful and True, and # Ps. 96:13; Is. 11:4 in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 # Dan. 10:6; Rev. 1:14 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. # Rev. 2:17; 19:16 He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 # Is. 63:2, 3 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called # (John 1:1, 14) The Word of God. 14 # Rev. 14:20 And the armies in heaven, # Matt. 28:3 clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now # Is. 11:4; 2 Thess. 2:8; Rev. 1:16 out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And # Ps. 2:8, 9 He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. # Is. 63:3–6; Rev. 14:20 He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And # Rev. 2:17; 19:12 He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
# Dan. 2:47 KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS.
The Beast and His Armies Defeated
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, # 1 Sam. 17:44; Jer. 12:9; Ezek. 39:17 “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, 18 # Ezek. 39:18–20 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.”CSX railroad workers denounce Wall Street plundering
By Jeff Lusanne
4 August 2017
The WSWS urges railroad workers to contact us here or comment below with any information.
The hedge fund takeover of CSX railroad has thrown the company into a downward spiral, with a series of events this week pointing to chaos provoked by the recently appointed CEO Hunter Harrison. Widespread comments from employees about the state of affairs at the railroad provide a stark contrast to the rosy promotion that the financial press is giving the “turnaround specialist” at the helm.
Harrison is seeking to slash costs to further boost the share price of the company and enrich its top investors. He is taking an axe to equipment, maintenance, facilities, management personnel and railroad workers. Implementation of the cuts has been sudden and reckless, causing widespread complaints of poor service by industrial customers. Shippers have reported they are shifting traffic to trucks or competitor Norfolk Southern. Companies have been forced to halt production after rail shipments arrive days or even weeks behind. The complaints are so widespread that the federal Surface Transportation Board had to intervene, proposing toothless policies to monitor CSX’s performance.
A CSX train heads east out of the Chicago area
Harrison, who is being paid $300 million over the next four years, responded on Monday with a letter to shippers. With the utmost cynicism, he blamed railway workers, declaring, “The pace of change at CSX has been extremely rapid, and while most people at the company have embraced the new plan, unfortunately, a few have pushed back and continue to do so. This resistance to change has resulted in some service disruptions.”
A railroad Train and Equipment crew member (T&E) who spoke to the WSWS contested the slander, saying, “Everywhere I go, everyone is trying to make this work. He comes in, and four months later all the customers are complaining—and we are to blame? It is 100 percent BS.”
Another T&E crew member said, “We sacrifice a lot, especially the time away from our friends and family. We take pride in what we do and for him to try to use us as a fallback because his ‘precision railroading’ is failing miserably is just insulting to all of us. The company was operating substantially better before he was approved. Most of my brothers out here agree that he has done nothing but slowly destroy the company piece by piece. He’s given us no information on what the final endgame is going to be.”
The first worker continued, “Our previous administration [former CEO Michael Ward and current COO Cindy Sanborn] were serious corporate raiders but they did it quietly. Nobody liked them, they wanted one-man crews and cooked the books. They would have managers coming out there and watching for any little mistake to write you up. It was nothing but fear and intimidation that ground us to a halt.
“At first Harrison wiped out a layer of that management and there was a positive attitude. Some operating rules he took away people agreed with. But Harrison is more ruthless, and things are not going his way. There are secret teams showing up in crew rooms dressed in engineer and conductor uniforms, listening in on crew conversations to catch critical comments, and firing workers for ‘conduct unbecoming of employees’ and ‘insubordination.’ They are watching Facebook, and the previous administration changed our discipline policy to include social media, which can get you fired for a critical comment.”
The blog “CSX Sucks,” which has aired workers’ complaints for over 15 years, has won legal battles against CSX’s efforts to shut it down.
This pattern of intimidation has been a Harrison trademark at his past stints at Canadian Pacific Railroad and Canadian National Railroad. Even in the 1980s, when he was at Burlington Northern Railroad, he was known to fire anyone who disagreed with the way he wanted policies conducted—often policies that related to safe or sensible operation.
Reports of the most petty intimidation are now common at CSX, such as employees having their personal possessions dumped out of lockers and onto the ground, with no warning, when Avon Yard in Indianapolis was closed last weekend. That closure, which shifted traffic to three poorly equipped yards, has been partially reversed in a matter of days because it proved to be such a calamity. Decisions with large implications come from upper management with little to no warning, leading to high pressure scenarios.
Yardmasters, who control yards, have had workloads double and triple. They increasingly control a yard they are located at, and one or more yards in other locations remotely. For years, dispatchers have had their territories expanded, leaving them to juggle hundreds of miles of railway operation.
The T&E employee added, “I am watching good men and women start to crack, management and labor. You walk into the office and it is high tension. Trainmasters look depressed, forlorn, upset. I think you are going to start seeing the place fall apart when Harrison’s lackeys from CN and CP take over and they say ‘do it or die.’ As for us, even including lower management, we are all in the ship together and we call it the Titanic.”
At CN and CP, Harrison had a notorious policy that trained management to run trains and serve as strikebreakers, with union engineers responsible for training them. Serious derailments were linked to operations by these less-trained management employees.
Already, questions could be raised about public safety under the policies that CSX management, past and present, uses to run trains.
Early Tuesday, a CSX freight train descending a steep mountain grade derailed 34 of its 178 cars in Hyndman, Pennsylvania. A fire that has burned two days ensued, and the town was evacuated. Both the length and tonnage of the train were very large, following standards set in place in the last few years where management combines trains to save on crews. Details of the exact cause of the derailment are under investigation.
CSX workers are also voicing their disgust with the lack of opposition from the unions, and the concessionary deals that are being negotiated with Harrison. A T&E employee said, “The workers have suffered out here because the BLE [engineers] and SMART [conductors] have spent the majority of their times fighting each other instead of fighting the company.”
There is widespread opposition to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) offer to ditch working rules in return for higher hourly pay. In a remarkable statement, the union said, “We have been fighting for these work rules for 150 years and they are going to have to pay us to erode that.”
Harrison has mentioned that 35 percent of T&E employees could eventually be laid off. The ruthless intimidation of workers and loss of business would be one cause. But another could be the hourly agreement, which would let CSX push engineers to complete multiple assignments per shift, and effectively eliminate many local assignments. The BLET, in proposing the arrangement, is sowing divisions within the membership relating to pay and seniority.
These issues are of vital important to railroad workers across the country. The unions have forced workers to stay on the job three years after the expiration of their labor agreements, even though the carriers have remained intransigent in their concession demands. Comments from workers at Norfolk Southern document many similar cutbacks to CSX, with hump yards being closed, yardmasters forced to cover more yards, layoffs of T&E employees, and bloated, oppressive management. Another T&E worker states that “CSX already has been a profitable railroad every quarter for years. How much profit is enough?”
To the railroad and Wall Street investors behind it, there is never enough.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.While women caught wearing a burka or niqab would face a €150 penalty, President Nicolas Sarkozy would fine those making others wear them one hundred times that amount, and would sentence them to one year in prison.
"No-one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face," says the text of a new law that is to be presented to parliament in July, according to a copy seen by Le Figaro.
The law would create a new offence of "incitement to cover the face for reasons of gender," the centre-Right daily newspaper reported.
The extracts cited did not say whether the law would contain exemptions for people covering up their faces for popular non-religious purposes such as skiing, nor how these exceptions would be defined.
Legislators decided to impose a much smaller fine on women caught wearing the veil in public "because these women are often victims," one of the authors of the law told Le Figaro on condition of anonymity.
Women caught wearing the full veil could choose to attend a "citizenship course" instead of paying the fine, the paper said.
Mr Sarkozy decided this month to opt for a total ban on the full-face veil, despite warnings from the State Council, France's top administrative body, that the law could be struck down as unconstitutional.
The president has declared the burka and the niqab - veils worn by Muslim women in parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Gulf - unwelcome in France, calling them an affront to French values that denigrate women.
There has been a fierce debate in France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority of between five and six million, with supporters of a ban arguing that veils are a sign of creeping fundamentalism that must not be allowed to take hold.
But opponents accuse Mr Sarkozy of pandering to the far-Right with such moves and note figures showing that only 1,900 women wear the full veil in France.
Neighbouring Belgium on Thursday became Europe's first country to vote for a ban.
Belgian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to make covering the face in public a jailable offence, prompting dismay among Muslims and warnings of a dangerous precedent.While it’s always been a bit of a running joke in the United States for quite some time that the Federal Government is the biggest organized crime gang in the world. Well … it looks like that field just got a little more crowded.
The Uruguayan Pres. José “Pepe” Mujica has announced that his administration has begun to cultivate plans with the intention to legalize marijuana to the extent that the Uruguayan government will be allowed to sell it. The purpose of the Uruguayan’s marijuana sales, is an attempt to undermine the local drug market.
[nggallery id=171]
This gives governmental control over marijuana, and its distribution to the people of Uruguay that so want it… This will no doubt go a long way to undermine the criminal activity and the money made from the sale of illegal marijuana.
As a unique element to the Uruguayan marijuana model, the local ganja smokers would have to demonstrate a modicum of self-control. If one is caught with too many governmental marijuana joints the Uruguayan government will send you for |
boat rage” incident that led to Cerrone being charged with third-degree assault in Colorado?
“I really have no comment on it, but it’s not a distraction for me at all,” Cerrone said. “I’m 100 percent prepared and focused on this fight. Whatever goes to court and happens with that, I have no control over it.”
Instead, his distractions and fears on fight night are back home in front of the TV, where his friends and family, even his grandmother, will be gathered to watch him fight.
“That’s the hardest part, is worrying about failing or disappointing those people who are watching you,” Cerrone said. “That’s the biggest burden. Everyone’s expecting you to win.”
But with Cerrone, fans have come to expect more than victory. They expect a fight that’s bloody, brutal, and ferocious, whether it lasts two minutes or the full three rounds. That, too, is a lot of pressure, but it might actually be the easiest part for Cerrone to deliver, he said, because he’s not sure he’s capable of fighting any other way.
“I wish I could block a little more, move my head a little more, but that’s the only way I know how to do it,” he said. “Don’t back down, don’t turn away, that’s all I know how to do. … If you had seen my early kickboxing fights, you’d go, ‘Oh yeah, that is just how he fights.’ Hands at my waist, giving 100 percent, just throwing punches until I couldn’t throw anymore. Overwhelming guys was the one ability I had. That and taking unbelievable shots. I’ve been working on that, trying to calm down and bring it back down, but at the end of the day, when the s–t hits the fan, that’s what I fall back on. Just fighting.”
Somewhere in there, Cerrone has to find a balance. He has to find some sort of middle ground between going full throttle all the time and being paralyzed by his own anxiety. That’s exactly what he’s trying to do, he said, and it seems to be working. It’s just that it’s more of a process than an instant fix, which is sometimes a little hard for a guy who never learned how to slow down.
“Unfortunately, the mind isn’t something where you can just take a pill and fix it overnight,” Cerrone said. “It’s something I have to work on just as much as I work on my striking or my wrestling. People keep asking me, what am I worried about with dos Anjos? This fight isn’t about dos Anjos. It’s about me going out there and doing everything that I do. Really, the fight is against me.”
For more on UFC Fight Night 27, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.With all the breakout years the members of the Rangers roster are seeing this year, there may be none more important than the year J.T. Miller is having so far. A subject of offseason trade fodder, Miller came into the season with something to prove. After a solid playoff performance and the chance to play on Team North America in the World Cup of Hockey, it looks like he is well on his way to proving to the league that he is a star in the making.
Miller Hitting Development Stride
Miller had his first jump in production last season. After scoring just 15 goals and tallying 18 assists in his first 114 games, Miller had 22 goals and 21 assists in the 2015-16 season, his first full 82 game season. While a 43 point season is nothing to sneeze at, that production was not the rate that Rangers fans had hoped for out of the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft.
Now, just four years after Miller made his debut at the ripe age of 19, he has 17 points in 18 games playing just over 15 minutes per game in the Rangers balanced system of ice distribution. He currently finds himself tied at 10th overall in the league in points through the first chunk of the season, while leading the Rangers league-best scoring attack. With a contract of $2.75 million per year for this season and the next, scoring at this rate will land Miller on the list near the top of the best contracts in the league.
Breaking Down Miller’s Two-Way Game
Miller has been very good in every facet of his game so far this year. While he’s producing the majority of his scoring chances when the game is at even strength, his play on the power play has been wonderful as well. Although his ice time has been low so far with the man advantage, Miller has added a goal and an assist to his totals playing as a member of the special teams — totals likely to increase if he sees more time on the Rangers’ special teams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2h1FWk7M
Not only has his production been spectacular so far offensively, Miller is one of the most important forwards when the Rangers are short-handed. With the third most time-on-ice for any forward on the penalty kill, he’s one of three players on the Rangers who has been on the ice for as many goals scored as goals allowed while short-handed along with Kevin Klein and Michael Grabner. This means that Miller’s active stick is leading to scoring chances even when the Rangers aren’t at even strength.
Potentially More Upside?
When a player’s putting up a point-per-game, the chances are he’s hitting his offensive stride as a player. However, Miller can still improve in other parts of his game. One of the biggest aspects of his game that could use work is his ability to take faceoffs. In the future, the Rangers may need to use Miller up the middle in certain situations and having that skill on top of his scoring ability would be extremely beneficial.
While most young players have many flaws, Miller’s proven that he’s a very valuable player after an offseason of second-guessing. With the added scoring help this season, Miller will have a lot less pressure on him to succeed and in turn will likely be able to work more on getting to his top potential and less about having to score a ton every time he’s on the ice. As long as Miller keeps progressing as he has been, it might not be long before Miller becomes one of the forward leaders in the league. That is a scary, scary sight for the rest of the league.From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
This article is about the property of Pokémon. For the Trainer level in Pokémon GO, see Trainer level. For the level of Gyms in Pokémon GO, see Gym (GO).
This article is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this article to add missing information and complete it.
Reason: In the TCG.
The level (Japanese: レベル level) is a measurement of how strong a Pokémon currently is. It is portrayed differently in the anime, games, manga, and Pokémon Trading Card Game.
In the games
In the core series
In the Pokémon games, a Pokémon's level is determined by how much experience it has. A Pokémon's level will range from 1 to 100. When a Pokémon gains a level, its stats increase by a small amount. Depending on the exact level, it may also learn a new move or evolve. A Pokémon's level is usually used to determine damage when the Pokémon uses an attacking move. Opponent's levels may be viewed in-battle, and players may see their own Pokémon's levels in-battle, in the PC or by using the menu.
Using a Rare Candy will increase a Pokémon's level by 1 (and increase its experience accordingly).
When a Pokémon levels up, it becomes more friendly. This way, Pokémon that evolve by friendship may eventually evolve by training.
In Generation IV, during battle, if a Pokémon almost has enough experience to level up, its Poké Ball will shake in the player's team summary.
In Generation I, if a Pokémon gains enough experience to gain more than one level, it will grow straight to the new level, and is unable to learn any move learned at a skipped level. In Generation II, the active Pokémon grows level by level, whereas switched out Pokémon grow straight to the new level (but are able to learn any moves regardless). From Generation III onwards, all Pokémon grow level by level.
Level cap
In the Pokémon games, the level cap is level 100. When a Pokémon has reached level 100, it cannot gain any more experience or level up. Due to this, level 100 Pokémon cannot evolve in any way which requires leveling up.
In Generations III and IV only, when a Pokémon has reached level 100, even if it has not gained maximum EVs, it cannot continue gaining EVs through battle (except Deoxys). Vitamins can still be used to raise EVs. In Generations I and II as well as from Generation V onwards, EVs can be gained even by level 100 Pokémon (although the Box trick is required in Generations I and II for the stats to update).
By exploiting the old man glitch in Generation I, a Pokémon can be acquired at a level higher than 100. Also in Generation I, any Pokémon can also be raised to a level above 100 via the Pokémon merge glitch; however, Pokémon in the Slow experience group need to be merged with a glitch Pokémon who requires even more experience at level 100. These Pokémon can continue to be leveled up with Rare Candies until level 255. Whenever a Pokémon over level 100 gains any experience, its level will revert to 100. If a Rare Candy is used on a level 255 Pokémon, it will revert to level 0 due to an overflow.
In Generations I and II, Pokémon were not legitimately available at a level below 2. This could be related to the fact that in Generations I and II, Pokémon in the Medium Slow experience group had a negative experience value at level 1, causing them to level up instantly to level 100 if they were to gain less than 54 experience points in battle (a high possibility on the games' early routes). Instead, Pokémon on the games' earliest routes were found level 2 or level 3, and starter Pokémon are given out at level 5. Likewise, Pokémon hatch from Pokémon Eggs at level 5.
From Generation III onwards, experience required to level up is taken from a lookup table, rather than by using a programmed equation as in Generations I and II; in Generation III, however, Pokémon still hatch from Eggs at level 5, and no wild Pokémon can be found at a level below 2. From Generation IV onwards, Pokémon hatch from Eggs at level 1 and some Pokémon are available in the wild at level 1 (however, starter Pokémon are still received at level 5).
Underleveled Pokémon
Through some unique circumstances, it is possible to have Pokémon at a lower level than they are usually available via evolution. Underleveled Pokémon appeared as early as Red and Green, with level 4-6 Kakuna and Metapod available in Viridian Forest. Kakuna and Metapod cannot be obtained by evolution until level 7.
Prior to Generation V, Pokémon obtained in in-game trades are always the same level as the one being traded away, so many underleveled Pokémon can be obtained through in-game trades. For example, in Red and Blue and FireRed and LeafGreen, it is possible to obtain an Electrode as low as level 3, even though the species evolves from Voltorb only at level 30 or above. This Electrode can be obtained by catching a Pikachu in Viridian Forest at level 3, evolving it with the Thunderstone, and trading it on Cinnabar Island.
Some non-player character Trainers use underleveled Pokémon in battle. For example, Lance has three underleveled Dragonite in Generations II and IV, with one being at level 50 and two at level 49 in HeartGold and SoulSilver (Dragonite does not evolve naturally from Dragonair until level 55). Many other in-game Trainers, such as Mars and Jupiter, also possess underleveled Pokémon.
An application of the Pomeg glitch in Emerald makes it possible to evolve a Pokémon while it is still inside an Egg, allowing any such evolved forms to be obtained at level 5. In Generation IV, this particular exploit of the Pomeg glitch was fixed; the Pomeg glitch was removed entirely in Generation V.
Disobedience
Main article: Obedience
Outsider Pokémon (Pokémon obtained via trade or event distribution) occasionally disobey the player's commands if they are above a certain level. The Badges the player owns determine the maximum level outsider Pokémon can be before there is a possibility for them to disobey. Not owning the region's second Badge means that no traded Pokémon whose level is above 10 (level 20 since Generation V) will obey the player; if the player has the region's eighth Badge, Pokémon will always obey.
In the spin-off games
In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series
In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, level functions similarly to the core series. Like in the core series, each Pokémon's level, ranging from 1 to 100, depends on how much experience it has. When a Pokémon gains a level, its stats increase slightly and it may try to learn a new move. The moves that can be learned by each Pokémon, and the exact levels they will try to learn them, are the same as contemporaneous core series games. In order for some Pokémon to evolve, a minimum level is also required. However, evolution does not occur automatically, requiring access to specific places instead.
In the Mystery Dungeon games preceding Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon require significantly more experience to level up than in the core series games, while in Super Mystery Dungeon, experience is gained the same way as in the core series games.
A number of dungeons across the series temporarily set the team's levels to 1 or 5 when entered. Their levels are restored to normal once the dungeon is exited.
A Joy Seed or Golden Banana can be used to increase a Pokémon's level. A Doom Seed can be used to decrease a Pokémon's level. A Pokémon holding a Joy Ribbon or Joy Looplet will gain experience points whenever it takes damage (the amount of experience gained this way varies between games).
In Pokémon Shuffle
Each Pokémon in Pokémon Shuffle has a level, which increases when it gains enough experience. As a Pokémon's level increases, its Attack power increases as well, with how much it increases per level determined by the Pokémon's Attack power at level 1. All Pokémon begin at level 1, with a maximum level of 10. However, Raise Max Level Enhancements are able to increase this cap for specific Pokémon, potentially up to level 20.
In the anime
The concept of levels of Pokémon is not as detailed, nor as frequently mentioned, in the anime. Unlike the games, the term appears to be applied more loosely, with higher levels correlating with increased strength of the Pokémon and its moves. This can be seen in several instances throughout the anime:
There are few instances in the anime where the concept of levels more closely resembles that of the games. In The School of Hard Knocks, one of the students at Pokémon Tech was able to quote the levels at which Pidgey and the rest of its family evolve and learn certain moves. Furthermore, another student stated that Pikachu should be at least level 25. Another time was during a quiz in Will the Real Oak Please Stand Up?, when Nurse Joy asks Professor Oak and James (disguised as Professor Oak) what move Slowbro learns at level 46. When James fails to know the answer, he says that he has Amnesia. For his luck, however, Amnesia was the correct answer.
Levels are also mentioned in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon special episodes Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate! and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness, but are not explained.
In the manga
The concept of levels appears to be present within some manga (but not all of them).
In The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga
The concept of levels appears rarely in the The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga; however, in Pikachu's Excellent Adventure, Samurai specifically mentions level 99 Slowpoke and Magikarp which can be found in the Hidden Village.
In the Pokémon Adventures manga
At the end of every volume, or starting from Volume 15, at the end of certain rounds, the current levels of at least one of the main characters' Pokémon are given in a Pokédex or Adventure Map section.
The level mechanic appears in the plot twice. In the FireRed & LeafGreen chapter, Orm's black Pokédex was able to deduce the power of Yellow's Pokémon in terms of level; Yellow then used her own mysterious power to sharply raise her team members' levels. In the Emerald chapter, Emerald found out that the Sceptile he used during his Battle Factory challenge, and later smuggled out, was able to survive an opposing Glalie's Sheer Cold; Sceptile was Level 51, even though Emerald's challenge was in the Level 50, Single Battle mode, meaning that the rest of the rental Pokémon were Level 50.
In the Pokémon Gotta Catch 'Em All manga
The concept of levels seems to exist in Pokémon Gotta Catch 'Em All, as in Catch Bellsprout!, Shu comments that the Bellsprout he is battling against is at a higher level than his Ponyta.
Trivia
In other languages
Language Title Chinese Cantonese 等級 Dángkāp
層次 Chàhngchi * Mandarin 等級 / 等级 Děngjí Danish Niveau Dutch Level Finnish Taso French Niveau German Level Hungarian Szint Italian Livello Korean 레벨 Level Norwegian Nivå Polish Poziom Portuguese Nível Russian Уровень Uroven' Spanish Nivel Swedish Nivå Vietnamese Cấp độ"Remember, you too are mortal"—hit me at the top of my form and just as things were beginning to plateau. My two assets my pen and my voice—and it had to be the esophagus. All along, while burning the candle at both ends, I'd been "straying into the arena of the unwell" and now "a vulgar little tumor" was evident. This alien can't want anything; if it kills me it dies but it seems very single-minded and set in its purpose. No real irony here, though. Must take absolute care not to be self-pitying or self-centered. In her afterword to Mortality, Hitchens' widow, Carol Blue, writes of how she misses "the unpublished Hitch: the countless notes he left for me in the entryway, on my pillow, the emails he would send while we sat in different rooms in our apartment." For writers less productive than Hitchens—that is, all of us—the idea of unpublished Hitch is inconceivable. He was everywhere—on TV when he wasn't giving a speech, his latest book either just published or about to be published, the author of pieces in Slate, Vanity Fair, and the Atlantic in the same week. How could anything have gone unpublished? How could there be any stories, any jokes, any insults, any perfect Wodehouse citations that were never silver-tongued out into the world? Yet despite writing as much as he did, he left some behind, either for friends and family, or, in this case, as notes. The publisher calls these "fragmentary jottings." But even poisoned by chemo, even down 14 pounds, Hitch wrote with as much toughness, energy, and wit as ever.
Always prided myself on my reasoning faculty and my stoic materialism. I don't have a body, I am a body. Yet consciously and regularly acted as if this was not true, or as if an exception would be made in my case. Feeling husky and tired on tour? See the doctor when it's over!
Lost fourteen pounds without trying. Thin at last. But don't feel lighter because walking to the fridge is like a forced march. Then again, the vicious psoriasis/excema pustules that no doctor could treat have gone, too. This must be some impressive toxin I'm taking. And a mercy for sleep purposes…but all the sleep-aids and blissful dozes seem somehow a waste of life—there's plenty of future time in which to be unconscious. The nice men with the oxygen and the gurney and the ambulance very gently deporting me across the frontier of the well, in another country. In Moonwalking With Einstein, Joshua Foer explains how to use your memory to extend your life. Routine days and nights leave no lasting impression—they pass, and it's as though they never happened. Unusual events—exotic travel, strange encounters, new experiences—plant durable memories and make life actually seem longer. Essentially, the more you remember, the more you feel you have lived, and thus, the more you actually have lived. Hitchens was the embodiment of this idea. He constantly sought sensation—traveled everywhere, drank everything, met everyone, got waterboarded—and he remembered it all, as well as everything he read.
The alien was burrowing into me even as I wrote the jaunty words about my own prematurely announced death.
Now so many tributes that it also seems that rumors of my LIFE have also been greatly exaggerated. Lived to see most of what's going to be written about me: this too is exhilarating but hits diminishing returns when I realize how soon it, too, will be "background." Hitchens was most often compared to George Orwell, another muscular, anti-totalitarian journalist. But is Oscar Wilde an even better comparison? Like Wilde, Hitchens performed. And like Wilde, Hitchens was always funny.
Julian Barnes on John Diamond…
A bout de soufflé…Seberg/Belmondo. Funny how one uses "breathless" or "out of breath" so casually. At Logan [airport]—can't breathe! Next stop terminal. "Next stop terminal." That's a great line. As he was dying, Hitchens became especially attuned to the ways in which we talk, and don't, about death. See his fragment about "expiration date" below.
Tragedy? Wrong word: Hegel versus the Greeks. Morning of biopsy, wake and say whatever happens this is the last day of my old life. No pretence of youth or youthfulness anymore. From now on an arduous awareness. New Yorker cartoon on obit pages…Used to notice death-dates of Orwell, Wilde etc. Now maybe as long as Evelyn Waugh.
Amazing how heart and lungs and liver have held up: would have been healthier if I'd been more sickly. Hitchens took so much abuse for how much he drank and smoke. It must have given him satisfaction that his lungs and liver never betrayed him.
PRAYER: Interesting contradictions at the expense of those who offer it—too easy a Pascalian escape-hatch with me on the right side of the wager this time: what god could ignore such supplications? Same token—those who say I am being punished are saying that god can't think of anything more vengeful than cancer for a heavy smoker.
Nose-hairs gone: runny nostrils. Constipation and diarrhea alternating… "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, and God fulfils himself in many ways and soon, I suppose, I shall be swept away by some vulgar little tumor…".
Some years ago, a British journalism, John Diamond, was diagnosed with cancer, and turned his condition into a weekly column. Rightly, he maintained the same perky tone that characterized the rest of his work: rightly, he admitted cowardice and panic alongside curiosity and occasional courage. His account sounded completely authentic: this was what living with cancer entailed; nor did being ill make you a different person, or stop you having rows with your wife. Like many other readers, I used to quietly urge him on from week to week. But after a year and more…well, a certain narrative expectation inevitably built up. Hey, miracle cure! Hey, I was just having you on! No, neither of those could work as endings. Diamond had to die; and he duly, correctly (in narrative terms) did. Though—how can I put this?—a stern literary critic might complain that his story lacked compactness toward the end… While Hitchens was dying, and then after he died, many of us made a point of admiring how vigorously and passionately he wrote about his illness. The unspoken message of all this almost seemed to be: Isn't it wonderful that Hitchens is dying so brilliantly! But now that he's been dead almost a year—a year without a column, a review, a fight—the fact that he went out so boisterously is small solace. Better he had another 35 years to write about Iraq and God and wine and everything else he liked to write about when he wasn't dying.
Tendency of some commiserations to sound unintentionally final, either by past tense or some other giveaway of a valedictory sort. Sending flowers not as nice as it might seem.
I'm not fighting or battling cancer—it's fighting me. One reason Hitchens wrote so well about dying was that he was at heart a war correspondent. He liked conflict. In this case, he engaged in the most graphic war reporting of his life—chronicling the unwinnable conflict between the "alien" and his own self, a series of skirmishes over his vocal cords, skin, and nose hair.
Brave? Hah! Save it for a fight you can't run away from.
Saul Bellow: Death is the dark backing that a mirror needs if we are able to see anything.
Vertiginous feeling of being kicked forward in time: catapulted toward the finish line. Trying not to think with my tumor, which would not be thinking at all. People try to make it sound as if it were an EPISODE in one's life.
ONCOLOGY/ONTOLOGY: Under the old religious dispensation, heaven would simply sentence you to be lavishly tortured and then executed. Montaigne: "Religion's surest foundation is the contempt for life."
Fear leads to superstition—"The Big C," though, seems mercifully to have dumped—and I'm glad nobody wants to slaughter any endangered species on my behalf.
Only OK if I say something objective and stoical: Ian remarking that a time might come when I'd have to let go: Carol asking about Rebecca's wedding "Are you afraid you won't see England again?" Also, ordinary expressions like "expiration date"…will I outlive my Amex? My driver's license? People say—I'm in town on Friday: will you be around? WHAT A QUESTION!
COLD FEET (so far only at night): "peripheral neuropathy" is another of those words like "necrotic" that describe death-in-life of the system. AND you lose weight but cancer isn't interested in eating your flab. It wants your muscle. The Tumortown Diet ain't much help. Worst of all is "chemo-brain." Dull, stuporous. What if the protracted, lavish torture is only the prelude to a gruesome execution. Body turns from reliable friend to more neutral to treacherous foe…Proust? Hitchens with "chemo-brain": better that most journalists on two cups of coffee.
If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does. This is my favorite line in the book. It's a kick in the face to all those people who nagged him to accept God on his deathbed. I also like that it takes a few seconds to get the joke. I read it once, was baffled, and only laughed after I read it again.
Not even a race for a cure…
Paperwork the curse of Tumortown.
Misery of seeing oneself on old videos or YouTubes…
"Gradual disclosure" not yet a problem for me.
Michael Korda's book Man to Man…
You can get so habituated to bad news that good news is like Breytenbach and the cake. Consolations of saying, well at least now I won't have to do THAT.
Larkin good on fear in "Aubade," with implied reproof to Hume and Lucretius for their stoicism. Fair enough in one way: atheists ought not to be offering consolation either.
Banality of cancer. Entire pest-house of side-effects. Special of the day.
See Symborska's poem on torture and the body as a reservoir of pain. In these few short pages, Hitchens manages to cite: Montaigne, Hegel, Waugh, Wilde, Orwell, Hume, Lucretius, Larkin, Szymborska … Is there anything he hadn't read?Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Supreme Court President Lord Neuberger said ministers were 'not legally compelled' to consult AMs
The Welsh Assembly does not have a legal right to be consulted by UK ministers triggering Brexit, the Supreme Court has ruled.
Senior judges said that the UK government cannot start Article 50 without consulting MPs.
They said assembly members have no veto over the process to leave the EU.
But the Welsh Government's chief legal officer Mick Antoniw called the ruling "a victory" in upholding the sovereignty of Parliament.
Welsh ministers had argued that the assembly should be consulted on starting Brexit. They had intervened in the UK government appeal against an earlier High Court ruling.
Counsel General Mr Antoniw told the assembly on Tuesday that AMs are likely to vote on Brexit, despite the ruling, although he said it was not a veto.
Giving the judgement on Tuesday, President of the Supreme Court Lord Neuberger said: "On the devolution issues, the court unanimously rules that UK ministers are not legally compelled to consult the devolved legislatures before triggering Article 50.
"The devolution statutes were enacted on the assumption that the UK would be a member of the EU, but they do not require it.
"Relations with the EU are a matter for the UK government."
The ruling said the assembly and other devolved legislatures had no veto.
But it did say withdrawal from the EU will change the powers of the governments and assemblies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mick Antoniw says Parliamentary sovereignty means the Welsh voice will be heard
The Welsh Government had argued that if MPs did not vote on Article 50, which was the UK government's original intention, it would undermine the basis for devolution.
Welsh ministers had also argued that this plan would have short-circuited a convention which requires Welsh assembly members to vote on legislation which affects the Welsh devolution settlement.
Political, not legal
The Sewel Convention is an arrangement between the UK and Welsh governments where if any new laws come in that affect devolution, they have to be approved by AMs by a vote.
But the Supreme Court ruling sets out that Sewel is a political convention and not a legal one, and so is not a legally enforceable obligation.
The assembly research service states the court is not giving the UK government and Parliament license to ignore Sewel, but it cannot decide disputes about whether it had been applied correctly.
Mr Antoniw, Welsh Government's senior legal advisor and am AM, told BBC Wales the ruling was "certainly a victory in terms of upholding the sovereignty of Parliament".
"We've never argued for a veto, and the court made that point, but what it does do is stress the importance of the Sewel Convention in terms of engagement."
Earlier, speaking to BBC Radio Wales before the judgement, Mr Antoniw defended the £84,000 cost of the Welsh Government's intervention, saying: "The voice of Wales within the UK constitution is priceless."
Plaid Cymru spokesman for external affairs Steffan Lewis said the party would still seek to table a vote in the assembly on the triggering of Article 50.
"It is a simple matter of democracy that the devolved legislatures should have a role in commencing the process of leaving the EU," he said.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nathan Gill says the Welsh Government's Brexit legal bill could have paid for four nurses
UKIP MEP and independent AM Nathan Gill said the Brexit white paper published by the Welsh Government on Monday "will make it into the Guinness Book of Records for having the shortest shelf life ever, 24 hours".
"Because it's now been made obsolete," he claimed.
But Mr Gill - a member of the committee advising First Minister Carwyn Jones on Brexit - said the Supreme Court judgement in favour of parliament was "no surprise".
An UKIP assembly group spokesman said it welcomed the judgement on Article 50 and Parliament, and that any attempt to block Brexit would trigger an immediate general election: "We say bring it on."
"It would be absurd for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland to have a veto over triggering Article 50," he said.
The Welsh Conservatives' Europe spokesman Mark Isherwood, said: "The Welsh Government's tortuous arguments were an expensive sideshow.
"It would have been better if every effort had been focused on delivering a Welsh Government paper on Brexit before the UK government announced its negotiating strategy."
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Mark Williams welcomed the ruling, saying it showed the sovereignty of parliament was paramount, and that his party will vote against Article 50.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Owen Smith says the public should be given a vote on any "hard, hard Brexit" deal
Several Labour MPs have indicated they will disobey any order by party leader Jeremy Corbyn to vote in favour of Article 50.
Pontypridd MP Owen Smith, who backed Remain, suggested there ought to be a fresh referendum on the terms of leaving the EU, fearing the UK was set for the "hardest of hard Brexits" by leaving the single market and the customs union.
"The right thing to do then is to allow the British people once more in an ultra-democratic moment to confirm whether they really want the hard, hard Brexit they are likely to get," he said.At this year's E3, Halo 5 came out shooting with a brief campaign demo in Microsoft's press conference. That said, the meat of developer 343's presence was Warzone, a brand new mode to Halo that integrates campaign style spaces, Firefight-influenced enemy wave systems, and the PVP of Halo's competitive multiplayer into a cohesive yet frantic mode. In Multiplayer design director Kevin Franklin's words, "we just wanted to go as epic and as large as possible."
Based on my limited time with Warzone at E3, the description isn't off-base. Each 12 person team starts on opposite sides of the map, and their first task is to secure a base from AI-controlled Covenant or Promethean forces. Once that's complete, both teams will make their way towards a third base at the center of the map, where they'll collide with more Covenant and Prometheans — and each other. As teams fight to control bases to earn points, they'll earn requisition points that allow them to call in vehicles and access more powerful weapons, though, as with any Halo game, dying with a weapon is a good way to give it to the other team. Meanwhile, AI units continue to spawn in, including powerful, legendary bosses, and killing them can heavily swing the battle to one side's favor. Between the 12v12 teams, the massive map and large alien presence everything feels bigger. It's more antagonistic than Firefight or Spartan Ops, Halo's previous PVE (player vs enemy) online modes, but the sheer scale and breadth of what I saw was enough to sell me. It's not the first shooter I've played to bring in elements of action-strategy/MOBA titles like League of Legends and Dota 2 that I've played, and not even the only one I saw at E3. But it does seem to get those ideas and fold them more organically into the core design ideas of the main game than anything else I've seen recently. I was able to get an extended sit-down with Franklin to talk all about Halo 5 multiplayer — why Warzone is the mode that 343 has wanted to make for years, why he thinks Halo 4 lost its multiplayer audience so quickly, how the studio aims to make things right with Halo 5 and even how Warzone almost had MOBA-style lanes at one point.
"Halo Wars was a big inspiration for us"
Polygon: You have your pillars and talking points for Warzone about what it is, how it's PVE (player vs. enemy) and PVP, but what is the space in Halo that it's trying to fill? Every Halo game over the last few years has had something — we've had firefight a couple of times, and we've had Spartan Ops, and now we have Warzone. Why this, and not those things? Kevin Franklin: I think we always wanted to combine all those elements together. Even when I started at 343 five years ago, we wanted to make a mode that had everything in it at once. We wanted players, AI, all the vehicles, all the weapons. But we just didn't have the tech ready for it. So that's why those things splintered off into so many different experiences. And we always looked at how we could transition players to campaign, to firefight, to multiplayer. With Warzone, we wanted to go directly from campaign into Warzone and feel really comfortable. Also, the scale of it. We just wanted to go as epic and as large as possible. Practically speaking, why is it possible now? What makes this something that you can bite off and chew? We're running on dedicated servers, which made a really, really big difference. We've got beefy four core servers that are able to run all our AI simulation and leave all the rendering up to the Xbox. And this is the first time we've built a game completely from the ground up for the Xbox One, so that made it a lot easier.
From a tech standpoint, is it still the same roots and skeleton that's always driven Halo? It's the same engine, it's just very heavily upgraded. We could never leave some parts of the engine behind. You would just never get those things back. Also, our team has been together for years now — our lead multiplayer engineer and I have been working together for five years. So we've got a team that's really hitting the ground and hitting our stride and knowing how we work together. Halo 4 was generally well-received. It reviewed well, it sold well. But the multiplayer community dried up more quickly than I think a lot of people expected. Do you feel like there are reasons for that? I think we were trying to appease our long-term Halo competitive community, our eSports fans and our new players all at the same time. We ended up with an experience that made some compromises in some areas. Halo 5 has had the largest investment ever, and it was amazing for us. We were like, "wait, we can build two multiplayer experiences?"
"wait, we can build two multiplayer experiences?"
We got to build a four-on-four multiplayer experience that's incredibly competitive, built for eSports, doesn't have any compromises, has fair starts, has weapon |
because their characters maintain a core integrity regardless of where the plot takes them, and the writers believably evolve these figures without violating what we know about them.
“Transparent,” rolling out a new season to Amazon Prime members on Friday, is an uncommon half-hour concerned foremost with identity, specifically as that concept pertains to the individual members of the Pfefferman family.
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Traveling with each on his or her various quests is moving experience in the show’s first three seasons. It can be irritating in varying degrees as well, but in general Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor), her adult children Sarah (Amy Landecker), Josh (Jay Duplass) and Ali (Gaby Hoffmann) and ex-wife Shelly (Judith Light) are consistently engrossing.
Their separate but frequently overlapping existential journeys are sparked by their parent’s late-in-life gender transition. Previous sojourns found significance in each character’s evaluation of his or her life in light of Maura’s transition, eventually broadening the view to include glimpses into the family’s heritage to infer the hereditary nature of their underlying dissatisfaction.
Season 4 adds new pages to the Pfefferman’s history but feels muddled and confused in comparison to past episodes. The first season is an intimate look at Maura’s transition, while the second tenderly walks us through the fallout resulting from her shedding of her male self. It’s relatively easy to characterize season 3 as a concisely examination of the meaning of contentment and disillusion, but the fourth flooding the series with so many developments that fail to find emotional purchase that its tough to get a handle on what it’s attempting to tell us.
These latest 10 episodes of “Transparent” bombard us with dissonance as opposed to augmenting the plot dramatic profundity. Shelly’s narcissism takes on the blaring honk of a Southerly migrating goose; Josh and Sarah struggle mightily with the direction their lives have taken; Maura further settles into life as a transgender woman; and Ali is still defining who she is.
We know these people, in other words. We’re familiar with them enough for their various personality quirks to trouble our nerves — and the writers not only seem aware of this feeling, they sharply poke at it.
In an early scene during the premiere (written by Faith Soloway and directed by “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway) the Pfeffermans’ weekly family meal descends into a monsoon of loud chatter as everyone talks over each other. All the while Ali slowly recedes into her grandmother’s crocheted blanket in a failed attempt to block out the room and the scattered anxiety inside her skull.
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This is in line with Ali’s reflex to lose interest in the status quo, but it also mirrors the nagging sensation a viewer may feel while watching the scene unfold. Much of the new season feels like this, but not in a good way.
The fourth season is a cacophonous tangle of the familiar narratives of “Transparent,” diluted by the clan’s trip to Israel. That vacation that coaxes forth out the truest versions, good and terrible, of each family member — travel has a knack of doing that. But the itinerary includes an overload of competing threads, obstacles and disclosures, a few of which come too late in the season for the viewer to fully appreciate their impact. But nothing in this pile of revelations leads to any place meaningful, psychologically speaking, not even to Shell and Back.
Visually “Transparent” increasingly evokes nostalgia, and this sepia-toned trip looks and feels more like a collection of old family movies than others. The central reason for their Israel trip explains this stylistic choice to some extent, but elsewhere the filter highlights the dinginess of other subplots.
As always the saving grace of “Transparent” is its performances. The entire cast is outstanding, but Tambor is the soul of this show. His arc as Maura is less central in season 4, and this may be part of the reason it feels like the poorer sibling of previous seasons. But this trains more focus on Hoffman’s Ali as she grows closer to Maura. Hoffman embraces a storyline that veers into indulgent territory but maintains a firm command of her character the entire time.
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Season 4 crashes Duplass’ and Light’s stories together as Shelly moves in with Josh as he comes to terms with how he views and treats women, sexually and otherwise. Josh’s thread allows Duplass to showcase an emotional sincerity not as fully explored in previous seasons by forcing the character to face a pivotal turn in his history with sensitivity.
“Transparent” tends to use the insistent rigidity of Light’s character to provide comic relief or as an object of frustration for her children and ex-husband. This continues to be true this season, although the writers eventually enable her to find some redemption, though in a way that feels forced. Getting there can be grating, though, especially during Shelly’s side adventures involving her latest creative outlet, improv, indubitably the new season’s worst subplot.
Season 4’s shallowest dramatic gambit concerns Sarah and Len (Rob Huebel), who fall into a sexual arrangement with a woman played by Alia Shawkat. Shawkat is terrific, although the threesome’s tale is primarily notable for its steamy love scenes and an odd, mildly disturbing development that inspires Sarah to apply her S&M proclivities to another relationship dynamic in her life.
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At its best, “Transparent” invites us to view the world through the prism of individual realization and one family’s increasingly fluid and shifting relationship to gender, to the value of a shared past, and to culture. Better seasons prioritize these devices over narrative explosions, and it’s unfortunate that its fourth time out emphasize the latter to the point of diminishing the show’s uniqueness.
The net result is a season that’s successful in parts but hangs together awkwardly as a whole. Previous visits to the Pfeffermans’ households are riveting and heartfelt even in less successful moments, but the new season’s get-together may be one you’ll be tempted to ghost.In a column posted on Monday, Ron Paul dismissed both Republican and White House talking points about Benghazi as a “sideshow” and charged that GOP attacks against the White House in regards to the issue are politically motivated.
“Republicans smell a political opportunity over evidence that the Administration heavily edited initial intelligence community talking points about the attack to remove or soften anything that might reflect badly on the president or the State Department,” Paul wrote.
“The real lesson of Benghazi will not be learned because neither Republicans nor Democrats want to hear it,” Paul went on to say. “But it is our interventionist foreign policy and its unintended consequences that have created these problems, including the attack and murder of Ambassador Stevens. The disputed talking points and White House whitewashing are just a sideshow.”
Paul has long been a vocal critic of “interventionist” foreign policy. He noted that many in the GOP had initially supported Obama’s policies in Libya during the country’s uprising that contributed to the fall of Muammar Qaddafi. Paul argued that it was those policies that were responsible for the death of American ambassador Chris Stevens, as well as three other Americans.
“Who can blame the administration for wanting to shift the focus?” Paul wrote. “The Islamic radicals who attacked Benghazi were the same people let loose by the US-led attack on Libya. They were the rebels on whose behalf the US overthrew the Libyan government. Ambassador Stevens was slain by the same Islamic radicals he personally assisted just over one year earlier.”Swaffelen (or zwaffelen) is a Dutch term meaning to hit one's penis—often repeatedly—against an object or another person's body. Swaffelen was named as the word of the year in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2008. The act of swaffelen often takes place in the form of teasing, crude humour or a degrading context, but can also be a sexual act. When the act is practised on a person, it is often the person's cheek that is hit. The penis is ideally semi-erect during the act.[citation needed] Contents
Origin Edit
The term "swaffelen" is believed to have originated in English-speaking areas.[1] It is believed to originate from Dutch words meaning swing, sway and swoop, as well as the German words for tail or penis (Schweif and Schwanz).[1][2]
Media coverage Edit
Word of the year Edit
Swaffelen was voted as the word of the year in a 2008 competition organized by Genootschap Onze Taal (Society for Our Language), Van Dale Uitgevers (Van Dale Publishers) and the newspaper De Pers.[1][2][8] The blog GeenStijl.nl encouraged readers to vote for "swaffelen".[9] "Swaffelen" received 57% of the votes while "wiiën" (meaning to play Wii) drew 12% and "bankendomino" (referring to the credit crisis) received 6% of the votes. "Gastroseksueel" and "smirten" each received 5% of the vote.[10]
See also EditCharlotte, NC –-(Ammoland.com)- Last night, citing concerns about enforceability and the potential for a lawsuit based on a violation of the firearms preemption clause in the state constitution, the Santa Fe City Council defeated Bill 2013-27.
If enacted, this local ordinance would have outlawed the future possession, sale or transfer of standard capacity magazines that are compatible with commonly-owned self-defense pistols and rifles used by recreational and competitive shooters.
About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.orgStyle The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun Suits Up in Fall’s Best Tweed Suits In these days of every-man-for-himself-ism, the guy who takes over is the one who isn’t afraid to break the rules and stand out—like Steven Yeun (a.k.a. Glenn on The Walking Dead), dressed here in the season’s most sophisticated, crisply tailored, workplace-ready tweed suits.
The Office Standout
When everyone else is running around in plain gray suits, you can set yourself apart just by wearing the new breed of tweed.
If This Shoot Looks Like a Movie Set…
What if Michael Bay decided to make a musical? That happened recently, or something like it, when Hong Kong director Johnnie To, whose films include Fulltime Killer and Drug War, made a romping, toe-tapping, song-and-dance musical, Office, about two go-getter assistants trying to climb the corporate ladder. Standing in their way is the 2008 financial crisis, as well as a domineering CEO played by Sylvia Chang. The office intrigue develops on a manically minimalist set where corporate gray scale is broken into geometric patterns with lines so clean they might as well be spreadsheets. To pay tribute to the office of Office, GQ took over the landmarked glass-and-marble Manufacturers Trust Company Building at 510 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, now home to the North Face flagship. Photographer Nathaniel Goldberg then juxtaposed corporate banality—all those gray suits and white desks—against stylized design elements that scream “soundstage.” The effect is a tension between the quotidian to which we're chained and our human need to break free. The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun might be the action hero on these pages, but the message is clear: No matter where we work, or dream, we can be heroes.
About These Clothes
As you can see in these pages, today's tweed suits are designed less for tending an Irish sheep farm and more for gliding through the halls of power. With a lighter look and feel (no more roasting!), once-fusty donegals and herringbones have transformed into businesswear, no thicker than flannel (but twice as textured). Their flecks and patterns can contrast an everyday solid shirt or add a salt-and-pepper effect to your plaids. Bonus: With something as classic as tweed, your suit becomes an investment piece. It's the suit for this winter, sure, but it's also the suit for every winter.Countries that encourage tax evasion should miss out on free trade agreements and access to banking, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz who urged Europe to take the lead in fighting tax dodgers in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the United States. EURACTIV Germany reports.
“Secrecy is part of the darker side of globalisation, from hiding money and money laundering to tax evasion, it all undermines the functioning of our societies,” insisted Nobel Laureate Stiglitz on Wednesday (16 November) in the European Parliament, demanding a redesign of the current international tax system, as well as calling for changes to the EU itself.
“If we cannot tame globalisation, then there will be a wave of anti-globalisation,” warned Stiglitz in front of a European Parliament inquiry committee on the Panama tax evasion scandal (PANA).
In face of tax evasion, the economics Nobel laureate called for a “zero-tolerance” approach, and outlined how this could actually work. Firstly, uncooperative countries could be blocked from participating in free trade agreements (FTA), through the addition of minimum transparency requirements in new deals.
The economist earmarked specific praise for the US Treasury’s reaction since the Panama Papers scandal broke, but was more pessimistic about the future under US President Trump.
“When your president is avoider-in-chief, it’s hard to have confidence in where we are going to go,” he said.
Moscovici: Trump’s US could be tax haven blacklisted EXCLUSIVE / The EU’s tax haven blacklist is taking shape, as the European Commission uses the momentum generated by the LuxLeaks and Panama Papers scandals. Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici did not rule out including the United States on the list, in interview with EURACTIV.com.
According to Stiglitz, the only real option is for Europe to take the lead in tackling tax avoiders and the countries that enable them. He also called for more publicly searchable registers of corporation owners to be set up and for more information to be made available to the media.
The Columbia University professor was originally commissioned by the Panamanian government to help advise it on how best to respond to the revelations leaked back in April, but he and Swiss Professor of Law Mark Pieth embarked on their own study when Panama City failed to assure them that their work would be made public.
Panama Papers committee courts public opinion to exert pressure The European Parliament’s Panama Papers inquiries has invited the journalists that first published the leak to its first hearing, in a political charged move against a “system that many European countries are involved in”. EURACTIV Germany reports.
Their study eventually called for an end to the “destructive tax competition” between countries, which has allowed companies like Apple to enjoy an effective tax rate of 0.005%. The European Commission has since ordered the US tech giant to repay some €13 billion of unpaid taxes to Ireland.
On Ireland, Stiglitz accused the country of experiencing “sham growth” on the back of its low tax rates and preferential treatment. Ultimately, a tax competition is a race to the bottom and the bottom is 0%, explained the American, saying other countries will have to shoulder the burden of no tax revenues. Investment also declines as a result, he warned.
Irish parliament backs Apple tax appeal after angry debate Ireland’s parliament battled through an ill-tempered debate on Wednesday to vote in favour of appealing a European Commission ruling ordering the country to collect billions of euros in unpaid taxes from tech giant Apple.
Stiglitz also accused certain parties in the City of London, the British Virgin Islands and the US itself of breaching good standards and called on the EU to exert more pressure and set an example to the rest of the world.
He suggested that companies carrying out unfair trading practices should lose their licences and that European banks should be authorised to halt transactions with countries that do not adhere to transparency standards.
The former chief economist of the World Bank added that non-compliant countries carry “contagion” and that they should be told that “you have a contagious disease and we won’t allow our corporations to interact with you”. He explained that tax-free zones in some countries allow illegal money laundering to take place.
EU transparency register fails to restrain lobbyists Legal firms have been operating in Brussels for years without registering wtih the EU’s transparency register, a new study has revealed. However, it seems likely that the European Commission will persevere with voluntary registration. EURACTIV Germany reports.
Die Linke MEP Fabio de Masi (GUE/NGL), who is vice-chair of the PANA committee, warned that “there are no more excuses for Europe not to deliver on this”. He also called for “brutal transparency” on who actually owns companies and corporate profits.
Despite being pessimistic about what may develop in the US, Stiglitz remained optimistic about anti-tax avoidance efforts on a global level. “I think this is a war we can win. But we need incentives for whistleblowers. In some countries, that can even land you in prison. Those countries should end up on the blacklist.”Howie Carr, a conservative radio host and old friend of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, was told by the candidate not to apologize for whipping the crowd at a Maine Trump event into a frenzy by imitating a fake Native American "war whoop" designed to mock Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Despite the pleas by many on the right for him to stop referring to the senator as "Pocahontas," Trump can't address any of criticism of him made by her without bringing it up -- nor can his surrogates, who typically take it further.
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Take, for example, Carr, who insulted Warren before a crowd of Trump supporters and initiated what, to his mind, sounded like a Native American "war whoop." According to Carr, on Trump's private plane after the event, the candidate told him "Whatever you do, don't apologize" for war-whooping.
"You never hear me apologize, do you?" Carr recalled Trump telling him. "That’s what killed Jimmy the Greek way back. Remember? He was doing okay ‘til he said he was sorry."
He assured his readers "[n]ot to worry, I wasn’t going to say I was sorry for mentioning the name of the fake Indian and then doing a few seconds of a war whoop."
Carr explained his actions, writing that "[a]bout an hour earlier, I had been at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, warming up a crowd of maybe 5000 Trump supporters for Gov. Paul LePage before he introduced The Donald at a weekday rally I was speaking extemporaneously when I free-associated Fauxchohantas’ name, and suddenly a war whoop seemed appropriate for the occasion."
"How many moons have I been challenging Lieawatha to submit to a DNA test?" he asked. "Scott Brown brought up the issue of her forked tongue again on Fox earlier this week."
Watch video of Carr's opening address in Bangor below via MSNBC and Media Matters.This night at the Summer Awakens media event at Walt Disney World, I had the opportunity to see a special display and hear about the new amazing Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular fireworks and special effect show coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios later this summer.
We heard from Michael Roddy, Show Director, Creative Entertainment, Disney Parks who showed a scale model featured scenes from the Epic of Star Wars and talked about what to expect.
Unfortunately we can’t show you any photos or video since it’s still a work in progress. But what we did see was essentially a scale model of Center Stage at Disney’s Hollywood Studios facing the facade of the Chinese Theater, great movie ride show building to the left, and One Man’s Dream to the right.
Running nightly, Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular will be a 15 minutes show that takes you on a journey through all seven movies of the Star Wars saga via a combination of practical and special effects, digitally mapped projections on to the facade of the Chinese Theater and neighboring buildings. It will feature:
Largest ever fireworks to be used at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Practical effects like, lasers and explosion effects timed to the show
Surround sound-like speaker system.
A powerful light that will simulate a lightsaber glowing into space.
Digital mapping that will route around objects like trees to still provide a crisp projection on the surface.
To help provide more viewing area for the projections, the One Man’s Dream building will be extended with screens that will be raised for a larger viewing area.
For more information about the show we also talked with Brian Rodriguez, marketing strategy manager.
The original Star Wars movie premiered in May of 1977 at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, so there is a nice symmetry with the addition of this show to Disney’s Hollywood Studios version of the Chinese Theater. Look for a premier date announcement coming later this week.Uh-oh!
Here’s a recent article on the Conservative Home website by former cabinet minister and leading Brexit campaigner Owen Paterson calling for an end to the NHS:
It’s time for the Government to face up to the grim truth. The NHS simply isn’t fit for purpose.
Not surprising, as before the Brexit referendum leading Brexiters had already made clear their desire to sell off the NHS to privately owned corporations.
But now after the referendum result, senior Brexit supporters in the Tory Party are openly calling for the end of the NHS.
Incidentally, Paterson is in the pay of a private healthcare company called Randox Laboratories, which is paying him £4,166 a month for 8 hours work:
Be afraid.
Brexit will make it easier for private US firms to buy out NHS services …Australia's largest trading partner is China. Throughout the mining boom, they were our best customer. While data regarding the Chinese economy is difficult to validate, there is no hiding the fact that they are buying less raw materials from Australia. This is bad news for the mining sector. Deteriorating terms of trade with China, will have a knock on effect that will impact the entire economy.
AUD Foreign Exchange Rate
If China is buying less raw materials from us, then this causes a reduction in total Australian exports. This will cause the Australian Dollar to depreciate. Exports represent demand for a currency. China was buying raw materials from Australia, and paying in Australian Dollars. This stimulated the Australian Dollar in its epic rise beyond parity with the US Dollar. Our long term outlook for the Australian Dollar: We expect to see the AUD fall below USD 70.00 by the end of 2015.
Before the mining boom, Australia was often referred to as a'small open economy'. We tended to import more than we exported, causing our Balance of Payments and Current Account to be in deficit. Our dollar had the nickname 'The Aussie Battler'.
The equilibrium value of the Australian Dollar has increased due to the mining boom. Now that the boom is over, we expect that the AUD equilibrium will revert to levels below 100. A history of the AUD TWI equilibrium is shown below:Will Republicans Get Sane On The Debt Ceiling?
Wall Street says raise the debt ceiling. The Tea Party says no. What will the GOP do?
Doug Mataconis · · 42 comments
Today’s Politico notes that Republicans in Congress aren’t buying the arguments being put forward by the Administration about the dangers of not raising the limit on the National Debt:
House Republican leaders have spent a lot of time lately assuring Wall Street that they understand the calamitous consequences that would result from a default on the nation’s debt. But at an economic forum here in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s hometown, “Main Street” business leaders didn’t seem to have much interest in the issue that preoccupies Washington, New York and other cities concerned with high finance. Rather than the nation’s account ledger, they talked about issues that affect their own ledgers: gas prices, government regulation and tax policy. Even liberal activists who confronted Cantor after the event wanted to pick fights on abortion rights and public radio funding. Cantor didn’t bring up the debt limit, either. It all speaks to a festering problem for the Obama administration: Its sense of urgency over the debt limit isn’t catching on with Republicans — or with voters. Republican lawmakers and aides tell POLITICO that the debt-limit increase is in danger, in part, because it’s not a major issue of concern for most voters. On top of that, Republicans say, the White House has undermined its own credibility by moving the expected date of default repeatedly, giving them little confidence in pronouncements of impending disaster. “No one is saying, ‘Raise the debt limit.’ No one. Zero. Unless you pay really close attention to politics, you’re not talking about the debt ceiling,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said of his interactions with constituents. Of his colleagues, he said, “Everyone’s getting the TARP feeling again.” It took two attempts to win a House majority for the bank bailout bill in 2008 after Republicans defected en masse from President George W. Bush. Lawmakers in both parties felt trapped as constituents urged them not to reward Wall Street for the financial meltdown and top government officials warned them that the nation’s economy would collapse without swift action in support of foundering banks. Likewise, many Americans aren’t thrilled with the idea of giving more borrowing authority to a government incapable of balancing its books. So lawmakers are faced again with choosing between an administration sounding the alarm and constituents who are, at best, ambivalent about the debt ceiling.
Of course they aren’t. As I noted the other day, the entire idea of a debt ceiling is designed in such as way as to allow politicians in Washington to demagogue the issue of Federal spending, which the Constitution gives them the full authority to control, without actually doing anything about it. However, this isn’t just an academic fight over economic policy, it’s the real world and, as Alan Blinder notes in the Wall Street Journal, failure to raise the debt limit would have disastrous real world consequences:
What happens if we crash into the debt ceiling? Nobody really knows, but it’s not likely to be pretty. Inflows and outflows of cash to and from the Treasury jump around from day to day as bills are paid and revenues arrive. But at average fiscal 2011 rates, receipts cover only about 60% of expenditures. So if we hit the borrowing wall traveling at full speed, the U.S. government’s total outlays—a complex amalgam that includes everything from Social Security benefits to soldiers’ pay to interest on the national debt—will have to drop by about 40% immediately. (…) At some point, Mr. Geithner could wind up brooding over horrible questions like these: Do we stop issuing checks for Social Security benefits, or for soldiers’ pay, or for interest payments to the Chinese government? Such agonizing choices are what make default imaginable. Threatening to default should not be a partisan issue……. In view of all the hazards it entails, one wonders why any responsible person would even flirt with the idea.
So one side, we’ve got the Obama Administration, pretty much every economist on both sides of the aisle, abnd Wall Street and the business community arguing that Congress needs to swallow its pride, raise the debt ceiling, and then get to work on long term fiscal reform. On the other side, we’ve got the Tea Party movement, which is strongly opposed to raising the limit. Stuck in the middle, we find John Boehner and the GOP:
That leaves Boehner stuck between the Tea Party and a hard place. If he pushes too hard on cuts, that will rattle the Republican Party’s powerful Wall Street wing, potentially roiling the markets and unsettling the broader electorate. But backing down will also hurt him. “After accusations he didn’t do enough in the budget battle, Boehner has to have something real to take back to conservatives or he’s in trouble,” said James McCormick, a professor of political science at Iowa State University. “He’s boxed in between two components of the Republican Party. Obama knows that and is not under the same pressure.” If the Republicans falter, the search for establishment targets will kick into a higher gear — with freshmen, or those elected in 2010 seen as the easiest to unseat as they are new. “The Tea Party will almost certainly primary those they want to get rid of,” said Larry Sabato, a politics professor at the University of Virginia. “They are not out to rebuild the Republican Party. They are out to take over the Republican Party and make it more like the Tea Party.” “If it takes some Republican defeats along the way to make that happen, then that is what they’ll do,” he added.
Kevin Drum, though, sees the debate as more of a problem for the Tea Party movement than the GOP establishment:
Don’t get me wrong: it’s a huge pain in the ass for Boehner because, in the end, he’ll have to defy the tea partiers and do what Wall Street wants — which, on the bright side, also happens to be the right thing to do. In the longer term, though, this is just another sign of the tea party wearing out its welcome. It was a handy force for rousing the voters in the 2010 election, but there’s only so much idiocy that even Republicans can put up with. Talk radio is one thing. Fox News is one thing. For the most part, they talk big but don’t actually demand that politicians commit suicide. Tea partiers, conversely, do want them to commit suicide, and if they get their way the only real result is going to be more Democrats in Congress and the reelection of Barack Obama. The adults in the party understand this perfectly well, and they’re going to throw the tea partiers under the bus if it looks like they’re seriously screwing things up for GOP hopes next year. So, yeah, Boehner is going to take this down to the wire. He’s going to try to extort some spending cuts out of the White House. He might as well do what he can to appease the tea partiers, after all. But in the end, he’ll vote to raise the debt ceiling, he’ll get enough Republican votes to make it stick, and the Republican establishment is going to finally decide it’s tired of the tea party if they make too much trouble about it.
I think that Drum is probably right about how this is going to turn out. Back in November, Boehner, then Speaker-Designate, said that he was making it clear to the incoming caucus that they would have to deal with the debt ceiling issue like adults, implying that the Tea Party would just have to accept the fact that the debt ceiling is going to be increased because there is no other rational option. At the same time, of course, there were people like Grover Norquist telling incoming House freshman to “take no prisoners” and to hold the line on the “no tax increases” and anti-debt limit increase orthodoxy that his organization preaches. And, so, we are where we are.
What I said in November applies equally today:
Raising the debt ceiling is a crappy vote for any legislator to take. It demonstrates as plain as day the fiscal irresponsibility of the Federal Government, and the act of voting to push the debt limit even further into the fiscal stratosphere is one that looks bad on any representative’s resume. However, it’s also not a vote to be playing games with, as Boehner correctly points out. Unless Republicans intend to use the debt ceiling vote as a catalyst to force a national debate on making the kinds of spending cuts and tax changes that will be needed to seriously deal with the debt (and I would love it if they did), they need to just swallow their pride and cast the vote.
In the end, I think that’s what will happen. Boehner will bring his caucus along, the Tea Party will be pissed, but the right thing will have been done. But I’m going to predict right now that it won’t happen until the absolutely last possible minute. Because, you know, that’s how we do things here.Top Texas scientists to release fracking impact study
A drilling rig sits north of the Davis Mountains last year. Houston-based Apache Corporation plans to drill and hydraulicly fracture wells on 350,000 acres along southern Reeves County, near the town of Balmorhea. Some residents worry about the impacts. (Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle) less A drilling rig sits north of the Davis Mountains last year. Houston-based Apache Corporation plans to drill and hydraulicly fracture wells on 350,000 acres along southern Reeves County, near the town of... more Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Top Texas scientists to release fracking impact study 1 / 8 Back to Gallery
A respected state research cooperative will release on Monday a report on the effects of hydraulic fracturing on communities in Texas.
The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, a conglomerate of Texas research scientists across disciplines, has spent two years reviewing the impacts of shale oil and gas development on earthquakes, wildlife, air quality, water, transportation and area residents.
The academy, known as TAMEST, touts the report, Environmental and Community Impacts of Shale Development in Texas, as the first comprehensive analysis of its kind.
RELATED: State begins testing Balmorhea springs as Apache drills nearby
“The goal of the TAMEST Shale Task Force report is to provide a clear, science-based assessment of these impacts and the gaps in our current knowledge of them,” said task force chair Christine Ehlig-Economides, a petroleum engineer and professor at the University of Houston.
TAMEST calls itself “Texas’ premier scientific organization,” which includes all of the state’s Nobel Laureates, plus Texas-based members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The Shale Task Force report is an analysis of existing peer-reviewed scientific literature, following the same processes used by the National Academies, TAMEST said.
The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation paid for some of the project. TAMEST neither sought nor accepted funding from the oil and gas industry interests.
Editor's note: The report has now been released. For more, see Study of oil and gas drilling finds pollution and connection to earthquakes"Sensei! I have a problem!"
The Mathematical Ninja nodded. "Bring it on."
"There's a challenge! Someone has picked a five-digit integer and cubed it to get 6,996,364,932,376. I know it ends with a six, and I could probably get the penultimate digit with a bit of work... I just wondered if there was a better way. Without a calculator, of course."
The Mathematical Ninja hmmed for a moment. "Tricky."
The student's eyes boggled. This was not a word he had heard escape the Mathematical Ninja's lips before.
"It's a tiny bit less than $7 \times 10^{12}$," said the Mathematical Ninja, thoughtfully. "Therefore the cube root is somewhere slightly below 20,000."
This sounded plausible. "So the first digit is 1, the second digit is high, and the final digit is 6. We've halved the search space!"
"We've square rooted the search space," corrected the Mathematical Ninja.
"How about we take logs, sensei?"
"Naturally."
The student continued. "$\ln(7)$ is roughly 1.95, and - looking at the billions - we're off of 7,000 by about 3.5, which is one part in 2000. And we don't know $\ln(7)$ accurately enough for that to be worth adjusting for. $12\ln(10)$, though, is $12 \times 2.302$, which is 23.02 + 4.605, let's say 27.63. Overall, we're now at 29.58 - and we need to divide that by 3. A shade less than 10."
"Indeed. 9.86, to be moderately precise."
"OK. And we want to unlog that. So what's $e^{9.86}$?"
"Let's break it down. We already know it's a bit more than $10^4$, the natural log of which is..."
"$4 \times 2.302 = 9.208$," said the student. "Call it 9.21?"
"That's for the best," said the Mathematical Ninja. "After all, it's 9.2103."
The student's eyes narrowed slightly. For all his respect for the Mathematical Ninja, he of all people didn't like a smartarse. "So we've got 0.65 left to account for - a bit less than 2, as you said. But how much less? 0.04, if I remember correctly."
"You do," said the Mathematical Ninja.
"So, 4% less than 2 is 1.92, meaning our answer is probably 191_6 or 192_6."
"It would be hard to disagree," agreed the Mathematical Ninja.
"Should I just try cubing all of the numbers between 19,106 and 19,296 that end in 6?"
"That would doubtless work," said the Mathematical Ninja, but with a sneer that suggested to the student that there may be a better way.
"I suppose there may be a better way," said the student.
"You might start by dividing 6,996,364,932,376 by 8, reasoning that it's an even cube. You get 874,545,616,547."
"Is that much better?"
"It tells you the last digit is 3, which means the penultimate digit of what you had must be even. Also, the digital root of the original cube is 1, which means the digital root of the cube root must be 1, 4 or 7."
"That narrows it down significantly! So it could be 19,126, 19,186, 19,246... and that's it!"
"Mhm," said the Mathematical Ninja.
"Do I still need to cube those?"
"Sure. But be lazy. Binomial expansion. Modulo 100."
"You mean something like $(10a+b)^3$?"
"Something very like that. Identical, in many respects."
Another eye-narrowing moment passed. "So, $1000a^3 + 300a^2b + 30ab^2 + b^3$, which has to end in 76. The first two terms vanish modulo 100, and $b=6$, so I've got $30 \times 36 a + 216$ giving 76 (mod 100). Strip out the hundreds, that's $80a + 16$ giving 76 (mod 100), and $80a = 60$. So $a$ has to be... 2!"
"Bingo," beamed the Mathematical Ninja.
"19,126. Can I try that on the calculator to be sure?"
"Do it long |
3 draconian callers 3 grey draconians 5 green draconians 7 deep elf demonologists 2 blizzard demons 11 purple draconians 5 merfolk javelineers 5 white draconians 3 yellow draconians 7 pale draconians 10 red draconians 5 mottled draconians 4 black draconians 9 deep elf annihilators 34 vault guards Snorg (Shoals:3) 7 merfolk impalers 2 spriggan air magi (D:23) 4 sirens 5 deep elf death magi (Elf:3) 7 dragons 14 ettins 18 death cobs 6 deep elf high priests A jiangshi (D:27) 53 yaktaur captains 3 great orbs of eyes 13 ice dragons 4 ice dragons (shapeshifter) 12 ironheart preservers 10 hydras 7 merfolk aquamancers A ravenous feature mimic (D:27) 14 ogre magi 3 ravenous item mimics 11 deep troll earth magi 30 dancing weapons 2 vampire magi (Zot:2) 9 death yaks 7 thrashing horrors (Abyss:1) 3 sun demons 5 deep troll shamans 27 centaur warriors 4 wretched stars (Abyss:1) 7 fire crabs A catoblepas (Shoals:3) 3 spectral elves (Elf:3) 3 rakshasas 7 very ugly things Urug (Elf:1) A storm dragon zombie (Zot:3) 7 orc high priests 6 hell hogs 2 iron golems (Hell) Nergalle (Lair:3) 13 hell knights 35 deep elf knights 5 iron trolls 3 shadow wraiths 18 hell beasts 3 skeletal warriors 5 soul eaters A spatial maelstrom (Abyss:1) 10 flayed ghosts A wizard (D:21) 10 ice devils A sea snake (shapeshifter) (Vaults:3) 5 unseen horrors Erolcha (Orc:1) 10 large abominations (Abyss:1) A giant orange brain (Vaults:2) A swamp dragon (Zot:3) 2 deathcaps 2 ice statues (Hell) 3 flaming corpses 12 hill giants 7 sea snakes 28 orc knights 20 deep trolls 5 hellions 2 hill giants (shapeshifter) A golden dragon skeleton (D:24) A wolf spider zombie (D:19) 12 deep elf conjurers 4 death drakes 16 ironbrand convokers A crystal golem (D:23) 7 giant amoebae 17 necromancers A shadow dragon skeleton (Geh:1) A draconian zombie (Zot:4) 6 phantasmal warriors A cyclops (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) 2 red wasps (shapeshifter) A harpy (shapeshifter) (D:25) 2 sphinx skeletons 45 wolf spiders 9 orc sorcerers 4 stone giant zombies 13 cyclopes A frost giant zombie (Vaults:3) 2 fire giant zombies 23 harpies 8 red wasps An apocalypse crab (Abyss:1) 5 griffons 19 moths of wrath 7 stone golems (Elf:3) 2 fire giant skeletons 4 sixfirhies 4 spiny worms 5 vault sentinels 2 elf zombies (Elf:3) Maurice (D:13) An eye of devastation (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) 15 stone giant skeletons A feature mimic (Orc:4) A black mamba (shapeshifter) (D:18) A queen ant (shapeshifter) (D:22) 2 vapours 3 deep elf summoners A tormentor (Zot:2) A red draconian zombie (Zot:4) 10 orange demons A pale draconian zombie (Zot:3) A queen ant (Spider:2) 19 spiny frogs 7 black mambas 102 yaktaurs 17 smoke demons 17 small abominations 4 naga magi (D:23) 21 orb spiders 14 fire drakes A yaktaur (shapeshifter) (Vaults:2) 20 demonic crawlers 11 mermaids An iron troll zombie (Vaults:1) A mermaid (shapeshifter) (Vaults:4) 7 red devils 16 komodo dragons 15 starcursed masses (Abyss:1) A brown ooze (shapeshifter) (Vaults:2) 4 ancient zymes (Abyss:1) A troll (shapeshifter) (D:23) 7 wandering mushrooms A polar bear (shapeshifter) (Vaults:3) 17 deep elf priests A spriggan (D:14) A queen bee (Lair:8) A queen bee (shapeshifter) (D:13) A death drake zombie (Geh:2) 5 iron troll skeletons 2 polar bears (D:10) 9 trolls A spriggan (shapeshifter) (D:27) 11 hellwings 4 wind drakes Sonja (D:10) 8 iron devils 4 blue devils A guardian serpent zombie (Abyss:1) 37 slime creatures A giant firefly (shapeshifter) (D:26) 2 hydra skeletons 24 blink frogs A giant leech (shapeshifter) (D:23) 2 blink frogs (shapeshifter) 2 ettin zombies 22 jumping spiders 2 slime creatures (shapeshifter) 4 ice dragon zombies (Geh:2) 13 snapping turtles 34 deep elf magi 10 boulder beetles 2 death drake skeletons 17 two-headed ogres 2 griffon zombies 2 trapdoor spider zombies 23 trapdoor spiders 4 ettin skeletons 7 flying skulls 14 ynoxinuls 6 basilisks 2 octopodes (shapeshifter) A tarantella (shapeshifter) (D:23) 3 trapdoor spiders (shapeshifter) A guardian serpent skeleton (Abyss:1) 23 tarantellas A hog (Spider:1) A stone giant simulacrum (D:19) 6 wraiths 3 ice dragon skeletons 2 hill giant zombies 68 redbacks 6 shadows 11 sharks 54 yaks 9 metal gargoyles 3 spiny worm zombies 41 water elementals 2 wyverns 11 air elementals 7 chaos spawn 74 ugly things 6 vampires Eustachio (D:10) 5 clay golems (Elf:3) 6 neqoxecs 2 steam dragons Grum (D:10) 63 merfolk 4 fire elementals (D:23) A hill giant skeleton (D:13) 19 hippogriffs A golden eye (shapeshifter) (Vaults:2) 5 human zombies A mottled dragon (Vaults:2) 3 hungry ghosts 2 spatial vortices (Abyss:1) 42 deep elf fighters 2 soldier ants (shapeshifter) A merfolk (shapeshifter) (Vaults:4) An agate snail zombie (D:19) 5 wolves (D:10) 20 manticores 6 rock worms 12 soldier ants 19 vampire mosquitoes 2 dwarves (D:7) 17 hell hounds 18 ice beasts 8 yellow wasps 3 swamp drakes (Zot:3) 6 porcupines 6 freezing wraiths A deep troll skeleton (D:24) A harpy simulacrum (D:23) A griffon simulacrum (D:17) A boring beetle (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) A black bear (D:8) 12 giant goldfish 2 necrophages 73 orc warriors 6 rotting devils 3 boring beetles 61 ogres 54 centaurs 4 phantoms 7 water moccasins 2 lava worms 7 giant slugs 12 wargs 12 big kobolds 7 crocodiles 27 giant frogs 5 brain worms A cyclops zombie (D:12) 3 hell hound zombies (D:14) A silver statue (Zot:5) A brain worm (shapeshifter) (Elf:1) 7 agate snails A glowing shapeshifter simulacrum (D:27) A yaktaur skeleton (Vaults:1) A giant slug zombie (D:19) An earth elemental (Vaults:1) A yak zombie (D:15) An eye of draining (D:13) 3 cyclops skeletons 2 boulder beetle zombies 2 eyes of draining (shapeshifter) 30 killer bees 2 rock worm zombies A troll zombie (D:13) 10 wights 4 lava fish A pulsating lump (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) 8 electric eels 4 jellyfish 7 quasits 3 lava snakes 2 yak skeletons 3 goliath beetles 39 orc priests 18 big fish 26 crimson imps A giant frog skeleton (D:11) 7 jellies 14 iguanas A komodo dragon simulacrum (D:10) 7 hounds 21 spiders An iron imp (Abyss:1) A warg zombie (Vaults:4) 2 two-headed ogre zombies 6 scorpions 26 orc wizards A two-headed ogre skeleton (D:7) 25 worker ants An orange rat (Elf:1) A hippogriff simulacrum (D:10) A big kobold zombie (D:12) 18 sheep A big kobold skeleton (D:8) An ogre zombie (D:9) 4 boggarts A deep dwarf skeleton (Abyss:1) 2 mummies 6 orange rat zombies (Hell) 4 gnolls (D:9) 68 green rats 6 lemures 4 giant centipedes A sky beast simulacrum (D:10) A hound simulacrum (D:10) 13 white imps 16 adders A giant mite (Spider:2) 3 shadow imps 11 worms 69 ufetubi A giant centipede zombie (D:9) An iguana zombie (D:6) An adder skeleton (D:9) A giant eyeball (D:6) 8 giant geckos 2 oozes 225 orcs 21 bats 2 bat skeletons 7 giant cockroaches 2 grey rats (D:10) 15 hobgoblins 8 ball pythons 5 giant newts A giant spore (Lair:5) 24 goblins A hobgoblin skeleton (D:8) 15 illusory rakshasas 22 jackals 56 kobolds 2 orc zombies 14 quokkas 31 rats 12 spectral orcs (Lair:3) 3 ballistomycetes (Lair:5) 2 crawling corpses (Elf:3) 8 fungi 9 plants 2 starspawn tentacles (Abyss:1) 4 tentacles (Shoals:4) 3755 creatures vanquished. Vanquished Creatures (collateral kills) An orb of fire (Zot:5) A draconian monk (Zot:3) A draconian knight (Zot:5) A draconian scorcher (Zot:3) A purple draconian (Zot:5) 2 pale draconians A deep troll earth mage (D:26) An ogre mage (Vaults:3) A soul eater (Zot:5) A deep elf knight (Elf:1) A griffon (Vaults:2) 3 yaktaurs (D:27) A two-headed ogre (D:13) A blink frog (Lair:7) A tarantella (Spider:2) 3 yaks (D:12) A deep elf fighter (Elf:1) A phantom (D:12) A rotting devil (Zot:5) An orc priest (D:22) A jelly (D:12) 2 ufetubi 28 creatures vanquished. Vanquished Creatures (others) An Executioner (Zot:5) Donald (Spider:5) A blizzard demon (Spider:2) A mottled draconian (D:27) A red draconian (Zot:3) A dragon (Zot:4) A deep elf high priest (Elf:3) An ironheart preserver (Vaults:5) An unseen horror (D:16) A wolf spider (Spider:1) 6 air elementals An orange demon (Elf:1) 2 smoke demons An orb spider (Spider:3) A hellwing (D:20) 10 water elementals A komodo dragon (Zot:3) An ice dragon zombie (Geh:2) A two-headed ogre (Vaults:5) 2 humans (Spider:2) A ynoxinul (Zot:5) A deep elf mage (Elf:3) 4 deep elf fighters A vampire mosquito (Lair:8) A freezing wraith (D:24) A yellow wasp (Zot:2) A centaur (D:23) 2 ogres A big kobold (D:15) A rotting devil (Elf:3) 2 goliath beetles A big fish (D:9) An iguana (D:11) 2 scorpions 2 orc wizards A worker ant (Zot:2) 3 boggarts A giant mite (D:8) A worm (Zot:2) 12 ufetubi 2 giant geckos An ooze (shapeshifter) (Vaults:4) 5 orcs A bat (D:8) 2 hobgoblins (D:8) 2 illusory rakshasas (D:23) A lurking horror (Abyss:1) 2 rats (D:8) 2 fungi 4 plants 16 starspawn tentacles (Abyss:1) 59 starspawn tentacle segments (Abyss:1) 11 tentacles (Shoals:4) 170 tentacle segments (Shoals:4) 354 creatures vanquished. Grand Total: 4137 creatures vanquished Notes Turn | Place | Note -------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | D:1 | Rocky, the Gargoyle Fighter, began the quest for the Orb. 0 | D:1 | Reached XP level 1. HP: 14/14 MP: 0/0 159 | D:1 | Reached XP level 2. HP: 16/19 MP: 1/1 683 | D:2 | Reached XP level 3. HP: 12/24 MP: 2/2 1007 | D:2 | Found a white marble altar of Elyvilon. 1192 | D:2 | Found a glowing golden altar of the Shining One. 1326 | D:2 | Reached skill level 4 in Shields 1730 | D:3 | Reached XP level 4. HP: 28/28 MP: 3/3 2429 | D:3 | Reached XP level 5. HP: 26/33 MP: 4/4 2670 | D:4 | Noticed a phantom 2689 | D:4 | Killed a phantom 2689 | D:4 | Reached XP level 6. HP: 34/39 MP: 5/5 2714 | D:4 | Found a glowing drain. 2736 | Sewer | Entered a sewer 2958 | Sewer | Reached skill level 5 in Shields 3117 | Sewer | Reached skill level 5 in Maces & Flails 3117 | Sewer | Reached XP level 7. HP: 44/44 MP: 6/6 3345 | Sewer | Reached skill level 5 in Fighting 3700 | D:4 | Reached skill level 5 in Armour 3928 | D:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Dungeon 4102 | D:5 | Found a bloodstained altar of Trog. 4236 | D:5 | Reached skill level 6 in Maces & Flails 4280 | D:5 | Reached XP level 8. HP: 49/49 MP: 7/7 5154 | D:6 | Found a staircase to the Ecumenical Temple. 5163 | Temple | Entered the Ecumenical Temple 5202 | Temple | Became a worshipper of Makhleb the Destroyer 5404 | D:6 | Found a staircase to the Orcish Mines. 5468 | D:6 | Reached skill level 7 in Maces & Flails 5749 | D:7 | Acquired Makhleb's first power 5884 | D:7 | Found a snail-covered altar of Cheibriados. 5961 | D:7 | Found Zoces' Serpentskin Sales. 5975 | D:7 | Bought 2 potions of poison for 28 gold pieces 5975 | D:7 | Bought a potion of strong poison for 28 gold pieces 6082 | D:7 | Reached XP level 9. HP: 49/55 MP: 8/8 6105 | D:7 | Found an iron altar of Okawaru. 6969 | D:8 | Reached skill level 8 in Maces & Flails 7063 | D:8 | Found a shimmering altar of Xom. 7604 | D:8 | Acquired Makhleb's second power 7706 | D:8 | Found a sparkling altar of Nemelex Xobeh. 7901 | D:8 | Reached skill level 1 in Invocations 7906 | D:8 | Found Psurualig's Assorted Antiques. 8004 | D:8 | Bought a runed dwarven morningstar for 153 gold pieces 8236 | D:8 | Reached skill level 9 in Shields 8236 | D:8 | Reached XP level 10. HP: 60/60 MP: 9/11 8745 | D:9 | Acquired Makhleb's third power 8844 | D:9 | Found a deep blue altar of Sif Muna. 9042 | D:9 | Found a basalt altar of Yredelemnul. 9243 | D:9 | Reached skill level 10 in Shields 9296 | D:10 | Entered Level 10 of the Dungeon 9370 | D:10 | Noticed Grum 9488 | D:10 | Noticed Sonja 9506 | D:10 | Killed Sonja 9687 | D:10 | Reached XP level 11. HP: 66/66 MP: 17/17 9733 | D:10 | Noticed Eustachio 9766 | D:10 | Acquired Makhleb's fourth power 9772 | D:10 | Killed Grum 9856 | D:10 | Killed Eustachio 9856 | D:10 | Reached skill level 11 in Shields 10029 | D:10 | Noticed a cyclops 10047 | D:10 | Killed a cyclops 10152 | D:10 | Killed an unseen horror 10402 | D:10 | Acquired Makhleb's fifth power 10443 | D:11 | Found Cujusem's Book Emporium. 10811 | D:11 | Got a pair of steaming boots 10814 | D:11 | Identified the +2 pair of boots of Utwyrami {+Blink rElec Acc+5 Dam+6 Stlth+} (You found it on level 11 of the Dungeon) 10977 | D:11 | Noticed a hill giant 10982 | D:11 | Killed a hill giant 10982 | D:11 | Reached skill level 10 in Maces & Flails 10982 | D:11 | Reached skill level 5 in Invocations 11182 | D:11 | Noticed a hill giant 11192 | D:11 | Killed a hill giant 11370 | D:11 | Found a staircase to the Lair. 11482 | Lair:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Lair of Beasts 11683 | Lair:1 | Reached XP level 12. HP: 73/73 MP: 20/20 11722 | Lair:1 | Reached skill level 12 in Shields 11785 | Lair:1 | Reached skill level 10 in Armour 12044 | Lair:1 | Noticed a seven-headed hydra 12059 | Lair:1 | Killed a seven-headed hydra 13901 | Lair:3 | Found a staircase to the Shoals. 13936 | Lair:3 | Reached skill level 10 in Fighting 13987 | Lair:3 | Noticed a five-headed hydra 13994 | Lair:3 | Killed a five-headed hydra 14243 | Lair:3 | Noticed an eight-headed hydra 14249 | Lair:3 | Killed an eight-headed hydra 14594 | Lair:4 | Reached XP level 13. HP: 78/80 MP: 23/23 14641 | Lair:4 | Reached skill level 13 in Shields 14763 | Lair:4 | Noticed Nergalle 14839 | Lair:3 | Killed Nergalle 15277 | Lair:5 | Found a hole to the Spider Nest. 16170 | Lair:6 | Noticed an azure jelly 16171 | Lair:6 | Found a staircase to the Slime Pits. 16171 | Lair:6 | Noticed an acid blob 17013 | Lair:7 | Reached skill level 1 in Evocations 17784 | Lair:8 | Entered Level 8 of the Lair of Beasts 18076 | Lair:8 | Gained mutation: Your wings are large and strong. [gargoyle growth] 18076 | Lair:8 | Reached XP level 14. HP: 87/87 MP: 26/26 18772 | Lair:8 | Got a jewelled spear 18773 | Lair:8 | Identified the cursed spear of Kiypt {drain, SInv} (You found it on level 8 of the Lair of Beasts) 19349 | Lair:2 | Paralysed by a potion of paralysis for 7 turns 19384 | Lair:2 | Gained mutation: Your mind is acute. (Int +2) [potion of mutation] 19384 | Lair:2 | Gained mutation: You are weak. (Str -2) [potion of mutation] 19384 | Lair:2 | Gained mutation: You are clumsy. (Dex -2) [potion of mutation] 19385 | Lair:2 | Lost mutation: You are weak. (Str -2) [potion of cure mutation] 19385 | Lair:2 | Lost mutation: You are clumsy. (Dex -2) [potion of cure mutation] 19385 | Lair:2 | Lost mutation: Your mind is acute. (Int +2) [potion of cure mutation] 20490 | Orc:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Orcish Mines 20603 | Orc:1 | Found Phirant's Gadget Boutique. 20671 | Orc:1 | Reached skill level 14 in Shields 21287 | Orc:1 | Noticed Erolcha 21292 | Orc:1 | Killed Erolcha 21292 | Orc:1 | Reached skill level 10 in Invocations 21736 | Orc:2 | Found Suupoxzo's Book Emporium. 21959 | Orc:3 | Found a deep blue altar of Sif Muna. 22230 | Orc:3 | Found Ohaowiok's Gadget Emporium. 22277 | Orc:3 | Found a staircase to the Elven Halls. 22993 | D:13 | Found a glowing silver altar of Zin. 23171 | D:13 | Noticed Maurice 23182 | D:13 | Killed Maurice 23431 | D:14 | Entered Level 14 of the Dungeon 24217 | D:14 | Reached skill level 5 in Evocations 24735 | D:14 | Reached XP level 15. HP: 61/93 MP: 28/28 24933 | D:15 | Entered Level 15 of the Dungeon 24950 | D:15 | Identified a cursed -1 rod of fiery destruction (11/11) (You found it on level 15 of the Dungeon) 27030 | Orc:4 | Entered Level 4 of the Orcish Mines 27166 | Orc:4 | Found an iron altar of Okawaru. 27944 | Orc:4 | Found Ironaet's Antique Weapon Shoppe. 27944 | Orc:4 | Found Buixtuh's Assorted Antiques. 27947 | Orc:4 | Found Scheavo's Book Shoppe. 27948 | Orc:4 | Found Imeavamp's Antique Armour Shoppe. 27948 | Orc:4 | Imeavamp's Antique Armour Shoppe was a mimic. 28364 | Orc:4 | Bought a scroll of recharging for 203 gold pieces 29008 | Spider:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Spider Nest 29437 | Spider:1 | Reached XP level 16. HP: 100/100 MP: 30/30 29495 | Spider:1 | Reached skill level 15 in Shields 29908 | Spider:2 | Noticed Wiglaf 29965 | Spider:2 | Killed Wiglaf 30278 | Spider:2 | Noticed Kirke 30420 | Shoals:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Shoals 30758 | Shoals:1 | Identified a scroll of acquirement 30760 | Shoals:1 | Identified a +2 rod of venom (14/14) (You acquired it on level 1 of the Shoals) 31971 | Shoals:3 | Noticed Polyphemus 32062 | Shoals:3 | Killed Polyphemus 32137 | Shoals:3 | Noticed Jorgrun 32155 | Shoals:3 | Noticed Ilsuiw 32274 | Shoals:3 | Killed Jorgrun 32801 | Shoals:3 | Noticed Snorg 32814 | Shoals:3 | Killed Snorg 33033 | Shoals:3 | Found Raraq's Antique Weapon Boutique. 33240 | Shoals:3 | Noticed Louise 34381 | D:17 | Found a blossoming altar of Fedhas. 34461 | D:17 | Reached XP level 17. HP: 106/106 MP: 31/31 35817 | D:18 | Reached skill level 15 in Maces & Flails 36471 | D:19 | Noticed Norris 36553 | D:19 | Noticed Nikola 36565 | D:19 | Killed Nikola 36565 | D:19 | Reached skill level 16 in Shields 36660 | D:19 | Noticed Frances 36670 | D:19 | Killed Frances 37292 | D:19 | Found a staircase to the Vaults. 37504 | D:19 | Noticed Saint Roka 38317 | D:20 | Entered Level 20 of the Dungeon 38908 | Elf:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Elven Halls 38939 | Elf:1 | Noticed Roxanne 38973 | Elf:1 | Killed Roxanne 39388 | Elf:1 | Noticed Urug 39413 | Elf:1 | Killed Urug 39649 | Elf:1 | Found Khafegh's Armour Emporium. 39660 | Elf:1 | Bought the +5 pair of gloves of Supple Strength {rF+ MR++ SInv} for 1315 gold pieces 40347 | Spider:2 | Killed Kirke 41581 | Spider:3 | Reached XP level 18. HP: 114/114 MP: 32/32 41581 | Spider:3 | Reached skill level 15 in Armour 43226 | Spider:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Spider Nest 43250 | Spider:5 | Noticed Mennas 43302 | Spider:4 | Killed Mennas 43302 | Spider:4 | Reached skill level 10 in Evocations 43503 | Spider:5 | Noticed Mara 43505 | Spider:5 | Noticed Mara 43505 | Spider:5 | Noticed Mara 43506 | Spider:5 | Noticed Rocky's illusion 43772 | Spider:5 | Noticed Rocky's illusion 43777 | Spider:5 | Noticed Mara 43777 | Spider:5 | Noticed Mara 43898 | Spider:5 | Noticed Rocky's illusion 43903 | Spider:5 | Killed Mara 43922 | Spider:4 | Killed Rocky's illusion 44114 | Spider:5 | Noticed Donald 44128 | Spider:5 | Killed Donald 44567 | Spider:5 | Got a gossamer rune of Zot 45633 | Shoals:3 | Killed Ilsuiw 45917 | Shoals:3 | Killed Louise 46119 | Shoals:4 | Noticed Aizul 46121 | Shoals:4 | Noticed Agnes 46133 | Shoals:4 | Killed Aizul 46140 | Shoals:4 | Killed Agnes 46140 | Shoals:4 | Reached skill level 17 in Shields 46229 | Shoals:4 | Reached XP level 19. HP: 120/120 MP: 33/33 46845 | Shoals:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Shoals 47270 | Shoals:5 | Noticed Margery 47315 | Shoals:4 | Killed Margery 47595 | Shoals:5 | Found Ithazaig's Food Shoppe. 47868 | Shoals:5 | Got a barnacled rune of Zot 48766 | D:19 | Killed Saint Roka 49227 | Vaults:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Vaults 49243 | Vaults:1 | Reached skill level 15 in Fighting 49250 | Vaults:1 | Found Tytosas' Armour Boutique. 49663 | D:19 | Killed Norris 49688 | D:20 | Noticed Xtahua 49707 | D:19 | Reached skill level 18 in Maces & Flails 49721 | D:20 | Killed Xtahua 49792 | D:19 | Reached XP level 20. HP: 80/128 MP: 34/34 50800 | D:21 | Found a shimmering altar of Xom. 50968 | D:21 | Found a gateway to Hell. 51743 | D:22 | Found Irais' Magic Scroll Shoppe. 51747 | D:22 | Found a one-way gate to the infinite horrors of the Abyss. 52220 | D:22 | Reached skill level 19 in Maces & Flails 54430 | D:23 | Reached XP level 21. HP: 135/135 MP: 35/35 55083 | D:24 | Noticed Sojobo 55096 | D:24 | Found a one-way gate leading to the halls of Pandemonium. 56372 | Vaults:1 | Reached skill level 20 in Maces & Flails 58081 | Vaults:3 | Found Cupeipt's Assorted Antiques. 58597 | Vaults:3 | Found a staircase to the Crypt. 58597 | Vaults:3 | Noticed Rupert 58615 | Vaults:3 | Killed Rupert 58739 | Vaults:3 | Reached XP level 22. HP: 143/143 MP: 35/35 60385 | Vaults:4 | Reached skill level 21 in Maces & Flails 60410 | Vaults:4 | Found a staircase to the Hall of Blades. 60451 | Blade | Entered the Hall of Blades 61133 | Vaults:4 | Found Psiagg's Jewellery Shoppe. 61141 | Vaults:4 | Bought an uncursed ring of protection from magic for 500 gold pieces 61796 | Vaults:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Vaults 62312 | D:24 | Killed Sojobo 62540 | D:25 | Entered Level 25 of the Dungeon 63308 | D:25 | Reached XP level 23. HP: 149/149 MP: 36/36 63496 | D:25 | Found Liam's Book Emporium. 64840 | D:26 | Reached skill level 15 in Evocations 64976 | D:27 | Entered Level 27 of the Dungeon 65339 | D:27 | Reached skill level 22 in Maces & Flails 65367 | D:27 | Found a shattered altar of Ashenzari. 65643 | D:27 | Reached XP level 24. HP: 93/157 MP: 38/38 65921 | D:27 | Found a portal to a secret trove of treasure. 68117 | Elf:2 | Found Litt's General Store. 68536 | Elf:3 | Entered Level 3 of the Elven Halls 71698 | Elf:3 | Identified a +7 rod of fiery destruction (11/11) (You found it on level 3 of the Elven Halls) 73072 | Vaults:4 | Reached XP level 25. HP: 164/164 MP: 38/38 73779 | Vaults:5 | Reached skill level 23 in Maces & Flails 73966 | Vaults:5 | Got a crude great mace 74680 | Vaults:5 | Got a silver rune of Zot 74708 | Vaults:5 | Got a brightly glowing sapphire amulet 74709 | Vaults:5 | Identified the amulet of Activism {Spirit SInv} (You found it on level 5 of the Vaults) 74910 | Vaults:5 | Noticed Boris 74944 | Vaults:5 | Killed Boris 75318 | Vaults:5 | Reached XP level 26. HP: 166/172 MP: 31/39 78553 | Trove | Entered a treasure trove 78564 | Trove | Identified Sif Muna's Compendium of Protection and Displacement 78569 | Trove | Identified Sif Muna's Compendium of Warped Attacks 78599 | Trove | Identified Sif Muna's Tome of the Escort and the Volcanoes 78786 | Zot:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Realm of Zot 78786 | Zot:1 | Noticed an orb of fire 78792 | Zot:1 | Noticed an orb of fire 79032 | Zot:1 | Gained mutation: You cover ground slowly. [an orb of fire] 79048 | D:27 | Gained mutation: You are dopey. (Int -2) [an orb of fire] 79050 | D:27 | Gained mutation: Space occasionally distorts in your vicinity. [an orb of fire] 79050 | D:27 | Gained mutation: You occasionally shout uncontrollably. [an orb of fire] 79051 | D:27 | Killed an orb of fire 79052 | D:27 | Gained mutation: You are frail (-10% HP). [an orb of fire] 79054 | D:27 | Gained mutation: Your body is slowly deteriorating. [an orb of fire] 79057 | D:27 | Gained mutation: Your body is deteriorating. [an orb of fire] 79068 | D:27 | Gained mutation: Your vision is a little blurry. [an orb of fire] 79071 | D:27 | Killed an orb of fire 79411 | Zot:1 | Got a faintly glowing silver ring 79444 | Zot:1 | Reached skill level 24 in Maces & Flails 79709 | Zot:1 | Lost mutation: You occasionally shout uncontrollably. [potion of cure mutation] 79709 | Zot:1 | Lost mutation: You are frail (-10% HP). [potion of cure mutation] 79709 | Zot:1 | Lost mutation: Your body is deteriorating. [potion of cure mutation] 80407 | Zot:2 | Got an encrusted morningstar 80408 | Zot:2 | Identified the morningstar of Twilight {speed, +Fly Dex+3} (You found it on level 2 of the Realm of Zot) 80748 | Zot:2 | Noticed an ancient lich 80774 | Zot:2 | Killed an ancient lich 81287 | Zot:2 | Identified a +4 rod of the swarm (11/11) (You took it off a vault warden on level 5 of the Vaults) 81423 | Zot:2 | Identified the ring "Fukkoukk" {rPois rF+ rC- AC+2 Str+1} (You found it on level 1 of the Realm of Zot) 81561 | Zot:3 | Noticed an orb of fire 81650 | Hell | Entered the Vestibule of Hell 81650 | Hell | Noticed Geryon 81654 | Hell | Noticed Murray 81889 | D:27 | Killed Murray 81900 | D:27 | Reached XP level 27. HP: 139/180 MP: 40/40 82570 | Hell | Killed Geryon 83739 | Geh:1 | Entered Level 1 of Gehenna 84566 | Vaults:5 | Got a slimy pewter ring 84621 | Vaults:5 | Got a fine lead ring 85061 | Lair:2 | Identified the cursed ring "Chussuv" {rC+ rN+ EV-5} ( |
that the name variable would no longer be accessible. However, because the code still works as expected, this is obviously not the case in JavaScript.
The reason is that functions in JavaScript form closures. A closure is the combination of a function and the lexical environment within which that function was declared. This environment consists of any local variables that were in-scope at the time the closure was created. In this case, myFunc is a reference to the instance of the function displayName created when makeFunc is run. The instance of displayName maintains a reference to its lexical environment, within which the variable name exists. For this reason, when myFunc is invoked, the variable name remains available for use and "Mozilla" is passed to alert.
Here's a slightly more interesting example — a makeAdder function:
function makeAdder(x) { return function(y) { return x + y; }; } var add5 = makeAdder(5); var add10 = makeAdder(10); console.log(add5(2)); // 7 console.log(add10(2)); // 12
In this example, we have defined a function makeAdder(x), which takes a single argument, x, and returns a new function. The function it returns takes a single argument, y, and returns the sum of x and y.
In essence, makeAdder is a function factory — it creates functions which can add a specific value to their argument. In the above example we use our function factory to create two new functions — one that adds 5 to its argument, and one that adds 10.
add5 and add10 are both closures. They share the same function body definition, but store different lexical environments. In add5's lexical environment, x is 5, while in the lexical environment for add10, x is 10.
Practical closures
Closures are useful because they let you associate some data (the lexical environment) with a function that operates on that data. This has obvious parallels to object-oriented programming, where objects allow us to associate some data (the object's properties) with one or more methods.
Consequently, you can use a closure anywhere that you might normally use an object with only a single method.
Situations where you might want to do this are particularly common on the web. Much of the code we write in front-end JavaScript is event-based — we define some behavior, then attach it to an event that is triggered by the user (such as a click or a keypress). Our code is generally attached as a callback: a single function which is executed in response to the event.
For instance, suppose we wish to add some buttons to a page that adjust the text size. One way of doing this is to specify the font-size of the body element in pixels, then set the size of the other elements on the page (such as headers) using the relative em unit:
body { font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; } h1 { font-size: 1.5em; } h2 { font-size: 1.2em; }
Our interactive text size buttons can change the font-size property of the body element, and the adjustments will be picked up by other elements on the page thanks to the relative units.
Here's the JavaScript:
function makeSizer(size) { return function() { document.body.style.fontSize = size + 'px'; }; } var size12 = makeSizer(12); var size14 = makeSizer(14); var size16 = makeSizer(16);
size12, size14, and size16 are now functions which will resize the body text to 12, 14, and 16 pixels, respectively. We can attach them to buttons (in this case links) as follows:
document.getElementById('size-12').onclick = size12; document.getElementById('size-14').onclick = size14; document.getElementById('size-16').onclick = size16;
<a href="#" id="size-12">12</a> <a href="#" id="size-14">14</a> <a href="#" id="size-16">16</a>
Emulating private methods with closures
Languages such as Java provide the ability to declare methods private, meaning that they can only be called by other methods in the same class.
JavaScript does not provide a native way of doing this, but it is possible to emulate private methods using closures. Private methods aren't just useful for restricting access to code: they also provide a powerful way of managing your global namespace, keeping non-essential methods from cluttering up the public interface to your code.
The following code illustrates how to use closures to define public functions that can access private functions and variables. Using closures in this way is known as the module pattern:
var counter = (function() { var privateCounter = 0; function changeBy(val) { privateCounter += val; } return { increment: function() { changeBy(1); }, decrement: function() { changeBy(-1); }, value: function() { return privateCounter; } }; })(); console.log(counter.value()); // logs 0 counter.increment(); counter.increment(); console.log(counter.value()); // logs 2 counter.decrement(); console.log(counter.value()); // logs 1
In previous examples, each closure has had its own lexical environment. Here, though, we create a single lexical environment that is shared by three functions: counter.increment, counter.decrement, and counter.value.
The shared lexical environment is created in the body of an anonymous function, which is executed as soon as it has been defined. The lexical environment contains two private items: a variable called privateCounter and a function called changeBy. Neither of these private items can be accessed directly from outside the anonymous function. Instead, they must be accessed by the three public functions that are returned from the anonymous wrapper.
Those three public functions are closures that share the same environment. Thanks to JavaScript's lexical scoping, they each have access to the privateCounter variable and changeBy function.
You'll notice we're defining an anonymous function that creates a counter, and then we call it immediately and assign the result to the counter variable. We could store this function in a separate variable makeCounter and use it to create several counters.
var makeCounter = function() { var privateCounter = 0; function changeBy(val) { privateCounter += val; } return { increment: function() { changeBy(1); }, decrement: function() { changeBy(-1); }, value: function() { return privateCounter; } } }; var counter1 = makeCounter(); var counter2 = makeCounter(); alert(counter1.value()); /* Alerts 0 */ counter1.increment(); counter1.increment(); alert(counter1.value()); /* Alerts 2 */ counter1.decrement(); alert(counter1.value()); /* Alerts 1 */ alert(counter2.value()); /* Alerts 0 */
Notice how each of the two counters, counter1 and counter2, maintains its independence from the other. Each closure references a different version of the privateCounter variable through its own closure. Each time one of the counters is called, its lexical environment changes by changing the value of this variable; however changes to the variable value in one closure do not affect the value in the other closure.
Using closures in this way provides a number of benefits that are normally associated with object-oriented programming -- in particular, data hiding and encapsulation.
Closure Scope Chain
For every closure we have three scopes:-
Local Scope (Own scope)
Outer Functions Scope
Global Scope
So, we have access to all three scopes for a closure but often make a common mistake when we have nested inner functions. Consider the following example:
// global scope var e = 10; function sum(a){ return function(b){ return function(c){ // outer functions scope return function(d){ // local scope return a + b + c + d + e; } } } } console.log(sum(1)(2)(3)(4)); // log 20 // We can also write without anonymous functions: // global scope var e = 10; function sum(a){ return function sum2(b){ return function sum3(c){ // outer functions scope return function sum4(d){ // local scope return a + b + c + d + e; } } } } var s = sum(1); var s1 = s(2); var s2 = s1(3); var s3 = s2(4); console.log(s3) //log 20
So, in the example above, we have a series of nested functions all of which have access to the outer functions' scope scope, but which mistakenly guess only for their immediate outer function scope. In this context, we can say all closures have access to all outer function scopes within which they were declared.
Creating closures in loops: A common mistake
Prior to the introduction of the let keyword in ECMAScript 2015, a common problem with closures occurred when they were created inside a loop. Consider the following example:
<p id="help">Helpful notes will appear here</p> <p>E-mail: <input type="text" id="email" name="email"></p> <p>Name: <input type="text" id="name" name="name"></p> <p>Age: <input type="text" id="age" name="age"></p>
function showHelp(help) { document.getElementById('help').innerHTML = help; } function setupHelp() { var helpText = [ {'id': 'email', 'help': 'Your e-mail address'}, {'id': 'name', 'help': 'Your full name'}, {'id': 'age', 'help': 'Your age (you must be over 16)'} ]; for (var i = 0; i < helpText.length; i++) { var item = helpText[i]; document.getElementById(item.id).onfocus = function() { showHelp(item.help); } } } setupHelp();
The helpText array defines three helpful hints, each associated with the ID of an input field in the document. The loop cycles through these definitions, hooking up an onfocus event to each one that shows the associated help method.
If you try this code out, you'll see that it doesn't work as expected. No matter what field you focus on, the message about your age will be displayed.
The reason for this is that the functions assigned to onfocus are closures; they consist of the function definition and the captured environment from the setupHelp function's scope. Three closures have been created by the loop, but each one shares the same single lexical environment, which has a variable with changing values ( item.help ). The value of item.help is determined when the onfocus callbacks are executed. Because the loop has already run its course by that time, the item variable object (shared by all three closures) has been left pointing to the last entry in the helpText list.
One solution in this case is to use more closures: in particular, to use a function factory as described earlier:
function showHelp(help) { document.getElementById('help').innerHTML = help; } function makeHelpCallback(help) { return function() { showHelp(help); }; } function setupHelp() { var helpText = [ {'id': 'email', 'help': 'Your e-mail address'}, {'id': 'name', 'help': 'Your full name'}, {'id': 'age', 'help': 'Your age (you must be over 16)'} ]; for (var i = 0; i < helpText.length; i++) { var item = helpText[i]; document.getElementById(item.id).onfocus = makeHelpCallback(item.help); } } setupHelp();
This works as expected. Rather than the callbacks all sharing a single lexical environment, the makeHelpCallback function creates a new lexical environment for each callback, in which help refers to the corresponding string from the helpText array.
One other way to write the above using anonymous closures is:
function showHelp(help) { document.getElementById('help').innerHTML = help; } function setupHelp() { var helpText = [ {'id': 'email', 'help': 'Your e-mail address'}, {'id': 'name', 'help': 'Your full name'}, {'id': 'age', 'help': 'Your age (you must be over 16)'} ]; for (var i = 0; i < helpText.length; i++) { (function() { var item = helpText[i]; document.getElementById(item.id).onfocus = function() { showHelp(item.help); } })(); // Immediate event listener attachment with the current value of item (preserved until iteration). } } setupHelp();
If you don't want to use more closures, you can use the let keyword introduced in ES2015 :
function showHelp(help) { document.getElementById('help').innerHTML = help; } function setupHelp() { var helpText = [ {'id': 'email', 'help': 'Your e-mail address'}, {'id': 'name', 'help': 'Your full name'}, {'id': 'age', 'help': 'Your age (you must be over 16)'} ]; for (var i = 0; i < helpText.length; i++) { let item = helpText[i]; document.getElementById(item.id).onfocus = function() { showHelp(item.help); } } } setupHelp();
This example uses let instead of var, so every closure binds the block-scoped variable, meaning that no additional closures are required.
Another alternative could be to use forEach() to iterate over the helpText array and attach a listener to each <div>, as shown:
function showHelp(help) { document.getElementById('help').innerHTML = help; } function setupHelp() { var helpText = [ {'id': 'email', 'help': 'Your e-mail address'}, {'id': 'name', 'help': 'Your full name'}, {'id': 'age', 'help': 'Your age (you must be over 16)'} ]; helpText.forEach(function(text) { document.getElementById(text.id).onfocus = function() { showHelp(text.help); } }); } setupHelp();
Performance considerations
It is unwise to unnecessarily create functions within other functions if closures are not needed for a particular task, as it will negatively affect script performance both in terms of processing speed and memory consumption.
For instance, when creating a new object/class, methods should normally be associated to the object's prototype rather than defined into the object constructor. The reason is that whenever the constructor is called, the methods would get reassigned (that is, for every object creation).
Consider the following case:
function MyObject(name, message) { this.name = name.toString(); this.message = message.toString(); this.getName = function() { return this.name; }; this.getMessage = function() { return this.message; }; }
Because the previous code does not take advantage of the benefits of using closures in this particular instance, we could instead rewrite it to avoid using closure as follows:
function MyObject(name, message) { this.name = name.toString(); this.message = message.toString(); } MyObject.prototype = { getName: function() { return this.name; }, getMessage: function() { return this.message; } };
However, redefining the prototype is not recommended. The following example instead appends to the existing prototype:
function MyObject(name, message) { this.name = name.toString(); this.message = message.toString(); } MyObject.prototype.getName = function() { return this.name; }; MyObject.prototype.getMessage = function() { return this.message; };
In the two previous examples, the inherited prototype can be shared by all objects and the method definitions need not occur at every object creation. See Details of the Object Model for more.When Immortals failed to qualify for Worlds in the NA LCS Regional Finals in 2016, their top laner Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon could not have predicted that he'd be spending his next split in the LCK — and on SK Telecom T1, no less.
That's partially because the list of players who have left Korea for Europe and North America and then returned to play a relevant role in the LCK is pretty short. Now, playing with some of the biggest names in the esport as part of SKT, Huni can count himself among them.
RELATED: SK Telecom's Huni: Kkoma is 'teaching art, how to make art in League of Legends'
Though Huni played as a practice member for LCK teams in 2014, he did not start on a Korean roster and chose to leave his country of birth to pursue options in Europe, ultimately spending 2015 with Fnatic.
That campaign saw him reach the semifinals at Worlds, with what was arguably the strongest Fnatic roster ever assembled. But even with that roster's historic finish, Huni had no illusions that he would return to the LCK.
"I thought I could never get back into Korea to play as a pro gamer, competitively, because the LCK level was insanely high compared to other regions," Huni said. "I actually felt that after 2015 Worlds, I saw that the result was a Korean team versus a Korean team in the finals, and we got 3-0'd against a Korean team. So it was like, I don't know... since then I couldn't imagine joining an LCK team."
After his stint with Fnatic, 2016 saw Huni move to North America, playing top for Immortals. Though he did sometimes play more supportive picks, he became known for playing carries in the top lane, a reputation that began in the EU LCS and followed him to NA.
When, in the NA LCS 2016 Spring Playoffs, Huni played exclusively carry champions, including Lucian, in their 3-0 match loss against Team SoloMid, it raised concerns from some about his champion pool and playstyle. But he cautions that, while he was known for carries, it didn't mean that he couldn't play tanks.
"I played tanks in scrims, of course. People thought that I never played tanks when I played for [Immortals], they thought I played only damage champions," Huni explained. "Lucian was the champion I played most in scrims, and it was the highest win rate in scrims, the top Lucian. It was quite funny, but I got f**ked with it at the semifinals."
LCK Calling
Immortals fell short of Worlds again in Summer, and Huni headed back to Korea, where he was furiously grinding solo queue while also reacquainting himself with his friends and family.
Eventually, he was contacted by SKT, something which took him by surprise. Though he expected to field offers in the offseason — likely from NA or EU organizations — he wasn't expecting them to come from LCK teams.
"In the few LCK teams [contacting me] was SKT. The feeling was insane. It was so surprising. Because SKT... I couldn't even imagine joining SKT, because of course they're the best team in the whole world, they've won Worlds two times in a row," he said. "'This just doesn't make sense, wow. This is a really great chance. This is going to be the biggest chance of my life,' so of course I tried to talk to them instantly."
Despite his previous sentiment that the level of play was simply too high in Korea to allow him to continue his competitive career there, Huni said that SKT coach Kim "kkOma" Jung-gyun, as well as head coach Choi "cCarter" Byoung-hoon "saw, somehow, my talent. I really appreciate it."
"And the feeling was — first of all, 'Wow, I'm an LCK player,'" Huni said. "That made me really excited."
Adapting, not changing
As Huni sees it, his playstyle has adapted to the meta, not changed, since joining SKT. He has been playing mostly tanks, as befits the current meta. He was always capable of playing tanks, he said, but as an import there was more pressure in the West to carry games.
"NA and EU is — of course, compared to Korea — lower-level. So imports need to do more things than in an LCK team," Huni explained. "So I was getting pressure that I need to do something more and more, not playing defensively or... when the game is even or when we're being pressured, of course I felt like I need to do more, I need to make the game reverse like this. I think that was the problem that made me a carry top laner."
That pressure to carry has disappeared on a stacked SKT roster that also boasts the likes of mid laner Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, jungler Han "Peanut" Wang-ho and bottom lane duo Bae "Bang" Jun-sik and Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan.
Now, the focus is on adapting to the meta and making sure that he fits into the team's overall strategy. And, he adds, that process takes time and is ongoing.
"For now, here, I'm just trying to adapt to the SKT playstyle. Of course, when I just joined SKT, there were problems with me and as a team, because I'm just the new player. This 100 percent should happen, because it needs to be fixed. There was a lot of problems, and I was trying hard to adapt to SKT. I would say, adapt to the meta, not really change."
Dispelling Illusions
For fans of the LoL competitive scene, the name SK Telecom T1 itself conjures different images: but one recurring theme likely common to most is the idea of the wholly-dedicated players that make up its roster.
The illusion that the team is "all business," that its players were single-mindedly devoted to winning as their sole goal, is one that captured even Huni's imagination. He assured me that the team has breaks, just like any other he's played for, and that players meet with friends or go out for drinks. But before joining, even he was worried that that may not be the case.
"I even thought that there's going to be no time to take breaks if I joined SKT. That was my first worry point. Like, 'Wow, maybe SKT's so strict,' that's what I thought," he said. "When I just played solo queue, there was always an SKT player. That means that, insanely, they're just working hard always."
But it isn't the organization, he said, that is making the players put in longer hours than might be strictly required. The pressure comes from outside the organization, from its fans, and from the idea that the team — which has rightfully earned a reputation as the world's strongest — must defend their legacy.
"Of course you can have off time. Of course players want off time, even coaching staff wants off time," Huni explained. "But there's a lot of pressure from outside the team. SKT is the best, and they need to save the title. So that's why they're working really hard, and they never lose that motivation. And we are still the best."
Huni, too, has felt that pressure. SK Telecom — the company as a whole, not the esports team — is a huge business in Korea. That kind of recognition surpasses even big western esports organizations like Immortals and Fnatic.
"And it feels quite different. It makes me proud, myself. Because I'm working on SKT, dude! I can make jokes to people," he said. "And compared to the West, it's quite different. The team name is not a company name."
One down, one to go
SKT's Spring 2017 campaign saw them take first place during the regular season, and seal the playoffs with a 3-0 match against KT Rolster. They will soon head to the Mid-Season Invitational as their region's representatives.
Even after that dominant result, heading into an event where they are considered favorites, SKT has retained the motivation to win.
Teammate Faker, who Huni described as "way, way better than people think" — a serious feat for a player who is casually and frequently described as the game's greatest ever — is a great example of the kind of motivation that seems to envelop SKT's roster.
A three-time World Champion, Faker could be excused for resting on his laurels. But he doesn't, hasn't and if history is any indication, he likely never will. As Huni explained his initial surprise at the level of discipline from both the roster and the coaching staff, he sat next to Faker, who was playing solo queue into the evening. Huni confirmed that the team had already been playing all day, and describes Faker's drive as "insane."
"He's winning all the time, but he never loses motivation. As a pro gamer and League player, it's five people playing. Let's say two people aren't working hard, the other three people will obviously be getting exhausted, because if you see one of your teammates isn't motivated, then of course you're going to lose your motivation."
Huni won't say that he's confident about Worlds 2017, noting that teams often seem to work much harder in the summer split.
But despite his efforts to remain humble and laud his teammates — themselves certainly worthy of distinction — one fact seems abundantly clear. Huni does indeed feel he has been underestimated in the past. He seems happy and thankful, but at the same time, he doesn't intend to let this chance slip away.
And, whether or not he was able to imagine it in 2014, his first split has shown that he belongs in the LCK.
Josh "Gauntlet" Bury is a news editor for theScore esports. You can find him on Twitter.Moderate Drinker Or Alcoholic? Many Americans Fall In Between
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ann Boyajian/Illustration Works/Corbis Ann Boyajian/Illustration Works/Corbis
A lot of us make the assumption that there are two kinds of drinkers: moderate drinkers who have a glass of wine with dinner, and on the other end of the spectrum, alcoholics.
But this is not an accurate picture, according to researchers.
"The reality of the situation is that most adults who drink, they're drinking maybe a couple drinks during week and then typically drinking [larger] amounts on weekends," says Robert Brewer, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and co-author of a new study published in Preventing Chronic Disease.
And what that means is that 1 in 3 adults drinks excessively.
What counts as excessive? Less than you might think.
Women who consume eight or more drinks per week are considered excessive drinkers. And for men, excess is defined as 15 or more drinks a week. (The researchers defined a drink as just 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces of spirits.)
So, say I have a smallish glass of wine with dinner most nights of the week. Then I go out on Saturday night and have a cocktail and a beer, or maybe more wine. Does this means I am drinking excessively?
"That's correct, as a woman, if you were to drink eight or more [drinks] per week, that is considered in the category of excessive drinking," Brewer says.
Turns out, a lot of us are not the moderate drinkers we thought we were.
Now, Brewer points out that most excessive drinkers follow much more of a binge-like pattern, where they're drinking four or more drinks per occasion.
And, from a health perspective, the more people drink to excess, the higher their risks. Brewer points to a host of diseases that are linked to excessive alcohol use over time. "This could include breast cancer, for example, liver disease, liver cancer, heart disease," to name a few.
Excessive alcohol consumption, according to the CDC, is responsible for 88,000 deaths per year and costs the U.S. more than $200 billion.
Now, there's also a surprising finding to the new study: 90 percent of excessive drinkers are not alcohol dependent, i.e., alcoholics.
"This study shows that, contrary to popular opinion, most people who drink too much are not alcohol dependent," says Brewer.
This means that despite drinking a lot of alcohol, they don't experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinking, nor do they report an increased tolerance for alcohol. There are several other criteria for alcohol dependence as well.
The findings are based on survey data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. About 138,000 participants were asked a series of questions about their drinking patterns and alcohol dependence. Researchers acknowledge that some participants could have underestimated their consumption or dependency.
But Brewer says it's important to understand that the excessive drinkers who are not alcohol dependent are unlikely to need addiction treatment. They may also respond to interventions such as increased alcohol taxes to drink less.Cord cutting will kill Hollywood. Cord cutting doesn’t exist. Cord cutting is the future. Cord cutting is only done by poor kids who will change their ways when they get a real job: These days, it seems like everyone is talking about cord cutting, the trend of people ditching their pay TV subscription for online alternatives.
I’ve written many stories about the subject over the years as well, and I’ve been making how-to videos for people interested in cutting the cord.
But lately, all that rhetoric about cord cutting has been sounding awfully familiar, and I started to wonder: Where had I heard that before? And then it hit me: Cord cutting is the new file-sharing.
Of course, I don’t mean to say that all cord cutters are pirates. Sure, a subset of them are definitely getting their TV show fix from BitTorrent sites and cyberlockers after ditching cable, especially in countries where no legal alternatives exist. But in the U.S., many people instead turn to Hulu, Netflix and even free over-the-air TV once they cut the cable cord.
Still, cord cutting and file-sharing have a lot in common. On the surface, both are about paying less for movies and TV shows. But take a closer look, and you’ll realize that money is only part of the equation. What really unites cord cutters and file-sharers is that they want to take their media consumption into their own hands.
Cord cutters don’t just want to watch what’s on TV at any given time anymore, and they don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars a year on channels they don’t need, or don’t agree with. Instead, they want to have access to the media they want, when they want it, on the devices of their choice.
The same is true for file-sharing. Sure, one of the reasons that people download torrents is that they’re free. But more often than not, free is the only price point that TV shows or movies are available at to begin with. It can take months before U.S. TV shows become available in Europe or elsewhere, and broadcasters in countries like Germany still think that their audience would rather listen to horrible dubbing as opposed to the English original. In many cases, the only way to get that new TV show episode everyone is talking about on Twitter and Facebook is BitTorrent.
Finally, both file-sharing and cord cutting are driving innovation, often against established industries that would rather keep things the way they are. If it wasn’t for file-sharing, Spotify & Co. wouldn’t exist. And if it wasn’t for people looking for alternatives to traditional cable, Netflix would still just be a DVD rental service.
But this potential for disruption doesn’t bode well with everyone. Movie studios and record companies have been waging a legal war against file-sharing ever since the days of Napster. These days, they’ve found another target: Cord cutting innovators like the New York-based startup Aereo that makes broadcast TV streams available over the web.
Chances are, broadcasters and Hollywood studios will win at least some of these battles, and cable companies will use their market power to keep their online competition in check. But just as file-sharers have done before them, cord cutters will prove their smarts and show us that some things just can’t be stopped.
Follow @jank0You won't find anyone who'd dare to compare the lyrical skill of Migos rapper Quavo to that of say, Nas or Lupe Fiasco, but his prowess for working quickly in the studio is undeniably impressive.
In a new interview with Billboard to promote the June 23 release of his 10th studio album Grateful, DJ Khaled told the entire origin story of his hit single "I'm The One"—which is currently No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has accumulated an astounding 244 million streams on Spotify and 302 million views on YouTube—revealing that Quavo began recording his verse a mere five minutes after hearing the Nic Nac-produced beat.
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"Migos came through, I played it for Quavo, he was like, 'this is crazy,'" recounted Khaled. "The man really took five minutes—five minutes listening to the beat—and then he went into the booth and just knocked the verse out."
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Again, nobody is going to confuse an opening 16 from Quavo on a Khaled summer single with a carefully crafted, all-time verse from a lyrical legend like Big L, but Quavo's gift for identifying a melody, as Khaled later pointed out, gives him the ability to create an unmistakable vibe. "He just puts you in a trance," said Khaled.
For further proof of the rapper's quick-strike mentality, watch Quavo and his Migos brethren freestyle the Llama Llama Red Pajama story during their
last appearance
at Los Angeles radio station Power 106.1.John McDonnell – TWP.
Dierks Bentley recently performed after a game at Nats Park. Turned out that was the game Gio Gonzalez earned his 20th win. Which led to this little mid-concert Bentley speech:
“What a game, you guys,” the country singer said. “We were sitting out there, hanging out, watching this whole game just like y’all. Pretty cool to be here after you guys have already clinched the playoffs. Pretty cool to see Gio get another win. I thought I’d write a third verse of this song just for the Nationals and just for him. Let’s sing for the Cy Young Award right now. So this is the official Washington Nationals third verse.”
Then he sang a verse of “Am I the Only One” that went something like this. And no, I’m not really a professional country music lyric transcriber. So bear with me.
Between the smoke and the neon, she was turning me on; I was bout to make my move. When she started talking dresses, kids and picket fences, Diamonds and honeymoons (whoa whoa whoa whoa). I said no thanks, I really gotta go babe; I paid up and headed out. Yeahhhh, I went to watch Gio get his 20th win; And rocking with a [something] crowd.
If that’s not the best country music lyric about a Nats starting pitcher, it’s in the top 10.
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MASN planning extra playoff coverage
Here are your division championship shirts
Wolf Blitzer talks NatitudeMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption High temperatures combined with high humidity make conditions dangerous
Parts of Europe are experiencing their most extreme heat in more than a decade as temperatures hit 44C (111F).
Several countries have issued health warnings as this week's record-breaking weather conditions continue to affect swathes of the continent.
Sweltering temperatures in Italy have sparked wildfires, and dozens of towns and cities are on the health ministry's maximum heat alert.
The heatwave has left some regions facing the threat of severe drought.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Gabriella and Layla have some tips for dealing with hot weather
Health warnings are in place in the parts of Europe where temperatures have reached potentially dangerous levels.
Italy and the Balkans are the most severely affected, with areas as far north as southern Poland also exposed to unusually high temperatures.
43C in Rome
At least two people have died - one in Romania and one in Poland - and dozens more have been taken to hospital suffering from conditions related to the extreme weather, Reuters news agency reports.
Italy is currently experiencing temperatures 10C higher than the average for this time of year. People have been urged to follow advice from the authorities, stay indoors and drink plenty of water.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Italy, Spain and Macedonia are three of the countries badly affected
On Wednesday, the mercury rose to 44C in Sardinia.
On Thursday, temperatures hit 43C near Rome while Sicily recorded 42C as a blanket of hot air from Africa swept through the Mediterranean.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Firefighters in Albania are battlng to prevent wild fires from spreading near the capital, Tirana
In Albania, the country's armed forces joined hundreds of firefighters on Friday to battle dozens of forest fires as temperatures reached 40C.
Albania has asked the European Union for emergency assistance to help prevent the wildfires spreading near the capital, Tirana.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Children played in fountains to cope with high temperatures in Albania
Image copyright EPA Image caption A man uses a drinking tap to cool off in Saint Peter's Square in Rome
Tourists and locals have been cooling off in cities across southern Europe by dousing themselves in water from public fountains and walking the streets under the shade of parasols.
High temperatures are expected to continue in parts of central Europe and the Balkans in the coming days, according to European weather service Meteoalarm.
The heatwave is expected to last until at least Monday, with health warnings issued in several European cities.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Tuesday was the hottest day of the year so far in the Czech Republic, with highs of 37C"I find it very troubling for the future of our country," Cramer said of the boycott, which has been joined by more than 50 House Democrats. "This is the new liberalism—you have to agree with them 100 percent."
Shortly before noon on Tuesday, 52 House Democrats had announced they would skip the inauguration ceremony, citing concerns over Trump's rhetoric and worries about Russian meddling in the presidential election.
"I will not celebrate a man who preaches a politics of division and hate," Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and a front-runner to lead the national Democratic Party, said on social media earlier this week. "I won't be attending Donald Trump's inauguration."
Many of those boycotts have come since an exchange between Trump and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who said last week that he does not believe Trump, aided at the polls by a Russian "conspiracy," is a "legitimate president."
Trump fired back in tweets over the weekend, calling Lewis—a civil rights icon whose skull was fractured during a protest in 1965—"all talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!"
Cramer said members of the party defeated in a presidential election don't always attend, and said he was absent from President Barack Obama's second inauguration in 2013—preferring instead time at home—but said he "didn't make a big deal" about his absence.
Asked about the |
through some sequential strokes to get multiple strokes on one drop for certain combinations of keys. Incidentally, this is what the Dvorak keyboard layout does or you: it makes more keys line up in easily rolled sequences when typing English text. Based on my experience, though, the cost of learning it didn't justify the time.
Now, when you strike a key, the key travels down and brings your finger to a stop. Your finger has to absorb the impact of that stop. The key principle of absorbing impact is to do so along the direction of movement of a joint, and in the middle of the joint's range of motion. So you want your finger joints slightly curled when you hit. You want your knuckle bent so the fingers are below the plane of your hand. Starting with a flat knuckle would bend it backwards, which makes that joint work at the end of its range of motion. Similarly, the thumb should be kept next to the hand when striking the space bar with all of its joints slightly curved. The outside half of the end of the thumb strikes the key, not the side of the thumb.
One thing you will immediately notice is that your wrists are in the air. The have to be in order for you to be able to drop. If you bring the keyboard in to the neutral position in front of your body, you will not need the support of a wrist rest.
Your wrists should be straight as you type. If you don't have narrow shoulders, this will make you angle your hands relative to a normal keyboard, which forces you to bend your ring and pinky fingers much more than your index and middle fingers in order to place them on the home row. This takes the joints of the ring and pinky fingers out of the center of their range of motion, which stresses them. Most humans actually need a split keyboard.
Also, since you are impacting keys repeatedly, for the sake of your fingers, you want the softest impact that you can get. That has two parts: the force required to depress the key, and how far it travels. Ideally you want a long travel with little force. Short travel, such as what most laptop chiclet keyboards provide today, jars your joints even with low force. Heavy force, such as most mechanical switch keyboards provide, makes your finger joints bear unnecessary load.
So you need a soft impact, split keyboard, and you type by dropping your hand and absorbing the impact of striking the key in the middle of the range of motion of your fingers. But there are some common habits among programmers that sabotage this clean mechanics, and that you should break immediately.
The first is hitting chords of keys with one hand. If you are holding a key down ith one finger, you cannot drop the hand to get a strike. Most chords involve holding down shift or control at the edge of the keyboard with the pinky, which forces you to contort your hand to reach the rest of the chord. This causes damage so universally that its effect is known as "Emacs pinky," after Emacs's default keybindings that involve ridiculous chords. It is almost as bad with the thumb, since you end up pushing laterally across its joints to hold a key down.
So no chords. How do you do anything? After all, there is a certain fetish for knowing lots of obscure keyboard commands in old text editors in the programming world. The simple answer is that you don't need most of them. There are three distinct modes of working with an editor. You are either entering text, writing text transforming programs such as macros (which don't have ergonomic implications), or moving around a screen and editing existing text. When you are entering text, you type the characters, one after another, or delete backwards to correct a mistake. Backspace is too slow, but I have found that if I have backspace and backspace to the beginning of the last word, that takes care of all my corrections in a forward stream of text.
When you are editing, you move at random. You move the cursor to some point, enter a character or two, select another region and cut it, then place the cursor and paste it. The majority of the task is placing the cursor or selecting a region. And this is best done with the mouse. It is faster than using even sophisticated key bindings, it doesn't require you to learn those key bindings, and it requires less engagement of your higher mental processes. This is heresy in many circles, but the data is clear. If your editor doesn't let you easily place the cursor or select regions with the mouse, replace it.
There is also a common perception that the mouse causes repetitive stress injury. This is because it has in many people who are using awful mice and who are using them incorrectly.
First, you put your hand on the mouse. Your hand should be tilted between thirty and forty five degrees from flat. If you roll it to flat, you can feel tension in your forearm, which will pull against you when moving the mouse or striking its buttons. Similarly, if you rotate it to vertical you will feel some tension, though less. Find the point in the middle where there is a minimum of tension.
You don't hold the mouse. The only reason your thumb touches the mouse is so you don't have to hold it up in the air. The same is true of your pinky. The weight of your hand on the top of the mouse should be enough to move it effortlessly. If not you need a better mouse pad and possibly a better mouse.
You never put your palm on the mouse. You strike mouse buttons with the same principle as you strike keys on the keyboard: the whole arm's weight drops and the finger absorbs the impact. This is impossible if your palm is resting on the mouse. Mouse keys are much easier to press than keys on the keyboard, and you need enough contact of your hand with the top of the mouse to be able to move it, so the best compromise seems to be to put your fingers from your knuckles down on the mouse. The main pressure gets applied at the first joint closest to the knuckle, so the knuckle has to do all the absorbing, and it must be curled a little and not flat, or, heaven forbid, bent backwards to get your fingertips onto the mouse buttons.
Don't try to click the scroll wheel as a button. There is no way to do this that is good for your hands. If you need more than two buttons, find a mouse that has additional buttons.
If you spent a lot of time playing first person shooters at some point in your life, you need to make another adjustment for your mouse. Turn the mouse speed way down and the acceleration up. The speed when moving slowly will seem almost absurdly slow, but it makes pointing at regions of text easy. Rely on the acceleration to move long distances on the screen.
(Update: (2015-9-8) One of my readers wrote into recommend Apple's track pads. I have used them since 2001 when I got my first Apple laptop. They unfortunately are not ergonomically okay. You either tap to click on the surface of the trackpad, which involves impact on a nonyielding surface with your finger, or you click with on the bottom edge of the track pad which travels somewhat. The problem is how to drag and drop. You either click and hold with your thumb at the bottom of the track pad while moving your fingers above, which has the same problems as chording on the keyboard, or you tap and then drag on the surface of the trackpad, which involves impacting your finger on an unyielding surface. You could press the bottom with a finger of one hand while moving the cursor with fingers of the other hand, but then you can't use the other hand for executing commands, such as copy and paste, or much more advanced operations in Adobe's tools or Ashlar Vellum's CAD program.)
If your keyboard and mouse won't let you use good mechanics, you need to replace them. You need to get your desk set up so you can be in a neutral position. And you need to break bad habits and reconfigure your editor. And you may want to go further. For example, most computer provide'sticky keys' under the accessibility options, which make shift, control, and other modifiers persist until the next keystroke without holding them down. This removes all chording from the keyboard, all holding down of keys. This seems bizarre at first, but I have quickly grown to love it, since holding down keys is surprisingly stressful for the hands. Having an on-screen indicator of what modifiers are pressed is vital to make this work, though.
Similarly, I turned off key repeats. The only key I ever wanted to repeat was backspace, and with backspace word right to hand (I bound it to the key to the right of backspace on my keyboard) I find I don't miss repeating backspace.
I have also taken the detached numerical keypad that came with my keyboard, put it on the opposite side of the keyboard from my mouse, and started binding its keys to cut, copy, paste, save, and the other commands that I use with the mouse. Again, this removes a surprising amount of stress on the hands. The other option is to put the commands on screen, perhaps as a toolbar or a window of some kind. Doing this well isn't trivial. The best incarnation of it today is the ribbon in recent versions of Microsoft Office.
So, a checklist for fixing your body mechanics and saving your hands:
Get a decent keyboard and mouse if you don't have one. I recommend Microsoft's Sculpt Desktop.
Set your desk height so that, with relaxed shoulders, level forearms, and straight wrists, your fingers just fall on the surface.
Find a powerful position for your body to apply pressure to your desk surface through the tips of your gently curled fingers.
Put your hands in a neutral position under your belly, and place your keyboard under them.
Rotate your arm out and place your mouse under your hand. If you are feeling adventurous, rotate your other arm out and put a detached numeric keypad under it. Neither arm should rotate far enough to feel tension.
Practice moving the mouse with only the weight of your arm on the top of it to control it. Don't clutch it.
Practice typing by dropping your hand with lightly curled fingers onto the keys. Do so as gently as possible while still getting the keys to fire.
Unbind all the crazy key bindings you had. Bind something convenient to backspace word.
Turn on sticky keys and turn off key repeat.
Slow your mouse way down and turn on mouse acceleration.
Explore replacing the remaining commands that you use chording for (cut, copy, paste, save, etc.) with keys on a numeric keypad, function keys, or some other method that only requires striking a single key.
(Update: (2015-9-8) As my hands have recovered, I have been able to get away with things like typing on my laptop and using my trackpad again, but now that I have focused on this, I can feel the strain it's causing. If your hands are healthy and strong, you can get away with ignoring most of this. If you start having problems, remember this stuff. It will make a lot of difference.)
Nonfiction Fiction
Did you enjoy that? Try one of my books:Colonel Percy Fawcett
He charted the wilderness of South America, but then disappeared without a trace.
"Do you know anything about Bolivia?" asked the President of the Royal Geographical Society to Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett early in 1906. The Colonel replied that he didn't and the President went on to explain the tremendous economic potential of South America and also the complete lack of reliable maps. "Look at this area!" he said, pushing a chart in front of Fawcett, "It's full of blank spaces because so little is known of it."
The President went on to explain that the lack of well-defined borders in South America was leading to tension in that region. Much of the area was 'rubber country' where vast forests of rubber trees could be tapped to provide the world's need for rubber and generate revenue for countries like Bolivia and Brazil. The lack of defined borders could lead to war. An expedition to mark the borders could not be led by either a Bolivian or a Brazilian. Only a neutral third party could be trusted with the job and the Royal Geographical Society had been asked to act as a referee.
Now the President of the Society wanted to know if Fawcett was interested in the position. It would be a dangerous job. Disease was rampant there. Some of the native tribes had a reputation for savagery. Without hesitation, though, the Colonel took the job.
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was born in 1867 in Devon, England. At the age of nineteen he was given a commission in the Royal Artillery. He served in Ceylon for several years where he met and married his wife. Later he performed secret service work in North Africa. Fawcett found himself bored with Army life and learned the art of surveying, hoping to land a more interesting job. Then in 1906 came the offer from the Society: His ticket to adventure.
The Colonel arrived in La Plaz, Bolivia, in June of 1906 ready to start his expedition. After a disagreement with the government over expenses,Fawcett started into the heart of the continent to begin the boundary survey. He quickly found that just getting to the area where he was to be working would be an ordeal in itself. The trail lead up a precipitous path to a pass in the mountains at 17,000 feet. It took him and his companions two hours to go four miles and climb 6,000 feet. The pack mules would struggle up the path 30 feet at a time, then stop, gasping for breath in the thin air. The party was afraid that if they overworked the animals, they would die.
Hostile People
Arriving at the town of Cobija, Fawcett quickly got a taste of how difficult life was in the interior of South America. Disease was common and he was told that the death rate in the town was nearly fifty percent a year. Cut off from the outside world, many depressed inhabitants sought comfort by abusing alcohol. One night one of the local army officers became enraged by his subordinate's refusal to join him in a card game. Drunk, the officer drew his sword and went after the man, injuring him. When another soldier tried to assist the injured man the officer turned on him, chasing him around a hut. The fellow sought refuge in Fawcett's room, but the officer followed him inside.
"Where is that dirty so-and-so?" the officer roared. "Where have you hidden him?"
When Fawcett reprimanded the officer for chasing unarmed men with his sword, the officer cursed at the Colonel and drew his revolver. Fawcett grabbed the man's wrist and struggled with him, finally forcing the gun from his hand.
Bolivia was a lawless frontier is those days, much like the American West had been a half century before. Fawcett, in fact, met an American gunslinger named Harvey. The red-bearded, silent man was quick with his revolver and sure with his aim. Harvey, a bandit, had found the United States too civilized and dodged the Texas Rangers, working his way down through Mexico into South America. He had held up a mining company in a neighboring country, and there was a large reward on his head. Boliva had no extradition law, however, and he was safe in this new frontier.
Colonel Fawcett was appalled by treatment of the native South American Indians. Although slavery was illegal, rubber plantation owners would often organize trips into the jungle for the purpose of capturing slaves to be used as rubber collectors. Some of the tribes, in return, became quite hostile toward those of European decent. Fawcett believed that if you treated the Indians with kindness and understanding, you would receive kindness in return. During a trip up the Heath River to find its source in 1910, Fawcett had a unique opportunity to test his theory.
He and his group had been warned off traveling up the Heath because the tribes along it had a reputation for unrestrained savagery. "To venture up into the midst of them is sheer madness," exclaimed an army major. Fawcett went anyway.
After a week paddling up the river, the party rounded a bend and ran straight into an Indian encampment perched on a sandbar. The natives were as surprised as the expedition. "Dogs barked, men shouted, women screamed and reached for their children" Fawcett recalled. The natives hid in the trees while the group grounded their canoes on the sandbar. Arrows whizzed by the men or fell around them. Fawcett tried some peace overtures using native words he had learned, but the message didn't seem to be getting through. Then he had an idea. One of the group was seated just beyond arrow range and was told to play his accordion. The man sang "A Bicycle Made for Two", "Suwannee River", "Onward Christian Soldiers" and other tunes. Finally Fawcett noticed the lyrics had changed to "They've-all-stopped-shooting-at-us." Sure enough, the singer was right. Fawcett approached the natives and greeted them. Gifts were exchanged as a sign of friendship.
Not all contacts with the Indians ended so well. During a trip down the Chocolatal River, the pilot of the boat Fawcett was traveling on went off to inspect a nearby road. When he didn't come back Fawcett found him dead with 42 arrows in his body.
Dangerous Animals
People were only one of the dangers of the jungle. The animal kingdom was another. One night while camped near the Yalu River,the Colonel was climbing into his sleeping bag when he felt something "hairy and revolting" scuttle up his arm and over his neck. It was a gigantic apazauca spider. It clung to his hand fiercely while Fawcett tried to shake it off. The spider finally dropped to the ground and walked away without attacking. The animal's bite is poisonous and sometimes fatal.
Vampire bats were also a nuisance in some remote areas. At night these creatures would come to bite and lap up blood from sleepers. Fawcett reported that though they slept under mosquito nets, any portion of bodies touching the net or protruding beyond it would be attacked. In the morning they would find their hammocks saturated with blood.
Near Potrero, wild bulls became a problem for one of Fawcett's expeditions. The group was traveling in an ox cart which gave them some protection. Even so, the group was attacked by three bulls one day. They managed to drive them off only after killing one animal and riddling the other two with bullets. On that same trip Fawcett was fifty yards behind the rest of the group when a big red bull appeared between him and the cart. The Colonel wasn't carrying a rifle and there were no trees or other places to seek refuge. Fawcett was able to get past the animal, as it snorted, lashed its tail and tore up the ground, by moving slowly while fixing it with a a hopefully hypnotic stare.
Snakes were also a constant threat too. Once while traveling with a Texan named Ross, they were attacked by a seven-foot long "Bushmaster," a deadly poisonous snake. The men leapt out of the way as the Texan pulled his revolver, putting two slugs through the ugly head of the creature. On close examination Ross realized the snake had bitten him, but the fangs had sunk into his tobacco pouch. His skin showed two dents where the fangs had pressed against him, but never broke through. His skin was wet with venom. The pouch had saved his life.
Fawcett often found it necessary to swim rivers in order to get a rope across for hauling equipment over. The Colonel had to be very careful there were no cuts or open sores on his body that might attract piranha fish. Swarms of these fish have been known to strip the flesh off a man in minutes if he was unlucky enough to fall into the water were they where congregated. One of Fawcett's companions lost two fingers to them while washing his blood stained hands in the river.
Though not poisonous, the giant anaconda is probably the most feared snake in the jungle. Fawcett had a run-in with one not long after he arrived in South America. In his diary he noted: "We were drifting easily along the sluggish current not far below the confluence of the Rio Negro when almost under the bow of the igarit'e [boat] there appeared a triangular head and several feet of undulating body. It was a giant anaconda. I sprang for my rifle as the creature began to make its way up the bank, and hardly waiting to aim, smashed a.44 soft-nosed bullet into its spine, ten feet below the wicked head."
The boat stopped so that the Colonel could examine the body. Despite being fatally wounded, "shivers ran up and down the body like puffs of wind on a mountain tarn." Though they had no measuring device along with them, Fawcett estimated the creature was sixty-two feet in length and 12-inches in diameter.
Indifferent Nature
Colonel Fawcett probably came closest to death during his trips not from human or animal agents but from the geography of the land itself. While traveling down the uncharted Madidi River by raft, his expedition encountered a series of dangerous rapids. With each the speed of the rafts increased until they were rushing down the river uncontrolled. Finally, the river widened and the velocity slowed.
The crews had just given a sigh of relief when they rounded a steep bluff and the roar of a waterfall filled their ears. One of the rafts was able to make it to shore, but Fawcett's was caught in the current. With the water too deep to use a pole to snag the bottom and turn away, the raft shot over the drop.
Fawcett later recounted, "...the raft seemed to poise there for an instant before it fell from under us. Turning over two or three times as it shot through the air, the balsa crashed down into the black depths."
The group survived, but lost much of their equipment. "Looking back we saw what we had come through. The fall was about twenty feet high, and where river dropped the canyon narrowed to a mere ten feet across; through this bottleneck the huge volume of water gushed with terrific force, thundering down into the a welter of brown foam and black-topped rocks. It seemed incredible that we could have survived that maelstrom!"
During a trip to map the Rio Verde River and discover its source, Fawcett came face to face with starvation. The expedition started well: The land around the mouth of the river had plenty of game and the group took what they estimated to be three weeks worth of food with them. Then the expedition was forced to abandon their boats because of rapids, and had to continue up the riverbank on foot.
Because the expedition needed to minimize the weight they would carry, Fawcett decided to bury some of his equipment and 60 gold sovereigns (worth about $300) in metal cases near where they landed. Fawcett was amazed when years later stories came to him about a "Verde Treasure" that had been left behind by his expedition. The story had been retold and embellished so many times that the size of the treasure had been magnified to 60,000 gold sovereigns. The Colonel was particularly amused because the story never mentioned the fact the he had retrieved the cases after the trip was over. He was sure the story would attract future would-be treasure hunters.
As they walked upriver the water, which had been clean, turned bitter and no fish could be found. Then game also seemed to disappear. Soon the supplies they carried were exhausted. For ten more days the group pressed on, despite only having consumed some bad honey and a few bird eggs. Finally, the found the source of the river and charted it (left).
Freed from the responsibility of charting the river, Fawcett tried to figure out the quickest route to somewhere they could get food. Deciding the best chance was to go over the Ricardo Franco Hills, the group tried to work their way up canyons that would lead them to the top.
The hills were flat-topped and mysterious. They looked like giant tables and their forested tops were completely cut off from the jungle below. When Fawcett later told Conan Doyle about these hills, the writer pictured the isolated tops populated with surviving dinosaurs. Doyle used these hills as the location for his famous novel The Lost World.
The expedition quickly found that crossing the hills was futile, and returning the way they had come impossible. Colonel Fawcett instead decided to follow the direction the streams in the region were flowing, hoping that it would get them out. Days passed and no food. One of the expedition's Indian assistants lay down to die, and only the prodding of Fawcett's hunting knife in his ribs got him moving again.
After twenty days without food, the group was at its limit. Fawcett prayed audibly for relief. Then fifteen minutes later a deer appeared 300 yards away. Fawcett unslung his gun. The target was too far away and his hands were shaking, but,in a miracle the Colonel could only attribute to a higher power, the bullet found its mark, killing the deer instantly.
The group consumed every part of the deer: skin, fur and all. The expedition's fortune had turned and within six days they were back in a town with the Verde trip only a bad memory.
For the first three years Fawcett had worked for the Boundary Commission charting the region. When that job came to an end, Fawcett retired from the military and continued exploring on his own, financing the trips with help from newspapers and other businesses. After returning to England to serve in World War I, the Colonel was again drawn back to the South American jungle. As time went on, he became more and more interested in the archaeology of the region. In total he made seven expeditions into wilderness between 1906 and 1924.
The Final Expedition
Finding reliable companions for his trips had always been a problem, but by 1925 his oldest son, Jack, had reached an age where he could join his father in the field.
Fawcett, by examining records and sifting through old stories, had become convinced that there was a large, ancient city concealed in the wilds of Brazil. Fawcett called this city "Z" and planned an expedition that consisted of himself, his son, Jack, and a friend of Jack's. Fawcett had always preferred small expeditions that could live off the land, thinking that a small group would look less like an invasion to the Indians and therefore be less likely to be attacked. The route was carefully planned.
Fawcett, concerned with others, left word that should they not return, a rescue expedition was not to be mounted. He felt that it would be too dangerous.
On May 29th, 1925, a message was sent from Fawcett to his wife, indicating that they were ready to enter unexplored territory. The three were sending back the assistants that had helped them to this point and were ready to go on by themselves. Fawcett told his wife "You need have no fear of failure..." It was the last anyone ever heard of the expedition. They disappeared into the jungle never to be seen again.
Despite Fawcett's wishes, several rescue expeditions tried to find him, but without success. Occasionally there were intriguing reports that he'd been seen, but none of these were ever confirmed.
So what happened to Colonel Fawcett? What danger that he had eluded in the past had gotten him this time? Hostile Indians? A giant anaconda? Piranhas? Disease? Starvation? Or was it, as one tale told, he'd lost his memory and lived out the rest of his life as a chief among a tribe of cannibals?
In 1996 an expedition was put together by René Delmotte and James Lynch look for traces of Fawcett. It didn't get far. Indians stopped the group, threatened their lives, and detained them for some days. They were finally released, but $30,000 worth of equipment was confiscated. Even seventy years after his disappearance, it seems the jungle is still too dangerous a place for anyone to follow in Colonel Percy Fawcett's footsteps.
Return to Virtual Exploration SocietyJust over a year ago I started work at Allegro Networks.
This was an amazing opportunity for me to work on an entirely greenfield project. Whilst I waited for the other two developers to start, I began the process of figuring out What We Were Supposed To Do.
I asked questions. I sat and listened. I learned about the domain. I learned about the problem we were trying to solve. I learned about all the different people who would use our product.
I tried to record my learnings for a couple of reasons:
I wanted to regurgitate my understandings to have them validated I wanted to convey them to my new colleagues, who weren’t there during the initial conversations.
Coming from LateRooms.com, Esendex.com and from all the conferences and meetups I had been to, I looked to my (and other’s) experience. I’ve never been a Business Analyst, we had positions for those at a big company like LateRooms, I was a developer. I took cards from the board, looked in our online backlog system for mock ups created by our design team and coded it up. That was doing agile. If you write the card as a user story, that makes it agile. That’s how you start to talk about BEHAVIOUR (something I’m a massive fan of).
When doing a piece of work I like to know why, not what. I like to understand what the problem is, who has the problem and WHY it’s a problem,in order for me to come up with a solution. User stories are pretty good for this as they set the scene by identifying your users and understanding their motivation before you go onto the scenario.
Going with what I knew I started off by writing some user stories
As a … I want … So that …
I put them up in confluence for all to see. To be honest, they were a bit dry and boring. I found myself feeling really bored trying to come up with all the scenarios to build a backlog for us to work on. I’d been reading The Lean Startup just before I joined and my head was ablaze with the ideas from there, my personal experiences, all my years of reading blog posts and listening to talks on agile practices… Something wasn’t right. I felt like I was performing some ritual. This felt like cargo culture. I needed something better to share with Iain and Ben.
So I took a step back and decided to look at this in a new way. I tried to forget everything I thought I was supposed to do and start afresh.
I managed to get down a concept. We’re very lucky to have Andy Davidson as our CTO. He’s bursting with enthusiasm, very tech savvy, lives and breathes The Internet and had a very strong and clear concept of what he wanted. I really didn’t know anything about the current products our company offered, our industry, our customers and our competitors. Andy had a great was of explaining everything to me as a story:
Customer A is at a networking event, chatting to another service provider, Customer B. They think it would be a great idea to connect. Customer B has the Allegro app on their iPhone, they convince Customer A to download the app to her tablet. They both have a connection at a data centre into our network. They check their port size, Customer A has about 8Gb free, Customer B has 1Gb free. Customer B requests a 2Gb connection to Customer A, the system warns him he’ll be over his limit, would he like to buy more capacity. He says yes and confirms his request to connect to Customer A. Customer A gets a pop up on her tablet asking if she wants to connect with Customer B. She accepts and the deal is done.
All this customer A and B malarky got a bit confusing, so I gave them names and companies. They started to become characters in my story.
I remembered back to a time just after uni, where one of my friend, Phil Robinson, started to make some funny online comics. One day I had a go, to depict my battle with the pigeons whilst working for BAE (a great tale I might divulge sometime). So I thought I’d have a go at turning this story, that Andy had painted so vividly in my mind, into a comic. I did a quick google and found BitStrips (this was last May, so way before it became a trend on facebook). It’s awesome. It’s really easy to play with your character’s faces and really bring them to life with expressions:
My comics have been an absolute hit. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, and that has certainly been the case. I have been able to digest a wall full of ideas into a single comic. We had some visitors from HMRC to see how we were innovating, researching and developing. I showed them these comics to explain our concept, and they loved them! Simple to understand, quick and easy to digest… Rather than writing endless reams of notes they took photocopies of my comics.
As we enhance our product with services such as SnapConnect, our lovely marketing team are even looking to promote and explain this to our customers using my comics!(CBS SF) — The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has issued its first heat advisory of the year, because temperatures are 15 to 25 degrees above normal across the state this week.
Record-setting temperatures were expected across the Bay Area Wednesday, according KPIX 5 Meteorologist Lawrence Karnow.
Thursday is expected to be the hottest day, with highs near record-setting levels, and interior locations in the 90s.
A strong ridge of high pressure over California will produce the hottest temperatures in the valleys of southern Monterey County.
Temperatures there may reach 100, according to the National Weather Service.
During this heat wave, Cal/OSHA is reminding employers to protect their outdoor employees from heat-related illnesses.
State regulations require basic protections for outdoor workers, including providing fresh water, shaded areas for breaks, and preparing an emergency heat illness prevention plan.
Cal/OSHA officials will be out inspecting agricultural, construction, landscaping and other outdoor worksites throughout this current hot season.Image caption The Escalante River ends in the man-made Lake Powell
An autistic man who survived for three weeks in a remote Utah desert is said to be in a stable condition.
William Martin LaFever, 28, travelled an estimated 40 miles (64 km) in the Escalante Desert in southern Utah, in an attempt to walk to Page, Arizona.
Mr LaFever told his family that his hiking gear had been stolen, and his father had wired money to Page.
To survive, he scavenged food, including frogs, and drank water from the Escalante river.
Deputy Ray Gardner, who was aboard the helicopter that spotted Mr LaFever, said the 28-year-old was emaciated and could not stand when he was found.
"I could not believe that he was alive, and feel certain that in another 24 hours he would not have been alive," Mr Gardner said in a statement.
A sheriff's office said that Mr LaFever had called his father in early June to say he was hiking in the area with his dog, but that some of his hiking gear had been stolen and he was out of money.
John LaFever, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, told his son to catch a ride to Page to get the money.
Instead William LaFever apparently decided to hike along the Escalante river and then hitch a boat ride along Lake Powell to the Arizona town, according to the sheriff's department.
Garfield County Sheriff's spokeswoman Becki Bronson told the Associated Press that the desert is "some of the most rugged, unforgiving terrain you will find anywhere on Earth", including "jagged cliffs, stone ledges".
"Where William was hiking, there just isn't anyone out there," she said. "There are no people. There are no towns."
Mr LaFever was flown to Garfield Memorial Hospital, and Ms Bronson told the BBC he is in stable condition.LiberTV - Now liberating TvOS 11.0 and 11.1 on the ATV 4 and 4K
0. Before you get started:
MAKE SURE TO GET ONLY THE IPA AT THIS LINK! Though various "YaluJailbreak" websites, "JailbreakTV" and other middle men will surely try to mirror this - DO NOT USE MIRRORS. It is fine if they want to link to here, but this link here is the only official link. Though various "YaluJailbreak" websites, "JailbreakTV" and other middle men will surely try to mirror this -. It is fine if they want to link to here, but this link here is the onlylink. Me, I don't care where you download from, but Mirrors are bound to become obsolete as I still have to maintain this release from time to time
Mirrors may have unexpected bonuses - in the form of Malware. You have been WARNED.
. This jailbreak was free, is free, and will remain free. DO NOT PAY ANYONE ANY MONEY FOR IT
Also: Also: IF YOUR TvOS Version is NOT 11.0 or 11.1 - sorry.
If you're 10.x, there's hope yet - I may backport at some point.
If you're 11.2 - I can't help you at the moment.
1. Sideloading
The LiberTV.ipa is an unsigned binary. This means you have to sign it yourself. You have two options at the moment:
Apple's codesign(1)
Cydia Impactor
The latter is actually easier to use. Grab the IPA, and then sign it with your AppleID. You are now ready to sideload. Doing so requires XCode, and is performed thus:
XCode "Window" → Devices & Simulators (also accessible by ⇧ ⌘ 2) gets you to here:
You select the LiberTV.ipa like so:
And let it load. Congratulations. You're ready to run
2. Running
This is foolproof. Believe me. One button, No options
If it runs correctly, you will get a note saying you can exit the app. So you can exit the app. (If you experience weird behavior, just background the app rather than exiting - it won't take any CPU anyway but will keep the process lineage intact)
3. SSH
Give LiberTV a couple of seconds AFTER the note to complete and set up the code signing bypass, and you can ssh to yourself - either over USB-C or (in the case of the 4k |
too hard to be creative. But in the end, writing is manual labor for me—and I’m okay with that.
A couple of years ago, I invited a community of people to join me in writing 500 words per day for 31 days in a row. We called it “My 500 Words,” because the words we wrote were truly ours. In those sessions, we wrote things that mattered and belonged to us.
Long before we share our words with anyone, they are first and foremost ours. And owning that process is important. But as soon as they are written, the words must be shared. They must be refined by the crucible of community. This is how we grow.
Long before we share our words with anyone, they are first and foremost ours.
Why 500 words?
It’s short enough that you can usually find time to do it daily and long enough that if you stick to a schedule, you’ll have something substantial in no time. It takes me anywhere from 30–60 minutes to write 500 words. And if I keep up with that pace, I’ve got a manuscript in about 90 days.
That’s my plan for finishing my next book: 500 words per day, every day, until it’s done.
Want to join me?
If you’ve ever wanted to develop a daily writing habit, I suggest making writing a regular part of your routine. It needs to be a habit, not a hobby.
Writing is a habit, not a hobby.
My 500 Words is a 31-day challenge designed to help you develop a daily writing habit and become a better writer.
For the next 31 days, a community of people and I will be writing 500 words a day. These won’t be great words, but they will be written. We’re not trying to reach perfection; we’re just trying to get more ideas out of our heads and onto paper.
And if you want to be part of this, we can keep each other company.
Here are the rules:
Write 500 words per day, every day for 31 days. This starts when you do.
, every day for 31 days. This starts when you do. You can write more if you want, but 500 words is the minimum.
, but 500 words is the minimum. Don’t edit. Just write.
. Just write. If you miss a day, pick up where you left off. Don’t make up for lost days.
for lost days. Encourage, don’t criticize (unless explicitly invited to do so).
, don’t criticize (unless explicitly invited to do so). Blogging counts, but email does not.
, but email does not. All of this is totally free.
If you want to join, you can sign up here to get access to a free Facebook group and to receive daily writing prompts via email. Or you can just start writing. It’s up to you.
Some people started this two years ago and haven’t stopped writing since. Books have been written and published. Communities built. Relationships forged. All thanks to the simple habit of writing 500 words per day.
Join us.
A version of this article originally appeared on goinswriter.com.Siphyo Profile Joined April 2011 Netherlands 121 Posts #181 Shocking! HSY - KMK - Hyomin - Yoona - Sojin | NesTea - DRG - Puzzle - Bomber - NANIWA
Perfi Profile Blog Joined May 2010 Poland 349 Posts #182 On May 17 2014 19:07 FireCake wrote:
Hi guys,
My first reaction to this drama was "lol".
But I fear that if Stabillo (my manager at PunchLine) took the time to wake up me this morning he expects that I develop a little more...
I never tried to matchfix one my games and I will never do such a thing. I play sc2 because I love this game, I love practice and give the best of myself. I guess the reason mentioned for this matchfix is money. Honestly, if I played this game solely for money I think i would have have stopped this game a long time ago and I would focus all my energy on my engineering studies.
I don't know what else can i say, i proposed a showmatch between Solar and me to end this drama, i think that could be funny :D
Now that's a great idea! A BO9 FireCake vs Solar showmatch should silence all the drama around here for a week or so. Now that's a great idea! A BO9 FireCake vs Solar showmatch should silence all the drama around here for a week or so.
Scarecrow Profile Blog Joined July 2009 Korea (South) 8982 Posts #183 On May 17 2014 19:05 mantequilla wrote:
Isn't 2000$ a bit too much for a single match? I think this is a joke and Solar fell for it.
It's actually a bit on the low side compared to BW matchfixing. I doubt it's a joke and for every Solar that exposes it I wouldn't be surprised if others are taking offers like this (especially those not on reliable teams/salaries). It's actually a bit on the low side compared to BW matchfixing. I doubt it's a joke and for every Solar that exposes it I wouldn't be surprised if others are taking offers like this (especially those not on reliable teams/salaries). Yhamm is the god of predictions
KrazyTrumpet Profile Joined April 2010 United States 2520 Posts #184 On May 17 2014 19:07 FireCake wrote:
Hi guys,
My first reaction to this drama was "lol".
But I fear that if Stabillo (my manager at PunchLine) took the time to wake up me this morning he expects that I develop a little more...
I never tried to matchfix one my games and I will never do such a thing. I play sc2 because I love this game, I love practice and give the best of myself. I guess the reason mentioned for this matchfix is money. Honestly, if I played this game solely for money I think i would have have stopped this game a long time ago and I would focus all my energy on my engineering studies.
I don't know what else can i say, i proposed a showmatch between Solar and me to end this drama, i think that could be funny :D
Yeah, don't sweat it. Pretty obviously some sort of imposter, though your words are certainly appreciated. Yeah, don't sweat it. Pretty obviously some sort of imposter, though your words are certainly appreciated. www.twitch.tv/krazy Best Stream Quality NA @KClarkSC2
Boucot Profile Blog Joined October 2011 France 15974 Posts #185 On May 17 2014 19:25 Perfi wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 17 2014 19:07 FireCake wrote:
Hi guys,
My first reaction to this drama was "lol".
But I fear that if Stabillo (my manager at PunchLine) took the time to wake up me this morning he expects that I develop a little more...
I never tried to matchfix one my games and I will never do such a thing. I play sc2 because I love this game, I love practice and give the best of myself. I guess the reason mentioned for this matchfix is money. Honestly, if I played this game solely for money I think i would have have stopped this game a long time ago and I would focus all my energy on my engineering studies.
I don't know what else can i say, i proposed a showmatch between Solar and me to end this drama, i think that could be funny :D
Now that's a great idea! A BO9 FireCake vs Solar showmatch should silence all the drama around here for a week or so. Now that's a great idea! A BO9 FireCake vs Solar showmatch should silence all the drama around here for a week or so.
Yeah, a week. That's how much time it would take. Yeah, a week. That's how much time it would take. Former SC2 writer for Millenium - twitter.com/Boucot
FireCake Profile Joined March 2013 151 Posts #186
I am seeking some casters now
On May 17 2014 19:19 RHoudini wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 17 2014 19:07 FireCake wrote:
Hi guys,
My first reaction to this drama was "lol".
But I fear that if Stabillo (my manager at PunchLine) took the time to wake up me this morning he expects that I develop a little more...
I never tried to matchfix one my games and I will never do such a thing. I play sc2 because I love this game, I love practice and give the best of myself. I guess the reason mentioned for this matchfix is money. Honestly, if I played this game solely for money I think i would have have stopped this game a long time ago and I would focus all my energy on my engineering studies.
I don't know what else can i say, i proposed a showmatch between Solar and me to end this drama, i think that could be funny :D
If you are the real Firecake (your English is suspiciously good for a French guy ), don't worry. I doubt anyone really believes you have anything to do with. This is obviously the work of an impostor. If you are the real Firecake (your English is suspiciously good for a French guy), don't worry. I doubt anyone really believes you have anything to do with. This is obviously the work of an impostor.
I think everybody should worry about that kind of drama.
I am not a famous pro player, i am not even a full time player, and however there is (are?) people trying to destroy my esport carreer through many fake accounts on different websites and in different languages
This drama is funny because its a bad fake (btw, thank the admin who identified the fake Stabillo) but its also a bit sad to see someone who tries desperatly to hurt me.
Now imagine what an evil person could do to the most famous people in the community where a lot of money are involved. Solar agrees to play a showmatch :DI am seeking some casters nowI think everybody should worry about that kind of drama.I am not a famous pro player, i am not even a full time player, and however there is (are?) people trying to destroy my esport carreer through many fake accounts on different websites and in different languagesThis drama is funny because its a bad fake (btw, thank the admin who identified the fake Stabillo) but its also a bit sad to see someone who tries desperatly to hurt me.Now imagine what an evil person could do to the most famous people in the community where a lot of money are involved. Progamer
YourMom Profile Joined April 2010 Romania 563 Posts #187 He should have offered David Kim to fix the game. I'm very good at making carriers.
PVJ Profile Blog Joined July 2012 Hungary 4495 Posts #188 Uh. ://// Hopefully there's nothing more brewing in the dark The heart's eternal vow
PVJ Profile Blog Joined July 2012 Hungary 4495 Posts #189 What's the drama? Who's this guy? The heart's eternal vow
Dwayn Profile Joined October 2011 Germany 949 Posts #190 I guess players could make quite some money by betting against themselves. No need to get a 3rd party involved.
Penev Profile Joined October 2012 24521 Posts #191 On May 17 2014 19:41 Boucot wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 17 2014 19:25 Perfi wrote:
On May 17 2014 19:07 FireCake wrote:
Hi guys,
My first reaction to this drama was "lol".
But I fear that if Stabillo (my manager at PunchLine) took the time to wake up me this morning he expects that I develop a little more...
I never tried to matchfix one my games and I will never do such a thing. I play sc2 because I love this game, I love practice and give the best of myself. I guess the reason mentioned for this matchfix is money. Honestly, if I played this game solely for money I think i would have have stopped this game a long time ago and I would focus all my energy on my engineering studies.
I don't know what else can i say, i proposed a showmatch between Solar and me to end this drama, i think that could be funny :D
Now that's a great idea! A BO9 FireCake vs Solar showmatch should silence all the drama around here for a week or so. Now that's a great idea! A BO9 FireCake vs Solar showmatch should silence all the drama around here for a week or so.
Yeah, a week. That's how much time it would take. Yeah, a week. That's how much time it would take.
Haha, nice one Haha, nice one game like a pruh
Ogww Profile Joined August 2011 Finland 184 Posts #192 On May 17 2014 19:05 mantequilla wrote:
Isn't 2000$ a bit too much for a single match? I think this is a joke and Solar fell for it.
More like way too little More like way too little
algue Profile Joined July 2011 France 1346 Posts #193 On May 17 2014 09:49 Waxangel wrote:
T____T
good on you solar
Waxangel just lost a lot of money because of solar's decision. Waxangel just lost a lot of money because of solar's decision. rly?
Waxangel Profile Blog Joined September 2002 United States 27026 Posts #194 On May 17 2014 21:20 algue wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 17 2014 09:49 Waxangel wrote:
T____T
good on you solar
Waxangel just lost a lot of money because of solar's decision. Waxangel just lost a lot of money because of solar's decision.
technically, once Solar declined I wouldn't have bet on the match technically, once Solar declined I wouldn't have bet on the match Administrator Hey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
yido Profile Joined March 2014 United States 323 Posts #195 This is a bit silly.
I kinda doubt that someone would want to fix Fragbite Finals.
2 m wons are probably offered without any understanding of exchange rates and its actual value in Korea.
$2000 is a silly small value to even consider risking your entire career on, especially for someone as established as Solar.
I doubt large sums of money is being exchanged in sc2 betting market these days, getting a LoL carry to throw a match is much more likely. gl hf
TKL Profile Joined January 2013 France 15 Posts #196 I have to say i am very shocked to learn that someone would try to hurt FireCake and/or his team like that. I can understand that some people might not like him du to his past behavior but it's not a reason to steal his identity and commit a felony! I am 100% behind FireCake, Stabillo and Punchline and i hope the thief of identity will be found soon.
Boonbag Profile Blog Joined March 2008 France 3318 Posts Last Edited: 2014-05-17 14:17:06 #197 On May 17 2014 20:31 YourMom wrote:
He should have offered David Kim to fix the game.
at first when reading the thread title without knowing who is solar i thought it was a korean company offering blizzard to fix the game at first when reading the thread title without knowing who is solar i thought it was a korean company offering blizzard to fix the game
StarStruck Profile Joined April 2010 24047 Posts #198 On May 17 2014 20:31 YourMom wrote:
He should have offered David Kim to fix the game.
I thought he already does that, ha. I thought he already does that, ha.
ZCive2 Profile Joined March 2014 Russian Federation 37 Posts #199 This is so ridiculous that it's probably a stunt by punchline to get some publicity ^^
miniskirt Profile Joined December 2012 France 470 Posts #200 what would firecake even gain from this game? Self-proclaimed best Feast and Grubby fan | also MVP MMA Fantasy Polt forGG Dayshi the french hope| Leenock, the sober version of stephano and Scarlett cutiepie <3
Prev 1 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next AllEmily Thornberry was one of the stars of Labour’s election campaign. Now she wants the party to prepare for power, she tells Kate Murray It was one of the highlights of election night: Emily Thornberry, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, telling...
Emily Thornberry was one of the stars of Labour’s election campaign. Now she wants the party to prepare for power, she tells Kate Murray
It was one of the highlights of election night: Emily Thornberry, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, telling David Dimbleby that the Conservatives were heading for their very own coalition of chaos. The exchange, which saw Thornberry hailed on social media as the “Queen of Sass”, was a fitting end to an energetic campaign by the shadow foreign secretary in which she made scores of constituency visits and robustly promoted the Labour cause on radio and TV. But, as she admits, it had all begun very differently.
“We started off very low. I remember being in the tea room before the election speaking to MPs who genuinely thought they weren’t coming back,” she says. But then, two weeks out from polling day, the mood changed and Labour seemed to have “won permission to be heard”.
“The manifesto was the star – it gave us something we all coalesced around,” she says. “We showed Britain what Labour can be when we are united and what an unstoppable force we can be. It was like a snowball, getting bigger. People were genuinely wanting to listen to what Labour stood for. Jeremy continued to campaign in the way that only Jeremy does – and then there was a big enough turnout and those who said they were going to support Labour actually did come out and vote Labour.”
Thornberry is perhaps an unlikely Corbynista and indeed voted for Yvette Cooper in the 2015 leadership election. But she rejects any factional label – “I just believe I come from the heart of the Labour party and I believe I always have” – and says the decision to become, and remain, a shadow minister, was a simple one. “My view is that the party is the membership. That party of more than half a million people had overwhelmingly voted for Jeremy and it seemed to me that it was our duty to be a proper opposition, to be an alternative government and to make Jeremy the best leader he could be. That was what the membership wanted and what the country deserved.”
Not all of her parliamentary colleagues agreed, with the pre-election period being, Thornberry concedes, often ‘dreadful’ thanks to Labour’s very public spats. But arguments within the party, she believes, should have been seen off by the election campaign. “The major difference between us, in terms of the PLP, was ‘Is Jeremy electable or not?’ That is now sorted – so there is no real reason to have these major differences now. Of course there will be differences in terms of policy. There always have been, there always will be and that’s healthy. I don’t want the unity of the graveyard – but I do want unity. So where there are differences, let’s debate them, but let’s not do it in a silly personal way out in the media, fighting.”
For her, it’s disappointing then, that just weeks after the election and with a sense of optimism and new-found unity in the air, three Labour frontbenchers were sacked and another stepped down over an amendment calling for the UK to remain within the single market and the customs union.
“It’s unfortunate. I don’t quite understand why Chuka [Umunna] thought it necessary to put down that amendment as a backbencher to the Queen’s Speech,” she says. “It
seemed to me to be a brilliant opportunity for us to show the differences in the Tory party, to highlight the need for a public sector pay rise, for our alternative vision for fighting austerity. All of those things could have happened, but instead a lot of that space was taken up by debate about what was meant by Chuka’s amendment.”
In reality, she insists, there isn’t a “huge amount of difference” between the different positions within the party. “I think there’s a bit of tickboxing – ‘oh I’m in favour of the single market therefore I’m more pro-European than you’,” she says. ”What we’ve been trying to hone in the leadership is an approach to the negotiations which is flexible but which gets maximum benefit for Britain in terms of our priorities – and our priorities are different from the Tories.”
What’s not in question, she suggests, is that the UK will leave the European Union. “I’m first and foremost a democrat. If we have instructions from the British people we do as we’re told,” she says. “It does seem to me that we have to go into this in good faith, on the basis that we have to leave the European Union. In my view we don’t have to go very far but we do have to leave. People need to hear that and believe us.”
But what about those who firmly believe that the people they represent want something very different? “Fitting a referendum into a parliamentary democracy is very difficult. But we’ve had a referendum and, while I respect those whose constituents overwhelmingly voted for remain and feel they must do everything they can to fight for remain, we are a national party. There has to be a party that tries to pull the 48 per cent and the 52 per cent together. We are not picking a side, we are trying to act on behalf of Britain and the best way to act on behalf of Britain in my view is for us to leave but to remain close.”
But the election, she says, was not so much about Brexit, as about austerity, and the lack of ideas that austerity represents. “It was about giving people confidence to believe it doesn’t have to be this way, that there is an alternative,” she says. And since the poll, there has been more evidence of the need for change, and for better government, in the shape of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. “How can it be that in the 21st century a tower can burn down, that people can leave in their t-shirt and knickers with nothing and have to run to church and hope that somebody donated a mattress? This is Britain in the 21st century – we are not a developing nation. It’s appalling that this is happening,” she says. Here, she adds, Labour can offer a real alternative. “We have to be a party that believes in government, that believes in red tape, that believes in people’s rights. It’s not red in tooth and claw capitalism. We do need to temper capitalism, we do need to make our world fairer and that does mean putting in rules, that does mean investing in public services. All of these things are what make our lives rich and what make our communities work.”
Thornberry’s own Islington South constituency has, she underlines, a high proportion of social housing and high levels of deprivation – a far cry from the privileged metropolitan bubble it’s sometimes suggested to be. The ‘north London elite’ tag is one that has been thrown at her, particularly in the wake of her resignation from Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet over a tweeted picture from the Rochester by-election campaign of a house complete with white van and English flags.
But she says misconceptions about her patch are often matched by misconceptions about her.
“I was brought up on a council estate – my parents divorced when I was seven, we were made homeless and we went on to a big council estate. My mum was a single parent and lived on benefits and I failed my 11-plus and went to a secondary modern,” she recalls. “On the other hand, I’m a barrister, I live in Islington and I’m successful. Things are never as they seem.”
Does she feel women politicians get a particularly hard time, particularly in the social media age? “It’s definitely different being a woman politician,” she says. “We tend to be seen as being more colourful but I also think there’s something about our personality, our family and our background which seems to be more relevant in people’s minds. The whole personal package seems to be more important than a man in a grey suit with a blue tie and grey hair who is able to be almost a blank canvas. There are positives but there are also negatives.”
Her background as a lawyer, she says, runs like a thread through her approach to politics: in the importance she places on good government, good regulations and above all fairness. In her role as shadow foreign secretary, it means she is determined to shape an ethical Labour foreign policy, where the UK works collectively with other countries in accordance with international law.
“We need to be less arrogant, more confident in our own ability, the talents that we have and our ethics. For me these are the British values I’m proud of,” she says. “At a time like this we could step up and give a lead. Against all the background of international noise, we could be the ones saying let’s work together, and move forward.”
In particular Thornberry would like to see the UK, which ‘holds the pen’ in the UN Security Council over Yemen and so is responsible for drafting resolutions, do more to stand up to Saudi Arabia over its role in the conflict there. “We continue selling arms to Saudi Arabia despite what’s going on in Yemen – despite the atrocities, despite the bombing of fields and infrastructure and weddings and funerals which seem on the face of it to be in breach of international law. We shouldn’t be selling them arms in those circumstances and yet we seem fearful about dealing with it, about standing up to them and saying this is wrong.”
Similarly, she believes the UK should drop its ‘embarrassingly obsequious’ attitude to Donald Trump and hold the current US administration to account on issues such as climate change. “We are putting all our eggs in the Trump basket, he’s just smashing them up and there doesn’t seem to be anything the Tory government can do about it,” she says. “If they can’t even influence one country on climate change, how strong and stable are they when it comes ton negotiations on Brexit?”
But whether the current government will be the ones handling those Brexit negotiations is far from sure, Thornberry believes. She likens the mood to the dying days of the John Major government, with a tired government clinging to power and ‘tearing lumps out of each other’. “The problem for the Tories is that they have talked up people’s expectations to such an extent that they going to have a great deal of difficulty bursting all those bubbles. That’s very unfortunate and very reckless,” she says. “We don’t know how long this government is going to last, whether it will be weeks, months or years. What we have to do is be on election footing all the time and Keir [Starmer] and his team and I and my team have to be ready to go. We have to make sure we have continuing conversations with European friends so they have good understanding of what we want to do and how different we would be.”
It’s a prospect she relishes, whatever the challenges ahead. “I believe that we are so much better in government than the Tories and that it is better for our country to have a Labour government no matter how difficult the circumstances are,” she says.
In the meantime, Labour needs to continue campaigning and ‘deepening and developing’ its policy offer. What enthused voters, particularly the young, so much, she believes, was the authenticity of Corbyn’s Labour. She also points to the shift in the political debate, away from ‘triangulation’ back to ‘what the Labour party is about.’
“What [happened in] the general election is not just that we did really well and got the biggest increase in votes since 1945 which is pretty damn good, but politically I feel we have moved the centre of politics back to where it ought to be,” she says.
“We needed to move the centre ground back again – things had moved so far away they just needed to be brought back. I am enthused by this and it does seem to me to be absolutely mainstream Labour politics said with confidence and true belief.”
For Labour then, there is all to play for. “We did really well in the general election – we just didn’t do well enough and we’ve got to make sure that next time we do win. As long as we do what we ought to be doing, deepen our policy offer, keep united and make sure that we are campaigning properly in Tory seats and SNP seats up and down the country without fear, knowing there are no no-go areas any more, we’ll win.”The San Francisco TimesSeptember 23rd, 1981
I’m not here to tell you that Bill Walsh is a bad coach. And I’m not here to tell you that Joe Montana can’t possibly succeed in the NFL. It’s just that if they want to still be here in two years, some changes are in order.
Walsh comes from the great Paul Brown coaching tree, and like his mentor, Walsh likes to throw the ball. That strategy, while unconventional, can work well when you have a Hall of Famer like Otto Graham or even a great talent like Ken Anderson. It doesn’t work when you have a scrappy young player like Montana. And lest you forget, Brown never won anything without Graham, and Brown’s Bengals went 55-56-1 with zero playoff wins.
Undeterred by that evidence, Walsh went about bringing Basketball On Cleats to Candlestick Park. Was his first year a success? San Francisco finished third in passing yards, 4th in first downs, and 6th in total yards. Quarterback Steve DeBerg led the NFC in completion percentage, too. But while Walsh’s horizontal passing game led to lots of yards and first downs, the team won only two games. Running backs Paul Hofer and Wilbur Jackson each caught 50 passes, but to what end?
They were two of only nine running backs to hit the 50-catch plateau in 1979, but what good is it passing to your running backs when you can’t attack a defense vertically? In a telling statistic, Baltimore was the only other team to have two running backs catch 50 passes, and the Colts went 5-11. The 49ers ranked 3rd from the bottom in rush attempts that season, but were above average in yards per carry. Maybe somebody should tell The Genius that San Francisco could have benefited from more runs and fewer passes.
The man who thinks he’s the smartest person in every room surely was going to learn from his 1979 failures, right? In 1980, Montana was handed the reins. How did he do? Walsh continued with his horizontal offense: Montana completed 64.5% of his passes, the 4th highest by a quarterback in NFL history (behind the great Ken Stabler and two Brown robots, Anderson and Graham). But the team went just 2-5 in Montana’s starts.
Fullback Earl Cooper was a nice player at Rice, but he was drastically overused by the 49ers last season. In addition to a team-high 171 carries, he caught 83 passes — but for only 567 yards. Cooper became the first player in NFL history to catch 80 balls and not get 700 yards, much less 567 yards. Cooper averaged an anemic 6.8 yards per reception, and prior to last year, no player with fewer than seven yards per catch had come within 20 passes of Cooper’s 83 grabs. In other words, the 49ers relied more heavily on a player doing so little more than any team in NFL history. Sure, the 49ers ranked 5th in passing yards, but they ran just 415 times, the second fewest number in the league. The team led the NFL in pass attempts and went 6-10 with an eight-game losing streak in the middle of the season. Genius.
After two years, some were ready to say the results are in: at 8-24, the 49ers have the worst record of any team since Walsh came to town. Is it all his fault? No, this team was bad when he came here, and I think he’s done some good things. But the outside-the-box thinker needs to get with the tradition of pro football if he wants to win. I thought that was going to happen this year. Sadly, I’m afraid I may be mistaken.
Through three weeks, the 49ers are 5th in passing yards. Montana is leading the NFL in completion percentage. The problem: the team is 1-2, and Montana’s pick six against Atlanta is one of the reasons why. When Jim Plunkett led the Raiders on a magical run a few months ago, he didn’t do it by throwing short passes. Plunkett completed just 53% of his passes, but he averaged 17.1 yards per completion in those four playoff games. For his career, Montana has completed 64% of his passes but averaged a pitiful 10.5 yards per completion. Which approach do you think works better, the one that won the Super Bowl or the guy who has a career record of 3-8?
More importantly, the Raiders ran 141 times in the 1980 playoffs, an averaged of 35.25 per game. Through 35 games of Walsh’s tenure, the 49ers have averaged 37 pass attempts per game and 28 runs. The team is 9-26. Walsh may still be the answer. Heck, Montana may be, too. But the 49ers need to run much more if they want to win. And when they pass, it wouldn’t hurt if they actually threw it downfield.MARION, Ind. (WTHR) — Data from the Indiana Department of Labor shows it's been a deadly year for Indiana employees killed on the job. Eight Hoosier workers died between September 30, 2016 and April 30, 2017.
13 Investigates uncovered a fact about workplace accidents you might not know about: Even if your employer puts you in danger, you can't sue for workplace injuries or even death.
One Indiana widow is now struggling to make sense of a law that protects employers.
Worker Falls To His Death
The indoor pool is an advertised feature at the Marion Hampton Inn.
When chips of ceiling debris started falling into the water in April 2016, management wanted a quick fix.
Myron Fischer, the hotel's maintenance man, was told to take care of it.
According to the Indiana Department of Labor, the 68-year old was working along, trying to hang a tarp above the drained pool to catch the debris.
He was using a "un-extended 12 foot section" of a 24-foot aluminum ladder when he fell into the empty pool below.
Hours later, he was found dead.
Myron and Jolda Fischer.
Now his wife, Jolda Fischer, is left with the devastating impact of his dangerous workplace assignment.
"It makes me angry," said Fischer's widow from her home in Jonesboro.
"I cry all the time, especially when I think of him falling and him being in there by himself," she said as started to sob.
Jolda Fischer says no one from the Hampton Inn or its parent company U.S. Hospitality LLC apologized or explained what happened.
"I mean he died. It's not like he's hurt and he's still here. He's dead you know," she said emphasizing the finality of the situation. "How can that be ok? It's not right."
Violation of Safety Rules
The Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration investigated Fischer's death. IOSHA cited and fined the hotel for three safety violations.
Inspectors with the agency cited U.S. Hospitality with one serious violation because they failed to "establish and maintain conditions of work which were reasonably safe and healthful for employees, and free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm."
Specifically, the company exposed workers to fall hazards with no ladder safety training.
"There's no way around it, it's just negligence on their part. And I feel they need to pay for it," said Jolda Fischer.
But there's just one catch.
In Indiana, employers cannot be sued for "on the job" injuries - even a worker's death - no matter how egregious or negligent the company's actions. Employers are protected by the Workers Comp Exclusivity Remedy.
Businesses Protected by Workers Comp Law
Stephen Wagner, a personal injury attorney experienced in workers compensation, says clients and attorneys come to him shocked to learn about Indiana's law.
He says the exclusivity remedy means widows like Jolda will get only burial costs, final medical bills paid and two thirds of their spouses wages for 10-years.
"You know this is for the rest of my life that he's not here. And they, to me, just get off scot-free, not having to do anything about his death," Jolda explained.
The couple had been married for 18-years. She says it's a struggle to try to maintain the mortgage to their home and make ends meet.
Additional Laws Favor Business
“We've made a policy decision in this state to favor business over individuals and individuals' safety”
Wagner told 13 Investigates he understands the frustration.
"Indiana is among the worst in the country for work comp benefits. Across the board it's stacked in the employer's favor. We've made a policy decision in this state to favor business over individuals and individuals' safety," he added.
Wagner said under the system, there's no real motivation for trouble-ridden companies to change. The fines issued by IOSHA are often negotiated down.
In Myron Fischer's death, the initial fines totaled $4,800. But 13 Investigates discovered U.S. Hospitality ended up only paying $2,400, just half of the original fine amount.
"That was my husband and he means so much to me and I still can't get over it. I just can't let it go. I just want to fight until something gets resolved," said Jolda Fischer.
The hotel manager at the Hampton Inn would not speak on camera, but told us the case was thoroughly investigated. The Department of Labor file was closed and there are no violations at this time.
Looking for Options
Still, Jolda Fischer is trying to find a loophole. The only option in many cases is to sue a third party for faulty products or equipment involved in the accident that resulted in the injury or death. In many cases, a third party does not exist.
Wagner believes |
FBI’s policy on community of interest requests as written in the DIOG was a good start in fixing these problems because it required the general counsel’s review — but the description of the policy itself was almost entirely redacted.
The FBI recently posted an updated section on NSLs from the DIOG from 2013, but it is heavily redacted, including the section on community of interest requests, making it impossible to know what updates have been made.
“I can say that the DIOG has been updated to reflect privacy concerns re: community of interest information,” said an FBI spokesperson. He did not respond to questions about how often the FBI issues community of interest requests, whether they are still always limited to information once-removed from the original target of the NSL, and whether they could be used to obtain email as well as telephone records.
Reporters work on their laptops during a campaign event for then Sen. Barack Obama on May 9, 2008, in Beaverton, Ore. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
ome of the
instructions in the manuals imply meaningful restrictions on the bureau’s use of NSLs. For example, the DIOG includes instructions for what agents should do if a company “overproduces” in response to such a letter and hands over more information than requested, such as data outside the time frame specified in the request, or data on the wrong phone number.
When that happens, the FBI is not allowed to upload the excess data into any of its internal systems except in cases where the information may be obtained via NSL and the bureau issues a second, “curative” letter.
The newer policy document on NSLs also spells out a clear prohibition on “exigent letters” — informal requests, supposedly issued only in an emergency, through which the FBI demanded information without even the internal approval and record keeping required of an NSL, let alone the approval of a judge. Up until 2006, the FBI used these letters to ask for information from companies without any particular authority, sometimes promising to follow up with a subpoena or NSL, but not always doing so. In 2010, the inspector general found that the bureau had illegally collected more than 2,000 call records between 2003 and 2006, often also asking for community of interest information. The report concluded that the FBI’s use of the letters flouted the law and internal policies.
The newer NSL guidelines suggest that since 2007, the FBI has complied with this judgment: The document contains a section headed “NO EXIGENT LETTERS,” in upper-case letters.
“The practice of using exigent letters to obtain NSL-type information is prohibited,” it continues.North American football fans love the Champions League. As long as it comes with a European accent. The one played in their own back yard, not so much.
Walk by pubs on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons during the European football season and you’ll find fans eagerly taking in the lunchtime Champions League action the length and breadth of Canada and America. Lapping up the action from Spain, Germany, France, England, and watching some of the world’s best, and best known, players.
Champions League football may be played on most continents around the world, but for the majority of fans in North America, the CONCACAF variation seems to be viewed more like an unwanted distraction than something to set the pulses racing.
“They do, and that’s the reality of it,” Vancouver Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson readily admits as he prepares his team for quarter-final Champions League action against New York Red Bulls on Wednesday night. “The only way it’s going to improve is if a Major League Soccer team tries to win it. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet because we’ve been behind the Mexican teams and rightly so.
“That’s why all the rules in Major League Soccer are changing, to try and get us up to speed so that we’re able to compete on a regular basis with the Mexican teams because we haven’t been as successful as we would like to have been. But we are improving, we are getting better, and it will be a big test for whichever team qualifies out of this tie against a Mexican rival.”
Supporter apathy with the tournament isn’t going to be changing here any time soon. And by here, I don’t just mean in Vancouver or Canada.
Of course it’s hard to get the fans interested in a competition when a lot of the MLS teams involved put out weaker line-ups in the group games. If they can’t take the tournament seriously, why should the fans? Where’s the incentive for supporters to shell out money to watch B teams bore the pants off you?
Not only does the quality of football on offer suffer, so does the reputation and the integrity of the tournament.
Factor in that you can only watch the games online via CONCACAF’s Facebook page at this point and how are hardcore fans, never mind the casual ones, meant to get excited and educated about the competition? The whole Champions League feels like an afterthought that no-one at all seems to care about.
Except that’s not true. The players care and value the importance of it. And so do I.
New Whitecap Fredy Montero is no stranger to Champions League action on both sides of the Atlantic, having played in the CONCACAF version with Seattle Sounders and the UEFA one with Sporting Lisbon.
He won’t make the trip to New York on Wednesday as he tries to get up to match fitness, but is expected to be involved in next week’s second leg in Vancouver, and there’s no doubt how he sees the tournament.
“For me, it’s the second important competition,” Montero told us. “When you’re playing international games, even when the team is from your league that you’re playing, it’s super important. Even for the younger players on the team. It gives you more experience.
“You see on other continents, international competition is super important, but here, the teams need to change their mentality because CONCACAF Champions League, it’s big.”
It’s certainly up to the clubs to lead that charge. They need to take it seriously. They need to prioritise it. And they need to play stronger teams in it from the off. Changing the timing and format of the competition in the footballing calendar will hopefully be a significant start, but only if the clubs themselves show that they feel it is an important tournament will the fans and media start to follow.
The players want to win. They want to advance. They want to move that one step closer to what may seem like something of a pipe dream, the FIFA Club World Cup. That dream is only three aggregate victories away for Vancouver right now. That may sound far-fetched, but it is the reality.
“It’s huge,” is Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted’s view on the Champions League and what lies in store at the end of it all. “At this stage of the tournament, there’s only very, very good teams left. You want to get into that final and play one of those very good teams and hopefully go to the World Club Cup. It’s huge, not only for the club but for us as players. We’re going to go out and try and win it.”
One Whitecap that’s already been there and done just that is veteran Costa Rican midfielder Christian Bolanos, who headed to the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in 2005 with his CONCACAF Champions League winning Saprissa side. It’s an occasion that will long live in his memories and he’d love to experience it all over again with Vancouver.
“It would be amazing if we made it to the next round,” Bolanos told AFTN. “I’ve been there before with my team in Costa Rica. We played the World Cup in Japan and it was one of the best moments of my life. I wish for the Whitecaps we can go through. It’s not easy but we have good possibilities against Red Bull.”
Robinson agrees, and despite missing the influential Bolanos (knee), Yordy Reyna (foot), and Nicolas Mezquida (hip) through injury, the ‘Caps coach is confident his young side can go and get the job done over the two legs.
“It’s a big game,” Robinson said. “It’s the first time in history that our club has been this far in this tournament and we want to try and take advantage of it.”
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[There may be no TV or radio broadcast of the ‘Caps quarter-final first leg tie in New York on Wednesday night, but make sure you tune in to AFTN’s live broadcast on Mixlr during the game. Sign up now to know when we go on air and to be able to take part in the live chat. Our pre-game show will kick off around 4.45pm]The Judicial Branch
The judicial branch is in charge of deciding the meaning of laws, how to apply them to real situations, and whether a law breaks the rules of the Constitution. The Constitution is the highest law of our Nation. The U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, is part of the judicial branch. The Supreme Court is made up of 9 judges called justices who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The justices hear cases that have made their way up through the court system.
The main task of the Supreme Court is to decide cases that may differ from the U.S. Constitution. Once the Supreme Court makes a decision in a case, it can only be changed by a later Supreme Court decision or by changing or amending the Constitution. This is a very important power that can affect the lives of many people.AP Photo/Ben Margot SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Homicide detectives searching for a California fire chief suspected of fatally stabbing his girlfriend turned their attention to the state's massive mountain ranges on Thursday, saying he may be hiding out along trails and backroads.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said Orville "Moe" Fleming, a 55-year-old battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, has deep knowledge of the Sierra and Santa Cruz mountains and the picturesque Yosemite Valley.
Fleming, who has fire department keys giving him access to gated trails and roads, disappeared a week ago after his 26-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Douglas, was found stabbed to death at the home they shared.
The hunt for Fleming, believed to be armed, comes just over a year after former Los Angeles policeman Christopher Dorner fled into Southern California mountains after a murderous rampage targeting police officers and their families. That case ended in a fiery standoff that left Dorner dead.
The Fleming case has not yet sparked the same kind of intense manhunt undertaken for Dorner, in which hundreds of officers joined, in part because he had targeted law enforcement officials and their families.
Investigators said Thursday they have not yet been able to narrow down Fleming's location, and hope public attention could bring reports of sightings to help mount a targeted search.
The case took a prurient turn when sheriff's investigators said someone from an escort service may have helped Fleming evade capture.
"Investigators have discovered that Fleming has had contact with many escorts he met through the website "My Redbook," the sheriff's department said on its Facebook page.
After the murder, the fire department car that Fleming used was found abandoned in a Sacramento suburb, the department said.
"Investigators are looking into the possibility that someone Fleming knew, either through his contact with escorts, or through his personal or professional life, picked him up and drove him away," the Facebook post said.
Fleming has been fired from his job for not showing up for work from April 30, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
The sheriff's department, in a separate Facebook posting on Wednesday, noted that Fleming had changed his appearance in the past by shaving his head and mustache. He frequently wears a baseball cap and has tattoos on his left arm and bicep, it said.
Even though a week has passed since Douglas' death, her assailant would probably have sustained cuts on his hands and arms that would require bandages, investigators said. They said Fleming owned two pistols and should be considered armed and dangerous.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)Almost a year after first marketing a parking lot across from Holy Name Cathedral as a development opportunity, the Archdiocese of Chicago has found a buyer for the 90,000-square-foot hunk of prime River North real estate. According to Crain’s, Chicago-based JDL Development was selected as the winning bidder and will pay more than $110 million for the nearly block-sized property located at the southwest corner of State Street and Chicago Avenue.
Large enough to support at least two high-rise towers, the sprawling lot has long been considered one of Chicago’s most desirable development sites. While JDL’s plans for the Holy Name lot have yet to be divulged, it is assumed that the developer will look to build a combination of for-sale condominiums and rental apartments as well as new retail space. Developer and fellow Holy Name bidder Steve Fifield told Crain’s that he had looked to “build 670 apartments in two 40- to 50-story towers” at the site.
JDL is currently in the process of finishing up a nearby luxury condo tower known as No. 9 Walton as well as a soon-to-open 22-story rental high-rise at the site of River North’s old Ed Debevic’s restaurant. The busy developer will undoubtedly need a city approval in the form of a zoning change to tap the full potential of the vast, transit-oriented Holy Name parcel. It’s likely the project will raise the same neighborhood concerns as the proposed 60-story ‘Carillon’ tower two blocks to the east.
Meanwhile, the Archdiocese will likely work out a deal to replace lost parishioner parking with spaces in the new development. Similar arrangements have been made with the new high-rises headed to parking lots that previously served Chicago’s Assumption Catholic Church and Old St. Pat’s.It's become a habit to dismiss the Buffalo Sabres and any iota of a chance they have of reaching the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They've averaged a shade over 21 wins the past three seasons, and in each of the previous two finished at or near the bottom of the NHL in most offensive and special-team categories.
But there are precedents of teams making quantum leaps in the NHL standings. The Montreal Canadiens ascended from the Eastern Conference basement to a first-place finish in the Northeast Division in 2013. A season later, the Colorado Avalanche rose from 29th in the League (39 points in 48 games) to 112 points and the Central Division title. An extreme example is the 1992-93 San Jose Sharks, whose 58-point jump from the season before remains the biggest turnaround in League history.
A 58-point jump is asking too much, but there's no denying the excitement in Buffalo, where there are expectations for the Sabres to make noise in the East. The additions of Evander Kane, Jack Eichel and Ryan O'Reilly fortified a group of forwards that already included Tyler Ennis, Matt Moulson, Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart, putting them in position to significantly increase their NHL-worst 153 goals from last season. Defenseman Cody Franson, who signed a two-year contract Sept. 10, should spark a power play that finished 30th at 13.4 percent.
"It's not the Buffalo Sabres from last year," coach Dan Bylsma said in video posted by the Sabres website. "So in building our team and going forward and building that, all of us are new and I think that's a pretty exciting thing."
Patrick Roy's work with the Avalanche in 2013-14 earned him the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. Bylsma brings clout to a Sabres team that lost 51 games in each of the past two seasons. He's the right man to lead them into a new generation and the preseason favorite to win the award this season.
Hired on May 28, Bylsma has experience with immediate turnarounds. He took over a Pittsburgh Penguins team 10th in the East with 25 games left in 2008-09 and led it to an 18-3-4 finish and its first Stanley Cup championship in 16 years. He also won the Jack Adams Award in 2011 after guiding the Penguins to 49 wins despite Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal missing a combined 119 games because of injuries. His.668 winning percentage (252-117-32) is the best of anyone in history with at least three full seasons coached.
Eichel and Reinhart are potential franchise centers. Kane and O'Reilly add scoring that's been lacking. Leading the charge will be Bylsma, who will have the Sabres ready to work and ready to surprise.
"In order to have success, we're going to have to be real detailed," O'Reilly told the Buffalo News. "It's not going to be easy to come from where we were last year. We've got to work together. We've got to find out quickly how to have success together."
FINALISTS
Todd McLellan, Edmonton Oilers -- McLellan became the Oilers' seventh coach in eight seasons after winning three Pacific Division titles and reaching the playoffs six times in seven seasons with the Sharks. He's coaching a potential generational talent (Connor McDavid) and will impose the mental fortitude that's been missing in Edmonton for so long.
"Mentally strong teams have poor patches during the season," McLellan told the Canadian Press. "It's an automatic thing. But they come out of it quick, they come out of it confident. They go back to their foundation and basics. The weaker teams tend to stay in it a little bit longer. The pushback thing is a big thing for me, the mental strength to keep going. Get through the crap, if you will, when it's not going well.
"There's going to be some tough times. There will be some days where it's not going real well. And I'll be really interested to see the group during those moments."
Lindy Ruff, Dallas Stars -- Facing high expectations last season, the Stars disappointed with a sixth-place finish in the Central Division. However, they won seven of 10 to finish 31-18-5 in their final 54 games, a 102-point pace over 82 games.
Forward Patrick Sharp, defenseman Johnny Oduya and goaltender Antti Niemi provide Dallas a championship pedigree. Oduya's presence also provides optimism of improving a defense that allowed 3.13 goals per game.
After fortifying the roster, general manager Jim Nill called the Stars a complete team. The pick here is Ruff will get Dallas over the hump and compete for his second Jack Adams Trophy.
"I'm excited," Ruff said. "[It] was disappointing last year because I felt we were a better team than where we ended up. We faced some adversity. We got better in some areas. I think we need to get better again, but I think we're really going in the right direction."
ALSO IN THE MIX: Jeff Blashill, Detroit Red Wings; Todd Richards, Columbus Blue Jackets; Barry Trotz, Washington Capitals
---Good / Great battery life, and fitness tools are accurate and work well. Watch feels sleek, and OLED display looks great indoors. Heart rate monitor is fast. Sleep monitoring works well, and other integrations like friend features, history graphs, and setup/use are very intuitive and easy. Over three days of continuous use, battery life was still at 93%.
Bad / The watch can be hard to put on. OLED display outside looks dim. Sometimes turning the watch to see the time doesn’t work–requiring a button press.
Verdict / The Xiaomi Mi Band 2 delivers on all its promises. It’s the best smart watch / fitness tracker for the price without a question. The app works flawlessly, with tons of functionalities.
Visit Xiaomi Mi Band 2 On Amazon
Xiaomi Mi Band 2 Review
Price
Right now the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 sits at $49.99 on Amazon. Another similar product to the Mi Band 2 would be the Fitbit Alta which retails at $129.95. The Mi Band 2 is the ONLY product of this category that you can get at this price, which makes it a great value. The Fitbit Flex 2 is $99.95, and you can’t even read the time.
Hardware
The Xiaomi Mi Band 2 has a ton of features for being such a cheap small device. With the Xiaomi Mi Band 2, you get these features:
Bluetooth Sync
OLED Touch Screen
Heart-Rate Monitor
Incoming calls / text alerts / app alerts
Sleep monitoring
Step/fitness monitoring
Alarm
Waterproof
Smartphone compatible
A good amount of features right? But how do they work? Let’s find out!
Setup
Setting up the device is quite simple. Taking it out of the box showed charge at 53% (after an entire night of sleep tracking and a long walk the charge is still 99%)and the instructions (while they are in Chinese have a QR code to find the app easily, or you just search for Xiaomi, and you can find the app easily).
After installing the app, you bring your Mi Band 2 close to your phone and let it do it’s thing after setting up an account. Before long it’ll start installing updated firmware, and then you’re pretty much ready to go. Very easy setup and the Bluetooth sync works great.
After using something like a Pebble where setting up the watch and connecting it to my iPhone was pretty clunky, it’s a relief to see that setup is excellent for only being a $50 watch (compared to Pebble’s $100).
Features
Another important category with smart watches is what kind of features they have for the price. As I mentioned before, one of the main draws about this device is that it has so many features for so little money. You can read the time with the OLED display, as well as see other information without having to turn on your phone, and all of the other features work quite well.
Steps are counted accurately, and the heart rate monitor also works very well. It only takes around 5-10 seconds to get a good reading. You just navigate between three (or more) functions by tapping the dot on the top of the screen (time, steps, and heart rate). Staying on heart rate will give your reading.
I love the simplicity of the interface as well as how easy it is to switch between them (navigating on the Pebble always felt like a chore–and the Apple Watch feels too much like a phone to me). You can even add more interface options by navigating to Profile < device, and then adding which display settings you want to show (I decided to add battery life and the date to the time). It’s also neat since you can add heart rate detection while you’re sleeping to get a more accurate reading.
The Xiaomi app, despite some Chinese text here and there at the start, is very good and polished. While I don’t want to keep bagging on the Pebble app, this app here is VERY functional and easy to use without as many hiccups and bugs (of course there aren’t any apps to install or anything which might be the reason).
It’s easy to find information about your fitness (steps tracked, distance and calories burned). It’s also easy to find how out to use the watch since there’s a guide on the first page, and it’s also neat that you can connect with your friends to become “friends” and watch their progress. You can even share your status every day with the world to show how much you’ve walked.
The second tab in the app gives you the options that are the main “meat” of the app. Here you can control which notifications you can get, and I was surprised with how many work (you can even do app notifications like SnapChat, and email). For now, I’m just using text and call notifications, and they work great, and I can always feel the buzz. You can also set a buzz alarm here, as well as a notification when you’ve been sitting too long.
I also have tested out sleep monitoring, and despite some issues with the first Mi Band 1, the Mi Band 2 works very well. It tracked my total sleep time, my deep sleep, light sleep, what time I fell asleep at, as well as my wake time. The app’s interface is great since you can also see history, individual months, and even the ability to export the data. These features work in each section of the steps too.
Lastly, I want to mention the charger, which works very well. You simply slip the actual machine part of the wrist band into the port. it’s a bit like the Pebble charger, except more secure here since it kind of locks in the sliding mechanism.
Overall, the Mi Band 2’s app is super impressive and functional without any glitches, and every feature you would want is here. Battery life seems awesome so far as I mentioned already, I’m barely losing any percentage even after extended use. The software also works well on the actual watch.
Visit Xiaomi Mi Band 2 On Amazon
Aesthetic
The app has a great aesthetic, as we just mentioned–it’s very easy to use and modern looking. But what about the actual watch?
The watch is quite minimalist and straightforward, which is good–and it’s very comfortable (even when typing!). It is sleek and pretty similar to other fitness watches with a smooth rubbery feel. The actual computer inside the band can be removed in or out, and the OLED screen is bright indoors (not as bright outdoors, unfortunately, but still readable).
MY favorite part about the Mi Band 2 is how the little dot looks on it where you press to interact with it. It’s got a beautiful chrome shine. The buckle that goes into the back of the watch to secure the strap looks the same too.
Perhaps my only complaint with the Mi Band 2 is that it can be hard to put on due to the texture of the strap. It kind of sticks to itself when you’re securing the strap and the button can be a bit tricky to fashion. However, once you get the button to click inside a button hole, and it secures, it feels very satisfying and looks very nice.
Visit Xiaomi Mi Band 2 On AmazonIn Minsk on February 12, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko waived passports of Russian soldiers caught or killed in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s propagandists immediately scoffed at such “political comedy,” but Poroshenko’s display showed that Russia is waging an undeclared war, using regular troops with regular Russian military equipment to destroy a weaker army, while claiming it doesn’t have any troops in Ukraine. Even more convoluted, Putin has asserted that any Russians fighting in Ukraine are idealistic unpaid volunteers over whom the Kremlin has little influence. Putin even insists that “Russia is not a party to the conflict,” just a bystander.
Putin is practicing the Big Lie, and much of the world believes it.
Western news media and diplomats readily adopt Kremlin language. They speak routinely of “rebels, Russian-backed insurgents, separatists, and Ukrainian civil war,” rather than of Russian tanks and missile launchers manned by regular Russian troops, or of Russian generals directing the field of battle, or of Russian military-intelligence forces storming Donetsk airport. Editorial offices throughout the Western world caution: We don't have 100% proof, so let’s hedge our bets and go along with Putin-speak.
Putin’s Big Lies--no troops and equipment and no influence over separatist allies--are the foundation of his undeclared war on Ukraine narrative. Unwittingly, the Western press, diplomats, and pundits have played along due to their hesitancy to call a spade a spade.
Up until the past week, the West left Putin’s Big Lies unchallenged. Even the most outspoken of critics, such as U.N. ambassador Samantha Power, accused Russia of supplying and training separatists and avoided reference to regular troops.
European and American patience has finally worn out. The dam broke with state department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, speaking out on February 13 in the following clear words:
The Russian military has deployed a large amount of artillery and multiple rocket launcher systems around Debaltseve where it is shelling Ukrainian positions…We are confident these are Russian military not separatist systems. The Russian military also has air defense systems deployed near Debaltseve. We are also confident these are Russian military not separatist systems.
The European Union joined the U.S. yesterday and also referred to Russian forces in east Ukraine in its official documents. To its Official Journal, the EU added that a Russian defense official and two ranking generals to its official blacklist for involvement “in supporting the deployment of Russian troops in Ukraine” and for being “involved in shaping and implementing the military campaign of the Russian forces in Ukraine.” The text was signed off at the highest level by EU’s foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini, who has strictly avoided any reference to Russian armed forces being active in Ukraine.
The dramatic change in language over the past few days has occurred as Russian forces and separatists continue their shelling and encirclement of a key rail hub in violation of the “last ditch” February 12 accord. Minsk II still used cautious diplomatic language, such as “evidence of continued and growing support given to the separatists by Russia, which underlines Russia's responsibility,” and calls for “foreign armed groups” to leave Ukrainian territory.
An EU diplomat speaking off the record declared the new language a “clear and understandable message against Russian propaganda and all the lies about non-Russian engagement in the military conflict.”
Putin’s propaganda machine has hit a big sinkhole in the middle of the road. Its response will be furious, shrill and overwhelming, not only against bloggers and columnists, but the U.S. State Department and the European Commission as well.
The U.S commander in Europe explained why the West was “still splitting hairs about the nature of the insurgency.” He opined that some want an “ambiguity to give people who don’t want to believe it an excuse to not believe.”
The European and American rejection in clear language of the Kremlin’s phony narrative of a civil war fought by separatists and Russian “volunteers” deprives them of the “excuse not to believe.” It also means that they have labeled the leader of another country, one Vladimir Putin, a liar.
The first step in solving any problem is to clearly define what it is. Europe and the U.S. have reluctantly taken this step. The next is to act.Alright, this is a build made for nemesis so i wanted as much tanky as possible, with huge life and efficiently use defesive auras.
This is my build at the moment
Spoiler http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABCGcVIBZvGDwY2xzcHpQkPCepKPoppSpNLOktqDWSNns64T8nQYdFnUZxSTtJUUrITeNOKlXGVi1abVuvbBZuqm-edPF4unqqf8aCHoLHgwmD24UyiPGPRo_6kyeTOprgn3uio6ZXpwinXKw_rFmsf7GQtAy0o7Xytz631riTvSfB88M6ykrOcc9l0NDbC9tZ3FfdDedj6-7sGPF28kX56PxL_gr-jw==
This is the build i planned
Spoiler http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABCGcMfRB_EZYVIBZvFy8YPBjbGYoajxzcHRQdqh6UJDwksCepKPoppSpNLOktqC9vNZI2ezrhPydBh0WdRnFJO0lRSn1KyE3jTipVxlXWVi1abVuvZOdnoGwWbqpvnnC7dPF4unqqf8aApIIegseDCYPbhTKG0Yd2iPGPRo_6kyeTOprgm7Wfe6KjplenCKdcrD-sWax_sZC0DLSjtfK3PrfWuJO9J8HzwzrGnspKznHPZdDQ2RPbC9tZ3FfdDeGI52Pr7uwY8XbyRfba-ej60vsJ_Ev8xf4K_kn-jw==
As you can see, my main focus was getting many life nodes, then Iron Reflexes, life/mana %, mana regen rate, Eldritch Battery, Mind Over Matter and finally the aura nodes.
I'm using Grace so with IR, i get a nice amount of armour just from the aura. Also using discipline so my mana pool gets huge, which is needed since i'm using Mind Over Matter and Arctic Armour to mitigate even more the damage incoming. Also using Clarity to increase even more the mana regen rate.
Gear i'm using
Spoiler
Gems
Spoiler
DPS:
FP>GMP>Faster Proj.>Added Lightning Damage
Auras:
Discipline>Grace>Reduced Mana
Clarity>Reduced Mana>Blood Magic (Will remove BM when i get like 500 more mana or when i get some more mana reservation nodes)
My gear is not good right now but i can deal with it for now. Note that this build is still experimental so advice is welcome :)
Sitting on 4.5k life(500 reserved) and 2k mana(1.8k reserved). I feel very tanky for a level 65, even tho my dps is kinda bad(386 FP). Alright, this is a build made for nemesis so i wanted as much tanky as possible, with huge life and efficiently use defesive auras.This is my build at the momentThis is the build i plannedAs you can see, my main focus was getting many life nodes, then Iron Reflexes, life/mana %, mana regen rate, Eldritch Battery, Mind Over Matter and finally the aura nodes.I'm using Grace so with IR, i get a nice amount of armour just from the aura. Also using discipline so my mana pool gets huge, which is needed since i'm using Mind Over Matter and Arctic Armour to mitigate even more the damage incoming. Also using Clarity to increase even more the mana regen rate.Gear i'm usingGemsMy gear is not good right now but i can deal with it for now. Note that this build is still experimental so advice is welcome :)Sitting on 4.5k life(500 reserved) and 2k mana(1.8k reserved). I feel very tanky for a level 65, even tho my dps is kinda bad(386 FP). Last edited by ub3rly on Nov 14, 2013, 5:56:52 AMOswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit) is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Walt Disney for cartoon animal films and distributed by Universal Studios in the 1920s and 1930s, serving as the Disney studio's first animated character to feature in their own series. A total of 27 animated Oswald one-reelers were produced at Walt Disney Animation Studios (the Walt Disney Studio at the time). In 1928, Charles Mintz took the rights of Oswald from Walt Disney and claimed Oswald as an official Universal Studios character. In November 1928, as a replacement to compete with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Mickey Mouse for the Walt Disney Studio.[3]
In 2003, Buena Vista Games pitched a concept for an Oswald-themed video game to Disney President and COO Bob Iger, who then became committed to bringing Oswald back to Disney. In 2006, nearly 80 years after the Disney studio broke away from Universal, The Walt Disney Company managed to acquire the intellectual property of Oswald and the catalog of Disney-produced Oswald films (with NBCUniversal effectively trading Oswald for the services of Al Michaels as play-by-play announcer on NBC Sunday Night Football).
Oswald returned to prominence in Disney's 2010 video game, Epic Mickey. The game's metafiction plot parallels Oswald's real-world history, dealing with the character's feelings of abandonment by Disney, and envy towards Mickey Mouse. He has since appeared in Disney theme parks and comic books, as well as two follow-up games, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion. Oswald made his first appearance in a Disney animated production in 85 years through his cameo appearance in the 2013 animated short Get a Horse!. He was the subject of the 2015 feature film Walt Before Mickey. Oswald also appears as a townsperson in Disney Infinity 2.0.
Characteristics [ edit ]
During his days under Disney, Oswald was one of the first cartoon characters that had personality. As outlined by Walt himself: "Hereafter we will aim to [make] Oswald a younger character, peppy, alert, saucy and venturesome, keeping him also neat and trim."[4] With Oswald, Disney began to explore the concept of "personality animation", in which cartoon characters were defined as individuals through their movements, mannerisms and acting, instead of simply through their design. Around this period, Disney had expressed, "I want the characters to be somebody. I don't want them just to be a drawing."[5] Not only were gags used, but his humor differed in terms of what he used to make people laugh. He presented physical humor, used situations to his advantage, presented situational humor in general and frustration comedy best shown in the cartoon The Mechanical Cow. He would make use of animal limbs to solve problems and even use his own limbs as props and gags. He could be squished as if he was made of rubber and could turn anything into tools. His distinct personality was inspired by Douglas Fairbanks for his courageous and adventurous attitude as seen in the cartoon short Oh, What a Knight.[6]
In regards to Oswald's personality, Disney historian David Gerstein highlights the distinct differences between Mickey and Oswald as thus:
“ Imagine Mickey if he were a little more egotistical or fallible, or imagine Bugs Bunny if he talked the talk but wasn't as good at walking the walk.[7] ”
In order to make his Oswald cartoons look "real", Disney turned away from the styles of Felix the Cat, Koko the Clown and Krazy Kat and began emulating the camera angles, effects and editing of live-action films. To learn how to base gags on personality and how to build comic routines, rather than heaping one gag after another, he studied Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. In order to stir emotion in an audience, Disney studied and scrutinized the shadow effects, cross-cutting and staging of action in films featuring Douglas Fairbanks and Lon Chaney.[5]
Walt Disney did not want for Oswald to simply be "a rabbit character animated and shown in the same |
German, Italian, and Spanish games which was broken in 1.14.3 (sorry!)
Fixed bug in PID generation of Hidden Grotto encounters
Added support for French, German, Italian, and Spanish Black 2 / White 2 on DS / DS Lite
Added support for French and Italian Black 2, and German White 2, on DSi / 3DS
Added correct ESV calculation for Black 2 / White 2 games
Fixed issue where non-Japanese Black 2 / White 2 game versions were missing from the various seed inspectors
Fixed issue where Hidden Grotto Searcher window would disappear when you tried to resize it
Added support for English Black 2 / White 2 on DSi/XL/3DS
Fix for bug in Trainer ID Frame Searcher which caused it to randomly fail to find IDs
Added support for English Black 2 / White 2 on the original DS and DS Lite
Added a new parameter searcher specifically for Black 2 / White 2 that is much easier and quicker than the IV checking technique used in Black / White
Added Gen 4 Trainer ID abuse support
Added ability to search for a specific TID (with optional SID) without needed to specify a PID to be shiny in the Gen 5 Trainer ID searcher
Fixed problems with Chatot chatters in the Wondercard Seed Inspector
Added support for Japanese Black 2 / White 2 on DSi / XL / 3DS.
Added Dream Radar support.
Added Hidden Hollow generation support.
Added support for shiny charm in Standard Seed Searcher.
Added support for the effects of the having done a memory link with a Black / White game. This affects the initial PID frame and also has a small effect on Dream Radar.
Added a larger seed cache to cover a number of different scenarios. This has increased the application size by about 10 megabytes. Standard Seed search is fastest within the first 6 IV frames. Faster searching is supported up to IV frame 100 for Black 2 / White 2 and frame 102 for Black / White. This includes C-Gear seeds for Black 2 and White 2. Instant search for Black / White C-Gear seeds is supported up to frame 100. Faster search for Dream Radar seeds is supported up to frame 40 for slot 1.
Fixed the broken CSV output functionality.
Fixed a bug in the calculation of the expected number of results in the 4th Gen seed searcher.
All table columns can now be resized.
1.12.0
Added support for Japanese Black 2 / White 2 on DS / DS Lite. Except for C-Gear seed searches, all Gen 5 RNG abuse types supported for Black / White should also work for Black 2 / White 2. On Japanese Black 2 / White 2 retail cartridges Timer0 shows more variance than in Black / White, having up to 6 different values. The use of an external timer (eg. a stopwatch) is highly recommended to avoid frustration. In Black 2 / White 2, C-Gear seeds are not used. Turning on the C-Gear just advances the Standard Seed IV frame by 2 instead of reseeding the IV RNG as in Black / White.
Added support for double grass encounters. At this time, only the Pokemon on the right side of a double battle can be RNG abused.
Changed the way that configurations are handled in the Gen 5 seed inspectors to eliminate the need to create a new configuration in order to inspect the details of a seed.
Fixed a bug that would produce wrong results when starting a search from Janurary 1, 2000.
1.11.1
1.11.0
1.10.0
1.9.0
1.8.2
1.8.0A 2016 replica of Walter Schulze-Mittendorff's "Maria"
The Maschinenmensch (German for "robot" or literally "machine-person") is a fictional character in Fritz Lang's film Metropolis, played by German actress Brigitte Helm in both its robot form and human incarnation. She is a gynoid (female robot or android) created by the scientist Rotwang. Named Maria in the film, and "Futura" in Thea von Harbou's original novel Metropolis, she was one of the first robots ever depicted in cinema.
The Maschinenmensch has been given several names through the decades: Parody, Ultima, Machina, Futura, Robotrix, False Maria, Robot Maria, Roboria and Hel. The intertitles of the 2010 restoration of Metropolis quotes Rotwang, the robot's creator, referring to his gynoid Maschinenmensch, literally translated as "Machine human".
The novel version [ edit ]
In the novel, the Maschinenmensch is destroyed. Though mention is made of Rotwang's former lover, Hel, they are never directly associated with each other.[citation needed]
The film version [ edit ]
The film version is different due to obvious constraints of the practical special effects available at the time. The Maschinenmensch is a metallic automaton shaped like a woman. In the film version Rotwang proudly proclaims that Hel, Rotwang's former lover, is not dead but alive in the form of the automaton. Hel chose Fredersen over Rotwang, something for which Rotwang never forgave Fredersen.
Walter Schulze-Mittendorff, the robot's designer, described how it was made.[1] He originally considered making the robot from beaten copper, but it would be too heavy to wear and difficult to achieve. He then discovered a sample of "plastic wood", a new material which was very easy to sculpt into the required shape. Using a plaster body cast of actress Brigitte Helm, Mittendorff cut large chunks of plastic wood, rolled flat with a pin and draped them over the cast, like pieces of a suit of armour. The resulting costume was then spray-painted with cellon varnish spray mixed with silvery bronze powder which gave it a very convincing appearance of polished metal. The description in the original film script makes an analogy to an Egyptian statue.
The 2010 restoration of Metropolis revealed a previously unseen scene where Rotwang is confiding with the robot telling her about his plans. The shot is unusual because it reveals part of the back of the robot, mostly the back of her head and shoulders.
Unfortunately the cast was made standing up, making movements such as sitting down somewhat difficult and uncomfortable. According to actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, it was very tight and confining, pinching and scratching the actress despite many attempts by the stage hands to file away all sharp edges. People took pity on Brigitte Helm and slipped coins into slots in the armour, which she collected to buy chocolate in the canteen.[2] The scene where Rotwang presents his creation to Fredersen took nine days to film in January 1926.[3] Director Fritz Lang shot the scene so many times that an exhausted Brigitte Helm asked him why she should play the role, when no one would possibly know she was inside the costume. Lang answered, "I'd know."[4] Helm's son believes that Lang was trying to teach the 17-year-old girl some discipline and mould her in his image, almost in analogy to the characters she played.[5] The costume allowed little freedom of movement. To help Brigitte Helm get up from the throne made of sheet metal, a wooden rig was constructed, so that a stage hand could give her a push. Behind the scenes stills show the rig and the hinged plate on the seat.[6][7]
The memorable transformation scene was another early miracle of special effects, using a series of matte cutouts of the robot's silhouette and a number of circular neon lights. All effects were filmed directly into the camera rather than edited separately. As a result, the film had to be rewound and exposed many tens of times over to include the plates showing the heart and circulatory systems as well as cuts between the robot form and Maria showing her gradual transformation.
For years people have speculated how the light circle animation was made. The magazine Science and Invention suggested at the time that fluorescent lights were used as a purely practical effect, moved up and down manually on invisible wires by stage hands. In later years Fritz Lang said in interviews that a brightly lit steel ball used as a pendulum was filmed or photographed with a long exposure time in front of a black screen and was then composited onto the image, though this is not consistent with the multiple exposure method used.
According to the film's set designer, Erich Kettelhut, a glass plate was positioned halfway between the robot and the camera. The silhouette of the robot and throne were carefully drawn onto a piece of plywood to be used as a matte, and using a pair of circular neon lights of a diameter corresponding with the matte's silhouette. By covering the glass plate with grease and filming the moving lights through it the illusion of a light circle moving up and down was created.[8]
When playing human Maria's evil twin—the gynoid (female android) in fully human form—Brigitte Helm wore heavy makeup and her expressions, gestures, and poses were strongly exaggerated and jerky compared to Maria's normally very composed and demure demeanor.
The Maschinenmensch is an archetypal example of the Frankenstein complex, where artificial creations turn against their creator and go on a rampage. Artificial beings with a malevolent nature were a popular theme at the time, as seen in films such as Der Golem or Marcel Lherbier's L'Inhumaine. In a once-missing part of the film, Rotwang explicitly instructs the robot to pervert Fredersen's orders and help bring down his worst enemy, which helps explain her destructive behaviour. Different incomplete restorations of the film made since the original offered different explanations of the robot's behaviour (one, for example, saying that Rotwang has in fact lost control of the robot and it is not under anyone's control), or no explanation at all. The 2010 restoration, complete for all practical purposes, depicts Rotwang deliberately instructing the robot Maria, thus finally clarifying the gynoid Maria's motivation.
In the end, after the gynoid Maria has incited the workers to riot and destroy the city's machines, which causes the subterranean worker's city to flood, the workers believe it has caused their children to die by drowning in the flooded city. They capture gynoid Maria and burn her at the stake, though it reverts to mechanical robot form just before its destruction.
Popular culture [ edit ]
The Maschinenmensch's appearance and concept has influenced many artists over the years. It was depicted on the 1977 album Live! In The Air Age by Be-Bop Deluxe. The still displayed on the album is of the climactic scene where the appearance of Maria is being installed onto the robot and rings of light are circling around the robot's body. Heavy metal band Y&T's 1985 album Down for the Count has a cover illustration depicting the robot being held by Count Dracula as he prepares to sink his fangs into her neck. German band Kraftwerk's 1978 album Die Mensch-Maschine is a clear reference to the film and has a track titled "Metropolis." Original designs by Ralph McQuarrie for C-3PO in Star Wars were largely based on the Maschinenmensch, albeit in a male version. The design was later refined, but retains clear Art Deco influences. It featured in the video clip of Queen's song "Radio Ga Ga", in which Freddie Mercury's face was superimposed on the robot's face.
Fashion designer Thierry Mugler created several outfits in silver metal and transparent plastic for one of his collections in the 1990s. Pop singers Beyoncé,[9] Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga have used outfits inspired by the Maschinenmensch and Janelle Monáe was directly influenced by the concept of the Maschinenmensch in the creation of her Metropolis suite album. Whitney Houston's music video for "Queen of the Night" makes frequent use of shots of the Maschinenmensch, particularly where Maria's body is transferred onto the robot. In the BBC series Torchwood series 1 episode 4 ("Cyberwoman"), the CGI sequence of the Cyberwoman's resurrection is reminiscent of that of the Maschinenmensch, featuring similar glowing rings of light around a static female robotic figure.[10]
Replicas [ edit ]
Though some props and costumes from Metropolis did survive, the iconic Maschinenmensch apparently was destroyed during filming, although its actual fate is unknown.
Replicas of the robot are found in many museums, notably in the Berlin Filmmuseum, The Cinématheque Francaise in Paris, and the Museum of the Moving Image in London. Oddly enough, almost all versions are silver rather than the original golden-bronze colour.
One made by Walter Schulze-Mittendorff for Henri Langlois in the 1970s is on permanent display in the Cinématheque in Paris-Bercy. The Bibliothèque du Film attached to the Cinématheque set up a very detailed website about its replica.
Forrest J Ackerman had a replica made by sculptor Bill Malone.
A replica can be seen at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington
The 1996 Deutscher Filmpreis ceremony had the Maschinenmensch (played by actress Elke Berges) distribute the awards
ceremony had the (played by actress Elke Berges) distribute the awards An official replica of the costume by Kropserkel Inc. and WSM Art Management (the family of Walter Schulze-Mittendorff) is being constructed at a dedicated web page.[11]
See also [ edit ]Janet Boynes, a former lesbian who now, as a follower of Christ, helps others engaged in the lifestyle find freedom
When I address the controversy regarding homosexuality, I always receive a large amount of emails. Unfortunately, much of it is hate mail. I believe in compassion without compromise; standing for what you believe while maintaining a Christlike attitude.
The Bible says, "Stand up for me against world opinion and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you?" Matthew 10:33 (MSG).
We have too many Christians living their lives according to the proclamations of the social media. There are many in the media who are using their platform to sway the minds of many to think like they do; they should not dictate how we live our lives. The last I checked, we are in this world but not of the world. Lukewarm Christians are powerless to bring about the societal/spiritual change that we need.
"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." John 15:19 (NASB).
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We must understand that being in the world, but not of it, is necessary if we are to be a light to those who are in spiritual darkness. We are to live in such a way that those outside the faith see our good deeds and our manner of life and know that there is something "different" about us. Christians, who live, think and act like those who do not know Christ do Him a great disservice. Even the heathen knows that "by their fruits you shall know them;" and as Christians, we should exhibit the fruit of the Spirit which is within us.
If we are going to be a lukewarm Christian then we will continue to be led astray by the world and their views. "I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!" Revelation 3:16 (NLT).
An on-fire Christian, then, will stand strong in what they know to be true, but they will also operate in compassion and grace. During the course of Jesus' ministry on earth, He most often ministered to those who were hurting, sick, poor or hungry. He ministered to the spiritual souls of the people, but He also did not neglect their physical needs. Jesus walked in authority both spiritually and morally, but people came to Him because of His ability to meet their physical needs. Dearest Church, we need to follow Christ's example.
What are the specific needs of the homosexual community? How can the Church meet the desires of those struggling with homosexuality and help their hearts experience healing? How can we make an eternal difference in their lives?
My own experience as a former lesbian causes me to believe that many in the homosexual community are searching for love and acceptance. I know my search was driven by the events and abuse in my childhood. I truly felt like I was never able to fit into society's cookie-cutter image of what a young girl or woman should be like. I desperately needed to find love, to feel love and to experience love.
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Church, let us open our arms to the hurting. Let us lead the way. Let us take the first step. It starts with how we treat others. It means not looking down on others because they have sinned. We all have sinned. We can and should call sin like it is, but our place is not to judge; our place is to love and to support each other as we all try to become more Christlike. Let us lift up those who are struggling and point them toward a relationship with Jesus Christ.
We need to do more, however, than merely treating those struggling with homosexuality nicely. I would like to suggest something that some might consider a radical way of reaching out to the homosexual community, but it is an option I believe could bear incredible fruit: Let us open the doors of our churches and homes to those who wish to leave homosexuality.
Very few churches offer any sort of ministry to those who struggle with homosexual feelings or behavior. The Church as a whole hasn't taken the time to educate itself about homosexuality or about how to minister to those caught in that lifestyle. We will never be able to make a difference in the lives of gays and lesbians unless we are able to offer a realistic alternative, a way out. It starts by opening our doors.
I do not wish to suggest that we should go out and force gays and lesbians to become straight. That is the last thing we should do. Rather, we should open our doors and invite them in to experience the real love that a relationship with Jesus Christ offers. If they accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, we then need to be able to help them realize they can be set free from homosexuality. Leaving homosexuality must be a choice the individual makes as they observe the will of God in the Scriptures.
When I first began attending Maple Grove Assembly of God, I quickly became involved in a women's Bible study. For the first time in years, I worked with women in a non-sexual manner, and I was able to learn a great deal from them. I learned about my identity as a woman, how to dress like a woman, how to walk like a woman, and how to put on makeup. God is not merely concerned with outside appearances; He looks first at the heart. Most importantly, I learned through those women about the love of God and how He was calling me to live a righteous life.
The Bible study I attended wasn't specifically designed for people to come out of homosexuality, but it didn't matter. Those women loved me like a sister and a daughter. They prayed for me and accepted me for who I was, all the while encouraging me to become the person God called me to be. They gave me advice and instruction, but they also helped meet my physical needs. For their actions, instruction and love, I am eternally grateful.
I want to challenge you as a reader: Does your church have any ministries that reach out to those who struggle with homosexuality? If a gay or lesbian were to walk into your church on Sunday, how would they be treated? Would you be able to walk up to them and greet them with a smile? Would you be able to tell them that God loves them, no matter what they've done, no matter where they've been? Some of our generation is uninterested in what the word of God says for these last days regarding homosexuality. Some of us might even prefer popularity over principle. Popularity is not the reason we are here on this earth. We are in the world, but not of it. Some of us, however, are in the world and very much look like the world.
One of the avenues we are utilizing to reach those who are struggling is a conference that is being held in Lake Mary, Florida on August 15-16, 2014. We are partnering with Charisma Media and we're reaching out not only to people from Central Florida, but those around the nation. You can go to my website for more information. At this conference you can hear people talk about how they came out of homosexuality as well as helpful information on how to minister to people who are hurting in this area. Together, we are raising a voice a voice of hope and freedom.
Janet Boynes is the founder of Janet Boynes Ministries, a nondenominational outreach that ministers to individuals questioning their sexuality and those who wish to leave homosexuality. As the author of Called Out, Boynes chronicles her story of living as a lesbian for 14 years until God called her out of that lifestyle.
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See an error in this article? Send us a correctionPaul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, January 7, 2010
With the resistance to naked body scanners in airports building, the corporate media is now claiming that technology which allows fat TSA thugs sitting in back rooms to ogle your naked daughter actually “enhances privacy”.
In our Orwellian brave new world where down is the new up, University of Ottawa professor Mark Salter gushes over the virtual strip searches with a gusto that makes you wonder whether he’s on the same payroll as people like Michael Chertoff, who have been aggressively promoting the scanners they are invested in as a solution to the underwear bomber threat, no matter that such scanners would not even have stopped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Flight 253.
In his Globe and Mail article, Salter doesn’t try to deny that the scanner produces a crisp image of your naked body, indeed, he ends his piece by asking, “Will Canadians be willing to fly naked?”
“Let me be controversial by saying the millimetre-wave scanner actually enhances privacy,” Salter ludicrously claims, arguing that everything is kosher because the government has promised to keep the strip search anonymous and not store the details in a database – and you can really trust them – after all, governments never keep illegal databases of our information do they? They haven’t been caught doing exactly that on almost every front since 9/11.
Salter isn’t really concerned about how a man with no passport who was on a terror watchlist and who was aided by a sharp-dressed man after his own father had warned U.S. intelligence that he was a threat was allowed to board a plane. No, that pales into insignificance, what’s really important is that brow-beaten Americans and Canadians, who are already treated like criminals and ordered around like prisoners by airport gestapo, are forced to undergo yet more humiliation by being routinely strip-searched, just as the Nazis did to the populations that they conquered during world war two.
Salter is also unperturbed by the fact that the body scanners fire ionizing radiation at the body which penetrates a few centimeters into the flesh and unzips DNA, increasing the risk of cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
He is similarly unflustered at the fact that the body scanners violate laws against child pornography because they produce indecent images of children, meaning airports will become the primary peddlers of child porn.
Salter couldn’t care less that top civil liberties groups in Canada have publicly attacked the scanners as a violation of human dignity.
[efoods]Salter thinks that thugs in uniforms who have made getting into America a worse experience than entering East Berlin sitting alone in back rooms enjoying naked images of your children is a good thing, because apparently being alone in a private room while staring at people’s genitals all day is sure to encourage nothing but the utmost professionalism, I’m sure.
Since Salter’s enthusiasm to see the invasion of the body scanners become a reality is so effusively boundless, he’ll doubtless also welcome the next wave of tyranny being prepared for travelers – mandatory taser bracelets that allow officials to electric shock passengers on a whim, passive brain scanners that pick up brain waves in order to sense the behavior of travelers, as well as surveillance cameras on every seat providing a big brother babysitter for every potentially disobedient slave.
People like Salter and others in the establishment press who are pushing naked body scanners certainly know which side their bread is buttered on. Since the corporate media is owned by the very military-industrial complex making a windfall from the orders for thousands of scanners now being made, as well as the shot in the arm for the fraudulent war on terror helpfully provided by the underwear bomber, it’s unsurprising that we’re seeing such ceaseless propaganda in favor of the scanners.
But an outraged hardcore of Americans, Canadians and people from around the world are standing up and saying enough is enough – with boycotts, lawsuits and mass protests in the pipeline as part of a growing resistance against the latest manifestation of the prison planet being constructed around free humanity.M.T. Black, Tony Petrecca, Patrick E. Pullen and Jeff C. Stevens present The Tome of Adventures, a fantastic collection of twelve critically acclaimed 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons modules.
Within these 296 pages your heroes will fight the legendary Killer Kobolds, save Neverwinter from a plummeting wizard's tower, uncover the mysteries of Dragon's Breath Tavern, confront a powerful undead beholder beneath its House of Horror, and much, much more.
With challenges ranging from 1st through 17th level, these outstanding adventures can be played as one-shots, or be readily incorporated into any ongoing campaign.
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The following adventures are included in this collection -
Follow us on twitter @Jcorvinstevens, @MTBlack2567, @raistlin0072 and @TonyPetrecca.London, May 16, 2014?? Acclaimed indie developer Alan Zucconi and UK independent publisher Mastertronic are delighted to announce new updates to gravity simulator 0RBITALIS, currently available on Steam Early Access.
0RBITALIS is a simulation that blends physics perfection with gaming, accentuated by Alan??s trademark aesthetic and highlighted by the fusion of ambient audio and static noise, enhancing the player??s perception of being in space.
The mission: control the trajectory of a satellite in different celestial situations to successfully orbit the various objects in a given time limit. The objective: figure out which direction to push the satellite so that it won't collide into any other objects while staying in orbit. Stay alert - you only get one chance to launch the satellite before you are left to the mercy of the gravitational pulls from other planets.
Success is not just determined by how long you last in orbit - points are awarded by more complex orbits. With over 50 missions to explore and innovative in-game interaction, 0RBITALIS offers a unique experience blending simple but effective visual artistry with physics perfection. The music and audio by composer Doseone, known for the soundtrack of "Samurai Gunn", adds a unique atmosphere to the game.
Now, further updates have been added to the game to further enrich the celestial experience. Friend leaderboards have been added and histograms let you compare score distribution at a glance. Quality settings and zoom effects have also been refined to create a more streamlined user experience. Think you??ve mastered your orbit? Ten new levels have now been added to up the challenge!
Alan Zucconi said,??Exactly one month ago, 0RBITALIS was released on Steam Early Access. It's hard to describe the amount of positive feedback I got from the community. Seeing people playing for days, trying to achieve a stable orbit, has been the biggest reward for me. This is why the update brings new features such as friends leaderboards and histograms, to better compare scores not only with the top players but with the entire community. The overall experience has been enhanced, thanks to new ambient soundtracks from Doseone. I also showed the game to the developers of Kerbal Space Program, resulting in a secret level which reproduces the Kerbol System. The update also features homages to other big indie titles such as Robin Arnott's SoundSelf. I am looking forward to hearing the players' feedback and I really can't wait to the next update.??
Stuart Morton, Producer at Mastertronic, added,??0RBITALIS has been going down a storm with the thousands of people who have so far picked it up through Early Access and this update by Alan is the result of him listening to feedback from the community. The Steam Early Access community continues to be a great way to help developers build their game and I have no doubt it will continue to improve 0RBITALIS with each update.??
0RBITALIS is available on Steam Early Access for PC.
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/278440/
Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MastertronicGames
Join the conversation now: #0rbitalis @Mastertronic @AlanZucconi @doseonetweets
About Alan Zucconi
Alan Zucconi is a passionate independent developer, awarded as one of Develop's??30 Under 30??. He started his career to fully explore his creativity, designing experimental gameplays and interactive experiences. His upcoming titles include the time travel platformer??Still Time?? and the gravity simulator??0RBITALIS??. Ask him for a biscuit.
About Doseone
Adam Drucker, better known by his stage name Doseone, is an American rapper, producer, poet and artist. He is a co-founder of the indie hip hop record label Anticon. He has also been a member of numerous groups including Deep Puddle Dynamics, Greenthink, Clouddead, Themselves, Subtle and 13 & God.
About Mastertronic
Mastertronic is a multi-platform independent games publisher working with independent games developers making games that we want to play ourselves. We love games, games developers and gamers.Anti-nationalism denotes the sentiments associated with an opposition to nationalism. The imposition of nationalism as a belief or identity system, particularly when in conflict with more established and self-sustaining identity choices, often based on freely chosen religious or cultural beliefs and practices can be understood to undermine the legitimacy of territory-based nationalism. Various forms of internationalism propose alternatives. They do not all necessarily oppose the concepts of countries, nation states, national boundaries, cultural preservation, and identity politics; for example, present-day multilateralism does not, whereas proletarian internationalism and various kinds of cosmopolitanism explicitly do so.
Some anti-nationalists oppose all types of nationalism, including ethnic nationalism among oppressed minority groups. Variations on this theme are often seen in Marxist theory. Marx and Engels rejected nationalism as a whole, stating that, "the working men have no country".[1] Many Trotskyists, however, such as Chris Harman, were critical of nationalism while advocating support for what they saw as progressive national struggles.[2]
Cases [ edit ]
Anarchism has developed a critique of nationalism that focuses on nationalism's role in justifying and consolidating state power, domination, and wealth. Through its unifying goal, nationalism strives for centralization, both in specific territories and in a ruling elite of individuals, while it prepares a population for capitalist exploitation. Within anarchism, this subject has been treated extensively by Rudolf Rocker in Nationalism and Culture and by the works of Fredy Perlman, such as Against His-Story, Against Leviathan and The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism.[3]
In his Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life, Arthur Schopenhauer rejects nationalism, seeing it as an abandonment of personal identity.[4] In his clarifying work, Ecce Homo, Friedrich Nietzsche unequivocally denounces nationalism in the strongest terms, describing it as "this most anti-cultural sickness and unreason there is, nationalism, this nervose nationale with which Europe is sick, this perpetuation of European particularism, of petty politics...a dead-end street."[5] Søren Kierkegaard's philosophy is a criticism and vehement rejection of Christian nationalism.[6]
India [ edit ]
The charge of being 'anti-national' is common in India. Like in the West, there has been a revival of nationalist sentiment in 21st century India. This takes the form of non-sectarian Indian nationalism and also exclusionary Hindu nationalism.
According to G. Sampath in The Hindu, Left intellectuals, a certain religious minority [Islam], anti-nuclear activists, beef eaters, non-haters of Pakistan, inter-religious couples, homosexuals, and labor activists have all been labelled 'anti-national'.[7]
Notable anti-nationalists [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]A fake version of the Android WhatsApp app was downloaded a million times from the Google Play Store before users discovered the fraud, and Google removed it.
Google appears not to have done enough to prevent scammers from using well-known apps, such as WhatsApp, from simply copying familiar app names, icons, and developer names and distributing them to unsuspecting Play Store customers.
One of several fake WhatsApp apps was downloaded between one million and five million times before it was flagged by users on Reddit. The app, which was called 'Update WhatsApp', looked identical to the real WhatsApp.
To dupe Android users, those behind the fake app differentiated its developer ID from WhatsApp's ID by adding Unicode encoding for a type of space, known as a 'no-break space', at the end of the name.
So, the real WhatsApp developer ID URL looks like this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=WhatsApp+Inc
Whereas the fake WhatsApp developer ID URL looked like this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=WhatsApp+Inc.%C2%A0
The app concealed its presence on devices by creating a blank icon, so that it couldn't be seen in the Apps screen after being installed.
Fortunately, the developer appears only to have used the bogus app to make money through advertising. However, the same technique could have been used to distribute more harmful malware.
Avast mobile security researcher Nikolaos Chrysaidos discovered more bogus WhatsApp apps over the weekend. He's also flagged several other fake WhatsApp apps on Google Play over the last month, including fake Facebook Messenger apps.
The Play Store is widely recommended as the safest place from which to install Android but Google has had trouble keeping it free of malware. The latest trend among developers is to hide cryptocurrency miners in apps, which use a device's CPU without asking the user permission.
Android users are advised to check apps carefully before installing them, including reading user reviews. However, in this case the bogus WhatsApp app had a four-star rating and over 6,000 reviews.
Image: Nikolaos Chrysaidos
Previous and related coverage
This bank data stealing Android malware is back - and it's now even sneakier
BankBot trojan malware waits twenty minutes after the app is used before moving to run its payload.
Android malware in Google Play racked up 4.2M downloads: Are you a victim?
Malware authors cash in on Android users through SMS fraud and unwanted online subscriptions.
Streaming media policy [Tech Pro Research]
There are many legitimate business reasons to access streamed audio and video files, such as engaging in training, reviewing news or industry-related content or conducting business research.
Read more about Android securityDumped shock jock Howard Sattler said he was desperate to continue working in radio, but was considering entering politics by standing against Defence Minister Stephen Smith in the seat of Perth at the forthcoming federal election.
Howard Sattler sacked by 6PR
Mr Smith has refused to appear on Sattler’s show for years due to his on-air behaviour.
Mr Smith said Fairfax radio did the right thing by firing Sattler over such a “disgraceful” interview.
“If Howard had done the decent thing, he would have fallen on his sword first,” he told ABC’s 7.30 WA on Friday.
Mr Smith has held the seat of Perth for Labor since 1993. He won almost 56 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote at the 2010 election.
Sattler was suspended from the Perth airwaves after his Thursday afternoon interview with Prime Minister Julia Gillard in which he asked if her partner, Tim Mathieson, was gay.
Less than 24 hours later, he was sacked from Fairfax-owned Radio 6PR and his regular spot on the Seven Network’s Sunrise program.
Sattler was diagnosed last year with Parkinson’s disease and believes his slurred speech was the real reason he was sacked from the radio.
However, 6PR general manager Martin Boylen rejected the claim.
“That is categorically untrue,” Mr Boylen told Perth Now.
He said Sattler was fired due to his disrespectful and inappropriate questions to the PM.
Sattler said he rejected an offer of six months’ pay to the end of his contract, instead planning to pursue an unfair dismissal claim.
###Once again a good and decent man is being maligned. Sen. Jeff Sessions, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be U.S. attorney general, is that man. Democrats and the Left, just as they did 30 years ago when Sessions was nominated for a federal judgeship, are trying to derail his nomination — with false accusations.
In 1986, the Democrats trotted out J. Gerald Hebert, a U.S. Justice Department Civil Rights Division lawyer. Hebert made headlines when he testified under oath during the public Senate hearing. The major accusation against Sessions, who was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, was that he blocked the filing of a civil rights voting case that government lawyers wanted to prosecute.
Hebert’s testimony was simple and straightforward: He claimed he had “personal knowledge” of the case and detailed how it was thwarted. “[W]e found out,” he said, “that, in fact, Mr. Sessions had gotten |
is a classifier that comes bundled with OpenCV called a Haar Classifier, so I didn’t need to even train the classifier to just get something to run. Not bad for 48 hours of work if I don’t say so myself (6 actual hours more or less when you throw away distractions).
Improvements There are lots of improvements that could be made to the actual "problem" I was trying to solve. If you ran the above example code, you probably saw some jittering in the facial detection. It’s not much jitter, but the classifier has a bunch of parameters that I could tune, including min and max object size thresholds, and a neighbors parameter that controls how confident the classifier needs to be to designate something as a face. I think there probably would be a much larger improvement if, instead of independently detecting faces in each frame, I changed the recognition to instead "follow" a face in successive frames once one was detected. This would probably fix some of the alignment issues when doing the flipping. Searching around a bit there certainly seem to be quite a few examples that use this technique instead. Beyond the particular fun I was trying to have, there’s lots of room for improvement in the bindings themselves. As I mentioned, the bindings mostly implement the particular functionality I needed to do the above, and no more. It’s essentially trivial though to add any other part of OpenCV that I’ve seen so far, which is quite promising. Adding a small Python API on top of that (as I did with some of the objects in the example) would then be helpful to clean things up a bit. There also likely is a lot of room for improvement if I can avoid OpenCV’s memory management, but I haven’t been able to do so yet (have I mentioned how little C I know?). CFFI will better be able to manage garbage collection if I can allocate my own memory entirely. What seems even more promising would be to hook up OpenCV-CFFI with numpypy and to operate on numpypy arrays. There’s some code in OpenCV’s own bindings to translate back and forth between numpy arrays and OpenCV’s array types, but I haven’t yet managed to either reimplement it or get access to it.
Performance Speaking of performance, in my short couple of hours, I haven’t carefully benchmarked (or even sanity checked) the code I’ve written so far, so take any performance numbers with a grain of salt. When running the example discussed above though, and doing a rough FPS calculation, on my 2013 iMac I can get around 20 fps doing the facial recognition, but it seems like this iMac’s camera is limited to 30 fps overall. A faster camera would likely have an even higher overall frame rate after the recognition. If anyone reading this has one, I’d love to know how that goes. Similarly if I moved doing the recognition out of the loop reading the frames, I probably could get that number even higher, but during the hackathon I had trouble reading directly from video devices without using OpenCV’s capture objects. (I briefly looked at v4l and /dev/video but quickly gave up when I couldn’t get them working on either a laptop I have available or on my Nexus 4 phone). Doing direct camera reads is probably necessary to do memory allocation with cffi as well, since I don’t currently see an API in OpenCV that lets me hand it my own memory to put the frame into.
A Few Random Tidbits There were a few quirks I encountered along the way when writing the bindings. This was my first real exposure to CFFI, so there were quite a few CFFI-related things I learned: ffi.gc seems like the right way to attach deallocators to C data, unfortunately though OpenCV’s allocators, at least the ones I’ve used so far, are, e.g., cvCreateImage which returns a IplImage *, but its deallocator is cvReleaseImage, which takes an IplImage **. ffi.addressof doesn’t exactly do the right thing there for reasons I don’t fully understand, but I’d rather pursue doing my own memory allocation and deallocation with ffi.new.
OpenCV makes a few uses of non-constant C macros. It defines, for example: #define CV_FOURCC_MACRO(c1, c2, c3, c4) \ (((c1) & 255) + (((c2) & 255) << 8) + (((c3) & 255) << 16) + (((c4) & 255) << 24)) a macro it uses to create FourCC‘s, which are codes used to specify video output encodings. These obviously are not functions, so I can’t expose the macros directly via the #define and be able to use them from Python. I could write a wrapper function (in C) that uses the macro, and expose the wrapper function. Helpfully though, CFFI actually seems to be able to do this for me, so I can just write int CV_FOURCC_MACRO(int, int, int, int) and it will detect that I am wrapping a macro and define the appropriate wrapper function. The function is not polymorphic, but for all the cases I had to deal with that was acceptable.
Text processing is annoying. There are a few simple manipulations that I needed to perform on the C source in order to allow completely copying and pasting header files into CFFI without any hand manipulation at all. Besides the above macro calling, removing some macros like CV_DEFAULT(12) (a macro OpenCV uses to declare parameter defaults for C++ but which gets removed in C) means that I had to do some text manipulation on the source I was pasting into ffi.cdef, but I wish it were easier to treat the C-ish source as an AST or the like and to operate more intelligently on the contents. (When I asked a bit about this, I learned that I really should be being a bit more careful about writing the CFFI bindings than just copy/pasting out of the headers, for various reasons, so this is a bit of a longer topic. It still might be nice to have an auto-cffi wrapper generator library.)IF South Sydney fans are questioning Angus Crichton’s commitment to the club, they only need to look at his hand.
The young star has made the dramatic decision to chop off his finger in order to start the 2018 season with the Rabbitohs.
Foxsports.com.au can reveal the 21-year-old has had his middle finger on his left hand amputated.
Watch every NRL premiership game live in 2018 on Fox Sports. Sign up here to stream for free on a two week trial >
The amputation is below the middle knuckle and happened earlier this week.
Crichton’s manager David Rawlings was reluctant to discuss the procedure when contacted by foxsports.com.au on Thursday but did confirm he’d had the operation.
Crichton had already previously had several surgeries on his middle finger after rupturing the tendon while playing in the NYC.
MISSING LIMBS: Horror stories prove Crichton case ain’t so strange
Due to the injury, the backrower essentially had no knuckle on his finger which severely limited his range of movement.
Due to the lack of movement, he’s broken the finger numerous times over the past two seasons which has required four fusions to fix.
Writing for Players’ Voice earlier this month, Crichton revealed how difficult the finger injury had been to deal with.
“My finger has been an ongoing injury I’ve had since I was playing in the under-20s,” he wrote.
Angus Crichton breaks a tackle against the Warriors. Source: Getty Images
“Originally, I ruptured the tendon and this is the sixth surgery I’ve had on it.
“It’s the middle finger in my left hand and, a while back, I got it fused. I’ve got no knuckle in it. The doctor said I could either cut it off halfway or fuse it. I’ve had it fused several times now because I keep breaking it.
“I can’t bend the finger, so it’s like I’m constantly giving people the bird. If I clench my fist, my middle finger sticks out.
“One time, a while back, I accidentally cut someone off while I was driving and I put my hand up to wave at them to say sorry.
“The guy followed me all the way into a dead-end street. We each got out of our cars and he asked me if I’d stuck my finger up at him. I explained to him that I’d had it fused and it stuck out naturally. He understood after that.
“I don’t know what he was trying to achieve following me. He wasn’t a big bloke or anything, just an average Joe.
“I’ve decided this is the last time I’m getting it fused. It’s the fourth fusion that’s broken and if it happens again I’m going to have it cut it in half, because I’m just over it.
The young star has become a key contributor for Souths. Source: Getty Images
“It might leave me with only half a finger, but I guess it would save a lot of confusion.”
After signing a three-year deal with the Roosters from 2019, Crichton was told he needed another operation on his hand.
This time he’d had enough with the latest procedure to fix it slated to sideline him for 12 weeks.
That would have meant he’d miss the start of the season and Crichton refused to accept that.
Instead, he’s amputated the finger which has a recovery time of two weeks but it means he can complete pre-season training with the Rabbitohs and will be right to take the field on March 10 when Souths face the Warriors in Perth.
It’s an incredibly selfless decision for the backrower to make at such a young age — but it’s not the first time a footballer has taken the extreme step.
Former Hawthorn and West Coast Eagles player Daniel Chick had so much pain in his left ring finger due to a persistent dislocation he chose to have it partially amputated before immediately resuming his AFL career in 2002.
Daniel Chick’s amputated finger (pictured) impacted the latter part of his career. Source: News Corp Australia
Still, if there was any doubt about Crichton putting in for the Rabbitohs next season, those doubts should evaporate after sacrificing his finger for the team.
A lot has been made of Crichton’s decision this week to sign with the Roosters.
Foxsports.com.au broke the story on Monday that he’d inked a three-year deal with the Tricolours and while it’s been insinuated by rival publications and the general public that Crichton’s decision was a cash grab, the big money move would have been to join Cronulla.
While the Roosters are a juggernaut, the difference between the value of the contracts tabled by Souths and the Roosters may not be as significant as it has been made out.
With strong country values and a huge heart, Crichton isn’t a person motivated by money.
A mentor to young Aboriginal men, Crichton is a competitor.
Having grown up a Roosters fan, idolising the likes of Brad Fittler and Craig Fitzgibbon, it’s understood the opportunity to wear the same jersey as his heroes was a motivating factor along with winning a premiership.
It’s also no secret that he will likely at some point return to his roots in rugby union.
That point could well be for the 2023 Rugby World Cup when Crichton will be 27.
With his Roosters deal expiring at the end of 2021 it would give him a full season to make a transition back to the 15-man game and stake his claim for a Wallabies jersey if he chose to.
If this decision does represent a mapped out approach to his career, then taking the chance to return back to his junior club needed to happen now.
And if he does win that desired premiership, in the next four years, he’ll wear the ring with pride.
Just not on his middle finger.Another MF Global incident may be looming in the horizon. PFG Best just released this dramatic statement to its clients:
“Due to a recent emergency involving Russell R. Wasendorf, Sr., a suicide attempt, some accounting irregularities are being investigated regarding company accounts. PFGBEST is wholly owned by Mr. Wasendorf. Therefore, the NFA and other officials have put all funds on hold, and PFGBEST is in liquidation-only status with our clearing FCM. What this means is no customers are able to trade except to liquidate positions. Until further notice, PFGBEST is not authorized to release any funds. We will update you as any new procedures are stipulated and with any further information as it becomes available.”
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Apparently NFA and CFTC just walked into PFG’s offices and shut the broker down. According to our sources its Founder Russell Wasendorf attempted a suicide last night and some money may be missing from PFG’s accounts.
We’ll continue updating once new information flows in.Football Federation Australia has confirmed that the Olyroos’ matches in the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship (which doubles as the qualifiers for the 2016 Rio Olympics) will be LIVE streamed on the Olyroos and Socceroos websites.
The Olyroos play their first match of the tournament against the United Arab Emirates at the Grand Hamad Stadium in Doha at 3.30am AEDT tomorrow morning (Friday 15 January 2016).
The matches will be streamed on the Olyroos under23s.footballaustralia.com.au and Socceroos www.socceroos.com.au websites.
Olyroos Match Information
Thursday, 14 January
Australia v United Arab Emirates
Grand Hamad Stadium, Doha
Kick off 7.30pm local time (Friday 15 January, 3.30am AEDT)
Sunday, 17 January
Vietnam v Australia
Grand Hamad Stadium, Doha
Kick off 4.30pm local times (Monday 18 January, 12.30am AEDT)
Wednesday, 20 January
Jordan v Australia
Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha
Kick off 7.30pm local time (Thursday 21 January, 3.30am AEDT)
Olyroos SquadSlash’s girlfriend Meegan Hodges has reacted to Live Nation advertising Guns N’ Roses’ upcoming tour as the band’s last.
Meegan Hodges wrote, “Hell no. We don’t know what they are talking about. They don’t don’t know what they are talking about.”
She added, “Not true. That’s crazy talk. I’m sitting here asking why they would say something like that and we don’t have an answer. Take it up with them.”
Live Nation and Tickermaster’s Canadian website are promoting the latest leg of Guns N’ Roses’ Not In This Lifetime tour as the band’s last. The advertisement states: ‘The Not In This Lifetime Tour is coming! Don’t miss out on their legendary last tour.’ With Hodges’ latest quotes, it turns out that this is not true.
See the advertisement below, followed by a previous false retirement rumor.
Radar Online reported in May 2014 that Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose was considering retirement, “Band members have been told their calendars are free following Vegas,” a source close to the band tells RadarOnline. “Axl (Rose) is considering retiring and it’s done. Band members and support staff were surprised when told the news and are actively looking for work.”
“Axl has made enough money and wants to stop touring,” adds another source. “He is considering retiring.”
A source close to the band emphatically denied the rumor at the time, telling Ultimate Classic Rock that “there is no truth whatsoever to this report.”
A year and a half later Rose reunited with Slash and Duff McKagan.Singer-actress Aiza Seguerra on Tuesday took to Instagram to urge fellow supporters of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to keep their calm and respect opposing views amid various issues hounding the incoming Chief Executive.
Amid Duterte’s cold relations with the media, particularly those based in Manila, Seguerra urged her co-supporters to put issues into proper context and not be mere headline readers.
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“As a Duterte supporter, I would encourage na sana wag naman tayo maging blind followers. It will help our president kung hindi tayo one sided at marunong tayong magbigay ng respeto sa opinion ng iba instead of fanning the flames of hatred towards people who don’t share the same point of view or opinion,” Seguerra wrote.
“Wala naman problema ipagtanggol si Tay Digong. Pero ayusin naman natin. Maging responsable naman tayo dahil dala dala natin ang pangalan niya. Read the whole article, not just headlines. Wag puro memes,” she added.
Seguerra said those accusing the media of being biased should reassess themselves before calling for fairness and attacking those with contradicting opinion.
“Nagrereklamo tayo na biased ang media. Eh Kayo? Kaya niyo bang hindi maging biased? Yung iba nga sa inyo, ang tindi ninyong mangutya agad agad dahil lang hindi ninyo nagustuhan ang sinabi… Yan ba yung pinagmamalaki ninyong pagbabago?” she said.
“There’s always a way of protecting and defending our President na hindi kailangan manira at mambastos ng kapwa. We cannot be blind followers na bibirahin nalang lahat ng hindi sang-ayon sa atin,” Seguerra added.
After justifying media killings and catcalling a reporter in a press briefing, the brash-talking Duterte said he would not be holding press conferences for “now,” after daring the media to stop covering him.
Seguerra said real change could be achieved only if Filipinos would unite and respect clashing perspectives regardless of political views.
“As much as gusto natin na pare-pareho tayo ng opinion about certain matters, imposible yon. At kung mag-aaway tayo at mag babastusan at mag rereklamo ng walang katapusan at maninira dahil lamang iba tayo ng pananaw, then there can be no peace,” she added. YG
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A mod has been released for Resident Evil: Revelations 2 on PC that adds local co-op to the story mode.
The mod has “a few issues”, concedes creator FluffyQuack on Steam, but should let you play the entire game in co-op. The creator notes that keyboard controls affect both players so, in order for it to work, you need to have two gamepads.
Resident Evil Revelations 2 on PC does not officially support local co-op play in the story or in the Raid mode. Raid mode will support online co-op shortly after launch when a free patch is available for players to download which adds this feature.
A Capcom Europe spokesperson told IGN in a statement that the feature was cut over quality concerns and to focus on single local play. Capcom subsequently apologised to any players misled by the original Steam description for the game (which did not include a caveat explaining the local co-op featured in the console versions was omitted from the PC version).
Capcom is “currently looking into the matter” for a potential solution.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can find him on IGN here or on Twitter @MrLukeReilly, or chat with him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.In a groundbreaking study, 5,000 honey bees in Australia are set to be fitted with tiny sensors in an effort to better understand Colony Collapse Disorder. The 2.5mm by 2.5mm Radio Frequency Identification sensors work much like a car’s e-tag, and scientists will use a technique called “swarm sensing” to study how changes in the environment impact the behavior of bee colonies.
The research is led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in conjunction with the University of Tasmania, and marks the first time that such a large number of insects have been used for environmental monitoring. In addition to trying to determine the driving factors of Colony Collapse Disorder—a global phenomenon where bees suddenly disappear from their hives—the study will also look for ways to halt the spread of the Varroa mite, the primary parasitic threat to bee colonies.
The scientists will also monitor the bees’ environment to look at the impact of pesticides on the insects, as well as seek out ways to improve honey bee pollination and productivity on farms. As CSIRO science leader Dr Paulo de Souza explains, “Honey bees play a vital role in the landscape through a free pollination service for agriculture, which various crops rely on to increase yields… Around one third of the food we eat relies on pollination, but honey bee populations around the world are crashing because of the dreaded Varroa mite and Colony Collapse Disorder.”
Related: Phillips’ Sexy Urban Beehive Concept Lets City Dwellers Harvest Honey
The tiny RFI sensors weigh around five milligrams, and are attached to the bees using tweezers and adhesive after the bees have been “soothed” to sleep through refrigeration. The painstaking process may appear peculiar enough but as Reuters notes, it gets stranger: “Some young bees, which tend to be hairier than older bees, need to be shaved before the sensor can be glued on.” As the bees are warmed and wake up, they proceed to return to their hive where their movements can be monitored. Dr. de Souza emphasized in a statement that “This is a non-destructive process and the sensors appear to have no impact on the bee’s ability to fly and carry out its normal duties.”
Once all 5,000 sensors are attached, CSIRO will be able to monitor the behavior of the honeybees as they pass through various ‘checkpoints’ that will scan the sensors. This data will then be compiled to create “comprehensive three dimensional model and visualize how these insects move through the landscape.”
These comprehensive models are expected to provide significant insight for the scientists. De Souza explains: “Bees are social insects that return to the same point and operate on a very predictable schedule. Any change in their behavior indicates a change in their environment. If we can model their movements, we’ll be able to recognize very quickly when their activity shows variation and identify the cause. This will help us understand how to maximize their productivity as well as monitor for any biosecurity risks.”
CISRO’s next step will be to make the sensors even smaller—just 1mm x 1mm—so as they can be attached to insects such as mosquitoes.
Via PhysorgThe 10-year-old boy is the centre of Football Federation Australia's "You've Gotta Have A Team" advertising campaign for this A-League season and he announced on Thursday morning that he had plumped for City as his side.
It isn't hard to understand a kid with stars in his eyes reacting to being wooed by a powerhouse club that featured Socceroo superstar Tim Cahill as a huge magnet, but the announcement was still greeted with cynicism on social media.
LEAKED | Yoshi’s final list from his decision making process. #ALeague pic.twitter.com/czOPVTDqwH — Patrick Barnes (@patrick478) October 26, 2016
The cynics clearly believe City is the FFA's club, presumably based largely on the governing body's action in assisting City financially with the expensive signing of Cahill under the guest marquee player rule that was extended to cover the full season, as opposed to just part of it.
FFA is using Cahill and the enormous publicity he brings the game as a tool designed to attract a bigger television deal.
The guest marquee rule has been loosely termed the "Tim Cahill rule" and there was always going to be resentment from some who felt City, backed by the mega-rich City Football Group, had an unfair advantage over other clubs when it came to the rule.
This is awesome, the fact that YOSHI felt the warm welcome and also the family atmosphere we are creating for the fans and club. #together https://t.co/ocElvei5Jv — TIM CAHILL (@Tim_Cahill) October 27, 2016
City would, of course, argue that they are simply playing by the rules, which they are.
The rivalry between City and the other Melbourne team, Victory, has reached new heights now City, which had struggled in its early days as Melbourne Heart, is hugely competitive and even looks to have gone past its "big brother".
City beat Victory 4-1 in round two of the A-League and backed that up with a 2-0 win over Victory in a semi-final of the FFA Cup on Tuesday night.
Victory coach Kevin Muscat dropped his guard during and after the latter match. Upset at refereeing decisions, he complained on the sideline during the game and at the post-match media conference about their being "two sets of rules".
As he exited the media conference he said "at least the FFA gets the result they want”.
Muscat was cited under the FFA National Code of Conduct and had until 5pm on Thursday to provide a submission.
FFA said the applicable sanctions for a breach included "a reprimand, a fine and/or suspension from participation in a match or matches".SEAN Bensema stayed up late one recent evening practising and woke up unusually early the next morning to prepare for the biggest moment of his life: a trial for an athletic scholarship to college.
The shaggy-haired 18-year-old didn’t need to change out of the T-shirt he slept in or even leave his parents’ house to make the squad. He just set up his laptop on the dining-room table and started stunning his enemies with fire shot from the hands of his digital avatar.
Bensema was among 150 players competing for a spot on the US’s first varsity video game team. At stake: a scholarship worth up to $US50,000 ($54,000). “Am I nervous? Yes, I am definitely nervous!” Bensema said. “Usually, I just play for fun, you know. This is different.”
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In a time of tight budgets, many US colleges have been cutting back scholarships and eliminating programs in sports such as swimming and gymnastics. Robert Morris University, a small private school whose main campus is in downtown Chicago, has taken a different tack: boosting the number of athletic scholarships to more than 700, from 150 a decade ago, in a bid to stem declining enrolment.
Today, among the school’s more than 3200 undergraduates, there are scholarship athletes in bowling, cheerleading and dance. Touted as a way to improve team spirit and develop life skills, the scholarships are a way to drive down the $US44,000 cost of tuition, room and board.
The college’s associate athletic director, Kurt Melcher, dreamt up the idea of a video game scholarship earlier this year after coming across League of Legends, Bensema’s specialty. The online game of strategy and teamwork pits teams of five players against one another in a battle for domination.
Bensema plays about four hours a day, starting around 9pm. On screen, he does battle via three avatars — a woman, a prophet and Zed, “Master of the Shadows”.
“When I’m playing, I’m thinking about who to kill and how to kill them, and whether any of my teammates needs my help,” he says. “Every game is totally different.”
Last October, the League of Legends world championships drew 32 million viewers online. An additional 18,000 fans packed a centre in Los Angeles to watch two teams of five skinny young men click away on their mice as the game played out on huge screens overhead. “I just couldn’t believe how elaborate it was,” says Melcher. In April, he submitted a one-page proposal to field a League of Legends team. Two weeks later, the president’s council came back and said it wanted to offer 60 scholarships of up to 50 per cent off tuition and room and board. For the school, a significant short-term cost of the program is the new “e-sports arena”, a retrofitted classroom with 36 gaming stations that will cost the school about $US100,000.
The school received a handful of responses when it posted the announcement on its website. Then the owners of Riot Games, which created League of Legends, posted it on the game’s website.
Within 48 hours, the school got 2200 inquiries from as far away as Gambia. Almost all of them were from males.
“I’m doing a sport that’s cool,” Bensema says. “And it could lead somewhere. There’s a lot of people making a lot of money playing video games.”
WSJ
Setting the agenda for Australia's $150BN agribusiness sector The program for Australia's premier agribusiness conference - The Global Food Forum - is set. Hear from more than 30 industry leaders including PepsiCo's CEO, Danny Celoni, Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of A2 Milk Company, Barry Irvin, Executive Chairman, Bega Cheese and Costco's Managing Director, Patrick Noone. Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park Book NowMany people are already aware that marijuana is now legal in some states in the US with a medical prescription.What many people may not realize is that cocaine is also used in medical care, especially in the ENT world.Cocaine is one of the most potent anesthetic AND vasoconstrictor. These two characteristics make it an ideal medication for use during sinus surgery as well as any nasal procedure where bleeding and pain may be an issue.Many physicians will use cocaine to help stop nosebleeds (I do not).Many surgeons use cocaine during sinus surgery to minimize post-operative pain as well as minimize intra-operative bleeding. Use of cocaine also significantly decreases risk of nosebleeds after sinus surgery as well as minimize need for nasal packing.Cocaine when used for illegal recreational purposes by snorting puts a person at risk for septal perforation due to its vasoconstrictor properties. In essence, the cocaine puts a chemical tourniquet on the blood supply to the septum leading to mucosal necrosis and eventual perforation. Afrin does the same thing, but on a much smaller scale.Before anybody asks... Cocaine is NEVER prescribed to a patient. It is only ever used in a hospital/office setting and heavily controlled under lock and key. (It is never used in our office.)FOUR Aboriginal people suffering kidney disease have died in Townsville following cuts to health transport services for renal dialysis patients, the Senate has been told.
The Newman state government slashed a taxi subsidies program in May last year.
A community group stepped in and started a minibus transport service in Townsville so the mostly indigenous renal dialysis patients could get to their treatment appointments.
The volunteer program became unsustainable and ceased at the start of February this year, the Senate was told.
Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald urged the federal government to intervene in what he described as a "matter of life and death".
"The cost of travelling by taxi to and from dialysis twice in a week can be as much as $300," Senator Macdonald told the senate.
Senator Macdonald said he had been told of four deaths of dialysis patients within 20 days after the bus service stopped.
In a letter obtained by AAP - to federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin and Indigenous Health Minister Warren Snowdon - Senator Macdonald urged them to intervene.
He called on them to provide North Queensland Community Transport money to continue the service and pay the volunteer drivers for night shifts.
Senator Macdonald raised the issue during a Senate debate on an Act of Recognition of indigenous people.
He said he was disappointed a Labor backbencher had shouted at him "you wouldn't even know what an Aborigine looks like" and another accused him of being inappropriate.
"I would have thought everyone in this chamber would have agreed with me," he said.
Senator Macdonald said this behaviour was offensive to the people he was trying to help.
He said the ministers had not replied to his letter.
A spokeswoman from the federal Department of Health told AAP patient transport was a state responsibility.
"It is very concerning to see this situation arise which is clearly impacting on vulnerable people in Townsville," the spokeswoman said.
She said the department is looking at the issue and will take it up with Queensland Health as a matter of priority.
Originally published as Govt urged to act after four Qld deaths" "
More men than ever before are raising kids as single dads. To celebrate Father's Day, Cristen and Caroline trace how single fatherhood has become the new normal and spotlight how and why society treats single dads differently from single moms.
Episode sources:
"Census Canada 2011: Single fathers surge in numbers as more kids live in one-parent homes" by Jordan Press. Sept. 19, 2010. National Post. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/19/census-canada-2011-single-fathers-surge-in-numbers-as-more-kids-live-in-one-parent-homes/
"Dad Stats." National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse. https://www.fatherhood.gov/library/dad-stats
"Inside the Castle: Law and the Family in 20th Century America" by Joanna L. Grossman and Lawrence M. Friedman. Princeton University Press. 2011. http://books.google.com/books?id=VBMoKsX6RU4C&dq=unwed+fathers&source=gbs_navlinks_s
"Men Caring for Babies! The Horror! Visions From the Early 20th Century" by Garance Franke-Ruta. Aug. 08, 2010. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/08/men-caring-for-babies-the-horror-visions-from-the-early-20th-century/278392/
"More Men Adopting Children Alone." ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=127059&page=1&singlePage=true
"Mothers and Fathers in America: Looking Backward, Looking Forward" by Steven Mintz. Digital History. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/mothersfathers.cfm
"Single Dads By Choice: More Men Going It Alone" by Jennifer Ludden. June 19, 2012. NPR. http://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/154860588/single-dads-by-choice-more-men-going-it-alone
"The Bachelor Life Includes a Family" by Mireya Navarro. Sept. 05, 2008. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/fashion/07single.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
"The Mysterious and Alarming Rise of Single Parenthood in America" by Aparna Mathur, Hao Fu and Peter Hansen. Sept. 03, 2013. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/09/the-mysterious-and-alarming-rise-of-single-parenthood-in-america/279203/
"The Rise of Single Fathers" by Gretchen Livingston. July 02, 2013. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/07/02/the-rise-of-single-fathers/
"The Rise of the Single Dad" by Caroline Kitchener. Feb. 24, 2014. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/02/the-rise-of-the-single-dad/284016/
"The Science of Dad: Engaged Fathers Help Kids Flourish" by Stephanie Pappas. June 13, 2013. LiveScience. http://www.livescience.com/37435-fathers-importance-kids.html
"What the Rising Number of Single Dads Says About Fatherhood in General" by Noah Berlatsky. July 03, 2013. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/07/what-the-rising-number-of-single-dads-says-about-fatherhood-in-general/277498/
Academic insights:
"Expenditures of single parents: how does gender figure in?" Geoffrey D. Paulin and Yoon G. Lee. July 2002. Monthly Labor Review. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/07/art2full.pdf
"Fathers' and Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Schools by Family Type and Resident Status" by Christine Winquist Nord and Jerry West. May 2001. National Center for Education Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001032.pdf
"Sex Differences in Parenting Behaviors in Single-Mother and Single-Father Households" by Mikaela J. Dufur. September 2010. Journal of Marriage and Family. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00752.x/abstract;jsessionid=EBD79C458B898D220FC26F3BC3DA454A.f03t02?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
"The Effect of Father Involvement: An Updated Research Summary of the Evidence" by Sarah Allen and Kerry Daly. May 2007. Father Involvement Research Alliance. http://fira.ca/cms/documents/29/Effects_of_Father_Involvement.pdf
"The School Performance of Children From Single-Mother and Single-Father Families: Economic or Interpersonal Deprivation?" by Douglas B. Downey. March 1994. Journal of Family Issues. http://jfi.sagepub.com/content/15/1/129.abstractTime spent in smartphone apps continues to grow, according to comScore’s latest US mobile app report. Americans spent almost 70 hours in smartphone apps, on average, in June (excluding the web browser). Younger users, aged 18- 24, spent more than 90 hours. More apps are also reaching larger audiences: 60 apps had more than 10 million unique visitors in June, up from 44 a year ago, according to comScore.
But attention is still largely concentrated among a user’s top few apps. The average American spends 50% of their app time in their most-used app, and almost 80% in their top three apps, according to comScore.
The big winner, unsurprisingly, is Facebook. It’s a top-three app for almost 80% of |
took place in government-controlled areas, and no credible election observers supported its outcome. Do you stand by your statement?”
In fact, I never inserted the word “only”. I said this was a great indicator. I also mentioned that Syrian civilians in government secured areas braved torrents of bombs fired by terrorist factions on voting day, and that I had experienced going with throngs of Syrians in Lebanon walking to the embassy to vote, of their free will. You might be interested to note also that Syrians from around the world flew to Damascus airport solely to vote as embassies in the countries they were residing in had been closed by those governments.
http://www.ipsnews.net/…/05/syrians-flock-vote-lebanon-west/
http://orientalreview.org/…/international-observers-endors…/
http://www.sott.net/…/313862-Syria-Dispatch-Most-Syrians-Su…
http://www.ipsnews.net/…/liberated-homs-residents-challeng…/
To your last question, my comments are mine alone, based on extensive travels throughout Syria, spending months in the country and having countless one-on-one interactions with Syrians. The views I expressed are mine and also reflect the views on these Syrians I met.
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/…/university-hospital-damascu…/
http://zeroanthropology.net/…/the-terrorism-we-support-in-…/
http://zeroanthropology.net/2014/10/26/useful-atrocities/
Regarding propaganda, please see that of the UN, including how it distorts truth and silences the Syrian voices:
http://theduran.com/idlib-school-attack-and-how-the-un-cov…/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/not-tweetworthy-un-sel…/5501694
https://www.rt.com/…/229215-united-nations–syria-ambassad…/
http://english.al-akhbar.com/…/syrian-ambassador-un-bashar-…
I don’t expect that you will appreciate this as the tone of your questions reflects your own alignment, which seems to be with that of the media, which is determined to obfuscate the truth on Syria and instead promote war propaganda. Let’s say that I will be pleasantly surprised if you prove me wrong.
I would add, since you asked, that you can find my writings here:
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/…/my-published-articles-and-o…/
Blog postings from Syria and from Lebanon where I’ve spent roughly half a year collectively in between visits to Syria or while waiting for visas to be granted:
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/…/my-published-articles-and-o…/
And can find many video clips with Syrians here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/InGazaUpdates/videos
Best regards,
Eva Bartlett
Ishmael Daro’s email in full follows:
From: Ishmael Daro
Sent: December 15, 2016 3:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Viral video of your comments at the UN Hello Ms. Bartlett, I’m a reporter with BuzzFeed News, based in Toronto. I’m writing about the video of your comments at the UN that has gone viral in the last few days. I just wanted to ask you a few questions, for a story on our website. The Norwegian journalist you addressed told me that reporters were led to believe they would hear comments from the Syrian ambassador Bashar Jaafari. However, he was not present. Were you speaking at the UN at the behest of the Syrian government? How did you come to be at that press conference? You wrote on your blog that your trip to Syria in November was organized by a member of the Syrian parliament. Was your trip paid for by the Syrian government, or did you pay your own air fare, accommodations, and other expenses? Do you believe you were able to gain an unvarnished look at the country, or do you believe there were efforts by the Syrian government to present a specific narrative? You made a few claims in your exchange with the other journalist that might strike people as odd. For example, you said nobody in Eastern Aleppo had heard of the White Helmets. Can you elaborate? You also said the will of the Syrian people could be gauged by the results of the 2014 elections. It’s my understanding that voting only took place in government-controlled areas, and no credible election observers supported its outcome. Do you stand by your statement? Last question: Even if this was not your intent, your comments at the press conference appear to track with Russian and Syrian government messaging. Do you have any concern about seemingly aligning yourself with those governments? How do you respond to concerns that your video is serving as propaganda for Russia and Syria? If there’s anything else you’d like to add, please feel free to include it. Thanks.” Ishmael N. Daro
BuzzFeed
Social News EditorAl Golden and the University of Miami were informed in October of 2013 that the NCAA cloud looming over the football program was no more. This allowed Golden and his staff to have their best recruiting class since Golden arrived on campus. It was expected that the 2014 class of freshman was going to have an impact on the field, and there are a few freshman who have succeeded in doing that.
Courtel Jenkins
For the past two seasons, the Miami Hurricanes defensive line has been their achilles heel. It seemed like opposing quarterbacks had hours to throw from the pocket without any real pressure getting to them. This year is a different story. Courtel Jenkins has been the steal of the 2014 recruiting class. It seems like I haven’t been the only one noticing his impact:
Courtel Jenkins has been AWESOME up the middle. — Canes Warning (@CanesWarningFS) September 13, 2014
Nice play from Courtel Jenkins right there — Cam Underwood (@UnderwoodSports) September 13, 2014
Put courtel Jenkins back out there. I like his athleticism at the nose. — J (@cane86_jacob) September 13, 2014
Splitting time with junior college transfer Calvin Heurtelou, Jenkins has already accounted for 9 tackles on the season, but most importantly, he has created holes in opposing offensive lines allowing linebackers to get through and put pressure on the QB. His first play of the season against Louisville, he split the center and left guard and put a tackle on running back Dominique Brown. A dominant force has been needed on the defensive line, and Jenkins is looking to be that in the future.
Braxton Berrios
I think the young Wes Welker or Julian Edelman comparisons are looking to be very true (and not only because he’s a short white receiver.) Coming out of the slot, Berrios has been Brad Kaaya’s security blanket on third downs. This is much needed due to the fact that the Canes rank 125th out of 128 teams on third-down conversions. Berrios has already hauled in 10 receptions for 106 yards and a TD in his first three games at the college level.
He also filled in nicely for Stacy Coley at punt returner last game against Arkansas State. He is so elusive when running routes, it seems like whoever is guarding him always gets beat off the line or looses track of him. I expected Braxton to have an impact in the receiving game, but not to this extent. Even he himself said he didn’t expect this much playing time:
Great to see Braxton Berrios as humble as it comes: “I didn’t expect to play as much as I am…I guess the coaches feel I deserve it.” — Hurricanes Football (@CanesFootball) September 7, 2014
Expect to see plenty more this season from Berrios.
Brad Kaaya
What can be said about Kaaya that hasn’t been said already? The freshman jitters seemed to have disappeared completely in the Arkansas State game and Kaaya came through with his best performance of the season. Kaaya set a Miami true freshman QB record, throwing for 342 yards with 201 of those yards going to Phillip Dorsett. What I always wanted to see from Kaaya was the long ball. The first two games of the season we didn’t see it because the playbook was really condensed for him:
Dorsett on Kaaya: “I feel like we always had this timing down. We just hadn’t really opened the playbook up like we did today.” #UM — Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) September 13, 2014
Well, against Arkansas State the playbook was more like a chapter book and Kaaya took complete advantage of that. One of the prettiest deep ball throws I’ve seen, hitting Dorsett multiple times in stride allowing him to run after the catch. Looking forward to see how Kaaya, and the rest of the freshmen react as the Miami Hurricanes play yet another game against a top-25 opponent in Nebraska.Looking for the Spanish version? Click here.
Puerto Rico’s government is banking on a push for statehood to solve the structural issues that led to its financial crisis.
Puerto Ricans will vote Sunday to decide the territory’s status.
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If statehood wins, as expected, the island will enact what’s known as the Tennessee Plan, an avenue to accession by which U.S. territories send a congressional delegation to demand to be seated in Washington.
Puerto Rico will send two senators and five representatives, chosen by Gov. Ricardo Rosselló (D), later this year, once the plan is put into action.
Statehood remains a long shot as many Republicans are wary of adding a 51st state that could add two Democratic senators and seven Democratic electors to the Electoral College.
Others, noting the examples of Alaska and Hawaii, both added to the union in 1959, say it can be difficult to predict how territories will vote as states.
“Those are the same people that 60 years ago said that Hawaii was going to be a super Republican state and Alaska was going to be super Democratic, and that’s why we brought them in together,” said José Fuentes Agostini, the head of Puerto Rican Republicans in the states.
The Puerto Rican Republican Party is adamantly pro-statehood. And the national Republican Party has supported statehood since the 1940s, most clearly in its 2016 platform.
“We support the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state,” the platform stated. “Once the 2012 local vote for statehood is ratified, Congress should approve an enabling act with terms for Puerto Rico’s future admission as the 51st state of the Union.”
President Trump, who angered Puerto Ricans by decrying a potential “bailout” of their financial system on the campaign trail and as president, also indicated openness to the idea.
As a candidate, he said, “The will of the Puerto Rican people in any status referendum should be considered as Congress follows through on any desired change in status for Puerto Rico, including statehood.”
Puerto Rican voters in the states have predominantly voted for Democrats, translating to broad party support for statehood. Many also argue that Puerto Rico’s status as a territory is intrinsically linked to its economic challenges.
“Status is a major part of the problem Puerto Rico faces all the time. In my opinion, the main problem,” said Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.), who was born on the island.
Statehood supporters argue that territorial status has held back the island’s economy by creating a legal structure where Congress can pick and choose how national laws — most notably tax laws — apply to Puerto Rico.
“The thought that is given to national policy is not applied to Puerto Rico, and then people try to come up with special deals, usually because they’re trying to save a few dollars,” said Jeffrey Farrow, a territorial expert and former White House aide.
“Those special deals almost never work and almost always exacerbate the problem.”
Still, the plan faces legal challenges and opposition on the island — despite the fact that Puerto Ricans in 2012 voted by a wide margin to become a state.
Then-Gov. Alejandro García Padilla (D), a member of the anti-statehood Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), opposed statehood. His party and the small pro-independence party have vowed to boycott Sunday’s vote.
Following the 2012 plebiscite, opponents of statehood argued that participation had not been high enough to reflect the true will of the people.
Rosselló and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón (R) belong to the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) within Puerto Rico. It is promoting participation in the vote.
Statehood opponents are counting on the boycott to lower turnout. They say that unless 50 percent of the total voter roll approves statehood, it will not be a credible vote.
According to a poll by San Juan-based newspaper El Nuevo Dia released last week, 72 percent of registered voters plan to vote, and 20 percent have already decided to boycott the election.
Opposition parties say a boycott is justified because the Department of Justice (DOJ) has not approved the final ballot.
Rosselló initially submitted a ballot that did not allow voters to vote to continue the status quo, only giving the option of voting for independence or statehood.
Justice required Rosselló to include the status quo in a revised ballot, which he did, but the DOJ said it would not have enough time to review the revised ballot before the plebiscite.
The ballot has also won attention from Congress.
Sen. Roger Wicker Roger Frederick WickerHillicon Valley: Telecom industry to fundraise for Senate chair ahead of privacy hearing | Report finds apps sharing personal data with Facebook | DNC offers campaigns cybersecurity tips Telecom industry to throw fundraiser for Senate chair the night before data privacy hearing Trump signs executive order to boost AI technology MORE (R-Miss.) spoke out against it, arguing it “unfairly stacks the deck in favor of statehood.”
He penned a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsFormer Trump refugee director did not notify superiors about family separation warnings Court rejects challenge to Mueller's appointment Trump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report MORE objecting to the ballot’s title, “Plebiscite for the Immediate Decolonization of Puerto Rico.” Wicker said that Puerto Rico has not been a colony since its annexation from Spain in 1898.
Proponents of statehood insist that territorial status for 3.5 million citizens amounts to colonialism.
In Washington last month, Rosselló called for an end to “500 years of colonial status” and “100 years of U.S. citizenship without full rights.”
Despite opposition in San Juan and Washington, Puerto Rico’s top officials will follow through with the plan of sending a delegation to Congress, under a law signed by Rosselló on Monday, assuming statehood wins out.
Whether that delegation will be received is unclear. Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE’s (R-Wis.) office did not return a request for comment.Wasserman Schultz Threatens Police Chief With ‘Consequences’ For Gathering Evidence Against Pakistani IT Staffers (VIDEO)
Former Chairman of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz threatened the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police with ‘consequences’ for holding equipment that she says belongs to her in order to build a criminal case against a Pakistani IT staffer suspected of massive cybersecurity breaches, The Daily Caller reports.
TGP previously reported on the Pakistani brothers currently under investigation. From February of this year:
Three brothers who managed office IT for government officials were relieved of their duties last week on suspicion that they accessed specific computer networks without permission, also known as hacking. Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives Thursday. They accessed computers unauthorized. They were getting foreign information. The three brothers were making $161,000, $165,000, and $160,000.
One of the brothers has a criminal background.
TGP also reported earlier this week that Congressional aides fear politicians are being blackmailed by the Pakistani IT suspects in security breach.
Via The Daily Caller:
The Capitol Police and outside agencies are pursuing Imran Awan, who has run technology for the Florida lawmaker since 2005 and was banned from the House network in February on suspicion of data breaches and theft. “My understanding is the the Capitol Police is not able to confiscate Members’ equipment when the Member is not under investigation,” Wasserman Schultz said in the annual police budget hearing of the House Committee On Appropriations’ Legislative Branch Subcommittee. “I think you’re violating the rules when you conduct your business that way and you should expect that there will be consequences,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Caught On Tape: Wasserman Schultz Threatens Police Chief For Investigating Her IT Staff’s Crimes https://t.co/QmPgmyCj8e — zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 24, 2017Cupid the green sea turtle swims around the aquarium with her butt in the air.
At first it just looks like quirky behavior, but Cupid has a buoyancy problem, linked to an old wound, that makes it hard for her to stay underwater.
Because she wouldn’t survive in the wild, Cupid is a permanent resident here at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium's Turtle Bayou, which is home to three other green sea turtles. (Also see "8 Pictures From Inside Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab.")
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reclassified green sea turtles in Florida from endangered to threatened in parts of their range, due to increased numbers of turtles nesting in Florida and on Mexico's Pacific coast.
In 2015, authorities reported 28,088 green sea turtle nests in Florida—a new record high. In the early 1990s, fewer than 5,000 nests a year were recorded.
It's good news, but turtles aren't out of hot water just yet.
Weird Animal Question of the Week took author’s prerogative to ask “What are the ups and downs of being a sea turtle?”
Light Effects
Boys are cool. Girls are warm.
Sounds sexist, but it’s true of all sea turtles and most other turtles, too. Mother sea turtles lay their nests on beaches, and the temperatures of those nests determine the sex of hatchlings. Warmer nests produce more females, and cooler ones produce more males.
It's likely that "temperature affects hormone regulation in a critical period of development in the embryo, influencing the sex ratio within the nest," says Sheila Madrak, a conservation biologist at San Diego State University.
Though it varies among species, the average number in a clutch of sea turtle eggs is 110, with an average of about two to eight nests per season, says Adrienne Cardwell, the Clearwater aquarium's manager of Sea Turtles and Aquatic Biology Programs.
In addition to getting disoriented, many hatchlings are picked off by predators, especially birds, as they crawl toward the sea.
Teenage Mystery Turtles
Green sea turtle hatchlings in Florida that do reach the water can't exactly relax.
The tiny reptiles must swim nonstop up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) to a floating bed of grass called the Sargasso Sea, where they’re safely camouflaged from predators.
So begins "the lost years," a period of up to 15 years that's still a mystery to scientists, says Madrak.
The turtles are thought to spend it hanging out in remote parts of the ocean, eating and growing big. Really big, in the case of the leatherback, which can weigh nearly a ton.
Trouble for Turtles
Ocean trash is the sea turtles' greatest threat, Cardwell says.
A relatively new threat to green sea turtles is fibropapillomatosis, or FP, a virus that causes soft tissue and eye tumors and is an epidemic on the U.S. East Coast and in Hawaii.
Wildlife officials in some parts of Florida are rescuing green sea turtles with FP at a rate that's “off the charts," Cardwell says. (Related: "Sea Turtle Herpes Tumors Linked to Sewage?")
These diseased turtles are treated here at the aquarium’s surgical center, where specialists remove the tumors with lasers in an attempt to get rid of the virus.
A sea turtle rescue center in North Carolina cares for and rehabilitates injured sea turtles, and returns them to the ocean amid cheering crowds.
The turtles regain their strength at the aquarium’s rehab center, where they may one day be released back to the ocean. The center has released—and even rescued again—rehabbed turtles.
Last Laugh?
Though sea turtles have it tough, they don’t cry—even if they seem to. The reptiles excrete excess salt from a gland near their eye that can look to us like tears, Madrak notes.
Actually, sea turtles may have the last laugh. (See National Geographic's sea turtle pictures.)
Not only have the animals as a group been on Earth for over a hundred million years, they're long-lived, with some species living a century.
“Modern sea turtle research only started in the 1940s,” Madrak says, so “most of the turtles that we study outlive everybody who’s studied them so far.”
So long as they stick around, we can live with that.Casey Dreier • December 22, 2015
NASA's Next Mars Mission Delayed for Two Years
One of its main scientific instruments could not maintain a vacuum
InSight, NASA's upcoming mission to measure the internal geophysical properties of Mars, will miss its launch window in 2016 due to a hardware problem in a science instrument provided by the French space agency.
Since launch windows to Mars open every 26 months, the earliest InSight can now launch will be mid-2018—a delay of over two years. It is too early to tell what impact this delay will have on InSight's budget, or on the number of new small-class missions NASA can select in 2016. There will be costs associated with storing the spacecraft and maintaining the associated workforce and science team for the next two years that could crowd out a new mission.
The instrument in question, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), was one of the two main scientific instruments on InSight. It is designed to measure very small amounts of seismic activity on Mars in order to determine the inner structure of the planet. To achieve the sensitivity required for these minute measurements, the instrument must operate in a near vacuum at a pressure of no more than 1/1000 of a millibar—about one millionth the sea-level atmospheric pressure on Earth.
CNES Testing InSight's SEIS instrument Preparation of SEIS instrument qualification model to a degasing test in CNES Toulouse facility before the delivery to Lookheed Martin in Denver, March 10, 2015. Preparation of SEIS instrument qualification model to a degasing test in CNES Toulouse facility before the delivery to Lookheed Martin in Denver, March 10, 2015.
While the instrument itself was working perfectly, the problem was maintaining the vacuum. "Since last August we've been fighting a series of leaks," said said John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. These were fixed, but yesterday during final thermal testing, "we found that it is still leaking. With this leak rate, [the instrument] would not work at all."
SEIS would provide the data needed to address a top science goal of the mission. There wasn't enough time to fix the underlying issues before launch. So if it wasn't ready, the mission wasn't ready. The spacecraft will have to be put into storage for the time being, and the team will now evaluate their options going forward.
InSight is a Discovery mission, which is NASA's small-class, competed mission program. In 2012, InSight was selected by NASA over two other small mission concepts: the Titan Mare Explorer, which would have landed a boat on a methane sea of Titan, and a comet-hopping spacecraft called CHopper.
The total cost of Discovery missions are capped. For InSight, the total budget, which includes the cost of the rocket, design, assembly, two years of operations, and data processing, is $675 million. Jim Green, the Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division stated that, so far, the InSight project has spent $525 million of that total amount. If the cost of storing and maintaining InSight are significantly above the planned budget for the project, it is possible that the mission will be cancelled. "It's on the table," said Grunsfeld.
NASA / Lockheed Martin InSight assembled In this photo taken April 30, 2015, Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians test the deployment of the InSight lander’s solar arrays. This configuration is how the spacecraft will look on the surface of Mars. In this photo taken April 30, 2015, Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians test the deployment of the InSight lander’s solar arrays. This configuration is how the spacecraft will look on the surface of Mars.
But don't panic yet. Unlike the Mars Curiosity rover, which infamously missed its 2009 launch window and added hundreds of millions of dollars to its cost, InSight's instrument problems are the responsibility of an international partner. NASA's costs associated with InSight's delay will likely be much lower than Curiosity, which required a much larger team to troubleshoot a variety of hardware issues. I also would be very surprised if NASA walks away from a nearly-complete Mars spacecraft.
But this is speculation. Even John Grunsfeld doesn't know the answers yet. More work will be done early next year to better understand the implications of this delay.
There is a bright side of today's delay: NASA and CNES found this problem while the spacecraft was still on Earth. There's not exactly a lot of experienced engineers on the surface of Mars able to fix a problem such as this. If this hadn't been found, and the mission had launched on time, NASA would have landed a spacecraft that would fail one of its major science goals. This problem can still (theoretically) be fixed.
Another bright side is that, assuming this mission will continue, we will see a NASA planetary launch in 2018. We will have something to look forward to during the otherwise barren years for NASA's planetary program between the launch of OSIRIS-REx (Fall 2016) and the Mars 2020 rover (Fall 2020).
This is a bitter pill to swallow right after the great news for NASA's budget in 2016. We'll know more in a few months, but until then, it's good to keep some perspective. ESA will launch to Mars in March with its Trace Gas Orbiter. In September, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission will launch to an asteroid. Juno orbits Jupiter in the Summer. As for InSight? Bruce Banerdt, the principal investigator on the mission summed it up: "I'm a patient man. I've been working on this for 25 years, this is a minor setback, not a disaster."
Casey Dreier Chief Advocate & Senior Space Policy Adviser for The Planetary Society
Read more articles by Casey DreierKim Jong Un may be a dictator with a nuclear arsenal, but when he’s not threatening to nuke the US, he behaves more like a child playing with matches.
Kim, who is 33, 34 or 35 years old, depending on which state propaganda you believe, inherited North Korea from his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011 and solidified his power with a bloodlust that would frighten King Joffrey on “Game of Thrones” — including blowing up his uncle with a cannon.
But such ruthless acts are contrasted by a personal life in which Kim has been known to pal around with former NBA star Dennis Rodman as he guzzles pricey cognac with his harem of “Pleasure Squad” women.
The dictator has even forced his weirdness onto his people, making children study history books that claim he could drive at age 3 and race yachts at age 9, and forcing men to wear one of only 15 “state-approved” haircuts.
Of course, Kim’s own gravity-defying ’do is not among them, leaving the young head of state to be the only one with his signature look.
Kim was the youngest of late tyrant Kim Jong Il’s three sons. He took over after his heir-apparent half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, fell out of favor with their dad. His other brother, Kim Jong Chul, was considered too “effeminate” to rule.
To make himself look more like a leader, Kim Jong Un is rumored to have undergone plastic surgery to help him resemble his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim Jong Un soon showed he planned to rule exclusively by fear, as he launched a campaign of killing his perceived political enemies.
In 2013, Kim blasted his uncle Jang Song Thaek to bits with anti-aircraft cannons after accusing him of sedition, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
“Kim Jong Un ended up killing his uncle, who even Kim Jong Il could not kill,” one defector, Lee Young Guk, told CNN a year later.
Jang was considered Kim’s guardian and for years had helped the young autocrat cement his power following the death of his dad.
But Jang installed his own loyalists in key government positions, angering Kim, who feared a coup was brewing.
So the despot assembled two of Jang’s right-hand men and forced his uncle to watch as they were shelled with anti-aircraft guns.
Jang then faced the same fate.
Kim has also publicly executed 140 of his own military leaders and other top government officials since 2014, according to a report from the South Korean Institute for National Security Strategy.
All told, he has ordered the public killing of at least 340 people, the report found.
The killings include officials whom Kim summarily executed after claiming they did not mourn his father’s death enough.
Korea watchers suspect Kim was also behind the 2016 assassination of half-brother Kim Jong Nam, the globe-trotting black sheep who died after two women smeared his face with a nerve agent in a Malaysian airport.
North Korea has denied any role, but the Malaysian government has accused the hermit kingdom of plotting the hit.
But while his executions could have been lifted from any despot’s playbook, Kim brings weirdness to new levels with an array of unique obsessions.
One fixation led to a cyberattack on the US after he became infuriated by the 2014 Seth Rogen comedy “The Interview,” in which Rogen and James Franco play a TV producer and host picked by the CIA to assassinate Kim.
The touchy totalitarian had his forces hack the movie’s distributor, Sony Pictures, and leak embarrassing information.
But Kim’s not-so-sneaky tech nerds left their fingerprints all over the hack job, and the FBI called the breach a blatant attempt to “suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves.”
Kim is also reportedly obsessed with basketball, having played hoops video games at the Swiss boarding school he attended as a teen and developing a special affinity for the Chicago Bulls.
Kim has even forged a bizarre friendship with Dennis Rodman, the flamboyant former forward for the team.
The retired NBA star has traveled several times to North Korea, and even serenaded the leader with an off-key rendition of the first verse of “Happy Birthday to You” in 2014 before playing an exhibition game in Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, the baby-faced man-child so badly needs his ego stroked that he keeps a harem of fawning girls called the “Pleasure Squad” to entertain him and his cronies.
Like his father and grandfather before him, he reportedly stocks the flesh retinue with girls as young as 13, plucked from school and forced to endure a battery of tests to prove they are virgins.
He squandered $3.5 million on lingerie and costumes for the women in 2016 alone.
Given his obsessive tastes and maniacal sense of entitlement, it should be no surprise that the doughy despot drops huge amounts of cash on his own creature comforts — even while the United Nations has found that 41 percent of his citizens are undernourished.
In 2016 alone, Kim splurged $1 million on imported booze, $86,000 on Swiss cheese and $74,266 on Swiss watches — two affectations he picked up while at the Swiss International School of Berne.
Switzerland cut him off in July of that year in compliance with UN sanctions.
Meantime, 71 percent of North Koreans relied on government food handouts amounting to just 10 ounces of food a day, the UN report found.
Although children are taught tall tales of Kim’s childhood feats, he actually spent much of his youth away at the tony school in Berne, where he was a typical millennial obsessed with video games.
‘The whole world for him was just basketball all the time.’ - Joao Micaelo, former classmate
“He had basketball games on his PlayStation. The whole world for him was just basketball all the time,” former classmate Joao Micaelo told CNN in 2010.
The teenage future tyrant attended the school under the name “Pak Un,” claiming he was the son of a Korean diplomat even as he paraded around in an expansive collection of Nikes that no low-level bureaucrat’s family could afford.
He played hooky from the $25,000-a-year school a total of 180 days in his two years there, according to reports.
The last time Kim intervened in a food crisis, his soldiers ended up with diarrhea.
After finding out in 2016 that his northern border guards were malnourished, Kim ordered “improved” dietary options “so that they would not envy a Chinese person,” according to United Press International.
The move backfired, and dozens of soldiers got the squirts from “smelly” Japanese sandfish and soup stock that was full of sand.
The last time Kim intervened in a food crisis, his soldiers ended up with diarrhea.
Soldiers he doesn’t publicly execute or make gravely ill are conscripted to build vanity public-works projects for the boy-king, such as the $35.3 million Masikryong Ski Resort that he hoped would become an international tourist destination.
Kim whipped his army into constructing the resort in just 10 months despite the Swiss refusing to sell him ski lifts, a slight which the state-controlled media called a “serious human-rights abuse.”
He staffs the resort with civilian work gangs, NBC reported in January.
He also forced North Koreans to etch a 500-yard-long propaganda message into a mountain.
“Long Live General Kim Jong Un, the Shining Sun!” reads the message in Ryanggang Province that is visible from space.
Despite everything, Kim managed to win his last election with 100 percent of the vote.
The supreme leader ran for a local seat in North Korea’s legislature in 2014 and not a soul voted against him.
Of course, Kim’s name was the only one on the ballot.Macquarie could miss out on the Green Investment Bank, with ministers said to prefer a float ALAMY
Ministers are poised to scrap a planned sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to Australian investment firm Macquarie, pushing instead for a £3.8bn stock market listing.
In a humiliating climbdown, the business secretary Greg Clark is expected to tear up a deal that had started to come under intense scrutiny at both Westminster and Holyrood in Edinburgh. The privatisation could be even larger than the £3.3bn stock market listing of Royal Mail in 2013.
Macquarie was chosen last October as the preferred bidder for the government’s Edinburgh-based lender — set up in 2012 by Sir Vince Cable, when he was business secretary, to spur growth in the renewable energy industry.
Two weeks ago The Sunday Times revealed that Macquarie had taken steps to start…In his keynote speech to the SNP conference in Glasgow, the First Minister will promise to use the public purse to fill “any funding gap” that emerges once English universities start charging higher fees next year.
It follows a similar announcement by Iain Gray, Labour’s Holyrood leader, and means Scottish and EU students will not have to pay for higher education whichever party wins May’s Holyrood election.
But Mr Salmond and Mr Gray are basing their no-fees pledge on a “discredited” estimate for the funding gap of £93 million. Universities have warned that standards and student numbers will be cut unless the correct figure of £202 million is used.
University principals last night said the First Minister they intend to hold him to his promise of filling “any gap”, no matter how large, so they do not fall behind their English competitors.
They said the figures will have to be recalculated in July when English universities finalise their fee levels and confirm these will increase annually in line with inflation.
Like Mr Gray last week, Mr Salmond will give no indication as to how he will find the extra funding from the public purse when Holyrood’s budget is being cut by £1 billion this year.
“This nation pioneered free education for all which resulted in Scots inventing and explaining much of the modern world. We called this the Scottish Enlightenment,” he will tell delegates at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.
“Some of our university principals fear that we will fall behind England. We will not. We do not intend to withdraw the state from higher education. Any funding gap will be closed.
“We would only fail if we were to betray our traditions and mortgage the future.”
Citing Robert Burns’ famous poem, A Red, Red Rose, he will conclude: “The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scottish students – upfront or backdoor.”
Mr Salmond and Mr Gray are keen to court the student vote ahead of the election and the National Union of Students immediately welcomed the First Minister’s announcement.
But an SNP spokesman confirmed the policy is based on a funding gap of £93 million, which incorrectly assumes that English fees will not increase with inflation.
It also assumes the same number of English, Welsh and Northern Irish students come north of the Border despite Mr Salmond’s plan to make a four-year Scottish degree more expensive than its English equivalent.
Universities chose to take the SNP leader at his word that he will make good any shortfall. Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, which represents the country’s higher education institutes, welcomed his “firm commitment”.
“The exact size of the funding gap will not be known until after the election and parties will need to be aware that it could be higher than £202 million per year, which was a reasonable and fairly conservative estimate of the gap as calculated by the Scottish government’s own economists,” he said.
Prof Ian Diamond, the principal of Aberdeen University, said: “It’s essential that as soon as we know what the English fees are and their status regarding inflation that |
“really outdone themselves now”. “I have to say, this is the worst ever,” Ms Hazel said. “I’m really not happy. It’s awful because you’re going through this sort of rubbish every few nights. It’s not pleasant. I feel for all those ones there [in the burnt block], because…it’s not pretty.
“Now, the horrible thing is, we’re getting quite frightened, because we haven’t had it to this [extent] before. So the moment the sun goes down, you lock yourself in.” Ms Hazel also described hearing a large fight in the courtyard before the fire, and said people had been throwing and “smashing” things against the walls of the complex. Police said there were no reports of a disturbance linked with the fire. Shortly after the Turner fire, fire fighters were called to Allambee Street, Reid, where two cars were found alight. Prime television's Samuel Gordon-Stewart was on his was home from work when he decided to follow a fire truck to see what was happening, and ended up at his home, Jerilderie Court.
“The smoke was enough to make me certainly step back. They were a bit concerned about whether the smoke was going to be toxic," he said. Residents of neighbouring flats were evacuated but allowed to return a short time later. Mr Gordon-Stewart said the car that was alight had been sitting in the same spot at the complex for a long time - possibly up to 12 months - and didn't have any number plates. He said he wasn't surprised that it was set on fire, and that there had been car windows smashed in the area recently, and a fire in the complex's bins a night or two before. But he said generally the area was reasonably quiet, and had improved over the past few years. Earlier in the evening there had been a spate of car and rubbish fires at other nearby locations, including in Braddon and Reid.
Sergeant Jim Edwards from the City Police Station said forensic officers were collecting evidence, but could not say whether there was a connection between the incidents. “ACT Policing at the moment are unable to confirm that the fires are linked, however this is certainly a line of inquiry we’re looking into,” he said. “We’ll certainly look at being proactive in relation to those types of areas.” He said residents at the Turner fire in particular were “shocked and concerned”, but he applauded emergency services for safely evacuating the building. “There is extensive damage to the amenities of the building and the underground car park, and at this stage the residents are unable to return to the apartments and I’m unable to say how long that will be until they return,” he said.
“It was a dangerous situation with dense smoke, and it was just fortunate that we haven’t received any injuries in relation to the matter.” Loading He said an estimate of the damage bill would be compiled by the Emergency Services Agency. Police have asked anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via www.act.crimestoppers.com.au.× Competitive Tickling Documentary Prompts Controversy, Threats of Lawsuits
When David Farrier first stumbled upon the largely secret world of competitive endurance tickling, it seemed like just another quirky story for him to cover as an entertainment and pop culture journalist for New Zealand television.
But the tone of his story changed after he took a closer look and found what he alleges is a tale of wealth, power and deception. Farrier’s investigation into that world with co-director Dylan Reeve is at the center of “Tickled,” a documentary that has led to threats of legal action against the filmmakers and a contentious confrontation when the film’s subjects showed up at a Los Angeles screening earlier this month.
“We thought it was an important film to make, which I know sounds ridiculous because it is about tickling, but we wanted to expose some things going on that didn’t seem to be right,” Farrier said of the documentary now playing in theaters. “Hopefully, the film will act as a warning and force some action to take place.”
“Tickled” follows Farrier and Reeve as they delve into the background of the Los Angeles-based company Jane O’Brien Media, which recruits attractive, physically fit young men to participate in tickling competitions. To the filmmakers, the activities appeared to be part of a fetish operation, but the organizers insist the tickling is a non-erotic endurance sport.
Click here to read the full story on LATimes.com.Nozomi (のぞみ, "Wish") is the fastest train service running on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen lines in Japan. The service stops at only the largest stations, and along the stretch between Shin-Osaka and Hakata, Nozomi services using N700 series equipment reach speeds of 300 km/h (186 mph). The trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of 515 kilometres, takes 2 hours 22 minutes on the fastest Nozomi.[1]
The trains stop at fewer stations than the Hikari and Kodama trains. On the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, Nozomi trains stop at Tokyo Station, Shinagawa Station, Shin-Yokohama Station, Nagoya Station, Kyoto Station, and Shin-Ōsaka Station.[1] On the Sanyō Shinkansen, all Nozomi trains stop at Shin-Kobe Station, Okayama Station, Hiroshima Station, Kokura Station, and Hakata Station, but certain trains stop at additional stations as well. The Nozomi service is not valid for foreign tourists travelling with a Japan Rail Pass.[2]
"Nozomi" in Japanese means "hope", "wish" or "desire".
Stopping patterns (as of August 2011) [ edit ]
Key [ edit ]
● All trains stop
○ Some trains stop
△ Few trains stop
1 Some trains begin/terminate in Nishi-Akashi, Himeji, Okayama or Hiroshima.
2 Some trains begin/terminate in Nagoya.
Note: Basic Nozomi stopping patterns are shown. Additional Nozomi trains with differing stopping patterns are added during holiday and high-peak travel periods, and are not included in this table.
Station Distance (km)
(from Tokyo) Tokyo - Hakata1 Tokyo-
Shin-Osaka2 Nagoya - Hakata Tokyo 0.0 ● ● Shinagawa 6.8 ● ● Shin-Yokohama 25.5 ● ● Nagoya 342.0 ● ● ● Kyoto 476.3 ● ● ● Shin-Ōsaka 515.4 ● ● ● Shin-Kobe 548.0 ● ● Nishi-Akashi 570.2 ○ - Himeji 601.3 ○ - Okayama 676.3 ● ● Fukuyama 733.1 ○ ○ Hiroshima 821.2 ● ● Tokuyama 903.5 ○ - Shin-Yamaguchi 944.6 ○ ○ Kokura 1013.2 ● ● Hakata 1069.1 ● ●
Rolling stock [ edit ]
N700 series, June 2008
700 series, October 2008
Former rolling stock [ edit ]
300 series (March 1992 – March 2012)
500 series (March 1997 – February 2010)
300 series, February 2011
500 series, February 2010
Formations [ edit ]
Trains are formed as shown below, with car 1 at the Hakata end, and car 16 at the Tokyo end.[3][4]
N700 series [ edit ]
Car No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Class Standard
Non-reserved Standard
Non-reserved Standard
Non-reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Green
Reserved Green
Reserved Green
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Facilities WC WC / smoking compartment Cardphone WC Vending machine WC / smoking compartment WC / cardphone Smoking compartment Vending machine / WC / wheelchair space Cardphone WC Smoking compartment / WC / cardphone
(All cars are no-smoking, except for smoking compartments located in cars 3, 7, 10, and 15)
N700 series Green car interior
N700 series standard-class car interior
700 series [ edit ]
Car No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Class Standard
Non-reserved Standard
Non-reserved Standard
Non-reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Green
Reserved Green
Reserved Green
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Standard
Reserved Facilities WC Cardphone WC / vending machine WC Cardphone WC WC Vending machine / WC / wheelchair space Cardphone WC Vending machine / WC / cardphone Smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking Smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking No-smoking Smoking Smoking
History [ edit ]
Wartime steam services [ edit ]
The Nozomi name was first used for long-distance express services operated between Busan in Japanese-occupied Korea and Mukden (now Shenyang) in the former Manchukuo (now China) from 1934.[5] From 1938, the services were extended to run between Busan and Hsinking (now Changchun) in Manchukuo. The 1,530 km journey from Busan to Hsinking took over 29 hours, with an average speed of 52 km/h (32 mph). The services were run down between 1943 and 1944.[5]
Shinkansen services [ edit ]
Nozomi shinkansen services commenced on March 14, 1992 using new 300 series trainsets with a top speed of 270 km/h. From March 1997, 500 series trainsets were introduced on Tokyo - Hakata Nozomi services, running at a maximum speed of 300 km/h and covering the section between Shin-Osaka and Hakata in 2 hours 17 minutes.
700 series trains were introduced on Nozomi services in 1999, and N700 series trains were introduced from July 1, 2007, initially with four daily round-trip runs. All regularly scheduled through Nozomi services to the Sanyo Shinkansen (Tokyo–Hakata) were operated by N700 series sets from 13 March 2010. From the start of the revised timetable on 17 March 2012, all regularly scheduled Nozomi services, including runs limited to the Tokaido Shinkansen, were operated by N700 sets.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Two Colorado high schools swept the USA Hockey national championships Monday at Hardee’s Iceplex in Chesterfield, Mo.
State champion Cherry Creek capped off its season with a 2-1 victory over Dubuque (Iowa) in the combined division, and Regis Jesuit captured its second national title in four years by beating Santa Margarita (Calif.) 3-1 in the pure division.
“We not only got a chance to have success with both teams, but we got a chance to support each other,” Cherry Creek coach Jeff Mielnicki said. “It really just shows the quality of hockey in Colorado is strengthening and we should be proud of it.”
For the first time in the six-year history of the national championship, the titles were split into two divisions. Teams with players from multiple high schools were invited to compete for the newly formed combined division title, and the pure bracket included schools that draw only from their own student pool.
Cherry Creek just wrapped up its third season since relaunching its ice hockey program after a 25-year hiatus. Senior Chris Nitchen, who scored the game-winning goal in the sixth overtime to send the Bruins to the state finals, led Cherry Creek with six goals and three assists in the national tournament. Goalie Brady Mielnicki started in goal all six game sand recorded a 1.55 goals-against average.
“It was a tremendous experience,” Jeff Mielnicki said. “The competition was amazing,and the kids just continued on from the state tournament and played great hockey.”
For Regis Jesuit, the victory was redemption for falling to Monarch in the state semifinals.
“I think our team needed some closure on a good season,” Regis coach Dan Woodley said.
The Raiders, in their third national title game in four years, were led by senior Jack Kilkenny, who had five goals and six assists — including one of each in the championship game.
“It’s a remarkable thing,” Woodley said of the two Colorado teams winning. “I don’t know if anybody could have foreseen this was going to happen.”
Joe Nguyen: [email protected] or twitter.com/joenguyenMedical marijuana activists are hotly protesting plans by Cook County, Illinois, officials to burn more than 5,500 pounds of cannabis seized last week in a big pot bust.
“Depending on its purity, that represents a lot of medicine that could have helped so many Illinoisans,” said Julie Falco, a North Side woman who uses marijuana to ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
Chicago Sun-Times. Last Wednesday’s seizure of 5,525 pounds of pot — and the subsequent plan to burn the cannabis — has ignited a hot debate. Her reaction was echoed by others calling on Illinois to join 14 other states in legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, reports Vernon Clement Jones at the. Last Wednesday’s seizure of 5,525 pounds of pot — and the subsequent plan to burn the cannabis — has ignited a hot debate.
The marijuana, with a street value estimated by police at $20 million, was found in a house in suburban Lyons, police said Friday. Frederico Moreno, 35, who was renting the place, has been charged with manufacturing and delivering cannabis. He faces from six to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Police said they are planning to incinerate all but 10,000 grams of the pot, saving that amount as evidence.
“We will solicit a court order today to have the rest incinerated safely,” said Kevin Ruel, deputy chief of special investigations for the Cook County sheriff’s office.
But medical marijuana advocates object to that plan.
“Incinerating it is a waste,” said Lisa Lange, who said she uses marijuana to ease chronic pain associated with degenerative osteoarthritis. “I would prefer to see it tested and then, if safe, distributed to compassionate care clubs.”
But according to Lange, even the thousands of pounds of marijuana seized last week, which police said would have ended up on Chicago’s streets, won’t make much of an impact on the local supply.
“The only way to stop this trafficking is to show compassion for those who rely on medical cannabis and pass Bill 1381,” said Lange.February 22, 2016
HILLARY CLINTON withstood the surging national support for Bernie Sanders to win the Nevada caucuses for her first definite victory in the Democratic Party presidential primaries.
The dynamics of the Nevada contest could be a preview of the rest of the Democratic primary battle.
Sanders, the dark-horse challenger against the party establishment's clear choice, came from way behind to make the caucuses far closer than most anyone thought possible a couple months ago. But Clinton was able to rely on support from the Democratic Party apparatus--in this case, the big unions centered around tourism and the casinos in Las Vegas that support Clinton, even though Sanders is clearly more pro-labor.
The other election story of last weekend was Donald Trump's victory in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary vote, with Marco Rubio doing better than expected to squeeze into second place, ahead of Ted Cruz.
In contrast to the right-wing maniacs Trump and Cruz, Rubio is presenting himself as the reasonable alternative--or at least someone who could be packaged that way for the general election. In reality, he is a staunch conservative, with a Senate voting record that differs little from the Tea Partying Cruz.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton at a Democratic Party candidates' debate
Rubio is gaining an edge as the candidate with support from the Republican establishment against both Cruz and Trump. Jeb Bush, who once had the lion's share of party leaders behind him, dropped out of the race after failing to break out of single digits in South Carolina. John Kasich could soon follow if he doesn't have another good showing soon.
That would make the Republican nomination battle a three-way race--with Ben Carson stumbling along for as long as his crackpot campaign holds out--but with Trump still well ahead in opinion polls.
The prospect of a Trump presidency, or even a Rubio one, will be frightening to millions of working-class people--and that will exert a growing influence among the Democratic Party's base voters.
In South Carolina, where the Democrats will hold their primary next weekend, Rep. Jim Clyburn, the most powerful Black political leader in the state, not only endorsed Hillary Clinton last week, but attacked Sanders, claiming his proposal to make college education tuition-free amounts to a "free lunch."
His message was consistent with the one being pushed by the party elite since the start of the year, when Sanders' campaign started showing signs that he might not be another progressive also-ran: Democrats need to steer clear of radical rhetoric and pie-in-the-sky promises, and unite behind Clinton as the strongest candidate in November.
But the real reason Democratic apparatchiks are attacking Sanders, as SocialistWorker.org wrote in an editorial, "is not because he's turning off voters--but because he's attracting them in larger and larger numbers."
Enthusiasm for Sanders built throughout last year as he drew large crowds to his campaign events. In the first primary contest in Iowa, he rode overwhelming support among younger caucus-goers to an upset tie with Clinton. In New Hampshire the following week, he trounced her by a landslide margin.
The Sanders surge is being reflected in national opinion polls, where he has pulled to within single digits of Clinton, according to the weighted average of surveys calculated by Pollster.com. Other polls matching Clinton and Sanders against possible Republican candidates show that Sanders would be more likely to win a general election, at least for now.
BUT HILLARY Clinton's campaign still has big advantages over Sanders, and some came into play in Nevada.
For one, the powerful Culinary Workers Union, which represents some 60,000 workers in restaurants, hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities, mobilized its members behind Clinton.
According to the New York Times, Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader and one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Party, encouraged the head of the union to get its members to take part in the primary, even though the union didn't endorse either candidate. "Probably 100 organizers [from the Culinary Union] will be at the caucus sites and in hotels to make sure people know what they're doing," Reid told the Times.
That helped Clinton to big wins in caucuses held in six major casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, according to reports--accounting for a significant part of Clinton's margin of victory in Clark County, which is home to about three-quarters of the state's registered Democrats.
The casino bosses lent a helping hand to the Clinton campaign, too. The Hill reported that MGM Casino gave workers three hours of paid time off to participate in the caucus.
The turnout was a sign of the continuing clout of the party machine in general--and Reid in particular, who "asserted again today...that he really can change the dynamic of an election in this state," said local political reporter Jon Ralston on MSNBC.
Among the other big unions whose get-out-the-vote operations are closely coordinated with the party apparatus, the Service Employees International Union dealt Clinton an ace from the bottom of the deck with a leaflet that touted her support for a $15 an hour minimum wage--when, in fact, Clinton has not endorsed a federal $15 minimum. Sanders, of course, has.
Meanwhile, some high-profile Clinton supporters seem to have tried to smear Sanders in the eyes of Latinos, a big voting bloc in Nevada.
United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta and actor America Ferrera are being criticized for misleading Twitter comments that Sanders supporters at one caucus site chanted "English only" when the caucus moderator said Spanish translation could not be provided because there was not a neutral translator available. Sanders backers, including actor Susan Sarandon, responded with links to video of the event, and said there was no chanting.
IT'S A sign of how much enthusiasm Sanders has awakened with his message against corporate greed and the political status quo that he came as close as he did in Nevada, having started out so far behind and with so much working against him.
Once again, Sanders dominated among younger caucus-goers, winning the support of five of every six. And one entrance poll gave him the edge among Latinos participating in the caucuses, despite the string of endorsements for Clinton from leading Latino Democrats--though some analysts cast doubt on the poll, given Clinton's wins in Latino neighborhoods around Las Vegas.
Whatever the case, the big reason that the odds are still huge against Sanders was clear in Nevada: Hillary Clinton's lock on support within the Democratic Party establishment and apparatus.
The next contest is in South Carolina, where Sanders started out even further behind, and the Clinton campaign is depending on Black support to win. It's as much a travesty that Hillary Clinton can rely on African American votes in South Carolina as it is that she could bank on the unions in Nevada.
Sanders is presenting a frankly left-wing message on most--though not all--issues that matter to the Democrats' voting base among working people, and particularly Black and Latino working people. He has already won over large numbers fed up with business as usual, including within the Democratic Party.
That's exactly why the party leadership--including its liberal wing, from Congressional Black Caucus leaders like Jim Clyburn to Latino civil rights and labor activists like Dolores Huerta--will resist the Sanders surge by any means necessary.
Some of the attacks will be underhanded slander and red-baiting, but others will be couched in the reasonable language of "lesser evilism"--that Democrats have to unite behind the "realistic" candidate in order to beat the greater evil in November. But all are about maintaining the status quo in a pro-business party that claims to stand for working people, but doesn't.
And that raises questions about Bernie Sanders and his decision to run for president within the Democratic Party. What will he do to challenge a party machine so clearly bent on making sure Clinton wins? And if he does come up short in that effort, how can he ask the millions of people energized by his campaign to support the very candidate they are revolting against?Ireland's oldest citizen, Molly Madden, has died aged 109.
Molly Madden, from Co Mayo, was born in 1906 and turned 109 in early December.
She had the distinction of being both the oldest person in Ireland and the oldest Irish citizen in the world.
Ms Madden was born in Caherlistrane, Co Galway in 1906 before moving to Ballycastle, Co Mayo with her family when she was seven-years-old.
She was a former priest's housekeeper and had been married to her husband Pat for 65 years before he died.
She was the mother of four children - three sons and a daughter; grandmother to 20 and great-grandmother to 31 children.
Ms Madden lived independently at her home in Ballycastle until she was 99, when she had a fall and moved to the Moy Ridge nursing home in Ballina.
She lived there for nine years, where staff and residents described her as a great lady and a great friend.
Her funeral will be held on Monday.John Aldridge’s take on Luis Suarez’s racial abuse of Patrice Evra has always been embarrassing, but after reading his latest Sunday World column, it appears as though it’s not just his Liverpool bias which has lead him to look like an ignorant prick when it comes to racism.
To give you some context to Sunday’s column, here is a selection of some of Aldridge’s most ridiculous remarks on the issue, which come from several different articles he has written.
If Suarez is cleared then it’s only right that Liverpool should ask the FA to ban Evra because it’s very damaging for a player to be accused of something like that.
Of course, if you can’t prove that someone has done something, the accuser should be punished. I’m sure that’s what they do when a woman can’t prove that a man has raped her, right? Lock her up for accusing him without having enough evidence to prove it happened? Clearly Aldridge hasn’t given any consideration to what an impact his idea would have on trying to kick racism out of football. Why would any player report a case of racist abuse if they know they will get banned if a camera hasn’t picked it up?
The Spanish language experts even admitted that if Suarez’s version of events was true then his use of the word ‘negro’ wouldn’t be deemed racist in South America. We also know that Evra’s own United team-mates refer to him by that name and he doesn’t take offence at that.
The language experts said that the word “negro” may not be deemed racist if said between friends or in a friendly way. The fact that Suarez and Evra are not friends, were in the middle of an argument, during one of the most hate-filled games in England, proves that Suarez did use the word in a racist way. Why Aldridge things Evra’s team mates call him “negro” is beyond me. I think he’s got his stories confused, after Suarez revealed that he calls Glen Johnson “negro”.
If Suarez is guilty of anything (and I’m still not convinced he is, by the way), it is of being too honest for his own damn good. Too honest for admitting he used the word ‘negro’ in his exchange with Evra, as that gave the FA a chance to hang him out to dry in this grand manner.
Poor Suarez.
The Liverpool man then hit back by using a term that is not considered to be derogatory at all back in his native Uruguay.
It appears as though Aldridge can come out with any old nonsense and get it printed, even if it directly contradicts what the independent language experts said in the report, which says: The word “negro” can have pejorative connotations, as it may be associated with low class status, ugliness, vulgar behaviour, noisiness, violence, dishonesty, sexual promiscuity etc. The word can be employed with the intent to offend and to offend in racial terms. Suarez responded with “Porque tu eres negro”. This would be interpreted in Uruguay and other regions of Latin America as racially offensive. When the noun is used in the way described by Evra, it is not a friendly form of address, but is used in an insulting way: it is given as the rationale for an act of physical aggression (the foul), as if the person deserved such an attack since they are black.
My favourite article of the lot though, which I’ve really struggled just to take selective quotes from, is entitled “Football is the biggest Luis-er”.
I cannot help but feel Suarez has been used as a scapegoat and been made an example of by the FA as they go out of their way to show they have zero tolerance on racism in their ongoing battle with their old foe Sepp Blatter at FIFA. Blatter’s comments – that racism on the pitch can be resolved by a handshake at the end of the game – caused a real stir a few weeks back, and now the FA have been made look even more foolish by coming down so heavily on Suarez.
The bigger picture must be that this massive fine and ban for Suarez has opened a real can of worms, as players will accuse an opponent of abuse of all varieties from now on. When that happens, the FA will be forced to launch investigations and may be handing out massive bans on a regular basis.
Football became close to a non-contact sport some time ago, with players getting booked and sent off for minor challenges. Now we may be getting to the stage where you are not allowed to say anything on the pitch either. At that point, the game will be impossible to control.
I’ll never forget playing a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park when some Everton fans were throwing bananas at John Barnes. I was throwing them back into the crowd that afternoon and there was no punishment for Everton after that incident. It was unforgivable, but that was the way of the world in the late 1980s.
I was regularly called a Scouse **** or an Irish **** by my opponents and, in my eyes, that is racism. Skin colour is only one form of racism, but it seems to be the one that is taken more seriously than any other kind of abuse.
What a lot of people don’t know is that Suarez’s grandfather is black, so it is pretty stupid to suggest he is a
racist. No, I believe this is a story of cultural differences getting Suarez into hot water and he is paying a heavy price for it now.
We are bound to see accusations of racist abuse rising in the weeks and months ahead and that will do the campaign to rid football of racism no good whatsoever, as it will create a nasty cloud over the English game. Liverpool have no choice other than to appeal Suarez’s punishment, but the FA have made such a strong stand that they may not want to go back on their original decision. If this eight-game ban stands, football may never be the same again.
I don’t even know where to start in picking apart and laughing at this nonsense. The Liverpool fan who was found guilty of racially abusing Evra from the stands during our next visit to Anfield has mixed race grandchildren, so I suppose it’s stupid to suggest that when he was dancing around like a monkey that it was anything to do with Evra’s race.
Still, Aldridge hasn’t just been keen to defend Suarez but attack Evra too.
The Liverpool player has been hit hard on this issue, while the United man has been portrayed as a victim and the powers that be will not want to change that one-sided script now.
Suarez was given the opportunity to go some way to making amends for saying what he did to Evra that day at Anfield. Having never apologised to Evra, ahead of kick-off at Old Trafford, Suarez refused to shake Evra’s hand.
Suarez was given his chance to put the racism row with Evra behind him and instead he chose to make the situation far worse by refusing to do what he should have. Had I been in Suarez’s position yesterday, I would probably have swallowed my pride and shaken Patrice Evra’s hand for the sake of Liverpool Football Club. Everyone was watching to see if the pair would exchange pleasantries and the Uruguayan gave up the moral high ground by refusing to do so.
Wow. It’s hard to understand why anyone would think that Suarez needed to “swallow his pride” to shake Evra’s hand, as if Evra had done something to wrong him. It’s even harder to understand why anyone would think Suarez had the “moral high ground” in the first place.
Aldridge ended that particular column with a bit of comedy though, suggesting that it wasn’t Suarez at fault for shaking his hand, rather the fault of his agent. He also suggested that Suarez, who scored 11 goals last season (6 less than Yakubu, 4 less than Grant Holt and 1 less than Steven Fletcher and Danny Graham), would be wanted by Barcelona and Real Madrid.
I may be talking out of turn here, but there is a possibility that an agent may have got into Suarez’s ear and told him to kick up a bit of a stink to make his position at Liverpool and in English football as a whole untenable. There is no evidence that was a subplot at Old Trafford, but Suarez has certainly made his life and that of Liverpool much more complicated by his refusal to shake Evra’s hand before kick-off and it wouldn’t surprise me if Real Madrid and Barcelona are soon being linked with a move for the Liverpool No 7.
Is that enough context?
On Sunday, Aldridge wrote: “Patrice Evra opened a can of worms when he started his battle with Luis Suarez over the ‘negrito’ comment that caused so much controversy last year and the John Terry/Anton Ferdinand case served to put this issue even further up the sporting agenda. In the end, where did those two cases get us? These two cases set the ball rolling to where we are now, with everyone afraid to say anything, on or off the pitch, for fear they may be accused of racism or discriminatory behaviour.”
Let’s be clear, Evra didn’t ask Suarez to racially abuse him, but in reporting what Suarez said to him, he wasn’t “starting a battle”. What an absolutely incredible thing to say. Aldridge then refers to the ‘negrito’ comment. Which comment was that? Had Aldridge bothered to read the reported published by the FA almost a year ago, he would know that Evra claimed and Suarez admitted to using the word ‘negro’. Before any details of the case were published, some newspapers speculated whether the less racist term ‘negrito’ had been used and misunderstood by Evra, but as soon as the report was published, this theory was obviously dismissed.
I thought The Guardian‘s Sid Lowe and Sachin Nakrani were bad enough in their reporting on Suarez, but Aldridge’s rubbish takes it to a whole new level. It’s incredible that the Sunday World actually pay this out of touch prat to write for them. It’s also worth reading about what a nasty piece of work Aldridge was when he managed Tranmere Rovers.
———–
Criticism of Liverpool FC and Kenny Dalglish in Luis Suarez row has been over the top
Reds were right to back Suarez
Football is the big Luis-er
No happy Evra after for Suarez
The Suarez Report Broken Down on RoMAdvertisement
They are a stunning glimpse of what motor racing could look like in the future - and how it could be made safer.
Created by a Dutch designer to show off how Formula 1 cars would look with a closed cockpit, they show how all weather racing could be made safe.
The slightly smaller cars feature a canopy to protect the driver in accidents - and from the elements.
The smaller cars has less complex front wings to make overtaking easier, and a canopy to protect the driver in an accident - and from the elements.
'I made this McLaren-Honda concept to visualize what F1 cars could look like with a closed cockpit,' said Dutch designer Andries van Overbeeke.
He says he first considered design a car with a canopy in 2009, when, in the space of one week, F1 driver Felipe Massa suffered a concussion after being hit in the head by a loose spring, and 18-year-old Formula 2 driver Henry Surtees was hit in the head by a loose wheel and killed.
However, F1 bosses rallied against a canopy, and say the result would be'shockingly ugly,' in the words of Red Bull boss Christian Horner - something van Overbeeke wanted to disprove.
'Ever since that week in 2009, with the accidents of Massa and Surtees, I've been wanting to visualize that canopies could look good,' he wrote.
'Of course the driving force behind this isn't looks but it's safety.
'Combined with the current state of F1 it's important to have something tangible to have a fruitful discussion about the future of F1.'
The front wings are less complex and delicate than those used on today's cars, a design which should make overtaking easier.
Car features wider rear tyres with an increased diameter and the car's width is increased
The design are also smaller and simpler than current cars.
The front wings are less complex and delicate than those used on today's cars, a design which should make overtaking easier.
'The sidepods are reminiscent of the McLaren that Jenson Button drove to that legendary win in the 2011 Canadian rain,' said van Overbeeke.
'The message of my images on the track is clear: we need to reverse the trend that F1 no longer races in the rain.'
Apart from the canopy, the car features wider rear tyres with an increased diameter and the car's width is increased.
Apart from the canopy, the car features wider rear tyres with an increased diameter and the car's width is increased.
The front wing is smaller and less complex to reduce the sensitivity to turbulent air.
The canopy encloses the same crash structure that's currently seen on F1 cars, and the traditional roll bar is no longer needed.(CBS News) WASHINGTON - For 31 days now, the Obama administration has been telling us that Americans by the millions are visiting the new health insurance website, despite all its problems.
But no one in the administration has been willing to tell us how many policies have been purchased, and this may be the reason: CBS News has learned enrollments got off to an incredibly slow start.
Early enrollment figures are contained in notes from twice-a-day "war room" meetings convened within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the website failed on Oct. 1. They were turned over in response to a document request from the House Oversight Committee.
The website launched on a Tuesday. Publicly, the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours. But at a meeting Wednesday morning, the war room notes say "six enrollments have occurred so far."
They were with BlueCross BlueShield North Carolina and Kansas City, CareSource and Healthcare Service Corporation.
By Wednesday afternoon, enrollments were up to "approximately 100." By the end of Wednesday, the notes reflect "248 enrollments" nationwide.
The health care exchanges need to average 39,000 enrollees a day to meet the goal of seven million by March 1. The war room notes give a glimpse into some of the reasons customers had problems:
"Direct enrollment (signing up directly on an insurer's website) is not working for any issuers."
"Experian" credit reporting agency is "creating confusion with credit check information."
"Issuer phone numbers are not appearing correctly on the Pay Now page."
Issa subpoenas Sebelius for HealthCare.gov documents
Sebelius: "Hold me accountable for the debacle" of HealthCare.gov
Complete Coverage: Obamacare Kicks Off
The notes leave no doubt that some enrollment figures, which the administration has chosen to keep secret, are available.
"Statistics coming in," said notes from the very first meeting the morning of Oct. 2. Contractor "QSSI has a daily dashboard created every night."
But head of CMS Marilyn Tavenner would not disclose any figures when Rep. Dave Camp, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked earlier this week.
"Chairman Camp, we will have those numbers available in mid-November," she said.
Health and Human Services told CBS News Thursday it's in no position to confirm or discuss enrollment figures because it doesn't have any. A spokesman suggested the numbers obtained by CBS News |
2010. This archive is preceded by Cerberus Daily News - July 2010, and followed by Cerberus Daily News - September 2010.
Contents show]
August 2010 - Week One Edit
08/01/2010 - Binary Helix Criticizes Sonax Over Suspected Chemical Weapons Use
“New statements by Binary Helix representatives regarding unusual ordnance on the planet Garvug are pointing to a lack of unity among the corporatist alliance. "Our corporation profits from robust alien ecosystems," said deputy oversight director Grigori Petrenko, criticizing Sonax for its use of what they speculate to be chemical warheads. "Dropping nerve gas is not only useless but counterproductive. The concentrations necessary to kill a krogan or vorcha will kill everything else downwind." Sonax supreme commander Lira Speight responded mere minutes later, denying the criticism was based in fact. "Petrenko was speaking hypothetically and quoted out of context. Chemical weapons are militarily and politically unfeasible, and so we aren't using them in our munitions," she said. "This isn't the 20th century."”
August 2010 - Week Two Edit
08/02/2010 - Vid Exposes Mass Executions of Garvug Insurgent Sympathizers
“A controversial vid is making its way across the extranet, causing PR trouble for the corporatist forces on Garvug. The vid shows Sonax Industries soldiers executing nearly a dozen krogan, alleged guerilla sympathizers who defy their captors to literally their last breaths before they are pushed into a mass grave. When the vid first hit the extranet yesterday, Sonax's stock price dipped dramatically, but at this hour it seems to have recovered and even jumped up 0.4 credits per share. "What we're seeing here is a deeply disturbing trend," says senior news analyst Hannibal Brown. "Were this a vid of krogan killing humans, Systems Alliance politicians would be saber-rattling left and right. But the perception is that all krogan are warriors, or at least able to defend themselves. Their execution is being treated as the cost of doing business on Garvug."”
08/03/2010 - C-SEC Officer's Confrontation with Krogan Drug-Runner Becomes Extranet Hit
“Footage of an incredible confrontation made its way onto the extranet and attracted more than 225 million views almost overnight. The reluctant star of the latest extranet craze is human veteran C-SEC officer Tarmiel East, captured on a security camera during a dramatic confrontation with suspected krogan drug-runner Hunjon Sard. The routine stop quickly became a fight for survival in a knock-down, drag-out street brawl that East managed to win bare-handed. Details are sketchy, including how the video made it to the extranet, but C-SEC Commissioner Serjeck Hankiloran refused comment, saying only that the matter was under investigation.”
08/04/2010 - Asari Diamond "The Mother's Star" Blessed by Earth's Pope
“The Mother's Star, the largest natural gemstone-cut diamond in the galaxy, was blessed by Earth's Pope Leo XIV today. The Star weighs in at 2,105 carats and was found on the asari colony world of Sanves. The diamond is undergoing a galactic tour to be blessed by major religious leaders of Council space. Tomorrow it will be taken back to Thessia for the final leg of its journey. After an incantation by asari atamna (a collection of high priestesses), it will be placed in the crown jewel collection of the republic of Ulee.”
08/05/2010 - Fishermen and Marine Biologists Capture a Deinorostrum on Arvuna
“A team of fishermen and marine biologists on the Terminus Systems moon of Arvuna have successfully captured a deinorostrum, a carnivorous sea creature some 35 meters long. With an armored head and sharp beak, the deinorostrum resembles the prehistoric dinicthys fish of Earth, but on a scale similar to blue whales. It was herded into an offshore pen using sonic projectors, which are key in keeping the creature captive as few cage materials can actually hold it. The "deino" is the largest predatory sea creature ever captured on Arvuna; it measures as the fifth largest known in the galaxy, exceeded only by the megalosteus family of creatures on Trident.”
08/06/2010 - Binary Helix Ends Involvement With Corporatist Alliance on Garvug
“Tonight, a painful but non-literal blow was dealt to corporatist forces on Garvug: Binary Helix, one-third of the triumvirate of corporations fighting guerilla forces on that planet, is withdrawing their logistical support. "We laid out two strategies at our stockholder's meeting, and the voting made it clear which we would pursue," said spokesperson Othello Nash. "The time has come to end our involvement with partners that are not acting in good faith and to reinvest ourselves in more dynamic markets galaxy-wide." Asked for comment, Sonax Industries supreme commander Lira Speight responded, "Sonax's resolve will not waver. We are already reaping profit from this planet. If it is not coming fast enough for Binary Helix, then I'm sure Guanghui Solutions will enjoy taking their share."”
08/07/2010 - Body Modification Using Psyotics a Growing Trend Among Party-Goers
“Psyotics, the latest trend in body modification, is catching on outside the Illium club scene where it first began. This craze has adventurous revelers injecting specialized capsules under their skin that react to certain audio frequencies by lighting up. While the lights can be any color, the most common is a deep purple that mimics the glow of violet-shifted biotics. A single injection typically lasts for the evening, after which the capsules disintegrate. Dr. Frakus Mijier of the Nos Astra Medical Academy cautions party-goers on use of psyotics. "Any untested substance deposited into the bloodstream has side effects, and potentially dangerous ones," he warns. "There is no standardization for psyotics, so those capsules you get on the street could be made out of anything."”
08/08/2010 - Reconstruction of Signis Completed on Taetrus
“Reconstruction of the Signis, the Taetrian executive office building destroyed in the Vallum Blast, was completed today by the Hierarchy Corps of Engineers. Donations of wood, marble, and fabricator materials poured in from all over the galaxy to enable the famous building to stand again. The new building is an exact replica of the old, a move that lead engineer Naxus Ursinus said was expedient and an important political symbol. "On a practical level, we wanted to give the Primarch a place to work that wasn't out of a hotel room somewhere," she said, "More importantly, we are showing our enemies they have not changed us." Asked if the new building was hardened against megaton-scale blasts, she replied, "You can't stop an FTL craft with a stronger ceiling. Our first line of defense is the common citizens' awareness of what their neighbors are doing."”
August 2010 - Week Three Edit
08/09/2010 - Fashion Week Kicks Off on Illium
“Fashion Week kicked off on Illium today with a dazzling presentation by fashion icon Scarlet Jane, who wowed the crowd with a collection of intimates and casual wear influenced by quarian designs. "They are such an inspiration," Jane said. "They can take anything and give it their own flavor. They are a culture of innovation. I love them!" Braced for record numbers, Fashion Week culminates with the Luminary Gala sponsored by the weekly "Who's-Who" program. This year, the event will be hosted by Carson Noble, owner of the fashion magazine, "Noble."”
Other stories in Illium Fashion Week (First - 08/09/2010 - Next - 08/12/2010)
08/10/2010 - Holy Month of Ramadan Begins on Earth at Sunset
“Sunset tonight marks the beginning of the human holy month of Ramadan on Earth. Until the next moon, over 2.7 billion Earth humans and 2 million in the colonies will abstain from eating, drinking, or having sexual intercourse during daylight hours. Giving to the poor or feeding them while breaking fast in the evening is encouraged, along with praying and reading from a holy book. Humans in the colonies will base their fasting timetable off of visual sighting of the largest crescent moon; planets with no moons or extreme photoperiods follow Earth's timetable. Those who are travelling more than 64km are exempt from fasting but must make up the days later with fasting or buying the poor an evening meal -- humans in non-geosynchronous orbit are considered to be travelling at all times.”
“Alarms rang throughout the salarian system of Antilin yesterday when an alien ship bearing a strong AI signature triggered fears of a geth attack. Renko Turwin, Director of Near-Orbital Security, explained: "When evidence of powerful AI heuristics was detected onboard, our security forces thought it was the vanguard of a geth invasion. However, we consulted quarian scientific advisors who assured us that the signals failed to match any known geth signature." According to Turwin, the biggest surprise came next: "The ship's intelligence then communicated with us. It asked us to calculate the value of Pi to the first quadrillion digits. Some 20 questions followed after that, all of them beyond our realm of expertise. We're currently awaiting advice from outside consultants before proceeding. As yet, the ship matches no known alien species."”
Other stories in Alien Ghost Ship Encounter (First - 08/11/2010 - Next - 08/15/2010)
08/12/2010 - Scarlet Jane No-Show at Luminary Gala After Spat
“A high-profile spat between fashion royalty Carson Noble and darling designer Scarlet Jane resulted in a Jane no-show at the Luminary Gala held last night. Noble was caught on video by an audience member, commenting on Jane's collection. "Since when are we getting ideas from that gypsy race? What's next, vorcha cuisine at the buffet?" Noble denies the statement and has refused to apologize. Meanwhile, a small group of quarian protestors have picketed Friday's event. Scarlet Jane could not be reached for comment, but her publicist released a statement noting that her client "could not attend the event in good conscience."”
08/13/2010 - Nashan Stellar Dynamics Unveils the 2186 Whip Aircar
“Nashan Stellar Dynamics has finally unveiled the 2186 Whip, the spaceship designer's much-anticipated first entry into the aircar market. Nashan's press release calls the Whip, which was in development for nearly 5 years, "the most intensively designed aircar ever to hit the market." Features include phased kinetic barriers to cushion crashes, autofoam dispensers, power lumbar support seats, a pressurized cabin, and engine sealants for amphibious travel. The sticker shock will only be the good kind: 29,599 credits will get you a fully loaded ride.”
08/14/2010 - Illium Businesswoman Micah Envy Interviewed Tonight on "Luminary"
“Tonight on "Luminary": Homeless street rat, adventurer, mercenary, actress, head of a multi-billion-credit media giant and everything in between, Micah Envy has done it all. Known for her candid interviews, avant-garde fashion, and business brilliance, she continues to be a force of nature. Tonight she speaks out about her charity work for the planet of Belan, becoming a first-time mother at 63, and how to make a thermal clip using only an omni-tool and parts from a junked security mech. Tune in tonight for an in-depth portrait of Illium's brightest "Luminary!"”
08/15/2010 - Breakthrough in Communication with Antilin "Ghost Ship"
“A breakthrough today in the case of the mysterious "ghost ship" in the Antilin System: Famed exo-biologist Jordan Detweiler from MIT's Extraterrestrial Studies Group traveled to the ship, now held in quarantine. Detweiler engaged the ship's AI system, which has been piloting the craft for an undetermined number of years and appears to be the sole sentient lifeform onboard. Given previous failed communication attempts, Detweiler explained how he succeeded: "In rudimentary terms, it was an I.Q. test. The ship's AI was determining that we weren't some band of dullard space pirates, that we understood things like quantum string theory, emergent systems, and a host of other advanced concepts. I was able to satisfy its demands and gain access to the interior. I need to do more analysis, but I think this is the exo-archaeological find of the century. I will say that the ship appears to be at least 8,000 years old."”
August 2010 - Week Four Edit
08/16/2010 - Corporatist General Found Dead on Garvug
“A corporatist army general is dead on Garvug tonight, and authorities consider the circumstances suspicious. Noah Vardos, a 61-year-old brigadier general, died of a gunshot wound to the head at Hanarsh Army Base in Dhazil. A base-wide alert sounded when the body was discovered but was cancelled a short time later. Vardos served in the Sonax Industries army and was known to be a close friend of supreme commander Lira Speight. Speight herself answered few questions about the incident, saying only that his position will be filled by Colonel Oleg Horvat. General Vardos is survived by his three children.”
08/17/2010 - No Security Procedure Inquiry After Garvug General Death
“New information in the death of Brigadier General Noah Vardos has raised more questions than answers. Colonel Richard Hawke, overseeing security at the Hanarsh base where the general died from a gunshot wound, said that no inquiry into security procedures is planned at this time. No suspect leads are reported, and GBC News has acquired an e-memo sent out to all senior base personnel warning of strict consequences if any personnel talked to the press.”
08/18/2010 - GBC News Acquires Copy of Garvug General Suicide Note
“In a galactic exclusive, GBC News has acquired a copy of the suicide note of General Noah Vardos, who died earlier this week from what is now believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The three-page note jumped from topic to topic with the general blaming himself for pursuing but not catching three krogan who escaped off-planet and who are now believed to have perpetrated the warp bomb attack on Sonax command. Vardos described the worsening situation on the planet as a "Charlie Foxtrot," and took responsibility for the men and women he had "gotten killed for half a credit a share." Sonax Industries has not commented on the suicide note.”
08/19/2010 - MIT Exo-Biologist Claims Astonishing Antilin "Ghost Ship" Discovery
“The scientific community is abuzz today after the latest report from MIT exo-biologist Jordan Detweiler was filed last night from the Antilin System, where he's currently investigating a mysterious "ghost ship." Claiming a breakthrough, Detweiler writes, "What I've discovered is nothing short of astonishing: This so-called derelict ship isn't derelict at all. It appears that an alien race has downloaded its consciousness to a massive array of quantum computers onboard the vessel. It's my belief these aliens now reside entirely in a virtual world and have been there for at least 8,000 years." Detweiler estimates the population of the virtual world numbers close to one billion individuals. He explains: "The ship's AI is something of a caretaker to these people, or even a god depending on how you look at it. More importantly, the AI is now requesting our help. It says a power failure is imminent and threatens the entire virtual civilization."”
08/20/2010 - General Partinax Declares End of Major Combat Ops on Taetrus
“In a long-awaited announcement today on Taetrus, General Partinax declared the end of major combat operations in the Diluvian Wildlands. "We are grateful to the brave men and women who got us this far," he said, "and we now call on the people to contribute to the great task ahead." Public works projects employing the formerly captive population in the reconstruction effort are scheduled to begin at the end of the month, an effort that is expected to dwarf the cost of combat operations. This does not, however, mean that the entire army will be pulling out -- more than ninety percent of the colonialist fighting force is scheduled to remain in-country until the end of the year to provide security, while the remainder of the units will be rotated out to give troops time off.”
08/21/2010 - Opinions Mixed After Discovery of "Ghost Ship" Virtual Civilization
“Opinions were plentiful this week after MIT's Jordan Detweiler stunned the scientific world when he revealed the existence of a virtual alien civilization residing in a derelict "ghost ship". Niran Patalung, a Buddhist scholar at the Center for Religious Studies in Bangkok, said, "I'm struck by the parallels to ancient human beliefs in reincarnation. Clearly, life does not end for these aliens when they 'die.' Their souls, if you will, simply re-inhabit other virtual personalities and continue living." Thomas Copeland, spokesman for an Earth-based atheist group, disagreed: "That's true until you pull the plug. Then what? All these'souls' just wink out, that's what. Those who would latch onto this incident as proof of some higher level of existence are simply projecting their own wishful thinking onto digital noise." Mr. Patalung replied: "One man's noise is another man's music. Perhaps in his next life, Mr. Copeland will be less tone-deaf."”
08/22/2010 - Plastic Surgeon Arrested on Earth for Murdering Asari Patients
“Local police on Earth have arrested plastic surgeon Erzsebet Vidmar for the gruesome murder of over thirty asari who frequented her clinic. Dubbed "Vidmar the Vampire" by the popular press, Vidmar allegedly killed her victims for their telomerase, a substance essential to slowing the aging process. Vidmar is allegedly obsessed with the asari extended lifespan and has attempted to purchase telomerase in the past as part of a plan to engineer her own tissues. Officials were quick to point out that the science behind her methods was shoddy. "You can't just inject telomerase and expect a fountain of youth," said Dr. Antonin Esposito, who reviewed her work for the police. "If it were that simple, Dr. Vidmar would look a lot better than she does."”
August 2010 - Week Five Edit
“The fallout continues for beleaguered editor Carson Noble regarding comments he made during an Illium Fashion Week presentation of quarian-inspired clothing. A series of extranet vids, taken at public media events and dating back almost six years, has recently surfaced. The vids feature Noble making a variety of racially charged statements. This has prompted a call for his resignation as contributing member of the Fashion Media Collective (FMC), adding to the list of legal actions over cancelled public events amidst the controversy. Lawyers for Mr. Noble have made no comment other than stating he is "on vacation with his family and cannot be reached at this time." Noble himself has not consented to any interviews since the story broke several weeks ago.”
08/24/2010 - Galaxy Remains Riveted to Ongoing "Ghost Ship" Saga
“The galaxy remains riveted to the ongoing saga of the AI-driven "ghost ship," now in danger of perishing because of dwindling energy reserves. Evolutionary biologists have jumped into the fray, with one claiming the extinction of the virtual alien race is the natural order of things. "Face it," turian scientist Elgus Paramon argued, "these aliens were clever, but they weren't clever enough to build a better battery. Their lack of foresight is a failure to adapt to changing conditions. Their species represents an evolutionary dead-end, and their civilization should be allowed to perish." Responding, the chief exo-biologist investigating the ship, Jordan Detweiler, said "Mr. Paramon would have us commit genocide by turning a blind eye to the situation. We can save this civilization. The power requirements to preserve their virtual world are manageable." The matter is now being referred to the Citadel Council for further consideration.”
08/25/2010 - No Decision Yet Reached in "Ghost Ship" Case
“With time running out, no decision has yet been reached in the case of the alien "ghost ship" found drifting in salarian space. Exo-biologist Jordan Detweiler estimates the energy reserves currently powering the virtual alien world are down to 4% and will fail soon. Meanwhile, opportunistic explorers boarded the ship last night and managed to hack into the virtual civilization. Before they were caught, the hackers spent six hours interfaced with the ship's computers. In that relatively short period of time, it appears that some 180 years passed within the virtual world. Both hackers are currently in deep comas and doctors are unsure as to their recovery. "The interface was too much for their systems to absorb. Trying to re-connect their minds to their bodies after being "away" for so long mentally was too large a shock. Physically they're fine, but I'd wager scrambled eggs have more consciousness."”
08/26/2010 - Aish Ashland Marries Singer Jenellen Lepp on Illium
“By the time we heard the bells, it was almost over: socialite Aish Ashland and singer Jenellen Lepp got married yesterday at midnight in a secret ceremony in Nos Astra. "Me and Jel only met three months ago," Aish said, "but when he proposed I decided to get married right away so we could have a honeymoon during the conjunction on Illium. Our horoscopes there are totally charged! We'll have a family wedding once Jel's Red Sand Scratch clears up." Ashland's probation officer had only this to say of the nuptials: "She left the state. She's in violation."”
Other stories in Aish Ashland Weds Jenellen Lepp (First - 08/26/2010 - Next - 09/03/2010)
08/27/2010 - Alien "Ghost Ship" Saga Ends Under Veil of Secrecy
“The saga of the alien "ghost ship" has come to a surprising end. Earlier today, reports surfaced that the Citadel Council was prepared to rule against saving the ship, fearing its AI system was sophisticated enough to pose a "security threat of unknown dimensions." In response, chief scientist Jordan Detweiler inserted himself into the virtual alien world to warn its citizens of their civilization's imminent end. He returned one minute later -- apparently equal to half a year within the accelerated timeline of the alien world -- bringing a treaty offer from its inhabitants. At that point, details turn sketchy. One inside source claims the virtual aliens offered scientific advancements "far beyond anything we have" in return for assistance. A veil of secrecy was immediately erected, with Citadel intelligence agencies classifying the matter as top-secret. Rumors now have Jordan Detweiler embarking on a Council-sanctioned mission into the virtual world to make diplomatic contact.”
08/28/2010 - Hanar Religious Holiday of Nyahir Begins on Kahje
“Today marks the beginning of the religious holiday of Nyahir or "First Cresting Bloom" on the hanar homeworld of Kahje. Lasting a full thirteen days, this celebration honors the gift of speech that many hanar attribute to the Protheans, known on Kahje as "The Enkindlers". The celebration is a mixture of contemplation and competition as the faithful perform stylized debates, poetry duels, and other traditional hanar art forms. Winners' names are inscribed in bioluminescence for a year on the sides of Mount Vassla, an underwater volcano at the heart of one of the oldest Prothean ruins on Kahje.”
08/29/2010 - Visionary Turian CEO Exposed As a Fake
“He started one of Nos Astra's hottest companies. His vision landed him on magazine covers. His parties were legendary -- and he was a fake. Delumcore Systems CEO Jaxum Borlin is actually Rolan Quarn, a turian from Erinle who met Borlin on vacation. When Borlin died from a heart attack a week into his holiday, Quarn boldly lifted the CEO's passport, sampled his genetic material, and passed himself off as a tanned Borlin. Even close friends simply thought that Borlin seemed "energized" and "eager to get back to work." Despite a lack of credentials, Quarn successfully ran Delumcore for two years before a routine traffic stop took a fresh tissue sample and caught the discrepancy in his geneprint. Quarn is being held on charges of fraud and impersonation, and goes to trial tomorrow.”
Other stories in Turian Impersonator Arrested (First - 08/29/2010 - Next - 08/30/2010)
August 2010 - Week Six Edit
08/30/2010 - Turian Impersonator Linked to Dozens of Other Identities
“A new wrinkle in the trial of Rolan Quarn, the turian who masqueraded as the CEO of Delumcore Systems: passing himself off as Jaxum Borlin isn't the first time he's stepped into someone else's life. Quarn has impersonated dozens of other people including a stunt driver, sous-chef, martial arts instructor, ambassador, varren tamer, news anchor, and stand-up comedian. Nos Astran police chief Sonja Treme stated that Quarn is being "cooperative" and that "he was living off of what he made once he joined Delumcore. Borlin's personal accounts haven't been touched."”
08/31/2010 - Nos Astra Police on Manhunt for Escaped Turian Impersonator
“Nos Astra police are on a manhunt this evening for Rolan Quarn, who slipped his tracking bracelet and led police on a two-hour chase before disappearing. Before he left, the turian recorded a message to the employees of Delumcore Systems, thanking many of them by name and giving advice for the company's future. Quarn ended by saying "Sorry about the bail. I wish everyone the best. I've never been prouder of the people I've worked with, and that's saying something." Authorities believe Quarn will be attempting to book a passage off-system.”During the last decade, the veterinary anesthetics have gained popularity as recreational drugs. The aim of this study was to document the use of "anestecia de caballo" (xylazine) and its consequences among drug users in Puerto Rico. The study combined a cross-sectional survey with 89 drug users and two focus groups conducted in Mayagüez with frontline drug treatment providers. Drug users were recruited from communities of the San Juan metropolitan area using a variety of ethnographic and outreach strategies. A short questionnaire developed for the study collected information on sociodemographics, xylazine use, and its consequences. The two focus groups were conducted to discuss the details related to xylazine use, its consequences, and utilization awareness. The sample comprised 63 males (70.8%) and 26 females with a mean age of 37.2 years. The mean number of years of drug use was 14.3, with a mean frequency of drug use of 5.9 times daily. More than 65% reported speedball as the principal drug of use. The prevalence of xylazine use was 80.7%. More than 42% of the sample used xylazine in a mixture with speedball. The main route of administration of xylazine was injection but 14% reported the use of xylazine by inhalation. More than 35% of the sample reported skin lesions and 21.1% reported at least one overdose episode. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that males (OR = 3.47, CI = 1.10-12.00) and those who reported speedball as their main drug of use (OR = 9.34, CI = 2.51-34.70) were significantly more likely to be xylazine users. Focus groups revealed that drug users claimed to recognize the presence of xylaxine in a mixture of speedball based on its effects, taste, the color of the drug (dark brown), and its odor. In conclusion, the use of xylazine among drug users in Puerto Rico seems to be an emerging trend with potentially serious health consequences.Love them or hate them, chances are you use emojis every single day, whether it be on social media or when you're texting someone.
Aside from the normal set of emojis on whatever phone you have, there are emoji apps associated with some of the biggest stars in the world that can be downloaded and used, and a few big name hockey players actually have their own emoji app.
Emojis just got a lot cooler. 😎 Download the #ZETTERBERGMOJI (iOS only) from the App Store for $1.99. | Visit: zetterbergmoji.com/download (link in bio) | #lgrw A post shared by Detroit Red Wings Hockey Club (@detroitredwings) on Apr 6, 2017 at 8:38am PDT
OviMoji.com
On Friday, Evgeni Malkin officially released his new emoji app and it's a must-have for hockey fans to say the least.
The app features some of the best Malkin moments, but in emoji form.
MA7K1N Emoji
MA7K1N Emoji
Our favourite has to be the shoutout to Fleury, which he posted on the night of the expansion draft when the former Penguin was selected by the Golden Knights.
sad day ((( A post shared by Evgeni Malkin (@e.malkin71geno) on Jun 21, 2017 at 6:45pm PDT
Which Malkin emoji is your favourite? Let us and him know by tweeting us @BarDown.
(H/T: Evgeni Malkin)Once upon a time, a newly married couple rode an old train from Myrdal to Flåm. The train passed through mountains and valleys, past waterfalls and vast lakes. Often the climb was dramatically steep, the hairpin turns almost impossibly sharp. The passengers ran from window to window in a frenzy of excitement, exclaiming at the vivid scenery, blinking in wonder when the train emerged from a tunnel.
A voice spoke to the passengers, first in Norwegian, then in German, then English. The voice spoke of gradients and history: of the men who had built tracks from wood and stone and the many people who had ridden on the red seats of the old train. And there were legends, too: this was folklore country. The land through which the train was passing was said to be haunted by trolls and fays. The valleys were home to the Hulder, a forest siren who lured mortals with her unearthly song. The bride squeezed her husband’s hand in excitement. Here was magic; here was darkness.
At length, the train rattled to a stop. The passengers were to alight at Kjosfossen for a few moments. The waterfall was awe-inspiring in its height and power; the colors of the mountains, the trees, the sky, and the crashing water on the rocks defied capture. Spray hit their faces; the air was pure and sweet. People began taking pictures: the Italian family; the elderly American man on crutches with his solicitous Thai husband; the German couple. The newly married couple did not want to take a picture, though. “It wouldn’t capture the magic,” she said.
And then this happened:
In case you can’t tell, here’s the sequence of events: vaguely ancient music starts to play, loudly enough to be heard over the crash of the falls. There is Enya-ish singing. And suddenly, there’s a siren dancing on a far-off hill, her red gown vivid against the scenery, her long blonde hair flowing as she moves. And then, she’s gone! But there she is again—like magic, on a lower ledge! And, wait, there she is—on the other side of the falls!
All of which is to say, three women reenact Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” video in the middle of this valley whenever a train of tourists passes by, during peak season. Apparently, they are all ballet students.
The new bride—for she was me!—pulled out her phone and set to recording. This, at least, could be captured.
And they lived happily ever after, and took many pictures, and died of old age, having known a world where people tried to anticipate their pleasures and imaginations, just like the kings and queens of old.
Sadie Stein is contributing editor of The Paris Review, and the Daily’s correspondent.(Photo: Renata Apanaviciene/Shutterstock)
The other night I left the windows open so that I could listen to the rain, the gentle kind that only comes in the spring. It fell so steadily, so surely that it sounded like a metronome. There was no need for a clock, only an extra blanket because of the chill. I thought of that rain today while in California, where there is a severe, statewide drought.
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Jack Kerouac wrote of “the myth of a rainy night,” and that is all there is in California. Weeks have passed without a drop of rain. The governor declared a state of emergency all the way back in January. They are still feeding lawns and washing cars in Los Angeles, but districts around the state are rationing water. By the end of April, 45 water agencies had already started enforcing these limits. Warnings are followed by fines, after which water agencies will restrict access or even terminate service. Some districts, like Montecito, threatened their residents that taps could run dry by the end of the summer.
The rain will soon fall at once or not at all. There will be only dryness or downpour, no more metronomic rains like the one that kept me awake the other night.
We think differently in the rain, of course, but we are learning to think differently about it, too. While California endures its drought, severe storms flooded states along the Gulf Coast, in the Mid-Atlantic, and in the Northeast. This, we are beginning to understand, is our fault: Global precipitation is affected directly by human activity. As we warm the atmosphere, it holds more moisture, which turns into rain.
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Explaining last week’s flash flooding in Florida, when almost six inches of rain fell in a single hour, meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote: “We’re supercharging the atmosphere by quickening the hydrologic cycle. In addition to causing more downpours, these enhanced evaporation rates are also leading to an increase in drought severity in places that are already dry, like California.”
We are warming the atmosphere too quickly. The rain will soon fall at once or not at all. There will be only dryness or downpour, no more metronomic rains like the one that kept me awake the other night. Like the economy, the climate is expected to change in ways that only advance inequality: The wet regions of the world will get wetter; the dry regions of the world will get drier.
Years ago, when climate change was first becoming a topic of political discourse, I suggested that we not call it “global warming,” but “climate chaos.” The overall effect is raising temperatures, but the local effects are variable, more chaotic. Anticipating the guffaws of climate skeptics whenever snows turned to blizzards or cold fronts moved throughout unexpected regions, I thought chaos might better describe the experience of living in a changing climate. And so it has, at least for me. Climate chaos is what I’ve experienced on the East Coast where I live and now on the West Coast where I am visiting.
California is still figuring out how to live with its drought. The rationing will help the current water supply last a little longer. Some parts of the state are experimenting with cloud seeding and reviving old efforts at desalination. Both solutions are costly, unpredictable, and may cause more damage than the drought itself. Desalination is not only expensive, but also energy-intensive; environmentalists say it threatens marine life in the areas from which the water is drawn. Cloud seeding cannot produce precipitation from nothing, only induce rain to fall that might have fallen later through the use of chemicals that some fear are themselves dangerous.
So what to do about the end of rain? Whether we live in the West with droughts or the East with downpours, we will have to get used to there being only extremes. “Yes, climate change is already here,” climate scientist Richard B. Alley told the New York Times, “But the costs so far are still on the low side compared to what will be coming under business as usual by late in this century.”
When President Obama talked to the morning shows about the National Climate Assessment, not even he seemed capable of articulating what any of us could do. “We’re going to have to continue to increase the solar and wind power we’re using and other renewables,” he told ABC News. The EPA has a few more pointed thoughts: nine suggestions for homeowners; four ideas for the office; six suggestions for those who drive; and even a few ideas for students, teachers, and administrators. It is good to remember that there are specific things we can each do at home and work and school to reduce our energy use, and good, too, to realize that many of them will save us money.
Doing these may not be enough, but they are some things we can do, and I suspect many of us will regret not doing anything when the seasons are no more, when the rain falls all at once or not at all. I mentioned Kerouac’s “myth of a rainy night,” but I have also long loved Ernest Hemingway’s writing about the rain. I suppose he described it so well because he observed it in so many places.
One of the most stunning examples is in A Moveable Feast, his memoir of Paris. “When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring,” Hemingway writes, “it was as though a young person had died for no reason.” Perhaps that is how we will feel when there are no seasons at all. |
2, thieves were reported to have stolen roughly 1,000 tonnes of syrup worth CA$30 million from the new ISR facility in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford. This event is known informally as the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist. The amount stolen was about a quarter of the facility's reserve.[10] Slightly over a month later, police seized maple syrup stocks from a Kedgwick, New Brunswick, exporter on suspicion that it had been purchased from a Quebec supplier connected to the ISR theft.[12] Over the next three months, police had further success in locating portions of the stolen syrup, but were still unsure of the final disposition of about one third of it. Much of it had apparently been sold to buyers who were unaware of its origins and who were led to believe it had been produced in neighbouring New Brunswick. On 18 December, police arrested three men known to have access to the warehouse from which the syrup was stolen.[11] Fifteen more people were arrested on 20 December,[13] with police still looking for another seven.[14] The theft and its backstory are featured in the Netflix documentary series "Dirty Money", Season 1, Episode 5. On April 28, 2017, accused ringleader Richard Vallières, convicted in November 2016, was sentenced to eight years in prison and a $9.4 million fine. He can choose another six years of prison over paying the fine, and is appealing the conviction. The missing syrup was valued at 3,000 tonnes and $18.7 million.[15] On January, 25, 2018, maple syrup producers Nathalie Bombardier and Daniel Gaudreau had their supply seized by the Sûreté du Québec, due to their refusal to sell their surplus production through the Federation. Instead Bombardier and Gaudreau prefer to sell their supply directly to businesses.[16]VanGaalish translated: The secret striker, Matteo Darmian and Mike Smalling
Louis van Gaal doesn't speak English - he speaks VanGaalish.
The Manchester United manager is famed across Europe for his unique take on native tongues. His versions of German and Spanish are unlike those of anyone else.
Before the veteran manager came to these shores, Dutch journalist Peter Zantingh imparted 10 rules to follow when interviewing Van Gaal. It included this on VanGaalish:
"[When] Mr Van Gaal speaks your language, it is no longer your language, it’s his. It is not Mr Van Gaal who has trouble speaking English, it is you, for not going along with his obviously much better interpretation of it."
United fans woke up to two big stories on Tuesday morning: Van Gaal was in the process of signing a'secret' striker, and Matteo Darmian had been bought as a reserve.
This was not mere conjecture or paper talk. It had come straight from the horse's mouth. Van Gaal had said so himself at a press conference in the US.
That much is true, but quite often what Van Gaal means and what he actually says are distant relatives. Firstly let's have a look at the striker comment.
When asked to clarify his previous comments about a possible surprise striker coming in, Van Gaal said: "It's not the striker the media has written about. You have to wait and see."
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This was taken as meaning that United were in the process of signing a striker that the media had not yet mentioned. It led to fervent speculation as to who it could be.
The name of Zlatan Ibrahimovic was amongst those mooted, as folk scoured the goalscoring charts of Europe to cross-reference them with newspaper reports.
In fact, it's highly likely that Van Gaal simply meant 'not Thomas Muller'.
He mentioned a surprise striker a few days ago; yesterday the club denies rumours of a record bid for Muller; today the manager said "...not the striker the media have written about."
The comments about Matteo Darmian were less cryptic: "We have brought Darmian for the second position behind Valencia and now already because of that injury (Paddy) McNair has to play there."
Fans reacted with dismay; how could Van Gaal possibly prefer Antonia Valencia, a makeshift full-back, to Italy's first choice in that position? What was this lunacy?
Again, perhaps it's worth taking the comment with a pinch of salt. Van Gaal's specific point was not that Darmian was a reserve, but rather that he'd had to resort to McNair.
His comments when unveiling the ex-Torino man a week or so ago were possibly clearer: "Matteo Darmian has to fight with Valencia. He knows that but Valencia knows that also."
There is every likelihood that Van Gaal will commence the season with Valencia starting, as he eases Darmian into English football. But expect the Italian to lock down the position before long.
So it is possible that Van Gaal's surprise striker has previously been guessed by the press, and Darmian won't necessarily be warming the bench all season.
Anyone who takes every word the United manager says as gospel should perhaps note that he also referred to the defender sitting next to him as "Mike Smalling". But he is Mike Smalling, in VanGaalish.There has been one inescapable question surrounding the newly passed GOP tax plan: Who will pay for it? The answer is actually not complicated, because top Republicans have already told everyone.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who has long dedicated his career to drawing ire over the ever-rising national debt and deficit, has made lobbying for cuts a big part of his legislative agenda.
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Days before the House version of the tax plan under President Donald Trump's administration passed, Ryan was well aware of the hit the deficit would take as a result. In fact, he already had a plan in place to help fix the problem his party deliberately intended to create: spending cuts and welfare reform.
"You cannot get the national debt under control, you cannot get that deficit under control, if you don’t do both — grow the economy, cut spending," Ryan argued during a town hall event in Virginia for Fox News, as Salon previously reported.
Ryan, the GOP and the Trump administration have collectively argued that the tax cuts, which are going to disproportionately benefit the wealthiest earners and corporations, will essentially pay for themselves through economic growth. But what if that growth doesn't come to fruition? Nonpartisan economists have already predicted that, under the GOP plan, the deficit would increase by at least $1 trillion over the next decade.
It became quite obvious that social safety net programs had been put in the crosshairs, and on Wednesday, only days after the Senate tax plan passed, Ryan confirmed as much.
"We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit," Ryan said during an interview on Ross Kaminsky's radio show, The Washington Post reported. "Frankly, it's the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health care entitlements — because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking."
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Following private conversations between the two, Ryan said he also feels confident that the president will support his efforts to scale back Medicare, which Trump promised he wouldn't do on the campaign, along with Medicaid and Social Security.
"I think the president is understanding that choice and competition works everywhere in health care, especially in Medicare," Ryan explained. "This has been my big thing for many, many years. I think it's the biggest entitlement we've got to reform."
Democrats have already slammed their Congressional counterparts and said their plans were simply par for the course.
"What’s coming next is all too predictable: The deficit hawks will come flying back after this bill becomes law," Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said, the Post reported. "Republicans are already saying 'entitlement reform' and 'welfare reform' are next up on the docket. But nobody should be fooled — that’s just code for attacks on Medicaid, on Medicare, on Social Security, on anti-hunger programs."
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While the tax debate ensued on the Senate floor last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa., to vow that Republicans would not attempt to gut Medicare and Social Security once their plan passed.
Toomey said there was "no secret plan" to make those cuts, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he opposed cuts to those programs and their current beneficiaries. However, the two did not definitively promise the same to future beneficiaries, the Post reported.
"I am not going to support any cuts to people who are on the program and need those benefits. But I want this program to survive," Toomey said.
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Sanders replied, "He just told you he's going to cut Social Security."As a German, you may get a bit emotional when you listen to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's verbal attacks. "He does not know his place," said Erdogan of German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. "Who do you think you are, talking to the president of Turkey? Speak to my foreign minister!" Tens of thousands of Germans born in the 1960s or 1970s may feel a pang of nostalgia when they hear Erdogan's words. The president may remind them of the strict high school teachers of yesteryear whose authoritarian attitude was rapidly becoming a thing of the past – even then.
These school teachers thought they could impress their students with their bad temper and force them into submission. Their determination made them blind to the loosening mores of the era. They also showed how little they understood the zeitgeist and they failed to adjust to the new times. These elderly teachers did not notice their anachronistic behavior and you almost felt sorry for them. From the German perspective, the Turkish president's tantrums are reminiscent of an old-fashioned generation.
Read more: Turkey hits back at Germany over election 'interference' criticism
The great manipulator
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, certainly does not deserve any sympathy. On the contrary, his authoritarian attitude amounts to no less than an attempt at historical manipulation – for example, when he addresses the German chancellor or the foreign minister by first name. He uses displays of loutish behavior to present himself as a strongman, and thus, the protector or father of the Turks. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk did the same, albeit with much better manners. The intentional similarity to Ataturk shows how much Erdogan himself has become ensnared in the pitfalls of history. But Ataturk, Erdogan's role model and imaginary rival, died almost 80 years ago.
DW's Kersten Knipp
By invoking the Ottoman and thus Islamic heritage of his country, Erdogan clearly wants to dissociate himself from the thoroughly secular Ataturk. But his stubborn reliance on ideology has long dissolved into aesthetic and political triviality, rendering the differences invalid.
What the two statesmen do have in common, however, is their full exploitation of the culture of fear. This has its origins in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, when the West viewed it as the "sick man of Europe." In light of the rapid decline of power, many Turks at the time developed the sinking feeling that they were surrounded by enemies. The political errors made by the Ottoman Empire led to painful territorial losses, which gave the Turks the feeling that their neighbors were against them. This is when Turkish nationalism was born.
Read more: Germany finally takes a tougher stance on Erdogan's Turkey
In the chamber of historical myths
The political elites of the country have since then cynically exploited this collective feeling. Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic, adopted the nationalist tone that Erdogan uses today. What the two leaders have in common is their willingness to leave their compatriots enchanted by the spell of the past, thus, not allowing them to leave the chamber of the nation's historical myths.
Self-exaltation has been employed as a means of symbolically compensating for the real loss of power. This may have been excusable in the early years of the republic but a hundred years have passed since then. It has created the poisonous type of nationalistic foundation on which Erdogan is building to help him win his presidential bid in 2019.
There is no price too high for the achievement of this goal. He has no qualms about trapping a part of the Turkish population in the myths of the past. He is prepared to prevent their arrival in the present for the sake of his personal political success. In Germany, Erdogan's rhetoric may seem ridiculous and hopelessly antiquated, but in Turkey, it hinders cultural and political growth. This is why Erdogan's reactionary attitude is no longer a laughing matter.Donald Trump, whose populist message and promises to help American workers propelled him to the White House, issued a budget proposal on Tuesday that instead takes aim at the social safety net on which many of his supporters rely.
Rather than breaking with Washington precedent, Trump’s spending blueprint follows established conservative orthodoxy, cutting taxes on the wealthy, boosting defense spending and taking a hatchet to programs for the poor and disabled – potentially hurting many of the rural and low-income Americans who voted him into office.
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The budget proposal underscores the wide gulf between campaigning and governing, even for a president who promised to rewrite the presidential rule book.
The president’s budget plan calls for more than $1 trillion in cuts to a wide range of social programs with millions of beneficiaries, from farm subsidies to federal student aid. That includes a $600 billion cut to Medicaid over 10 years, despite Trump’s repeated promises on the campaign trail not to cut the program. The budget also takes an ax to the federal food stamp program and Social Security Disability Insurance.
Trump also proposes some of the deepest cuts to agriculture subsidies since Ronald Reagan, squeezing out nearly $50 billion over 10 years.
Trump’s budget would drastically cut domestic programs controlled by Congress, slashing $1.7 trillion over 10 years. At the end of the decade, the U.S. would spend nearly twice as much on defense as on other domestic programs. Domestic discretionary spending would be capped at $429 billion per year, below 2004 levels, while military spending soars to $722 billion.
The annual budget proposal – which has no chance of becoming law as proposed even though Republicans control Congress because GOP lawmakers write their own budget – serves as a starting point for negotiations and as a messaging document for the president and his party.
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“There’s a certain philosophy wrapped up in the budget and that is — we are no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, one of the budget’s chief architects, told reporters on Monday. “We’re not going to measure our success by how much money we spend, but by how many people we actually help.”
Mulvaney rejected accusations that Trump’s budget unfairly targets the poor, arguing instead that it amounts to a broad rethink of the country’s welfare system.
“We need folks to work. We need people to go to work. If you’re on food stamps, and you're able-bodied, we need you to go to work. If you’re on disability insurance and you're not supposed to be, we need you to work,” he added. “There’s a dignity to work, and there’s a necessity to work.”
Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman and founding member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, has long sought dramatic cuts to Medicaid and other programs.
Mulvaney said the budget does not touch “mainline” or “core” Social Security, but it does cut Social Security’s disability insurance. The White House is also leaning on anti-fraud programs to save billions of dollars in Medicare.
The White House plans to heavily promote its commitment to Social Security and Medicare, though its attempt to eliminate the federal deficit while largely preserving those entitlement programs — which together make up the bulk of federal spending — will leave behind a path of destruction for other safety net programs.
Trump’s budget would tighten the belt on programs for low-income families ranging from cash assistance to the child tax credit. Nearly $200 billion in cuts will come directly from the federal food stamp program, which helps feed 44 million people each year.
Trump would also slash $72 billion by tightening the rules for programs for people with disabilities — programs that Trump’s advisers have described as riddled with fraud and abuse. A federal watchdog, however, found last year that 17 anti-fraud programs already exist.
Mulvaney: 'We looked at this budget through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the bills' poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201705/1562/1155968404_5445150053001_5445134651001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true
In an administration document outlining budget talking points, the White House pitched its proposal as a way to replace “dependency with dignity of work.” The internal guidance, which POLITICO obtained early Monday, highlights an estimated $193 billion in savings by further limiting who can receive food stamps. The administration estimates $40 billion in savings over 10 years by preventing illegal immigrants from claiming the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides a break to households making up to about $53,000 per year, depending on family size and filing status.
“If I had sort of a subtitle for this budget, it would be the ‘Taxpayer First’ budget,” Mulvaney said Monday. “This is, I think, the first time in a long time that an administration has written a budget through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the taxes. So often in Washington I think we look only on the recipient side — how does the budget affect those who either receive or don’t receive benefits?”
Democrats vowed on Tuesday to ensure that the GOP pays a political price for the massive social safety-net cuts in Trump's budget, regardless of whether Congress follows through on enacting them.
“If I’m a Republican member of the House, do you really think I’m looking forward to going home to whatever state I came from to say, ‘Yeah, I just voted for incredibly large tax breaks for billionaires. Oh, by the way, we’re going to cut Head Start and child care and after-school programs and health care and education’?" Bernie Sanders, the senior Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, asked reporters.
Despite even Republicans' admission that the Trump budget is DOA, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters, it "is a step down... the same road to ruin advanced by years of House Republican budgets" before Trump took office.
But even some Republicans — both inside and outside Congress — say they’re worried about the sheer magnitude of the proposed cuts.
“I’m deeply concerned about the severity of the domestic cuts,” Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), a long-time member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, told POLITICO on Friday.
Rogers has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s proposed cuts to programs that benefit rural regions like his home state, like the Appalachian Regional Commission.
“I think we do need healthcare reform. I think we do need welfare reform. But the kinds of reductions that he’s talking about go exactly against the states that brought [Trump] to the dance, so to speak,” said G. William Hoagland, a former long-time Republican Senate budget aide.
He added, “The argument can be made that there are certainly programs that are not achieving their goals. That doesn’t mean we should take the money away and forget about it.”
The White House says it expected a “mixed” reaction from Hill Republicans, according to a senior administration official. The defense hikes and tax cuts are sure to be popular, but many of the cuts could make more moderate Republicans skittish. “It’s more than a messaging document and it begins the negotiations,” the official said.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are expected to deliver their rebuttal to the White House’s fiscal-year 2018 budget proposal in mid-June, about two months behind schedule.
While the congressional document is also in many ways a wish list, it serves to set the spending levels that lawmakers must abide by the ensuing year. The delay of that document means appropriators will face a time crunch ahead of the September deadline to fund the government or avert a shutdown.
The Trump administration is relying on more than aggressive cuts to mandatory programs to achieve its goal of eliminating the deficit within 10 years – a gold standard of budget writing.
The White House is also making a rosy assumption of 3 percent economic growth – nearly double the 1.9 percent rate estimated by Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper – to help offset its ambitious spending plans. That includes $200 billion for new infrastructure projects as well as $19 billion for paid family leave.
The budget blueprint also assumes that Trump’s tax reform plan, which is still in the early stages of being written, will go into effect. Officials said that plan is expected to deliver a boost to the economy without adding to its bottom line, but produced no details beyond a one-page document released in April.
Trump’s proposed budgets for federal departments and agencies next year -- $668 billion in defense spending and $479 billion for non-defense programs -- are mostly unchanged from the so-called skinny budget the administration released earlier this year, despite the public outcry from some disgruntled Cabinet members
A half-dozen agencies got slight boosts in their budgets, however, including those in the departments of Agriculture, Interior and Labor. The State Department, which faced some of the harshest cuts in Trump’s first budget draft, is slated for a $2.6 billion bump compared with the March numbers.
Jennifer Scholtes and Elana Schor contributed to this report.The best worst spy agency on television will no longer be known as Isis, due to the acronym’s association with the jihadi group Islamic State.
At Comic-Con in New York, the creators of the FX show Archer (and, by extension, the tactical turtleneck) explained that the matter of phrasing came up for reasons of both story and reality, the main characters will no longer work for International Secret Intelligence Service, a freelance spy agency, as they have for five seasons.
Executive producer Casey Willis said Islamic State (known variously as IS, Isis and Isil) “doesn’t exist in our universe … but now [the characters are] working with the CIA, so that’s the banner that we’re under now.”
Creator Adam Reed, who also voices Ray Gillette on the show, told the Daily Beast the coincidence was “just the most awful thing and we didn’t want to have anything to do with it”.
He continued: “We were waiting for it to go away, at least I was … FX said, ‘This might be a thing,’ and I thought, ‘Maybe it won’t be? Maybe it’ll be the mole that I’m gonna ignore and nothing will happen.’
“We got sort of lucky and could organically make a merger with the CIA … and we just don’t talk about it in dialogue.”
The show will acknowledge the change in the season premiere – in the background of one shot an Isis sign will be discarded by movers.
FX has removed all Isis merchandise from its store; Reed said the coincidence had put the crew and their families in awkward situations. “I gave my Dad one of the Isis hats and he said, ‘You know son, I’m not going to be able to wear the hat anymore. I’m getting looks at the hardware store.’”
The cartoon comedy, which is littered with deadpan literary allusions, jokes, profligate sexuality and appearances by an ocelot named Babu, features a mismanaged agency of elite spies who struggle to keep ants out of their offices and spent the fifth season as drug dealers in Miami. It will return in 2015.Excessive Speed - LGB - 16 Month Driving Prohibition Ordered
Date: Contact: Telephone: File #: 2017 July 10 Cst Jeff Palmer 604 925 7429 17-7461
A 16-month Driving Prohibition has now been imposed on the driver of a vehicle involved in a high speed incident on the Lions Gate Bridge last week.
A West Vancouver Police patrol officer conducting Motor Vehicle Act enforcement on Lions Gate Bridge early last Tuesday morning, July 04, 2017, stopped a driver after hearing a vehicle racing northbound at extremely high speed. The officer stopped the vehicle at the north end of the bridge after obtaining a speed reading of 210 kilometers per hour.
The posted speed limit on Lions Gate Bridge is 60 kilometers per hour, dropping to 50 kilometers per hour as northbound drivers enter the bridge plaza area and off-ramps. This was not the first meeting of driver and officer. The same officer stopped the same suspect driver in April for Excessive Speed on Lions Gate Bridge.
The vehicle, a 2015 Ferrari 458, was initially impounded for seven days under Immediate Roadside Prohibition program.
UPDATE - On Monday, July 10, 2017, the BC Superintendent of Motor Vehicles notified West Vancouver Police that a 16-month Prohibition from Driving had been ordered against the driver in this matter. The driver was located at his residence shortly after 4pm Monday and served with an official notice of the Driving Prohibition. The 16-month Driving Prohibition was effective immediately upon service of the formal notice by West Vancouver Police.
The order of a Driving Prohibition follows an order July 05, 2017 by the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles, extending the impound of the vehicle in this matter from seven days to 60 days.
The Superintendent of Motor Vehicle's Driving Prohibition would be separate from penalties considered should the driver be convicted of Motor Vehicle Act charges to be forwarded by investigators. A report recommending Motor Vehicle Act charges has been forwarded to Crown Counsel for consideration.
A 22-year-old West Vancouver man was served a Provincial Appearance Notice for a court date in September on Motor Vehicle Act charges of Excessive Speed and Driving Without Due Care & Attention.
Excessive speed exposes all road users to extreme hazards. West Vancouver Police join all our policing partners urging drivers to travel at safe speeds.Ken Griffin appears to know what he is doing. He is the founder of the wildly successful Citadel hedge fund which now boasts more than $27 billion in assets under management (AUM). And add to this his personal fortune of $8.6 billion- making him the richest person in the state of Illinois. So it is not surprising that his portfolio moves are carefully tracked by investors worldwide. In the most recent quarter he drew attention with his investment in two volatile chip giants Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA).
Born in Florida, this fund legend made an early start in investing while still at Harvard University. Indeed, by the second year of his economics degree he had already started a $265,000 hedge fund focused on convertible bond arbitrage. He apparently installed a satellite link to his dorm to acquire real-time market data. The success of this fund enabled him to start a second fund relatively quickly. He founded Citadel in 1990. He is now one of the world’s most influential voices on the world of finance, a famous philanthropist and a well-known expert in the matter of financial deregulation.
Griffin recently gave a cautious interview to CNBC where he said that the ‘market rally is in the ‘seventh inning,’ and valuations are beginning to look ‘stretched’. However, at the same time he believes the bull rally will last for a while longer. In particular, he sees economic forces at work that can continue to underpin valuations for the time being including low inflation, low interest rates and solid sales growth.
Bearing this in mind let’s now take a closer look at these two intriguing chip trades:
Advanced Micro Devices
Griffin turned bullish on AMD in Q3. He initiated a new position in the stock with the purchase of 3,855,167 AMD shares valued at 49.153 million.
And no doubt this is a move that top Canaccord Genuity analyst Matt Ramsay would approve of. He recently reiterated his buy rating on the stock with a very bullish $20 price target- which suggests huge upside potential from the current share price of 84%. Ramsay has just enjoyed meeting management meeting while on his Silicon Valley bus tour. “The meeting was upbeat on the long-term outlook and roadmap, while several near-term product and financial concerns were discussed directly” says Ramsay.
He draws attention to six key focal points: 1) Ramsay anticipates AMD’s new 7nm products to compete with the 10nm roadmap from Intel in the PC market during 2018 and in servers during 2019. 2) While Ryzen desktop has underwhelmed slightly so far, Q4/17 Ryzen sales should ramp strongly for holiday sales. 3) Ramsay believes Ryzen Mobile should drive strong 2018 notebook sales growth following conversations with all 5 top OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). 4) It is likely that AMD will face a material decline in cryptocurrency revenue during 2018. Nonetheless Ramsay remains “confident in our total CG sales estimates supported by new Navi GPU launches and strong full-year of Ryzen PC and Ryzen Mobile sales.” 5) He sees an inflection for the EPYC server as taking place during the 2nd quarter of 2018. And looking out even further, he believes AMD’s roadmap can make over $1B in high-margin server sales annually in the next few years. 6) AMD’s gross margin progression remains on track toward the 40-44% target.
Overall, Ramsay concludes that he is reiterating his positive thesis on AMD. The “risk/reward is still tilted toward the upside and our long-term bullish target of $1.25+ in EPS remains exceedable by 2020.” Note that five-star Ramsay is one of the top 100 analysts ranked by TipRanks due to his impressive track record. However, on AMD stock specifically he has a more mixed performance with a 41% success rate and 29.9% average return across 17 ratings.
The Street has more cautious Hold consensus rating on AMD. In the last three months, analysts have published 8 buy ratings, 9 hold ratings and even 4 sell ratings on the stock. Meanwhile the average analyst price target of $14.68 (36% upside potential).
Nvidia
Griffin also made sure that chip giant Nvidia didn’t get left behind. He picked up another 133,661 Nvidia shares- giving the fund a total holding in the stock of 303,577 shares. Following this 79% boost, the fund now has a $54.271 million position in Nvidia.
On November 27, top RBC Capital analyst Mitch Steves reiterated his bullish sentiment on Nvidia stock. He is confident that the continued rise in crypto-currencies such as Ethereum is good news for Nvidia. Indeed, as long as prices of crypto-currencies are rising, Nvidia’s GPU will continue to experience the benefit says Steves. First, the “payback period” for crypto-currencies has dropped “materially” with the price increases. Take Ethereum for example which now has a payback of 5.6 months as opposed to the previous 9.4 months. The increasing speed of the paybacks “may lead to continued strength in GPU sales” for mining according to Steves.
At the same time, institutional investors could now move to take advantage of the crypto-currency explosion: “The “cat is out of the bag” so to speak and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more and more institutional money and high net worth individuals invest in the rapidly growing space (now a $300B+ market on a fully diluted basis).” Steves concludes that “Overall, the technology is progressing at a rapid rate combined with more institutional interest which is likely driving the prices up.” For example, the lightening network for Bitcoin is making progress while the Metropolis update for Ethereum should also boost confidence says Steves.
Analysts in general are cautiously optimistic on Nvidia, which has a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating. This breaks down into 13 buy, 11 hold and 1 sell rating over the last three months. The average price target of these analysts of $215.18 translates into upside of 8% from the current share price.Gunmen from al Shabaab have been rounding up any women with a “firm bust” and whipping them, say residents in the capital Mogadishu.
They are then told to remove their bras and shake their breasts.
One woman said: “They first introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women’s chests. They are now saying breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat.”
Earlier this month, the insurgent group, which seeks to impose a strict form of Sharia Islamic law throughout Somalia, amputated a foot and a hand each from two young men accused of robbery.
It has also banned movies, football, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings.
The group’s hardline interpretation of Islamic law has shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims. Some, however, give the insurgents credit for bringing order to the regions in their control.PMS. I still can't remember first learning about Pre-Menstrual Symptoms as a child. I don't remember the specific event, but the understanding conveyed. I imagine it went something like this: "My Mom was really grouchy this morning." - "Oh, she probably has PMS." - "Is that a disease?" - "Nah, it's something that happens to Moms once a month. They get really grouchy and you should just leave them alone."
My teen years didn't do much to broaden my understanding. It was eventually apparent that menstruation affected all women — not just Moms — and that the process began just as my own pre-teen body was thrown into fits and starts of its own. I learned the basics of female anatomy from Health class and Sex Ed, but even as a young adult, I mentally associated menstruation with violent and seemingly illogical mood swings. I began to see it as a physiological phenomenon and the cause of complex mental/physical interactions not clearly understood by either those affected or the field of neuroscience. As with so many other subjects, I didn't really learn the true basics of menstruation and female anatomy until I observed them first-hand. Direct experience (or, in this case, as direct experience as is possible for males) always trumps even the deepest theoretical and intellectual understanding.
My first girlfriend in college suffered from menstrual cramps. The phrase "suffered from" has watered itself down over the ages to mean "influenced by". While my intention is not to exclude that interpretation, I must be explicit about the distinct imagery I hope to convey: When she had cramps, she suffered. This specific brand of suffering is an intense physical pain that leaves a person clenched in a ball, rolling on the floor, begging for deliverance.
The first time I saw this my childish ignorance about menstruation was obliterated. This process was genuine, visceral, horrible, and routine. My childish attitude toward the "problem" has taken the intervening decades to correct. As an 18-year-old, I thought my job was to be company and support during these painful episodes. While some women may desire this of their friends and spouses, I've found (in my limited anecdotal experience) that most just want to be left alone until the feeling passes. The experience is physically unpleasant, the discomfort can be embarrassing, and little can be done about the situation but wait for it to resolve itself.
Which brings us to the workday. If you are a man, or a woman who does not experience menstrual cramps, imagine fighting through a workday (or two) with a searing pain emanating from within the depths of your body. Now imagine that you are acutely aware of the source of pain but it's not a social norm to announce such sorts of things: if you want relief from this, your only option is a generic "sick day", which are doled out in finite number by your employer.
Now imagine you are presented with this day of torture and this lose-lose decision every month.
At nilenso (and everywhere, I hope), the solution is clear. First, destroy any childish taboo or squeamishness about menstruation and menstrual cramps: this is simply a fact of life we must all be comfortable with given the limitations of our human biology. Then, dedicate optional days to this event every month. If someone sends a note in the morning: "I have cramps." the team knows she's unreachable for that day. That's it. No sick days, no fighting through a day of pain at the office, and no unnecessarily burdensome decision.
We look forward to a day when this policy is so well understood and so commonplace it need not even be written down. But given that this hasn't even always been an explicit policy at nilenso (and we like to think of ourselves as relatively progressive), we realize there is still much work to be done.
Many thanks to the women on our team. Your openness is the only thing that makes this shared understanding possible.
Appendix: Q & A
There were a number of questions asked when we drafted this short article. We're presenting them outside the scope of the article in a Q&A format so that it might be updated later.
What is the status quo?
Some companies do have specific policies governing time off for menstrual pain, but most do not address it and it thus gets combined with standard sick leave.
How/why is nilenso's policy different?
The policy at nilenso is inherently to [attempt to] eliminate the taboo surrounding conversations about menstruation. Menstruation is a known quantity: it is common to all pre-menopausal adult women and it occurs 13 times a year. As such, it should be addressed in isolation. To separate menstruation from health issues (migraines, flu, food poisoning, or any of the other issues which cause someone to take leave from work) demands that one's environment avoid conflating the two, implicitly or explicitly. This requires an explicit acceptance of the terms governing the policy.
Our policy is this: When you have cramps, send an email (or equivalent) notifying the team that "I have cramps." and then take the day off.
Isn't this problem solved by unlimited sick leave?
No, for two reasons. The first reason is straightforward: menstruation is not an illness. As mentioned above, it is a natural and cyclical (therefore, predicable) process.
The second reason is somewhat nuanced but worth considering in its own right: policies on Sick Leave are not static. Nilenso's own policy on Sick Leave has changed drastically in recent years and our particular example is precisely why unlimited sick leave doesn't solve the problem in a satisfactory way. Last year, we eliminated unlimited sick leave. We still have unlimited sick leave for disability (say when someone is seriously injured or has Dengue Fever, which has happened) but for various reasons we now track sick days. If our menstruation policy and sick leave policy were conflated, eliminating unlimited sick leave would have had direct consequences on menstruation leave.
How do |
reside in the behaviors (supportive or otherwise) that stakeholders demonstrate towards a company. Behaviors such as advocacy, commitment and cooperation are key positive outcomes of a positive reputation.
Reputation recovery [ edit ]
The convergence of globalization, instantaneous news and online citizen journalism magnifies corporate wrongdoing or missteps. Some companies face new assaults on its reputation daily. Reputation recovery is often a long and arduous process to rebuilding equity in a company's name. Research has found it takes approximately 3.5 years to fully recover reputation. James C. Collins of Good to Great fame says it takes a company seven years to go from good to great. The path is clearly long. The reason reputation recovery has risen in importance is that the "stumble rate"[7] among companies has risen exponentially over the past five years. In fact, 79% of the world's most admired companies have lost their number one positions in industries in that time period. Companies which were once heralded as invincible no longer are.
Reputation transfer [ edit ]
In the context of brand extension strategies, many companies rely on reputation transfer as a means of transferring the good reputation of a company and its existings products to new markets and new products. Consumers who are already familiar with other products of an established brand, exhibiting customer satisfaction and loyalty, will more easily accept new products of the same brand. In contrast to brand extension, the general concept of reputation transfer also requires the transfer of a company's values and identity to the new products and/or services and the related brands when entering new markets. It is important, however, to pay attention to the image fit between preexisting and new brands, for this factor has been proven to be critical for the success of brand extensions.[8] In contrast to the special case of brand extension, the general concept of reputation transfer also requires the transfer of the values and identity of a company to the new products and/or services and the related brands when entering new markets. A strong image might therefore even hamper the introduction of new product lines if customers do not associate the competences relevant to the new market/category/product line with the existing company or brand. A company's reputation is furthermore influenced by culture, as nationalities differ with regard to how valued specific aspects of the company's brand identity are in the respective national culture (e.g. environmental concerns or work ethics) as well as with regard to popular cultural dimensions (e.g. Hofstede). Subsequently, these differences impact the success of reputation transfer significantly.[9]
Online [ edit ]
Online reputation is a factor in any online community where trust is important. Examples include eBay, an auction service which uses a system of customer feedback to publicly rate each member's reputation, or Amazon.com which has a similar review system.[10] One study found that a good reputation added 7.6% to the price received.[11] In addition, building and maintaining a good reputation can be a significant motivation for contributing to online communities[citation needed].
Individuals employ monitoring to ensure that they keep up with their online reputation.[12] Given the number of sites on the Internet, it is impossible to manually monitor the entire web for pages that may affect one's online reputation. Free tools such as Google Alerts can be used to keep track online reputations on a small scale,[13] while larger businesses and clients may use more powerful analytics to monitor online interactions and mentions.
Paid tools for online reputation management focus on either brand protection or online reputation. These tools track mentions of a brand or product on the Internet, on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other social networking sites and websites.
Online reputation can be evaluated by how well it is being managed.[14] This form of reputation is usually called web or digital reputation to distinguish it from the online reputation.[dubious – discuss][citation needed] Indeed, digital or web reputation does not concern the virtual online reputation only, but the whole real reputation of a person or a company as it is affected by the Internet. Online reputation furthermore should not be confused with a company's digital identity.
An online reputation is the perception that one generates on the Internet based on their digital footprint. Digital footprints accumulate through all of the content shared, feedback provided and information that is created online.[15] Due to the fact that if someone has a bad online reputation, he can easily change his pseudonym, new accounts on sites such as eBay or Amazon are usually distrusted. If an individual or company wants to manage their online reputation, they will face many more difficulties.
According to one study, 84% of responding business leaders saw the greatest reputation threat online to companies as negative media coverage.[citation needed] The next two greatest threats are customer complaints in the media or on grievance sites online (71%) and negative word of mouth (54%).[citation needed] This negative word of mouth could be from dissatisfied customers but from employees as well. With the power of business review websites and customer forums, a company's online reputation can be damaged anonymously online.[16]
Employers have begun using the online reputations of job applicants to help their hiring choices. By checking a candidate's social networking profiles on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, employers gain insight into a candidate's character and suitability for a job.[17]
Some individuals and organizations hire reputation management companies to attempt to hide truthful but unflattering information about themselves. A recent alleged example is that of Dr. Anil Potti, who resigned from Duke University after it was discovered that he had misrepresented himself on his resume and became the subject of a scientific misconduct investigation.[18]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Remember how the DEA got caught impersonating a woman on Facebook in an attempt to catch criminals who contacted her? Yeah, Facebook isn't at all pleased. It just sent a letter asking the anti-drug agency to promise that it won't create fake accounts or otherwise stomp all over the social network's terms of service. As the site argues, the DEA's moves "threaten the integrity" of its user base -- the point of Facebook's real identity policy is to foster trust, and sting operations violate that trust. Law enforcement isn't above this rule, the company says. It's not certain if the letter will have any effect; the Justice Department tells BuzzFeed News that it doesn't believe this trickery happens frequently. Whether or not that's true, it's safe to say that Mark Zuckerberg and crew have set some firm boundaries for future cases.
[Image credit: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images]Beyond the source code
Last week we have seen how to use Roslyn to rewrite source code to your liking. That’s all well and good, but it’s not the only thing you can do when you have a compiler open and ready to do your bidding. Another possibility is to leverage the knowledge that the compiler has, to support other tools that you use as a programmer, or that are needed by co-workers to simplify their job.
There is two great advantages to use the source code to support everything else:
the source code become the truth, from which everything follow you can integrate the support for these tools into the processes of continuous integration that you already use
You may say that the point number 1 is already true in any case. But, even for open source software, how many are going to wade through hundreds of files to understand how to use the damn thing? The reality is that if there is no documentation, it doesn’t exist for most people. Time is too much valuable to lose it behind other people’s code. And this doesn’t even count people that don’t understand code, but they need to know the feature of the software.
Roslyn doesn’t help just programmers
No, it’s true, Roslyn would not write documentation on its own, but it can be used to make it easier and even manage other structured information. In particular today we are talking about UML diagrams. The traditional way is to create them is by hand, which is prone to make them obsolete, or to use programs that reverse engineer the code itself, which is costly and not easily adaptable. Roslyn, instead, allows you to easily create diagrams, at least some kind of diagrams such as class diagrams. Another advantage is that by understanding the source code programmatically you can hide or shows information that are not needed by the reader. For instance, you can hide private properties and methods that the user of the library doesn’t need to know.
The plan
In short the idea is to create text files that are compatible with PlantUML for every class of our source code and then to use PlantUML to create the actual diagrams. In real life it would be trivial to then create the diagrams programmatically, thanks to the command line and upload the images wherever you want. To generate class diagrams by leveraging the compiler is so easy because the compiler need to understand the source code and so every information is readily available to us. In fact, I didn’t even need to write much code since there is already a small library that does it: https://github.com/pierre3/PlantUmlClassDiagramGenerator1. Ehi, we are programmers, we are lazy, we are smart enough to leverage existing resources.
We just need to understand how it works. It’s less than 300 lines of code, including comments, so we can delve right in.
Generating the diagram
ClassDiagramGenerator.cs public class ClassDiagramGenerator : CSharpSyntaxWalker { private TextWriter writer; private string indent; private int nestingDepth = 0; [...] // the most complicated method of this class public override void VisitPropertyDeclaration(PropertyDeclarationSyntax node) { var modifiers = GetMemberModifiersText(node.Modifiers); var name = node.Identifier.ToString(); var typeName = node.Type.ToString(); var accessor = node.AccessorList.Accessors.Where(x =>!x.Modifiers.Select(y => y.Kind()).Contains(SyntaxKind.PrivateKeyword)).Select(x => $"<<{(x.Modifiers.ToString() == ""? "" : (x.Modifiers.ToString() + " "))}{x.Keyword}>>"); var useLiteralInit = node.Initializer?.Value?.Kind().ToString().EndsWith("LiteralExpression")?? false; var initValue = useLiteralInit? (" = " + node.Initializer.Value.ToString()) : ""; WriteLine($"{modifiers}{name} : {typeName} {string.Join(" ", accessor)}{initValue}"); } [...] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 public class ClassDiagramGenerator : CSharpSyntaxWalker { private TextWriter writer ; private string indent ; private int nestingDepth = 0 ; [... ] // the most complicated method of this class public override void VisitPropertyDeclaration ( PropertyDeclarationSyntax node ) { var modifiers = GetMemberModifiersText ( node. Modifiers ) ; var name = node. Identifier. ToString ( ) ; var typeName = node. Type. ToString ( ) ; var accessor = node. AccessorList. Accessors. Where ( x = >! x. Modifiers. Select ( y = > y. Kind ( ) ). Contains ( SyntaxKind. PrivateKeyword ) ). Select ( x = > $ "<<{(x.Modifiers.ToString() == " "? " " : (x.Modifiers.ToString() + " "))}{x.Keyword}>>" ) ; var useLiteralInit = node. Initializer?. Value?. Kind ( ). ToString ( ). EndsWith ( "LiteralExpression" )?? false ; var initValue = useLiteralInit? ( " = " + node. Initializer. Value. ToString ( ) ) : "" ; WriteLine ( $ "{modifiers}{name} : {typeName} {string.Join(" ", accessor)}{initValue}" ) ; } [... ]
See, I wasn’t kidding, it’s easy. All the information is readily available from the parser of Roslyn, we just need to take it. GetMembersModifierText (not shown) is simply a switch to associate every modifier keyword to its respesctive plantuml symbol, like SyntaxKind.PublicKeyword equals “+”. Of course you need to learn the terminology, such as SyntaxKind or the names of the several *Syntax(s), but that isn’t really hard. The only thing slightly harder than a simple “copy value and write a string” is relative to properties, which are what the developers of.NET call “syntactic sugar”, that is to say a shortcut for programmers, that the compiler transform in real functions. Since they are not a standard feature of many languages you have to translate them for UML.
The main method
Program.cs [...] foreach (var file in files) { Console.WriteLine($"Generation PlantUML text for {file}..."); string outputFile = Path.Combine(outputDir, Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file)); using (var stream = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)) { var tree = CSharpSyntaxTree.ParseText(SourceText.From(stream)); var root = tree.GetRoot(); using (var writer = new StreamWriter(new FileStream(outputFile + ".ClassDiagram.plantuml", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write))) { writer.WriteLine("@startuml"); var gen = new ClassDiagramGenerator(writer, " "); gen.Visit(root); writer.Write("@enduml"); } } } [...] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 [... ] foreach ( var file in files ) { Console. WriteLine ( $ "Generation PlantUML text for {file}..." ) ; string outputFile = Path. Combine ( outputDir, Path. GetFileNameWithoutExtension ( file ) ) ; using ( var stream = new FileStream ( file, FileMode. Open, FileAccess. Read ) ) { var tree = CSharpSyntaxTree. ParseText ( SourceText. From ( stream ) ) ; var root = tree. GetRoot ( ) ; using ( var writer = new StreamWriter ( new FileStream ( outputFile + ".ClassDiagram.plantuml", FileMode. OpenOrCreate, FileAccess. Write ) ) ) { writer. WriteLine ( "@startuml" ) ; var gen = new ClassDiagramGenerator ( writer, " " ) ; gen. Visit ( root ) ; writer. Write ( "@enduml" ) ; } } } [... ]
I don’t show the whole main method because it’s you typical console app: very simple. Since ClassDiagramGenerator is nothing more than a CSharpSyntaxWalker, we just need to gather the text, parse it, and give the order to visit the tree with our walker. The only things to notice are the starting and closing plantuml notation lines that we add to our generated files. Now you can use plantuml to create the diagrams.
Conclusion
Using the source code as a source of intelligence about the code itself is not exactly a free lunch, but it’s quite there. You can write code and then automatically have it translated in a form that co-workers can understand, be them other programmers or something else. And you can integrate this information into the practices and tools that you already use, it’s a win-win. It’s true that in real life there is probably more setup, but the advantages are clear. The information is already there, now Roslyn make it easy accessible, why not use it?
[1] I just added a few lines to include the relation between base and derived classes [^]The House Science Committee is sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong, and conducting an investigation and hearing far beyond its constitutional power.
For years, at the behest of the oil and gas industry, the Committee has held hearing after the hearing challenging the overwhelming scientific consensus that fossil fuel emissions cause global warming.
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The Committee has the authority to conduct such hearings, and there is no requirement that Committee members consider the evidence with an open mind or be less fawning of industry witnesses. In their own statements, many members shamelessly repeat talking points provided by industry lobbyists. To date, it’s been distasteful but perfectly legal.
But the Committee’s obeisance to the industry has now crossed a line.
In July, the Committee issued subpoenas to the Attorneys General of New York and Massachusetts concerning state investigations under state law in state court, to a private law firm that has represented state and local governments and private parties in environmental litigation, and to several environmental organizations.
The state investigations and investigations by potential private litigants are of allegations that ExxonMobil fraudulently represented to investors and customers that scientific research on the environmental effect of fossil fuel emissions is flimsy and inconclusive when they knew from their own in-house research decades ago that global warming is real, potentially catastrophic and largely caused by fossil fuel emissions.
The Committee’s investigation and the state government and private investigations are not concurrent investigations of the same questions; the Committee is investigating the investigations. The initial stated purpose for the Committee’s subpoenas was to determine if the state proceedings unconstitutionally abridged ExxonMobil’s freedom of speech to deny climate change, and to protect ExxonMobil’s rights in the proceedings.
The Committee subpoenaed communications between the attorneys general, the environmental organizations and the private law firm “relating to the investigation, subpoenas [for documents], or potential prosecution of companies…related to the issue of climate change.” The documents demanded by the Committee would include legal strategy, possible witnesses, and discussions between lawyers and prospective clients—all information protected from disclosure by court rules.
The documents would be of obvious benefit to ExxonMobil—what sports team would not want the other team’s playbook?
The Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday morning to consider its constitutional authority to subpoena the documents. The Committee should have done some legal research before it issued the subpoenas.
In the late nineteenth century, the House issued a subpoena without a hint of legislative purpose to determine whether a bankruptcy trustee had favored some creditors over others. The Supreme Court held that the bankruptcy court could protect the creditors’ and the debtor’s rights, and the matter was none of Congress’s business. “The matter was still pending in a court,” the Supreme Court said, “and what right had the Congress of the United States to interfere with a suit pending in a court of competent jurisdiction?”
Congressional committees frequently investigate matters that are the subject of other government investigations and court proceedings and sometimes the information elicited by congressional investigations helps one party or another. Congress cannot compel disclosure of information for that purpose, however. Congress’s only authority is to “require pertinent disclosures in aid of its own constitutional power,” the Supreme Court held in a later case.
Courts know how to handle motions to quash subpoenas. They do it all the time.
ExxonMobil can challenge the subpoenas issued by the Attorney General of Massachusetts under Massachusetts state law in Massachusetts state court. ExxonMobil can challenge the subpoenas issued by the Attorney General of New York under New York state law in New York state court.
Of course ExxonMobil would rather argue through friendly witnesses at a Science Committee hearing. When industry witnesses argue to the Committee that the Constitution protects ExxonMobil’s right to make knowingly false representations to investors about material facts, members nod solemnly before an approving audience of lobbyists who help decide the oil and gas industry’s political contributions.
If ExxonMobil made the same laughable argument in court, the judge might actually laugh before a courtroom filled with reporters. It would be a rude awakening for ExxonMobil, and maybe for the Science Committee too.
Brad Miller (D-N.C.) served on the House Science Committee from 2003 to 2013, when he retired from Congress. He was chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight from 2007 to 2011.
The views expressed by authors are their own and not the views of The Hill.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority, said the law had merely put “foreign works on an equal footing with their U.S. counterparts.”
“Assuming a foreign and domestic author died the same day, their works will enter the public domain simultaneously,” she wrote.
She gave examples. “Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ could once be performed free of charge,” while now, she said: “The right to perform it must be obtained in the marketplace. This is the same marketplace, of course, that exists for the music of Prokofiev’s U.S. contemporaries: works of Copland and Bernstein, for example, that enjoy copyright protection, but nevertheless appear regularly in the programs of U.S. concertgoers.”
Indeed, she said, foreign works not eligible to be copyrighted in the United States before the 1994 law are somewhat worse off, as they receive “no compensatory time” for the period they had been in the public domain.
The Constitution authorizes Congress “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
In dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, joined by Samuel A. Alito Jr., wrote that the clause meant to require a utilitarian approach, one under which authors were granted limited monopolies in order to encourage them to produce societally valuable works.
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“Does the clause empower Congress to enact a statute that withdraws works from the public domain, brings about higher prices and costs, and in doing so seriously restricts dissemination, particularly to those who need it for scholarly, educational, or cultural purposes — all without providing any additional incentive for the production of new material?” Justice Breyer asked. The answer, he said, was no.
“The statute before us,” Justice Breyer wrote, “does not encourage anyone to produce a single new work.”
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Justice Ginsburg countered with a broader interpretation of the provision. “The copyright clause,” she wrote, “does not demand that each copyright protection, examined discretely, operate to induce new works.” Rather, she wrote, the intellectual property laws generally, including the international copyright system, must address the general purpose of the clause, that of encouraging “the dissemination of existing and future works.”
Justice Ginsburg also rejected challenges to the law based on the First Amendment, saying that free speech interests are adequately protected by the fair use doctrine and the principle that only expression and not ideas are eligible for copyright protection.
Justice Breyer said the majority’s approach did not take adequate account of the importance of free expression. “By removing material from the public domain, the statute, in literal terms, ‘abridges’ a pre-existing freedom to speak,” he wrote, referring to a key word of the First Amendment.
Justice Breyer added that the decision upholding the law would have negative practical consequences, as owners of copyrights now charge for works that were once free. “If a school orchestra or other nonprofit organization cannot afford the new charges, so be it,” he wrote. “They will have to do without — aggravating the already serious problem of cultural education in the United States.”
Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the case, presumably because she had worked on it as United States solicitor general.
In a second decision issued Wednesday, Mims v. Arrow Financial Services, No. 10-1195, the court unanimously ruled that a 1991 federal law, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, allowed consumers to sue in federal court over abuses involving automatic dialing equipment, recorded messages, unsolicited faxes and similar practices.
The law mentioned suits in state courts, and the question for the justices was whether that meant those were the only available courts. Justice Ginsburg, writing for the court, said the law did not bar suits in federal courts.Getting the Most Out of Your Growler
January 14, 2014
If you spilled beer on yourself, would you go days without showering? Of course you wouldn’t. Okay, maybe you know someone who might, but not you. So why should your growler be any different?
While growlers are certainly not new to the scene, they are becoming increasingly popular. From traditional glass growlers and handmade ceramics to the latest stainless steel technologies, there is one thing they all have in common. No matter what beer you choose to fill your growler with, you are guaranteed to have poor quality beer if you don’t clean your growler properly.
(MORE: Are Growlers the Holy Grail of Beer Vessels?)
The Brewers Association’s Facts About Growlers tip sheet has some helpful hints and guidelines for proper growler care that we wanted to share with you.
Growler Cleaning Tips
Cleaning detergents should not be fat or oil-based.
Proper detergent ratios should be used to ensure thorough cleaning as well as avoid residual chemicals.
Growlers should be cleaned, sanitized, rinsed and allowed to air dry immediately after emptying.
After cleaning, growlers should be stored with the lid unsealed.
Growler Safety Tips
No matter what kind of container is used, consumers and filling establishments must be aware that all growlers are pressurized containers. The growler container used must be able to withstand the pressures exerted by carbonated beer as well as the growler filling method.
If the lid is a twist-off, go for plastic. Metal twist-off lids don’t allow air to leak if the pressure becomes too much.
Glass growlers with engravings or etchings are unsafe to fill. Just like a chipped or cracked glass growler, pressure strength of these growlers will be significantly reduced.
To avoid shattered glass or an explosion, don’t allow the growler to warm (like in a hot car) or freeze. These actions increase pressure, especially if the growler is over-filled (always leave 5 percent headspace).
There are many things to know about growler care, safety and hygiene. Check out the Brewers Association’s Facts About Growlers to help make sure you get the most out of your craft beer at home.
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What: 13th Annual Rockets Run presented by Memorial Hermann Health Insurance Company. Rockets Run consists of 5K run, 2 Mile Walk and Kids’ 1K fun run.
When: Sunday, November 9, 2014
6:00 AM – Registration
7:30 AM – Kids’ 1K Run
8:00 AM – 5K Run
8:20 AM – 2 Mile Walk
Post Race Party immediately following all races
9:15 AM – Awards Presentation begins at Root Memorial Square Park
Where: Toyota Center – 1510 Polk Street Houston, TX 77002
Race route begins at Toyota Center, runs through Midtown and back to finish on the actual Rockets center court.
Post Race Party – located across the street at Root Memorial Square Park
Awards presentation located on the main basketball court
Why: The Houston Rockets are committed to promoting community fitness for the entire family.
Awards: We will be awarding the top overall male and female runners of the 5K race only. We will also be doing medals for the top 3 male and top 3 females in 13 different age group categories: 14-under, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70+
Awards will be based on tag time and all runners must wear their tag to receive recognition for their participation and awards.
Questions: Call 713-758-7701 Rockets Run Hotline or email us at [email protected] American residents of south Sacramento are seeking Mayor Kevin Johnson’s help in combating what they call an alarming trend of robberies targeting their community.
They say the robberies often include home invasions in which multiple people break into a residence and take a homeowner’s valuables and money. People are sometimes robbed at gunpoint and in broad daylight.
“I feel like I’m not safe,” said Tom Phong, owner of the Welco Supermarket in south Sacramento.
Phong, who has lived in Sacramento for 35 years, joined roughly 60 local volunteers who planned to hand-deliver a written plea for help to Johnson during Tuesday’s Sacramento City Council meeting.
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In its letter to the mayor, signed by 2,000 members of the community, the group explains that an uptick in robberies has some Asian Americans in south Sacramento fearing for their safety while conducting day-to-day tasks, like going to the mailbox or taking out the trash.
“We just want to let them know that everybody is worried for their life,” Phong said.
Matthew McPhail, a spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, said Tuesday that the department first sent out a message regarding the robberies in March on social networking site NextDoor.com.
In that message, signed by Lt. Bob McCloskey of the East Area Command, residents of the Avondale, Fruitridge Manor, Glen Elder and Southeast Village neighborhoods were warned of an increase in armed robberies specifically targeting Asian Americans.
Homeowners living in those areas were encouraged to contact police if they saw unfamiliar people sitting in vehicles for a long time, or if they believed a vehicle was following them. Several victims were targeted late at night, as they were exiting their cars and returning home, according to the post.
With increased attention to these type of robberies, McPhail said the Police Department has held informational meetings in the area.
“We are empathetic to concerns from members of this community who would like to know what is going on, and we are being responsive to those concerns and inquiries by reaching out,” McPhail said.
The most recent meeting, last Thursday, was attended by dozens of people and translated into three languages for those in attendance, he said. Both McPhail and community members acknowledged that a language barrier between officers and residents was an additional hurdle.
“These victims that are getting robbed, they have limited English and might be turned off by the idea of contacting police,” said Phong’s son, Alvin Phong.
According to McPhail, police have arrested at least 10 people this year who are suspected of targeting Asian Americans in south Sacramento. He added that detectives are investigating the robberies and are working with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, which patrols unincorporated south Sacramento.
But Phong and his son said more needs to be done by police and the city. They said they hope to work with the mayor, Councilman Eric Guerra, who represents their district, and local law enforcement to stop the robberies.
“If the police don’t step up to protect us from crime, it could get real messy,” Phong said.
Crystal Strait, Johnson’s chief of staff, said she had not heard about the petition or the letter before Tuesday afternoon but said that the mayor was interested in working with the community members on the issue.
“Mayor Johnson is committed to working with council member Guerra and the Police Department to make sure all community members feel safe in their homes,” Strait said.Short Delay
The 0.3 test cycle has been delayed slightly due to changing from Unity 5.3 to Unity 5.4 and less than typical free time on my end. Things are back on track for now and I estimate first 0.3 test build should be ready in approximately 7-10 days. I will update you in the case of any further delays.
More Information On Test Builds
I’ve had a few queries via email and Twitter about how test builds will work from 0.3. I’ll try to clarify this now. If you need more details please don’t hesitate to ask.
The short answer is that not much is really changing from your side. If you’ve tested with 0.2 or earlier the process for you is basically the same. The key difference is how builds are generated and how frequently I’m able to put a new build into your hands.
In 0.2 and earlier, I had to manually create a build for each platform, package to a zip file, upload to my host, then configure new download in WordPress and update related pages. This isn’t difficult, but it can be time consuming when rapidly turning over bugs. In many cases a bug could be fixed much faster than I could work through the manual build process. So I tended not to generate new builds until a larger block of work was completed. This ultimately means you had to wait weeks or a even a few months to see fixes.
Automatic Cloud Builds
Enter Unity Cloud Build. This service allows me to setup an automated build process for Daggerfall Unity’s target platforms. Cloud build works by periodically checking the git repository for changes and automatically spits out a complete new build for each platform. The download is also hosted by the cloud build servers. All I have to do is share the build and give you a download link. Here’s how it looks from the back-end:
One a build is ready, I can either download a zip to test for myself, or share out a link to the public. The public link is what I’ll give to you, which takes you to a page like below. This is your front-end to the cloud build process.
To make this process even easier for you, I will setup a permalink page from dfworkshop.net that always points to the latest shared builds. I plan to update this page frequently. If the code on git changes, you’ll have a new test build not long afterwards. More information for this will be available with 0.3.
Rolling Builds
This is where things get interesting. Instead of waiting months for next test cycle, testers will now have a direct pipeline to code updates as they are generated. If you’ve ever played an Early Access game on Steam that gives you an “experimental/unstable” option for rapid updates, my rolling test builds are fundamentally the same concept. You will now get to play with new code as it’s being developed.
The main downside to this style of rolling build is that you will be playing with live code. Usually things will work as expected, but sometimes things that were working will break. For example, quicksave was briefly broken while I was overhauling the save interface a few weeks back.
The key is for testers to understand what is a bug and what might just be broken because it’s in the middle of changes.
Watching Git
To this end, I highly recommend testers keep an eye on the commits page on git. These commits tell a story of what is being worked on and what has been recently fixed. If you see that I’m working on a big system (like saves or looting), then you can bet something will be broken in that system until work is complete. I try to keep my commits exclusive to a specific update and provide good descriptions. I’ll continue to work on improving the quality of my checkins as time goes on.
Providing Feedback
As before, the Daggerfall Workshop Forums are the correct place to log bugs or ask questions about a feature. Specifically the Issues & Support forum. If you aren’t sure if a feature has been implemented yet (e.g. quests), please ask before logging the absence of this feature as a bug. Daggerfall Unity is a live work in progress and some features are much further down the pipeline than others.
At every major milestone, I will post some information on things that need the most attention from testers. For example, the loot and inventory system was the major component of 0.2.
Stable Builds
If you don’t feel up to watching git, downloading test builds, testing features, and providing feedback – that’s OK! I will occasionally release a “stable build” at major milestones where everything is more or less running as expected. Not everyone has the time or interest to be a full-on tester, and that’s all good. Just grab the stable builds when they’re available and let people know about Daggerfall Unity.
The first 0.3 stable build will be available a couple of weeks after the first test build. This gives me a chance to nail any show-stopping bugs before putting the stable build into your hands. I’ll post an update on this when available.
Conclusion
I hope that clarifies the new build process more thoroughly. In summary:
You’ll get new builds almost as quickly as code changes. The latest build might be awesome or it might not even run.
I will provide a permalink page on dfworkshop.net that always points to latest several builds.
Keep an eye on git commits to see what’s being worked on.
Post feedback, bug reports, and questions to the Issues & Support forum.
Thank you for reading. I look forward to you joining me for the next big step in Daggerfall Unity’s development process.
For more frequent updates on Daggerfall Unity, follow me on Twitter @gav_clayton.For your perusal, a completely subjective list of five things happening right now in education that are getting lots of notice, energy and resources but don’t deserve it, and why I think we need to reconsider our collective love affair with them:
1. Flipping The Class:
What is it? “…a form of blended Learning which encompasses any use of Internet technology to leverage the learning in a classroom, so a teacher can spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is most commonly being done using teacher created videos that students view outside of class time. It is also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, flipping the classroom, and reverse teaching”
What’s The Problem?
The problems with flipping are well explained in “The Flip: End of a Love Affair“.
The short form is:
It entrenches homework
It depends on lecturing, a one way transfer of information to the student from the teacher, rather than allowing the student to construct their own understandings and meaning by interacting with the information.
It doesn’t account for students that don’t have the resources to learn at home (e.g. technology, family support, etc.)
2. BYOD:
What is it? “…stands for “bring your own device”, and refers to students bringing their own technology like smartphones, tablets, and laptops to school for educational use. This has been traditionally done by college students, but has now spread into K-12 education.”
What’s the problem?
I’ve written before about the problems with BYOD. I also recommend Gary Stager’s “BYOD-Worst Idea of the 21st Century”
The short form is:
It’s inequitable. It relies on families, who don’t have equal resources, to provide devices.
The learning possible is restricted by capabilities of the devices brought. If one class or student has the latest devices while other students/classes have lesser devices their is a difference in what can be taught and how.
Continues the transfer |
(@amandapalmer) April 21, 2013
Just in case: I did. It still sucked. But Palmer's not wrong! It is about more than just what we think it is. It's not just about a basic inability to craft a compelling image, it's also about Palmer's own egotism. "A Poem for Dzhokhar" is not, really, "for" Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old college kid who, along with his older brother, allegedly detonated a bomb at the Boston Marathon last week. It's for Palmer, a deluded and opportunistic narcissist who sells rhetorical snake oil to people too full of unearned self-regard to join an actual cult. It's another way she can make sure people are looking at her, and we shouldn't even write about it—if we write about it, she wins—except that in this case she has actually created something remarkable: a world-historically horrific poem.Since they moved from New Orleans in 1979, the Jazz have always had a peculiar, almost sheepish relationship with the nickname that made the trip with them. They know Salt Lake City has very little connection with jazz music, but they also know the nickname works on other levels -- that it distills the improvisational fluidity of basketball, and carries historical cachet.
"The Jazz name is never going away," says Ben Barnes, the team's art director. "It is our identity here. But it has always been hard to fit Utah and jazz together."
That's why the Jazz got more excited than perhaps any other franchise when they learned two years ago that Nike, as part of its new partnership with the NBA, would design four new jerseys for each team. The final one, the so-called city edition, would give every franchise the chance to venture far out of the box.
They knew right away they wanted to use the fourth jersey to shove the "jazz" name into the background -- and in the end, out of the art entirely -- and honor something more true to Utah. Nike's designers initially pitched ideas centering on Utahns' reputation for industriousness, and the primacy of the honeybee.
"They were good ideas," says Steve Starks, Jazz president. "People would have liked them. But we challenged Nike. This was an opportunity for us to be really aggressive. Let's push. Let's be unique." Any bee-themed art might tread too closely on the territory of the Charlotte Hornets, anyway.
Nike came back with motifs based on Utah's spectacular nature. The Jazz perked up, with one reservation, Barnes recalls: "Stay away from the mountains. We've been there." (Utah made back-to-back Finals in the late 1990s wearing blue-and-white jerseys featuring snow-capped mountains.)
The alternative was obvious: referencing the red, rocky vistas of southern Utah and the state's five national parks.
NBA
It was a gamble. The colors are garish, totally outside the Jazz's normal scheme. Swing from your shoetops, and you might end up with a monstrosity like Minnesota's new blinding neon yellow jerseys. "There is a lot going on," Barnes says of the new Utah jersey, laughing. "It is bold."
The result is unlike anything the NBA has ever seen -- rippling gradations of orange and red with a matching court design that includes the famous Delicate Arch:
NBA
It is beautiful -- a home run, courage rewarded.
The Jazz considered the court essential -- the piece that ties everything together. They loved the final jerseys, but were worried that fans -- especially those outside of Utah -- wouldn't understand what they represented without another visual cue.
Almost by accident, the hot colors of this new jersey make for a nice complement to the icy mountain jerseys of the John Stockton-Karl Malone heyday. "Internally, we've been calling them fire and ice," Starks says. Editor's Picks Lowe: 'They're not guarding us': Inside Houston's shot to stop a dynasty Chris Paul is driving James Harden and the Rockets to new heights. Zach Lowe looks at what it will take for Houston to get over the top and upend the Warriors.
Lowe's 10 things: Let's get the All-Star draft right Zach Lowe highlights another young Chicago Bull, a masterful Dwyane Wade move, Andrew Wiggins and the winning-ugly Timberwolves, struggling lottery picks and more.
Lowe Post: Kezirian on Warriors, Vegas, Lakers' future Zach talks to ESPN's Doug Kezirian about why the Warriors are hard to bet (2:00), the future of sports gambling (15:15), living in Vegas (29:10), working in TV (40:30) and more. 2 Related
The whole ensemble could have easily ended up hideous, or even worse -- boring. Nike experimented with solid orange and red jerseys instead of the final striped versions, but everyone wanted to push the boundaries further. The solid jerseys looked too much like maroon uniforms the Cleveland Cavaliers and Arizona State University wear, Starks says.
They talked about coloring the traditional painted area of the court with the same striping as the uniforms, but found it too noisy. Players wearing the striped uniforms would become camouflaged running through the paint, Starks says. (The Rockets ran into this problem during the regrettably gaudy 1990s, when they painted large swatches of their court blue and hosted teams with blue road uniforms. Former NBA commissioner David Stern fumed when he saw the blue-on-blue look on television, league officials have said.)
They decided to leave the paint empty, and shift the gradations to the edges of the court -- a perfect compromise. The shaded Delicate Arch would then serve as the on-court stand-in for the red rocks theme. The team initially wanted a giant arch -- "absolutely massive," Starks says, chuckling -- that would rise from the sideline all the way to midcourt, and stretch almost from the tip of one 3-point arc to the other. Their original conception was bigger than NBA regulations allow.
"We had to tone it down a bit," Barnes says.
They experimented with shading a larger arch inside each of the 3-point arcs, as the Nuggets have done with pickax patterns over the past few seasons.
NBA
That cluttered the court. They settled on the sideline area. The color was a challenge. Make it too dark, and it would be distracting. Make it too light, and it would be hard to see both on television and from certain seats inside the arena -- an issue for both Denver (with those axes) and Cleveland, with the city skyline shaded along the near sideline.
They struck the right balance with this muted brownish-orange. Even the state government is happy. About a decade ago, the state's Office of Tourism surveyed people from outside Utah and found a lot of them didn't realize Delicate Arch and other famous natural landmarks were in Utah, says David Williams, associate managing director at the Utah Office of Tourism. "They just assumed the images we showed them were of something in Arizona and New Mexico," Williams says.
The wordmark on both the floor and the jerseys reads only "Utah." There is no mention of jazz. That is intentional. The new look is a reminder that the team belongs to the entire state, and not just the Salt Lake City area where it plays, Starks and Barnes say.
The very best touch of all reinforces that: the jagged, swerving lines marking the trim from the shoulders to the waist on each side of the jersey trace the highway routes from Salt Lake City to Moab (on the right side) and from Salt Lake to St. George (on the left).
NBA
The team put in a ton of research -- maps laid out on table and everything -- to make sure they got those routes right, down to every twist and turn.
They plopped a new logo onto the court in opposite corners -- a reddish-orange outline of the state of Utah with a basketball drawn inside. A white version gets the coveted belt buckle spot on the jerseys. A glowing golden Delicate Arch -- an awesome touch -- is hidden underneath the flap of the shorts.
The Jazz are bracing for a big reaction. They are optimistic it will be mostly positive, but they know any big change meets with some resistance. When the Jazz released their new "statement uniforms" -- a yellow-gold uni with a Jazz note in the middle -- some traditionalists lobbied against it. "There was a lot of, 'What are you doing? It's awful!'" Barnes says. "And now everyone thinks it's the greatest uniform." (Some players have asked if they can wear that one for every game, Barnes and Starks say. Under league rules, they can't.)
The team will wear the new orange-red duds for the first time on Jan. 30, in a game against Golden State, and then in eight additional games. It is unclear how often they might be able to wear them in the playoffs, should the Jazz make it.
This was a large undertaking. Utah is one of just three teams that introduced a new court to match its city edition look. New courts run around $125,000, and sometimes more, industry sources say. The intent is for teams to unveil a new city edition jersey each year, but the Jazz are talking to Nike and the league about using this look again next season.
They are also already at work on the next city edition, regardless of when they debut it. It will celebrate another part of the state -- and likely another set of natural elements.
"We like to say Mother Nature played favorites with Utah," Starks says.Linda Bilsens Brolis, project manger at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, processes food waste to create compost at the Howard University Community Compost Cooperative. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
City planners envision a future in the nation’s capital where every household is provided government-issued bins for organic waste alongside recycling and trash bins. A truck would pick up food and yard scraps at the curb once a week and transport them to a composting site inside the city limits.
District officials estimate that with curbside pickup, about 148,000 tons of organic waste could be composted annually — about 60 percent of the food and yard waste generated in the city each year. As a bonus, it would create a nutrient-rich soil additive for growing food and plants.
It’s part of a five-year composting plan that officials say could contribute to an 80 percent reduction in the city’s waste by 2032.
“We have a long way to go before we get there,” said Christopher Shorter, director of the D.C. Department of Public Works. “Ultimately, we are going to be a more environmentally friendly city because many more of our residents will be separating their food waste and reducing landfill, which is the ultimate goal.”
[Want solar panels on your property? D.C. will help you pay for them.]
The District still has to secure a site of about 10 to 20 acres that it can transform into a composting center. The site must be suitable to compost both yard debris and food scraps — a potentially pungent combination if nitrogen and carbon levels aren’t properly balanced during the composting process.
The Howard University Community Compost Cooperative in Washington. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Cherry tomatoes at the garden at the Howard University Community Compost Cooperative. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Shorter said the city is on track to begin rolling out the plan and delivering bins for organic waste in the next five years.
In 2014, the D.C. Council passed the Sustainable Solid Waste Management Amendment Act, followed by completion of a compost feasibility study earlier this year. The study found a growing demand for composting in the city, but a composting infrastructure that hasn’t kept up.
It costs more to dispose of trash in a landfill than to compost it, so if all goes according to plan, officials say the composting program eventually would pay for itself. The District, which has committed $8 million toward the effort, now pays to dispose of waste at commercial sites in Maryland and Virginia.
[Climate march draws massive crowd to D.C. in sweltering heat.]
Trent Cummings processes food waste material to create compost at Howard University Community Compost Cooperative. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
The District is hardly the first city to attempt citywide composting.
Seattle, San Francisco and Takoma Park, Md. — just across the District line — have implemented curbside programs. New York has a curbside composting program that serves more than 2 million residents; by next year, the city says, all residents will be served either through curbside pickup or neighborhood drop-off sites.
Arlington County launched a curbside composting program in 2016, although it accepts only yard trimmings.
Phil Bresee, chief of the environmental management office in Arlington’s Solid Waste Bureau, said the county collected 7,242 tons of material through its yard trimmings program in fiscal 2017. The county calculated that yard trimmings in residential trash dropped from about 27 percent of total trash to about 6 percent.
Bresee said it costs about $43 per ton to dispose of trash but $32 per ton to compost yard trimmings. The compost is then used to create topsoil for parks and county projects.
Arlington is working to expand the composting program to include food scraps.
“The next frontier for us is going to be food waste,” Bresee said. “We have been very pleased by the success of our yard-trimming program, so we are pretty confident that if we are able to offer food waste collection to our residents, it will be well received.”
Food waste is processed by worker from Compost Cab to create compost at the Howard University Community Compost Cooperative. Compost Cab partners with urban farms, gardens, nonprofit groups and government agencies on such projects. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
In the District, a citywide composting program would cap a series of smaller initiatives. The Department of Public Works earlier this year allowed residents to begin dropping off waste for composting at farmers markets in each ward. Since the first location opened on April 22, nearly 4,000 people have dropped off 26,206 pounds of organic waste, according to city data.
The District also has more than 50 community compost sites at community gardens and schools.
Brenda Platt, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance — a District-based national nonprofit that has pushed for composting programs — said the success of a wide-scale composting program depends on education. She urged the city to establish more programs in schools to teach children the importance of composting, while ensuring residents understand how it helps the environment and how to get involved.
“It builds a culture of composting know-how in the community,” she said. “There’s also a connection between the schools and the curbside program: Young composters become adult composters.”Photo
It is one of the boldest and most controversial tactics in the battle against childhood obesity: A growing number of schools are monitoring their students’ weight and sending updates home, much like report cards.
Nine states require schools to send such notifications, sometimes called “B.M.I. letters,” or less charitably “fat letters.” But a new study of the first state to adopt the practice shows that the letters have had almost no effect, at least on older teenagers.
The disappointing results not only raise questions about the efficacy of the letters but highlight the challenges schools face more generally in addressing adolescent obesity.
Kevin A. Gee, the author of the study, which looked at high school juniors and seniors in Arkansas and appears in The Journal of Adolescent Health, said that while the letters attempted to embed in a school setting the public-health goal of slowing obesity, the reality of adolescence could confound the best intentions.
“The typical 16-year-old’s reaction to getting a letter at home and having your parents tell you to eat right and exercise, would be, ‘Don’t nag me,’ ” said Dr. Gee, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of California, Davis.
In 2003, Arkansas, with one of the country’s highest child obesity rates, became the first state to initiate a comprehensive, school-based program that included annual weigh-ins and letters home, informing families whether a child’s B.M.I., or body mass index, a calculation using height and weight, fell in the underweight, healthy, overweight or obese range. The act was signed by Gov. Mike Huckabee, an anti-obesity advocate who lost more than 100 pounds himself while in office.
Today, 25 states, including the 10 where parents are notified, weigh public school students to monitor population data on obesity rates.
The letters have received sharply mixed reviews. Some nutritionists and parent groups say that labeling the weight range of a child, especially a teenager, may contribute to eating disorders and poor body image. Some educators feel that although schools also measure vision and hearing, tracking a student’s weight and height is best left to health care providers.
“There is so much stigma with being overweight, and children in adolescence are particularly sensitive to that,” said Mary T. Story, an expert on adolescent obesity at Duke University. “In some schools, there is no privacy screen when they’re being weighed, and the process is embarrassing for them.”
But Dominique G. Ruggieri, a faculty fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Public Health Initiatives, who has studied the B.M.I. letters, said in an interview that the letters could be “an important resource for parents who don’t get the message.”
A Sample Letter A parent in California received this letter about her daughter from the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Still, she said, the impact of the letters depended largely on their content and means of delivery. Some districts send three-page letters, explaining that the B.M.I. score is a screening tool, not a diagnosis, and offer practical follow-up suggestions. Other districts send home merely a number on a slip of paper.
And some districts that cannot afford to mail the letters, she added, hand them to students. That may likely guarantee delivery will be rerouted: Either the letter descends to the bottom of that archaeological dig known as the backpack, or the student tosses it away.
Allyson Gevertz recently asked her daughter, a high school sophomore in DeKalb County, Ga., about last year’s letter, which Ms. Gevertz did not remember seeing. Her daughter protested that she had brought it home after the letters had been distributed in her physical education class. Ms. Gevertz said her daughter told her: “Everyone started talking about their B.M.I.s and comparing them. And all it did was make everyone feel self-conscious.”
In 2007, Arkansas adjusted its policy, bowing to complaints about the intrusiveness of the letters into a family’s private life, as well as to economic and pragmatic burdens placed on individual districts. Rather than having the letters sent annually, legislators decided that students should be monitored every other year and that high school juniors and seniors should not receive the letters at all.
(Dr. Joseph W. Thompson, a former state surgeon general who oversees the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a health policy center that analyzes the school data, said the decision to stop sending letters to juniors and seniors was also prompted by teenage pranks that undermined the annual weigh-ins. At one school, he recalled, teenagers wore ankle weights under their jeans to skew the numbers.)
The Arkansas study by Dr. Gee looked at the B.M.I. results of juniors and seniors who had been evaluated and, after the 2007 legislative changes, those who had not. It found that students whose families had received the letters showed no appreciable improvement in B.M.I. scores after two years, compared with those who had not been screened. Another peer-reviewed study of such letters, a 2011 examination of younger students in California, had similar findings.
Dr. Gee did not have access to the state’s records, but used secondary data that Arkansas reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its Youth Risk Behavior Survey. But as experts have observed, self-reporters on surveys tend to minimize their weight and exaggerate their height. The direct data itself might have been even more disappointing than Dr. Gee’s results.
Martha M. Phillips, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences who evaluated the annual Arkansas data for a decade, said the letters alone were never expected to change behavior.
Arkansas schools, she said, reinforced the message with many efforts. Some school districts banned vending machines or regulated student access to them, and limited the snacks’ calorie count. Others restricted the number of parties a classroom could hold in a year, to cut off seemingly endless supplies of cupcakes and brownies. Others beefed up staff for physical education classes.
The result? Obesity rates among Arkansas schoolchildren have remained roughly the same since the initiative began.
This, some experts say, constitutes good news.
“It didn’t get worse,” Dr. Phillips said, who noted that obesity rates had been rising steadily for some three decades before the new program took effect.
Yet Arkansas teenagers have a heavier profile than the overall average of the state’s schoolchildren. Dr. Thompson, a pediatrician, said that although he believes schools have a critical role in obesity prevention, by the time students reach older adolescence, “it’s more of a clinical treatment issue as opposed to a prevention strategy.”
The study questioned whether a school’s scarce resources were best spent on sending B.M.I. reports home to teenagers.
”A letter home in high school doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Dr. Story of Duke, who conducted research in Minnesota on obesity prevention programs for adolescents. “Most teenagers already know when they’re overweight.”
Related:
For more fitness, food and wellness news, “like” our Facebook page.The unemployment rate rose and the economy added far fewer jobs than anticipated in June, confirming fears that an economic slump has taken hold and further dashing hopes that a powerful recovery will be soon forthcoming.
Only 18,000 jobs were added to the American economy in June -- a blow to Wall Street expectations, which had estimated between 90,000 and 140,000 added jobs -- and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly employment report.
"Clearly it's a disappointing number," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at The Economic Outlook Group. "There are just too many factors that are really creating downward pressure on new job growth, among which is the simple fact that the U.S. economy has slowed markedly from late last year."
"Companies are focused -- laser focused -- on keeping their costs down," Baumohl added. "And that means that they are not in a mood to hire unless there is a genuine reason to do so."
May's employment numbers were also revised downward on Friday, suggesting that this is more than just one month's bad numbers. The unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent in May and only 25,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy, cutting the 54,000 added jobs the Bureau's June report had estimated in half. Labor experts say a bare minimum of 125,000 jobs must be added each month simply to keep up with population growth.
Average hourly earnings for all private sector employees decreased in June by 1 cent to $22.99 and the average workweek decreased by.1 hour to 34.3. Meanwhile, more Americans gave up looking for work altogether, as the labor force participation rate fell to a 27-year low of 64.1 percent.
As Capital Economics chief US Economist Paul Ashworth put it: "June's US employment report doesn't have a single redeeming feature. It's awful from start to finish."
In recent weeks economists have been confronting with mixed economic signals.
Some signs looked promising: The manufacturing sector picked up in June for the first time in four months, and fresh data showed a glimmer of hope for the housing market, with home prices in major cities rising for the first time in eight months.
New claims for unemployment benefits declined, gas prices fell and auto makers cranked up production. Reuters declared the "dark clouds over the U.S. economy are starting to lift" in a report on U.S. private companies hiring double the expected number
of workers in June
But there have also been indications that a faster recovery will not soon materialize. While home prices are no longer in free fall, there is still a massive pipeline of foreclosed homes that are awaiting processing. Meanwhile, fears of a Greek default and a slowdown in Chinese growth spurred anxiety about the potential ripple effects on America's still-fragile economy.
Baumohl pointed to one looming factor which explains why, despite a handful of promising signs, companies still won't hire.Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe where he revealed that he is hearing multiple accounts of illegal voter harassment in key battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. When asked if he thought that the only way President Barack Obama could lose Ohio is by voter intimidation, Dean emphatically replied that he did.
“In Pennsylvania, people are standing outside the polls asking for their I.D.s,” Dean said. “A federal judge has enjoined them from doing that, but that’s what’s happening.”
“That’s a big charge,” said NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd. “Do you think the president could – do you believe if he loses Ohio, it will be because of voting irregularities?”
“I do,” Dean replied without hesitation. “Given the vote and the leading in the polls in Ohio, the only way he can lose is if people are prevented from casting their ballots. Either by voting machines that aren’t functioning right or other forms of harassment.”
Watch the clip below via MSNBC:
> >Follow Noah Rothman (@Noah_C_Rothman) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] New Yorker trying for the fourth time to row across the Atlantic Ocean was raided by pirates who left him stranded without food or water near Haiti, according to his publicist.
Victor Mooney was not harmed when so-called pirates near the island of Tortuga stole his food supply and "all vital equipment" from his 24-foot rowboat, a statement released Thursday from Rubenstein Public Relations said.
Other details were sparse, and Mooney's current location is unknown. Rubenstein didn't respond to HuffPost's inquiries for more information, but their statement suggested he needed immediate assistance.
"Although the pirates left the boat in his possession, Mooney was left with only the clothes on his back," the statement said, and he "is currently in an extreme state of distress.
"Local authorities have been alerted of the ordeal and are thoroughly investigating the situation."
Mooney, 48, was rowing by himself toward Miami and ultimately toward New York City. The 5,000-mile crossing began in the Canary Islands in February to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. This leg of the trip that has now been marred started two weeks ago when Mooney shoved off from the north coast of the Dominican Republic, roughly 140 miles to the east of Tortuga.
Previous attempts were calamitous and prevented Mooney from making it as far as he has this year. In his first attempt in 2006, his vessel sprang a leak hours after departing from Senegal. In 2007, he rowed for 15 days before his desalination system failed and he had to request a rescue. His most perilous mishap occurred in 2011, when he drifted for 15 days in a life raft after his boat took on too much water.China is ramping up its assistance in the fight against Ebola by dispatching an additional 232 army medical workers to West Africa, state media reported.
The latest contingent to be sent to afflicted nations will depart on Tuesday evening, with 154 of them headed to Liberia and 78 to Sierra Leone, according to the China Daily newspaper.
They will join 43 army doctors and 35 specialists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control already working in Sierra Leone, where they have treated 61 patients and trained 1,600 local medical workers.
"Fighting Ebola is not a regional battle, but should be supported globally,'' the paper quoted deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Ministry Cui Li as saying.
China, which has not reported any Ebola cases, has already provided $121m in cash and supplies to the fight against the disease in West Africa.
Chinese medical teams have considerable experience working at home against infectious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, and avian flu.
The country is also seeking to boost its humanitarian and diplomatic engagement with Africa on a level commensurate with its economic involvement on the continent.
The World Health Association has recorded more than 13,000 cases of Ebola in eight affected countries since the outbreak began, and more than 5,000 deaths.Over 50 years have gone by, and Juan Guerra still sees his restaurant, El Azteca, as a cornerstone in Austin.
But soon, the vintage restaurant will close its doors on East Seventh Street. The Guerra family is selling the property due to a pending land development deal and other city-related issues.
"It hurts that we couldn't keep it going, that really hurts me," Guerra said.
Guerra is a cook at El Azteca. The recipes passed down by his grandparents, Jorge and Ninfa, are one reason he believes people keep coming back. Guerra says the Tex-Mex staples of enchiladas, tacos and barbacoa are among the favorites.
The colorful walls inside El Azteca are covered with history dating back to the 1300s. Guerra says his grandfather brought paintings of Aztec Kings and a carved Aztec calendar that was given to him as a gift. Guerra remembers when his grandfather hung a custom drawing of John F. Kennedy in 1975.
"My grandfather loved JFK. He felt this was a president that understood his needs," Guerra said.
Guerra says these items, along with the business and its customers, are priceless.
"I'll never forget it. It'll be emotional and it's something I'll remember forever," Guerra said.
The Guerra family has not made public the name of the potential buyer or a closing date.It was raining hard when I walked into a building in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, and my coat — a women's coat, though I specifically chose one that didn't feel so womanly — was soaked when I peeled it off. As I took that layer off, there was another women’s yet not particularly womanly sweater underneath. I took the elevator to the GLAAD offices where a photo studio was set up for one of their Trans Awareness Week initiatives, the #BeyondtheBinary campaign.
The #BeyondtheBinary campaign was created to make the public more aware of people like me — people who don’t believe in the idea that there are only two genders. I asked myself if my nondescript grey sweater could adequately represent my life as a nonbinary person and decided it couldn’t, so I removed yet another layer to reveal a colorblocked top underneath. I found this top in the women’s section of a store, but knew it was something that a man could wear and get away with. This is a big part of what it’s like to be a nonbinary person: to dig through layers as I negotiate how I present myself to the world so that the world can perceive me the way I perceive myself, even when I’m often forced to use imperfect instruments of clothing that presume only two genders. I hope that these words by and photographs of nonbinary people can keep nudging this world into fully recognizing our existence.
Jacob Tobia, Author & Producer | they/them
Abdool Corlette
What does being nonbinary mean to you?
It means letting myself explore the fullness of my creativity. It means transcending the boundaries that have been placed around my body. It means living my life with integrity, courage, and clarity.
What is something you would like people to know about nonbinary folks?
I'd like people to know that, while the term "nonbinary" sounds very technical, it's not actually all that complicated. I'd like people to know that they don't have to tiptoe around someone who is nonbinary. Just because someone is nonbinary doesn't mean that you have to worry about saying the wrong thing or insulting them — just treat nonbinary people as you'd like to be treated. Treat us with respect, be kind, ask questions when you don't understand, and be prepared to actually listen, to hear us, when we respond. That's it.
ALOK, Artist | they/them
Abdool Corlette
What does being nonbinary mean to you?
I contain multitudes.
What is something you would like people to know about nonbinary folks?
While the words we use to describe ourselves have changed over time, we have always been here.
Jeffrey Marsh, Activist & Author | they/them
Abdool Corlette
What does being nonbinary mean to you?
It means freedom. The language we use around nonbinary identity is so important. I never want to find myself describing "I choose to be nonbinary because..." the reason for this is because being nonbinary is not a choice, it is a deeply ingrained personal identity. I enjoy being open about who I am because it means I have no lies to manage and I have no fears to feed when talking about what I wear or how I relate to the world.
What is something you would like people to know about nonbinary folks?
I want everyone to know that we are, indeed, folks. We are humans and although it may seem uncommon to be nonbinary, the experience of feeling boxed in by gender is very common. You can relate to your nonbinary friend or coworker because you were told the same lies about gender. Do men always take out the trash? Are women really bad at math? Of course not. And nonbinary folks feel the same way you do. We feel the same sting of being misunderstood and shamed for not exhibiting the 'correct' behavior for our perceived gender.Nazis march with a banner reading ‘Ich bereue nichts’ – I regret nothing – during a demonstration commemorating the 30th death anniversary Rudolf Hess in the district of Spandau in Berlin (Picture: EPA)
Hundreds of neo-Nazis took to the streets of Berlin to mark 30 years since the death of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess.
Around 250 white supremacists marched from the Spandau suburb’s station to the former Spandau Prison – where Hess, an early ally of Adolf Hitler, served out the life sentence he was given at the post-war Nuremberg trials for war crimes.
Far-right marchers held up banners reading ‘I regret nothing’, and hoisted the red, white and black flag of Hitler’s Third Reich as around 1,000 police officers looked on.
Neo-Nazis commemorate the 1987 prison suicide of Hitler’s one-time deputy every year.
However, this year’s rally has garnered more attention as it was held in the wake of the atrocity in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which 32-year-old anti-racist counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed.
The Nazi rally wasn’t banned, despite the display of Nazi symbols – such as the swastika – being strictly forbidden in Germany (Picture: EPA)
They marched from Spandau station to Spandau Prison, where Hess killed himself in 1987 (Picture: AP)
The extremists waved the flag of Hitler’s Third Reich as they marched (Picture: AP)
The Nazis were commemorating 30 years since the suicide of Rudolf Hess (Picture: EPA)
Anti-fascists gathered at the location of the Berlin vigil to protest, saying the Nazi rally should have been banned.
Stinky couple who smelt like vomit, BO and feet break into family's house to shower
‘It’s appalling that in the year 2017, Nazis can openly go on the streets for this deputy of Hitler,’ Gerhard Sattler, a protester, said.
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‘This is impossible. The whole of German society must stand up against this.’
Photos also show police officers in riot gear violently detaining a counter-protester.
Nazis waved the red, white and black flag of Hitler’s Third Reich (Picture: EPA)
Far-right extremists wore Nazi symbols on their shirts as they marched (Picture: AP)
Symbols of the Nazi regime – such as the swastika flag – are already strictly banned in Germany.
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But Berlin’s senator for interior affairs said that banning the rally would have been impossible to reconcile with the political freedoms of a democracy.
‘I would have been delighted with a ban,’ interior affairs senator Andreas Geisel said.
‘But we looked very closely at the matter and concluded that, unfortunately, arseholes also get to benefit from democratic freedoms.’
Counter-protesters hold a peaceful demonstration against the Nazi march (Picture: EPA)
Several police officers in riot gear detain a counter-protester demonstrating against the Nazis (Picture: EPA)
People protest against the neo-Nazi demonstration (Picture: Reuters)
Hess was the last war criminal in Spandau Prison when he killed himself at the age of 93.
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He was appointed Hitler’s deputy when the Nazis came to power in 1933, a position he retained until 1941, when he flew to Britain alone because he believed Hitler wanted him to negotiate a peace deal between the two warring countries.
Hess spent the rest of the war in prison in Britain before he was convicted of crimes against the peace at Nuremberg.Some big GOP donors say Michael Steele's spending habits are too lavish for a time when he should be stockpiling cash for midterms. Steele's spending spree angers donors
Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.
Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck's local crew to cater the RNC's Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.
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For some major GOP donors, both decisions were symbolic of the kind of wasteful spending habits they claim has become endemic to his tenure at the RNC. When Ken Mehlman served as the committee chairman during the critical 2006 midterm elections, the holiday party was held in a headquarters conference room and Chic-fil-A was the caterer.
A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.
“Michael Steele is an imperial chairman,” said one longtime Republican fundraiser. “He flies in private aircraft. He drives in private cars. He has private consultants that are paid ridiculous retainers. He fancies himself a presidential candidate and wants all of the trappings and gets them by using other people’s money.”
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